August 20 2006 Lectionary Reading

Reading: “we do not lose heart……” 2 Corinthians 4.1 (NIV)

There are all kinds of ways to begin a letter.

One sticks in my mind…. from some years ago

it was a letter from the Finance Office of the Church of Scotland:

and it said, rather disappointingly:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to advise you that your salary for the month of May was not, in fact, £17,300, as your payslip said……

This was due to a computer mistake…..

Indeed ………There are all kinds of ways to begin a letter…….!

We find a different way of beginning a letter in the opening verses of 2 Corinthians. At the beginning of some of his letters, Philippians for example, Paul will write to say how encouraged he is by the Church, or again in 1 Timothy how joyful he is at Timothy’s progress as an evangelist,

But 2 Corinthians is different.

Within a few lines, Paul tells the Church at Corinth….that things have been difficult, very difficult. I am writing, he says, to let you know that the going was very, very hard in Asia, (Asia was the ancient name of a region about 200 miles to the north east of Corinth – in present day North West Turkey).

‘We were under a great deal of stress, that was almost too much for us, we reached the limits of our endurance, and we were even in danger of death at one point.’

Yet in the same breath, Paul is eager to share with the Church at Corinth,

the comfort that they received from God… ‘who comforts us in all our troubles…..….the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.’

Out of the ruins of their plans in Mysia and Asia, out of the collapse of their expecations, from their days of trouble along the mountain roads, among hardened people, this – was their deepest experience of God’s comfort.

So you can see right away what a message for our times the second letter to the Corinthians is – we may not have to travel mountain roads on foot, but our cities are certainly becoming hard ground for the good news of Jesus Christ……

One recent document from the Church of Scotland puts it this way: “the rapid shifts in population, changes in the way that people work, changes in the way that people relate to each other………and this has undermined the confidence of many Christian people.”

But, the striking thing about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is that it shows that his confidence is unshaken !

Why ?

Confidence in the Gospel

Because, his confidence is in the Gospel !

I love those words at the beginning of Romans,

I have complete confidence in the gospel, it is God’s power to save….

The striking thing about Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is that it shows that his confidence is unshaken !

despite the experiences in Asia……….where things went right down to the wire, times were dangerous, wearying and stressful. Hard times in the mountains villages, not much success it seems in the cities,

yet he is undaunted.

Isn’t he disheartened by what happened in Asia, those cities, so hard, so cold, where it was so difficult ? No – says Paul, we have never lost heart. Because this is God’s ministry, and His work

This is the work of the living God who has made His light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ……

It seemed that in those hard cities, they were blind to the truth,

Paul and his friends had set out the truth about Jesus Christ, plainly and clearly. Paul knew that no arguments - no slick talking - no gimmicks - can open the eyes of the blind -

Only God can do this – in His time, and when the ground is ready, and the harvest ripe……….

Paul’s confidence in the gospel, in the good news of Jesus Christ……arose from his complete trust in the living, crucified and risen Jesus ……

that’s a message for today isn’t it ?

We never lose heart…… our confidence is secure in the gospel !

And isn’t it striking – that while Paul found the cities in Asia closed, in those days, closed, stony ground, when we turn to the Book of Revelation, what do we find ? That later, at least two of those cities, Pergamum and Thyatira

had Churches, faithful to Jesus Christ !

Secondly,

The power is not ours but God’s

Out there in the hills and mountains of Asia, how did Paul and his friends keep going ? Well, we could paraphrase Paul’s words like this:

“The only way we could continue, the only way we could keep going was by relying completely on God, and on His power. Yes, we in ourselves were and are weak men, we were weak yes – and here is the heart of the matter – through our weakness God taught us, drew us to depend on Him and Him alone, taught us to turn to Him for all things. His promise is – My grace is sufficient for you, and My power is made perfect in weakness. To be in fellowship with Jesus,

is to discover that we can rely on God’s power for all things, in all things, through all things………..

“And,” continues Paul,

“to be in fellowship with Jesus Christ, is to share in His death and life.

Hard pressed, perplexed, under stress as we were,

in the projects that failed, the trials we faced –

we were always aware that death is working in us – that we are dying to self,

and living more and more in God, trusting more and more in our Father in heaven…..

and so the life of Jesus Christ will be seen in us all the more

Here are the great themes of Paul – the death and life of Jesus Christ, those two great, glorious dimensions – of death and life, of the cross and resurrection,

that we share with Jesus.

We often have our own hardened, stony ground, and times

when we are hard pressed, perplexed, under stress

there are projects that fail, trials we face –

but we know, we must know,

that death is working in us through all these experiences – that we are dying to self,

and so the life of Jesus Christ will be seen in us all the more!

Through this, death working in us, Christ is shaping – no – better still creating us, and we are more and more abundantly filled with His life.

For we know, says Paul, that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus……

and we will come to know, new life, resurrection life

We must never lose heart !

For Christ renews us, and our hope, and our faith from day to day by His Holy Spirit.

The challenges we face in life, and as a Church, are momentary and light. And are bringing us home to a glory that far outweighs them all.

The message for today’s ourselves and today’s Church is……..this:

He has delivered us… and He will deliver us.. and He will continue to deliver us…..

for the power is God’s power, not ours….

AMEN.