{"id":873,"date":"2018-06-03T20:53:12","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T00:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=873"},"modified":"2018-06-03T20:53:12","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T00:53:12","slug":"after-pentecost-2-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2018\/06\/03\/after-pentecost-2-b\/","title":{"rendered":"After Pentecost 2 B"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeming, Seeing, Saving<\/h1>\n

A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<\/a>
\nby Rev. James Eaton, Pastor
\nSecond Sunday After Pentecost\/B \u2022 June 3, 2018
\n2 Corinthian 4:5-12<\/a><\/h2>\n

So death is at work in us, but life in you. – 2 Cor 4:12<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To hear the sermon preached, click below<\/h3>\nhttps:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/seemingseeingsaving-6318-8.34-PM.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Every preacher has some weaknesses. I know that one of mine is titles. Take today. I looked at this scripture reading and saw the part about being slaves, and I thought of when my older kids were eight and six. We lived in a flat in Milwaukee with no dishwasher. Every night after dinner, their job was to wash and dry the dishes and put them away. One night when they were pouting they said, \u201cWe\u2019re slaves, we\u2019re nothing but slaves.\u201d Their mother and I looked at each other and said together, \u201cYou\u2019re right, now get out there and finish up.\u201d So I thought about calling this sermon \u201cNothing But Slaves\u201d. It might be worth pointing out here that in Greek, the same word is used for children and slaves; I guess the Greeks needed dishwashers too. But I gave up on that title, it doesn\u2019t really embrace Paul\u2019s message.<\/p>\n

Then I thought about the text a bit more and I was really taken by the image of the earthen vessels. I put one on the communion table today, just to illustrate this. I\u2019ve read a couple of sermons that focused there and especially on the pots as cracked pots. There are so many crackpots in our national life today that I thought I could talk for a long time about that. We might not all have the same idea about which crackpots are the worst or funniest but still, there do seem to be a lot of them. But I read some more and realized this isn\u2019t really the point of the passage; it\u2019s an illustration of a larger message. So sadly I gave up on that title; I know a lot of preachers, better preachers, are happy to do something light-hearted but I know you expect to hear God\u2019s word, not just whatever I think is funny.
\nAfter a few days reflecting, I began to think of Paul\u2019s message here in three parts and that\u2019s where my title today, seeming, seeing, saving, came from. It\u2019s not as fun as cracked pots but it makes more sense of Paul\u2019s message here, at least it did for me; let\u2019s see if it does for you.<\/p>\n

The Corinthian Christians were a quarrelsome bunch. We have a letter we call First Corinthians that\u2019s full of Paul\u2019s advice on conflicts; it\u2019s clear there that the church has some factions. Before this letter was written, Paul sent Timothy to try to solve the problems but he failed. Then, someone we\u2019ll call Mr. X came along who was charismatic and apparently an excellent speaker and a bunch of the church rallied around him. But as often happens, the charismatic leader\u2019s fall was just as sudden as his rise. Now the church is in conflict again over differences about this leader and Paul and Paul is trying to get them back on the path toward Christ. <\/p>\n

He begins with a sermon that should be preached to every pastor in America today I think: <\/p>\n

For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I look back over my career, over 40 years of pastoral ministry, I see that one of the great changes has been the creation of what I call the entrepreneurial ministry. The model is something like this: go door to door, call on the phone, by some means get a little group together; tell them they are right. That\u2019s right: no preacher ever started up a church confronting people about where they are wrong. Adopt their culture, wave their flags, support their politics, lift up their sports. That will make the little group a larger group; it will make them feel good about themselves. And it may work. Today all over the country there are super churches with super preachers who took and take this path. Every single one is led by some preacher who is lifted up as the voice of God.<\/p>\n

But notice what Paul says: not ourselves but Jesus Christ. By \u2018ourselves\u2019 he means himself, Timothy, other church leaders. Here it means me, Joan, our Moderator, our other officers. We\u2019re not the show; we\u2019re not the heart. I\u2019m not the heart. I\u2019m not here to proclaim me, I\u2019m here to preach Jesus Christ as Lord. I\u2019ve been through a few transitions where I left a church after a long, fruitful time. Each time the same thing has happened; each time someone has come and said, \u201cI\u2019m leaving if you\u2019re not going to be here.\u201d I\u2019ve always replied the same way: you didn\u2019t join me, you joined a church; you didn\u2019t follow me, you followed Jesus. So why would you leave? There\u2019s more to do. <\/p>\n

