Sermon on 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

This sermon was preached at Mill Creek United Presbyterian Church on Sunday, June 21st, 2015.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Audio

One day, Jesus and his disciples were sailing in a boat across the sea of Galilee. Suddenly, as they were sailing, a great windstorm arose and waves began crashing against them and water from the waves began filling the boat. As the disciples hurried back and forth to empty the water and steady the boat from capsizing, Jesus lay asleep on a cushion in the stern. The disciples rushed to him, screaming over the thunderous sounds of the surrounding storm, “Teacher! Do you not care that we are perishing?”

This week, our country was hit by a wave from the exponentially building storm of injustice. A young white man walked into a historical black church and sat down at their Bible study. After they had been together for an hour, this man pulled out a gun and killed nine innocent people from this Bible study. After he was captured, he admitted that his goal was to start a race war in the United States. As this storm rages across our country, black Americans are calling out, “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

After the disciples called on Jesus, he calmed the storm by commanding the winds to cease and the waves to settle. He asks the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

I believe he asks us today, “Have you still no faith?” If we have faith, then we believe when he prays that we may be one even as he and the Father are one. Faith is what unites us as one in him. And if we are to stand in faith, we must also stand as one with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We not only stand with Christians under persecution across the world, but also our neighbors in this country who suffer under the fires of hate. If we have faith, then we must step into that faith as the Body of Christ, his presence in this world, and calm the storm of racial injustice by demanding there be no more and standing beside those who suffer. Let our prayers be for reconciliation and love, that our love will overcome the hate of others, be they ISIS fighters, racial supremacists, oppressive governments, or any other manner of hate in the world. Let our prayers go up in faith and our actions reflect that faith by standing as one, not only in Spirit, but side-by-side here and now, working together to bring unity and reconciliation to our one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians, “working together with him [that is, Jesus], then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'in a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.'”

If we receive the grace of God, we need to also see that grace manifest in our lives. “Behold, now is the favorable time,” Paul writes, “behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.”

Because now is the favorable time and the day of salvation, we must live into that truth and not take it in vain. When we act in the world, we should act in faith that God has come to be our help. If he has come to be our help, he has also come to help those around us. And as Paul wrote just before this passage, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

So, this ministry has been passed on to us, and is only made possible through his grace which he has given us in Christ. We are his ministers of reconciliation. How can we reconcile others to God if we don't speak the Good News to them? How can we be reconciled with our neighbors if we don't stand by them? We have been reconciled with God. God has forgiven all of our sin through the Cross of Christ. We have new life in him through his resurrection. Now, as we read in the letter to the Romans, “neither life nor death, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And if we want it to be that “no fault may be found in our ministry” as Paul wrote, we must, like Paul, “put no obstacle in anyone's way.” We can let nothing keep others from hearing our message of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not race nor ethnicity, nor income nor school district, nor where they work nor where they spend their nights, nor anything in all of our social statuses should keep them from knowing that love. As Jesus came down from his high place in heaven to be one with us, we should also go out to those different from ourselves and be one with them by the one Spirit who unites us in Christ.

Paul continues in his letter to the Corinthians, “but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way.”

A major part of how we are to act in response to things such as the tragic shooting from this past week is how we view ourselves. Who are we as Christians? What is our goal? Paul commends himself and his fellow ministers as servants of God. When we call on Jesus as Lord, we are calling on him to rule over our lives. We are giving our wills, our wants, and our goals, all over to him. What we want becomes secondary to what he wants for us. And through his prayer in the John's Gospel account, we know that his desire for us is to be one as he is one with his Father in heaven. To know how to be ministers of God's love in the world, we must know the way of the servant of God. In the following part of this passage, Paul outlines three main “ways” of servanthood.

First, he writes, they commend themselves “by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.”

I call this first part “the Way of Trouble.” Paul outlines things we would mostly associate with trouble, but uses them as ways of commending himself to the Corinthians. What he is saying here, is “See the things we went through for your sake!” It's basically the equivalent of your mother yelling, “All those dirty diapers I changed, all your rides to sports practices and school dances, all the dinners I made and paid for.” It's an appeal to what they've gone through for the work of the Gospel to show their honesty and genuineness in sharing it with the Corinthians. Paul and his fellow ministers are willing to walk this way of trouble if it means they are serving God in the process.

What does it mean for us today to walk this way of trouble? What does it look like for us to deal with hardships and calamities? What are the beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger that today's ministers go through for the gospel? Being a minister of the Gospel means walking this way of trouble for those who are in that trouble. It means walking beside them and on their behalf. When we look around us, to our neighbors who are being either mistreated or pushed aside in society, will we stand alongside them, or turn the other way? Are we willing to walk this way of trouble for others and for the gospel?

The next thing Paul writes is that they commend themselves “by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love.”

