May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, oh, Lord, our rock and our great
Redeemer.
Amen.
Let's be seated.
All right.
Does anybody know what time it is?
Uh-oh.
I know.
Somebody said ordinary time.
Ordinary time.
What does that mean?
What does it mean?
Just mundane and boring, right?
That's after Pentecost.
Everything becomes very boring and routine.
And we just can't wait to get back
to Holy Week and Easter vigil and Easter
time, right?
And then the rest of the Christian life
is just that boring, ordinary time.
Is that the intent of the liturgical calendar?
Is that what we're talking about?
The thing about the liturgical calendar and historic
Christian faith is that terminology doesn't change that
fast.
It doesn't transform itself like our culture does
in nanoseconds now.
When we use the word ordinary, it just
means plain.
It means nothing special.
And that's typically the way we can understand
this time frame of the calendar.
It's just nothing special until we get back
to Advent.
You know what an ordinal number is?
There's ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers, right?
Ordinal numbers usually have a TH behind them
because they describe the position of something in
a list.
First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and so
on, right?
Now, a cardinal number is a number that
says how many of something.
Just one, two, three, four, right?
That's a cardinal number.
That's what that is.
It all comes from Latin.
An ordinal number comes in to the concept
of ordinary time.
It's ordinal time where we count.
In this case, there's two ordinary times on
the calendar.
Let's roll back to Epiphany, the visit of
the Magi.
That next Sunday is called the first Sunday
after the Epiphany.
So we begin to count after the Epiphany
until we get to Ash Wednesday.
This is ordinary time because we're counting from
the day of Pentecost to Advent again, where
we actually celebrate the first and the second
Advent of Christ.
OK, but this time it's after Pentecost when
the work of redemption, wow, we've heard Christ
say it is finished.
So we see an empty tomb and then
we see the sending of the Holy Spirit
and the establishment of the kingdom of God
already, but not yet.
Because what are we waiting for?
We're waiting for a second Advent, a second
appearing is what that means.
Advent means appearing, manifestation.
So don't be bored during the season, right?
Because we're counting from Pentecost when God himself
was poured out upon all people, all nations.
And the effect of that is what we
just did in praying for Lisa to go
to the nations.
Right.
Last week, we prayed for Georgia and Anita
to go to Zambia at the end of
the service.
We'll say, send us out, father, to do
the work that you have given us to
do.
That means that we are an apostolic church
locally and globally.
Right.
We're sent ones.
Apostle means sent one.
So ordinary time, as I was reading the
New Testament passage in verse seven, it says,
but we have this treasure in jars of
clay to show that the surpassing power belongs
to God and not to us.
The NRSV translates surpassing extra ordinary.
Extraordinary.
I would say, brothers and sisters, that this
is extraordinary time.
It's extraordinary time because we've been given the
grace of God.
We've been given the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is building his church and he sent
God the Holy Spirit to be with us
forever till the end of the age.
I am with you.
It's the way that Christ is with us
until the end of the age.
Today's passage in Second Corinthians four, Paul tells
us the means of enduring faithfulness, the means
of his enduring faithfulness.
If we look back at the first verse,
which is not printed in your bullet in
chapter four, he says, therefore, based on chapter
three, since through God's mercy, we have this
ministry, we have this ministry through God's mercy,
we do not lose heart.
We do not lose heart in the face
of his countless problems, persecutions, disappointments, relational rejection.
Opposition of all kinds, Paul experienced and was
living.
He says.
In verse one.
We do not lose heart.
Does anybody here today want to lose heart?
I think it's a universal cry in all
of us not to lose heart.
Not to be gutted by our experiences, not
to be gutted by our context or by
the circumstances that may come our way or
that we may produce by our own brokenness.
But Paul is saying amid all of the
things that he's going to list throughout this
book, this book is a list of his
trials and tribulations and persecutions and circumstances that
none of us would sign up for.
At least I wouldn't sign up for those
things.
And yet in one of the accounts in
Acts, the Lord is speaking to Ananias, I
believe it is.
