GENEROSITY FROM A QUARTERBACK
New England Patriots’ quarterback Drake Maye (23) could not lead his team to victory in the Super Bowl this month, but the second-year NFL player is establishing himself as a generous and patriotic young man. Maye worked with Folds of Honor, an organization that provides educational funding for military families, to create the Drake Maye-Betterment scholarship for students attending colleges in the New England area (and the University of North Carolina, his alma mater). The award is to honor Maye’s late maternal grandfather, Ed Sockwell, a Navy veteran. He has given out fourteen scholarships in two years. “Drake did this very quietly when he was just starting in the NFL,” said Sara Bush, of Folds of Honor. “That’s how much it meant to him.”

GENEROSITY FROM A GENTILE CHURCH
In today’s reading from Acts, Jesus’ followers know, after the resurrection, that He is the Messiah. They expect Jesus’ rule as king to be made public and undeniable to all, restoring the kingdom of David. Instead, Jesus tells them that time will come, but it is not for them to know when. In the passage from 2 Corinthians 8, the apostle Paul, writing a few decades later, asks an early Gentile congregation to demonstrate generosity. Paul asks the Corinthians to support the needy Christians in Jerusalem because of God’s generosity. Jesus was “rich,” but He set that characteristic aside to become human like us.

Questions

• If you had the resources, what act of generosity would you do?
• When have you misunderstood something about God’s plan or timing?
• In what sense did Jesus become poor for us? Why did He do so?