Paul wants us to see what an extraordinary treasure we have in God\u2019s love. Just like many of us, he had his own particular experience of being called by Christ. In his case, it involved an intense light, so bright it blinded him. So naturally he remembers that God is the source of light, that God\u2019s creation began with light. \u201cFor God, who said, \u2018Let light shine out of darkness,\u2019 made his light shine in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.\u201d He calls this a treasure, and so it is, for the greatest treasure of all is to see ourselves not as the world sees but in the light of God, in the mirror of God\u2019s love. We may seem to be nothing to the world. We may seem to be weak in the world. But seen from God\u2019s view, we contain a treasure: the image of God, which is our true self.<\/p>\n

Paul knows about this difference between seeming and saying. He\u2019s not being superficial or unrealistic. He goes on to admit that this treasure is held in an earthen vessel. In the ancient world, earthen vessels, pottery, were the everyday packaging. It\u2019s what you put your olive oil in, it\u2019s what your foods came in. It\u2019s what held trade goods. Pottery was so widely spread that today archaeologists use different patterns and compositions of pottery to date cities; they dig them up in former trash mounds. Now pottery is made from clay; perhaps just as Paul is thinking of God\u2019s creation of light, he\u2019s also thinking of how we were created from the same clay that makes pottery. We are earthen vessels.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s completely realistic about our lives; they aren\u2019t untroubled, in fact as he says, \u201cWe are hard pressed on every side,..perplexed\u2026persecuted..struck down\u2026We always carry in our body the death of Jesus.\u201d Just like an earthen vessel that can be dropped at any moment and break into shards, we are terribly fragile. I think we all know this and fight the knowledge. We\u2019re constantly defending that weakness. I was halfway through my career in ministry before I ever sat with a Board of Deacons, discussing a complaint, and simply said, \u201cI made a mistake; I\u2019m sorry.\u201d I never wanted to be an earthen vessel: I wanted to be gold or silver or something shinier. It was terrible admitting I was just a clay pot. I wonder how many conflicts are caused by fear of our fragility. I wonder how many hierarchies, systems of oppression, come from the secret knowledge of the oppressor that he or she is fragile, an earthen vessel, subject to shattering. <\/p>\n

But if we are fragile, if we are earthen vessels, we also have an amazing capacity to carry the extraordinary spirit of God. Paul sees the fragility, sees the injuries, the hurts, the times that shatter us but he also wants us to see that in Jesus Christ we have another possibility. <\/p>\n

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; \u2028perplexed, but not driven to despair; \u2028persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; \u2028always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, \u2028so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This last is what saves us, saves our world: that the life of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, is made visible in us. Yes, we are earthen vessels; but those vessels contain a treasure. Yes, we are fragile; but we have an eternal life in the heart of God. Yes, we are carrying death in our bodies, just like Jesus, but just like Jesus, we have the capacity to shine with the light of the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n

When we understand we are earthen vessels containing a treasure there are two consequences. One is that we understand our own value before God. So we are set free from the world\u2019s value systems. We can stop trying to be gold vessels or silver vessels, because the treasure is what we contain. And the second consequence is that we recognize a fundamental equality with all God\u2019s other children. We are all earthen vessels; we are all carriers of treasure. Paul saw this himself. In Galatians 3:28 he writes, \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d So our mission becomes working for justice for all, for justice simply means treating equally people who are equal.<\/p>\n

We live in a world that seems to be one way but Christ calls us to see beyond the world to the hope and love of God. We live in a world where we get bruised, cry out, feel ourselves cast down, but if we look, we can see that even in the moment of suffering, we are invited to the arms of Jesus Christ who also suffered, who knows about suffering. This is how God is saving this world. In our moments of celebration, in our times of suffering, we are earthen vessels meant to carry the treasure of God\u2019s glory, God\u2019s image, God\u2019s presence. This is the spirit that is saving the world. Whatever things seem, may we see it and share it. <\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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