I'm going to show Paul the many things
that he will suffer.
There is something arranged for this apostolic man
to encounter, and he's sort of in this
passage giving us the rationale for why in
all of this he doesn't become discouraged, he
doesn't lose heart.
Further on within the chapter we read in
verse seven, but we have this treasure in
jars of clay.
Speaking of his own life, right, his body,
his fragile self.
We're all jars of clay, but we have
this treasure.
Why?
Why is it like that?
Why does God do this?
Why did God choose such fragile people to
dwell in, to place this treasure within?
Our fragility has not turned him away to
show that the surpassing power or to show
that the extraordinary power, the extraordinary power in
our being.
It belongs to God and not us.
It's all about him and not me.
And so in ordinary time, we've been given
the ministry.
What?
What is this ministry he's talking about in
verse one where he says, therefore, since through
God's mercy, we have this ministry.
In chapter three, Paul says this, contrasting the
old covenant in the new covenant, verse seven
in chapter three.
Now, if the ministry that brought death, which
was engraved in letters on stone, what we
just heard in the Old Testament reading came
with glory so that the Israelites could not
look steadily at the face of Moses because
of its glory fading, though it was will
not the ministry of the spirit.
I want you to take that home with
you.
Will not the ministry of the spirit be
even more glorious?
There it is.
If the ministry that condemns men is glorious,
how much more glorious is the ministry that
brings righteousness?
The ministry of the spirit brings righteousness, right?
Beautiful.
That's our only hope of righteousness.
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit.
Paul says that in Romans 14, 17.
It's what it is.
That's what the kingdom is.
It's an embodiment of God's righteousness, peace and
joy found dwelling within the Holy Spirit, found
dwelling within us.
That's what the kingdom is.
And so in ordinary time, we've been given
the ministry of the spirit.
Three, eight, we have to appropriate and grab
a hold of and contemplate, as we see
at the end of chapter three, the contemplation
brings transformation.
Being given the ministry of the spirit whereby
the law we heard read today out of
Deuteronomy is written now on our hearts, the
new covenant, the new means of transformation is
upon us.
In ordinary time, we are accounting down from
Pentecost to Advent.
Yes.
And apart from the liturgical calendar, we're counting
down from Pentecost to the second advent or
the final appearing of Jesus.
Returning to make all things new to restore
all things is final new creation.
Indeed, we are living between the first and
the second advent, the first and the second
coming, appearing of Jesus.
Some have described this time as a time
of paradox and tension.
And I, I relate to that.
It's called the already not yet kingdom.
Present, but not in fullness, because we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, but Paul goes
on to say in Ephesians that that treasure,
that deposit is a guarantee.
It's a guarantee that the presence of God
in our lives, the presence of the Holy
Spirit within us is only a foretaste of
what's to come.
Thanking God that he gives us some tastings,
right?
He's got that banquet table out there and
we get to taste and see that the
word is good and that pulls us through
and we do not lose heart because of
that man.
In this sense of great paradox is what
Paul is talking about to the Corinthians because
it's given them problems, his paradoxical life, his
problematic life, his life of problems.
It seems like everywhere he went, things got
stirred up and people came against him and
rejected him.
And, you know, he was stoned so many
times and beaten and shipwrecked and left for
dead.
And, you know, it's just like this.
This man just endured so many things, but
he did not lose heart.
How did he do it?
Well, it was a problem for some of
his churches because.
Those representing the king of kings and lord
of lords to the Corinthians, they should not
be living on the outside of the margins,
so to speak, they should not have so
many bad things happening.
Paul's having to explain himself, he's having to
defend his apostolic calling.
The Corinthians feel that an apostle should be
outwardly victorious and successful.
And appear that way, what's the problem, Paul,
why is your life such a mess to
show the extraordinary power that it belongs to
God?
And not ourselves, that's why his life is
such a mess, and that perhaps is why
we're all working through the mess of our
lives.
I don't care how tight you nip your
sheets on your bed, there's some mess in
your life.
I know it because I know me, I
know it's all right, it's a universal mess,
it's all over the place, creation's groaning because
of the mess.