This, I call “the Way of Goodness.” That is, the way of outward acts which show the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, we see in the letter to the Galatians is “love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” By abiding in the Spirit of God, our outward acts begin to take on these qualities. These outward acts of goodness don't do anything for us in terms of our salvation. We aren't saved by them. But as the Holy Spirit moves through us and we see these qualities becoming more present in who we are, they help to witness to the transforming love of Jesus. By the transforming power he shows in our own lives, we are witnesses to the transforming power he can have in the lives of those around us.

Included in this is genuine love. Genuine love is the love that comes from God. It is love that doesn't ask of others, and doesn't hold up a standard to be received. The genuine love of God is available to all, no matter what. When the families of the victims of the shooting this week went to the shooter's hearing, they took turns, one-by-one, speaking forgiveness over him, and even asking him to receive the love of God in Jesus Christ. The greatest witness we have is our love. It is a love that comes from God and doesn't love as the world loves. It can't be taken away, even if it's refused. Even as the soldiers around Jesus spat in his face and nailed him to a cross, he cried out to God, “Forgive them! For they know not what they do.” And even as these families faced this killer, they said to him, “I forgive you,” and called him to repentance so that he could also receive the forgiveness of God.

The third way Paul writes the ministers commend themselves to the Corinthians is “by truthful speech, and the power of God; with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.”

This, I call “The Way of Blamelessness.” Paul and his fellow ministers show themselves to be truthful, not telling lies or giving false witness. They do not manipulate or mislead. The ministers of God speak the truth in the power of God. The power of God is a power that can overcome all evil and hatred with love and goodwill. We overcome attempts to divide us through violence by coming together in unity and peace. While the world around us carries weapons of destruction and death, we carry in our hands the weapons of righteousness; the Word of God and the shield of faith. Rather than hate, we love. Rather than destroy, we build up. Rather than fear, we stand firm in our faith, knowing that we have a hope beyond this world.

Through honor and dishonor, whether the world around us acknowledges us or not, we are to love one another. Through slander and praise, when others would speak wrongfully of us, we don't give into them, but lean on the love of God. Even the praise of this world is nothing, because no matter how good the world thinks we are, if we don't have favor with God it is meaningless. We should seek the honor and praise of him who is above all things. And he desires that we be one and care for one another as brothers and sisters. Not for ourselves, but for his sake, do we reach out to others in love. If we love God first and foremost, our love for our neighbor should be an outpouring of that same love.

Paul writes, “we are treated as imposters, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”

Again, whatever might be said about us has no bearing on who we really are. There will always be those who misrepresent us, whether they do so intentionally or not, and we have no power over that. So, our concern shouldn't be for what others think of us, but for how we follow the way of the servant of God. Though we may be called imposters, we can stay true to God's mission of reconciliation. Our call isn't to convince others that we are good people. We are called to love God and love one another through his love. Our concern should be on following God's mission and not on what others might think of us. We should “seek first the Kingdom of God,” Jesus says, “and his righteousness.” We shouldn't worry about the cares of this world.

Paul concludes in our passage today, “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.”

Let's not be restricted by our cares for this world. Paul calls on the Corinthians as a father to his children, to open their hearts to his ministry. I think that today, our Christian brothers and sisters in South Carolina, in Ferguson, and in Baltimore also open themselves to us. They commend themselves through hardships and beatings and riots. They commend themselves by the Holy Spirit which unites us to them, and by genuine love. They commend themselves by the power of God shown in their forgiveness and by the Word. We are called to be reconciled to God, and through our reconciliation to him, to be reconciled to one another. How can we be reconciled if we don't stand together? How can we be brothers and sisters if we don't sit together? How can we be one as Jesus and the Father are one if we don't worship together?

The way of the servant of God is a way of trouble, of goodness, and of blamelessness. In this world we will know trouble, but Jesus has overcome the world. So, we can face that trouble the world offers with joy, knowing that our God came down to take our troubles upon himself. Likewise, we should take on the troubles of those around us as servants of God, followers of his good character.

Our brothers and sisters have opened themselves to us. We can turn an act meant for hate to be a foundation of unity and love in Christ. Though the actions of this past week were done to cause a rift, both in our country and in our Church, our response can be the beginning of greater fellowship with one another. Let's be reconciled to God. And through that, let's take the steps to reconcile with one another; to end the cycle of hate in this country and across the world. Let's have faith that Jesus has the power to calm this storm. And let's have faith that power will show itself through love.

Sermon on 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

This sermon was preached at Mill Creek United Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 31st, 2015.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 Audio

Today is Trinity Sunday. This is the day in the Church Year that we celebrate the Godhead, three in one, Father, Son, and Spirit. The holy mystery of the Trinity, three persons yet one God, is one that has caused many questions throughout the centuries. The main councils in the early church debated the very issues of how we are to understand the Godhead. All we can say is that God is one being in three persons, separate yet united, unique yet the same. For the brightest of us to understand this great mystery is like the average elementary math student attempting to understand advanced calculus.