The reign of sin and death has been
served notice on the day of Pentecost, my
brothers and it's passing away.
And the new age of the kingdom is
on its way and we pray every Sunday,
thy kingdom come on earth as it is
in heaven, new heavens and new earth are
coming.
Therefore, we do not.
Lose heart.
Now, there is a problem with our culture
that wants it faster than our phones can't
be fast enough and our computers can't be
fast enough and and we want it now,
we want immediacy.
Our faith cannot have that kind of mindset
of the things that are seen that Paul's
going to address here in this chapter, he
says, we don't look at those things, we
don't set our affections on those things that
are seen because they're temporal, they're passing away.
Even the this present evil age is passing
away and everything that's associated with this present
evil age is passing away.
So it's not good to invest in something
that's passing away.
Right.
It's like.
Investing in a Pinto or something, it's it's
coming on.
You go or whatever those cars used to
be.
It's over.
Yeah, right.
And so Paul gives this list that we're
pretty familiar with.
Verse seven, we have this treasure in jars
of clay to show the extraordinary power belongs
to God and not to us.
And then he goes, we are afflicted.
He's giving a defense to a church that
he founded.
Right.
He's having to write back and defend himself
here.
And he's saying, and there's some irony in
this.
We are afflicted in every way, but not
crushed.
Perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but
not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.
Always carrying in the body the death of
Jesus so that the life of Jesus may
also be manifested in our bodies for we
who live are always being given over to
death for Jesus' sake so that the life
of Jesus also may be made manifest in
our mortal flesh.
And he concludes in verse 12, so death
works in us, that life works in you.
This is called sacrificial, self-giving love, the
love of Christ constrained, Paul, he said, the
love of Christ constrains us so that life
may work in you and all of us
today.
Might I say that this could be the
Christian life, but I don't think Paul's just
talking about apostolic torture.
Right.
I think he's describing what it means in
our baptism to come into participation with the
death and the resurrection of Jesus.
That when we are immersed into the waters
of baptism by water and the spirit, we
enter into a real participation in Christ and
we come into union with Christ.
And that means if we suffer with him,
we will reign with him.
Romans 8, I mean, there's all this co
-suffering that's going on.
And, you know, we cannot doubt of it.
Some of this we can't opt out of.
It's not like a choice.
Well, I'm not going to choose that on
the menu.
I'm going to choose this over here.
It just is.
And if we can accept the isness of
the brokenness of this world, right, then we
will not lose heart because our affections are
not set on those things.
Whether I get that new house, that new
job, that new what, what, what, what, what,
you know, if our affections are there, these
are good things.
But if we wrongly attach to these things,
then the attachment brings us down, because ultimately
everything that we attach to is passing away.
It's temporal.
And Paul is saying that we set our
affections on things.
Above questions, three, set your affections, set your
heart, set your mind on things above.
Now, this doesn't mean a disembodied, disembodied life.
Done that several times.
We need an extinguisher on the front row
just in case that happens, because this stuff
is really flammable and you'll be able to
leave and say, my pastor is on fire.
My pastor is on fire, literally.
Yeah, he is a holy roller because he's
trying to get the.
Yeah.
OK, so if I start doing that and
I don't know what I'm doing, go, whoa,
that's a new liturgical phrase.
Whoa, whoa is me.
There we go.
OK, so we're playing around with this.
This stuff's not my notes.
Yeah, I meditate on this passage all week
and just went deeper and deeper into the
rabbit hole anyway.
So I would encourage you to do that.
Go into the rabbit hole of this passage.
Maybe, maybe at least start with chapter three
and work through five, three, four, five.
I mean, that's a good chunk of what
we're trying to say today, because this is
the Christian life and avoidance will only make
it worse.
Acceptance of the struggles that come our way
and the sufferings that come our way.
It's almost like trying to resist makes it
worse.
Am I calling us to suffer alone?
Am I calling us to view our lives
as just some type of fatalistic people?
No, that's not it at all, is it?
It's not it.
It's it's participation in Christ and he will
choose the sufferings for us.
Right.
He chooses those things.
I'm going to show him the things that
he will suffer for my namesake.
That was Paul.
That's why we call the cross the passion,
the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And in this kind of suffering, Paul says,
we don't lose heart.
Now, does that mean that it didn't feel
like being crushed?
Not at all.
It felt that way.
Let me give you a little insight into
his psychology in chapter one.
OK, and then we'll close as we lift
the plane up off the runway.
Paul is saying in the same book in
chapter one, beginning with verse eight.
We do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about the hardships we suffered
in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our
ability to endure.
Far beyond so that we despaired even of
life.
This is the guy who wrote most of
the New Testament.
We despaired even of life.
Indeed, our hearts in our hearts, we felt
the sentence of death.
But should I just stop there and not
read the book?
But but this happened, this happened.
He's reading he's reading something into his circumstances
in his life.
He's reading in the narrative of the co
-crucified and co-risen Jesus that he's been
linked to.
He's reading it in now and he's interpreting
the circumstances of his life.
He says, but this happened that we might
not rely on ourselves, but on God.
Wow.
What's I mean, what's the big deal about
relying on yourself?
Self-reliance, don't we teach that in America?
Isn't that a good thing?
Isn't that through the Holy Spirit, self-reliance,
pull yourself up by your boots, go do
it, man.
You're responsible.
Yeah.
And no, because when we rely on ourselves,
we don't need God.
Right.
We can pull it off.
We can do church without the Holy Spirit
and we can do all these things because
we have the liturgy.
That's why we stress the fact that we're
charismatic and Catholic.
No, no, we need the spirit of God
to make the Eucharist what it is.
We need the spirit of God to make
baptism what it is.
We need the spirit of God to bring
the kingdom to earth as it is in
heaven.
So we don't want to rely on ourselves
and maybe because these guys were so high
powered and supercharged and equipped that the Lord
had to arrange certain things out on the
field just to remind them.
Yeah, I know you had a couple of
you raised the dead back here and you
did this.
But, oh, there's trouble ahead because you didn't
do all of the other stuff.
That was me, the Lord is saying.
Right.
That was me.
So that we might not rely on ourselves,
but on God who raises the dead.
He has delivered us from such a deadly
peril and he will deliver us on him.
We have set our hope that he will
continue to deliver us as you help us
by your prayers.
So he's now saying, like, hey, we're not
in this alone.
We're helped by your intercession and prayer.
You're participating with us in this ministry of
the spirit as you help us by your
prayers.
That many will give thanks on our behalf
for the gracious favor granted us in an
answer to the prayers of many.
Wow.
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.
Yeah, I think I'm going to end there.
The thing is, is that I want to
encourage us to live in the eternal perspective
and to realize is that when Paul says
we look not at the things that are
seen, but we look at the things that
are unseen.
You have to live life in paradox, because
how can you see anything that's unseen?
Fix your eyes on Jesus.
Jesus is invisible.
Jesus is at the right hand of the
father.
How can we fix our eyes on Jesus?
But we're told time and time again to
look at the things that are not seen
and to live in the unseen real because
it's more solid.
It can be more physical than any physical
or material thing we've ever seen.
It's just in another realm where Jesus is
now as new creation, because he was raised
bodily.
He has a body, but it's a different
kind of body.
And so it's a new materiality.
How do we do that?
It's with the eyes of faith.
We have to exercise eyes of faith, the
eyes of our heart are the eyes of
faith.
Open the eyes of my heart, Paul said
that was his prayer in order that he
could look at the things that are not
seen.
So let that be our prayer.
Lord, today, open the eyes of our heart
that we may see the glory that is
in this room, all around in the angelic
forces.
There are more of those with us and
there are with them.
There are more of those with us than
the God of this world who has blinded
the minds of those who do not believe.
Right.
It's been determined that we have to not
lose heart.
And we do that by fixing our gaze
and our affections on the unseen and fall
in love with Jesus Christ.
And he will guide and lead us and
empower us as he's building his church.
In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.