More simply, if I am a child who has only recently learned to add and subtract, I have no understanding of how to identify the circumference of a circle. But if my math teacher were to show me that the circumference of a circle with the diameter of 4 is 12.56, even though I don't understand my teacher's explanation, I trust that my teacher is correct. I don't trust my teacher because I spent my time picking apart every bit of my teacher's explanation, but because this is the same teacher who taught me addition and subtraction. I trust my teacher because I was taught by my teacher. Since my teacher has proven trustworthy in simply the simple truths revealed to me, then I know I can trust my teacher in the more difficult truths.

Last week, I spoke about how Jesus revealed the fullness of God's glory in himself. That the law of the Old Testament was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, very God of very God, who died as a payment for sin and rose again to bring us life. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.”

God has revealed his great love for us by coming to us in the flesh and taking our place on the cross. If he has revealed himself in this way, and if we trust him in that revelation, then we are called also to trust him in the deeper things he reveals to us. Paul continues in his letter to the Corinthians, “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.”

Moses covered his face because the glory of the Law meant death for the people because the people could not keep the Law. But we no longer need to turn away from God's glory because the glory he has revealed in the Spirit is one that does not bring death, but brings new life for those who believe. The Law brought condemnation for sin. The Spirit brings freedom by grace through faith. Our boldness comes from this freedom. Moses could not be bold with the Law because he knew that the glory of the Law would mean death for those who see it. But if we have been revealed the greater glory of life through the Spirit, we are bold because it means life to all who receive it.

Moses had to hide the glory revealed to him to spare the lives of the people. We now share openly the glory revealed to us because it is a glory that saves. When Paul says we can be bold in a way that Moses could not, it means we can now share openly with others what has been revealed to us. “But their minds were hardened,” Paul continues about the people of Israel, “for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.”

Paul is calling the Church to be a source of truth to those who are still under the old covenant. Paul writes that “when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” He writes a similar thought in his letter to the Romans, “how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” We have been given this great gift of glory. Jesus reveals God's true character in himself and he wants the whole world to see it. The deeper we grow in the knowledge of God the deeper the call on our lives to bring others with us.

If we are to go deeper into the knowledge of God, we must see that Christ is the source of all truth. It is the Spirit of Truth that reveals him to us. We need to trust that he loves us. We need to put our faith in him to guide us into life. He has shown that he is trustworthy in his death and resurrection. Because we know that he loves us and the full extent of his love, that he would even die for us, we can trust him in all other things. If we are not seeking truth through Christ, we are also searching with veiled faces. We must turn to Christ in all matters of life. When we seek after Jesus first, all other things come into perspective.

I need to wear my glasses all the time. Without them, I wouldn't be able to see much at all. I can make out blurry images and guess at what things are based on color and general shape. But, I cannot navigate through my life without having my glasses on at all times. The same principle is true with Jesus. We should go through our lives—how we make our decisions, how we act toward others, how we respond to trials and joys—with Jesus in the forefront at all times. Our minds should be set on Jesus. We can't reveal his glory without him acting through us. “Now the Lord is the Spirit,” Paul writes, “and where the Spirit of the Lord Is, there is freedom.”

The Spirit frees us from worries and allows us to trust in something greater than us. Not just something, but someone. If we put our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be with us and act for us. He doesn't do this because we have proven ourselves worthy. He doesn't do this because we have filled out any requirements. The Holy Spirit fills us and guides us because he loves us and he wants us to love others like he loves. When Isaiah appeared before the throne of the Lord, he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts!” And an angel of the Lord touched a burning coal to his mouth, saying, “behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Like Isaiah, we have unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. But the Holy Spirit cleanses us of our sin. The fire of the Spirit in the Word of God, the Good News of Jesus on our lips, takes away our guilt. This cleansing is what frees us to be able to do the works of God. We are agents of God's will. We have been given the freedom to share the Good News of Jesus with others and not have to show any merit of our own to do so. When Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well during his travels, he asked her to give him some water to drink. As it turned out, this woman was an outcast from her people because she had had five husbands and was living with a man that wasn't her husband. When this woman found out who Jesus was, she ran into the town and told all of the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” This sinful woman ran through the streets using her sin as a witness to who Jesus is. It was no longer her sin that identified her, but the man who knew her sin and loved her anyway.

When we accept that we are sinners and receive God's forgiveness, we are accepting a call to witness. We are accepting the call to show God's forgiveness to others by revealing his forgiveness to us. The woman could announce her sin to the entire city because she knew the one who could take away sin. Isaiah was ashamed of his sin, and God empowered him by taking away his guilt and making him a prophet. Our strongest weapon in the mission field is the story of God's grace toward us. He has taken away our guilt and washed away our sin. In fact, the more sinful you were before Jesus came into your life, the stronger your witness is for his sake. His power is made perfect in our weakness.

The freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to be weak. The freedom of the Spirit is the freedom to know that though we can never earn God's love, we are loved by him. It is the freedom to approach God even in our sin and know that he will always welcome us. Without this freedom, our spiritual growth is impossible. We trust in God to do what we can't. We trust in God to make us his own. We trust in God to remain faithful when we lose faith, and to give us the faith we need to follow him more fully. Because of the freedom that comes from the Spirit, Paul writes, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

If you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, ask and the Holy Spirit will come to you. The Spirit will dwell within you and your sins will no longer be counted against you. It is in this freedom from guilt that we are able to then be transformed into his image. God receives us as his own and gives us his Spirit to make us his children.

A few years ago, I was with my extended family. My uncle, my dad, my cousin, and I, were all standing together and talking. At one point, my sister came over, laughing and pointed out that we were all swaying back and forth in sync with one another. We noticed it as well, and realized that this was a strange habit picked up in our family. My uncle and dad said our grandfather used to do the same thing, and eventually, my cousin and I picked it up as we got older. We had been passing down a very odd family trait without our even realizing it. My dad never took me aside and told me, “Now, son. Whenever you're standing still for an extended time, you need to start swaying back and forth like this.” I also never stood alone in my room practicing swaying back and forth to imitate the way my dad did this. By being with him and having a relationship with him, his habits naturally influenced me. I picked up this little family quirk just like the rest of our family, simply by being with one another.

When we allow ourselves to dwell in the presence of God, we are naturally influenced by his character. When we meditate on the Scriptures, spend time in prayer, and worship with his people, we are being transformed even when we don't realize it. When we turn to Jesus, we don't do it just to practice being better people. We do it to see him. To spend time with him. To have a relationship with him. As we grow closer to Jesus, we become more like Jesus. We don't become more like Jesus because we work hard at it every day. We become more like Jesus because when we spend time with him, we are transformed into his image by his Spirit dwelling in us. There are times when we do have to work at being more forgiving or more patient, but the real change happens when we simply dwell in his presence.

The thing about children is that even if they rebel, they necessarily carry the image of their parents. I have many friends with children of all different ages. And in each one, I can see their likeness. I can see a mother's eyes, a father's nose, even a grandmother's smile. Children don't have a choice in bearing the image of their parents. But they can either highlight that image or cover it over. In Jesus, our veils are torn and that image is now visible. We can see him and he can see us. We can see him in each other, and grow to be more like him every day. The first step to doing this is trusting in him. We need to allow him to transform us for the better. And we need to trust that his image is better than any other image in this world.

I opened this morning by talking about the image of God in the Trinity. This is the image that we are to replicate as Christians. We, as the Church, are eternally united as one, none greater than the other, yet each of us individually are of infinite worth. Together, we reflect the eternal love found in God. His love isn't for us alone. As the Father sends the Son, so he sends us into the world. As the Spirit overtook Mary to make Jesus incarnate, God of God, yet fully man, so he fills us with his Spirit to be his Body and his ministers in the world. As he loves us, we are to love others. And we don't do this because we are qualified. We do this because of his transforming love. We remain united in Christ even when we split off into a hundred thousand denominations. The bond of the Spirit can't be broken by human failings. And just as he unites us with one another, he also unites us with himself. We are united with him no matter how terribly we fail at following him. Our faith isn't built on our ability to be like Jesus. Our faith is built on his ability to love us even when we don't deserve it.

This truth is something that we will always struggle to understand: That God loves us no matter what. And he'll keep loving us, even if we turn our backs on him. He has proven his love for us on the cross. He has proven his transforming power in the resurrection. Now we can trust that he will continue to transform us into his image even if we don't understand how it works. We can trust that he unites us even when we think our disagreements are too big to overlook. We can trust that God will use us to share him with the world, even when we don't think we can. God has called you to be his ministers in the world because he will be working through you. You don't need to go to seminary to love your neighbor. You don't need to be ordained as a minister to pray for one another. These are the things that God has called us to do. If we trust in him rather than measuring ourselves against others, he will do great things through us. If we act out of faith in his promise rather than faith in our abilities, he will surprise us.

Be transformed. Not by trying harder, but by giving yourselves over to God. By spending time with him. Jesus said the greatest commandment is this, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” We can't follow any other commandment, or be his witnesses in the world, without it. If we trust him, then we must also trust that what he said is true. The greatest thing we are called to do is first to love God. By giving us his Spirit, he has provided a way for us to do that. We can do it without shame and without guilt. Even if it's hard to believe at times, all of our sins have been wiped away. They no longer hold any power over us. So now we are free to approach God confidently. By doing so, we will be changed. We will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.