My favourite bible verse is in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. It is not from the verses we heard today, but in chapter 12. In that chapter Paul describes the surpassingly great revelations he has received from God – literally a glimpse into the majesty of God’s heavenly glory. But then he is brought back to earth.
He has this thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it is, despite plenty of theories – like epilepsy or lingering blindness from the Damascus road experience. We hear Paul write of his thorn: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me (and this is my favourite verse), ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (12:8-9).
I have seen the truth of this throughout my ministry and life. God’s grace is sufficient and I have seen his power displayed continually – not just despite my weakness and the weakness of others, but also because of it. This goes against the grain of the way the world works. But it also goes against the grain of how I want things to work. Even though I know God’s power is made perfect in weakness, I don’t especially like weakness. I can tolerate it in others – not so much in myself.
And I’m guessing I’m not alone in that. We might have a soft spot for the underdog, but it doesn’t mean we want to be the underdog! We don’t like to be weak. We like to have a measure of control over our lives. But when you answer the call to follow Jesus it kind of messes with this a little – or a lot! You enter the struggle and paradox of the Christian life. We see this being played out in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.
We see how things that seem to contradict each other are held in tension. We hear God’s word as law and gospel – a word that can accuse and condemn and a word that can bring comfort and life.
We hear how we are at one and the same time saints and sinners and the internal struggle this creates. And yes, we hear how God’s strength and power is experienced even in the midst of weakness.
Paul had already set that scene in his first letter to the Corinthians when he wrote: ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (1:18).
The good news of Jesus itself is a paradox. Here we have the one true God in the flesh as truly human. Here we have the plan of God for saving our world being revealed through death and resurrection.
We should not be surprised, then, that being a disciple of Jesus and being the church is not easy.
Sometimes people try and glamorise the experience of the early church, as though these first disciples had captured the formula for successful church growth and vitality. If only we can imitate what they were doing then we too can be successful as the church.
I’m not sure people who think this way have really heard Paul’s description of what it meant to be the church in the first century.
Even in just our verses we heard today, Paul said: ‘We are hard pressed on every side…perplexed… persecuted…struck down…we are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake…’ Put all of that into a ‘welcome to our church’ glossy brochure!
The good news of Jesus is the greatest treasure our world has ever known but it came at a cost. And it comes at a cost to share this news with the world. Paul knew that intimately in his own suffering and struggles as an Apostle, as a bearer of the good news. He also knew the majesty and glory of Jesus, as do we.
As we heard Paul say: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ”.
The Gospel writer, John, said it this way: ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’.
This is the treasure that we have, a treasure that is beyond price. We know Jesus. We know him as our Saviour and Lord. We know the comfort and hope that he brings. We know his forgiveness and peace.
Through faith the Gospel makes sense to us. I can’t imagine life without Jesus. I am so thankful that Jesus has been revealed to me as the way, the truth and the life and that I can come to the Father through him.
But there are those who are blinded to this, those who, as Paul writes, ‘cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’.
Our role as disciples, as the church, is to shine the light of Christ to the world. Even in our baptismal rite we have a candle, lit from the Christ candle (Paschal candle), that is presented to the newly baptised child of God. ‘Let your light shine to the glory of God’!
It sounds so easy – ‘to have the light, to be the light, to shine the light’. And then Paul reminds us: ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay’.
The treasure is the good news of Jesus. So what are the jars of clay in which it is contained? You are. I am. The church is. Ordinary vessels like you and I are the jars of clay that contain the good news of Jesus. The ordinary vessel that is the church – with its motley band of saints and sinners – with its means of grace demonstrated through the spoken word and a splash of water and some bread and wine – this is the vessel God chooses to share his light to the world.
It is an ordinary, seemingly flawed way to do it. It is a weak way to do it. And even though we know God’s power is made perfect in this kind of weakness, we don’t always like this weakness in the church. We want to do our mission from a position of strength. We want our culture in here to be the culture out there. We want to be valued, respected in the world. We want to be listened to, needed by the world.
You only have to go back a generation and we had all that. We were strong as a church. We were in control as a church. We fashioned a vessel that was impressive and persuasive. We built it and they came.
Great blessings have come through the faithful actions of those who have gone before. But we are here now. Things have changed. We seem to be growing weaker by the day. The gloss is gone. ‘We have this treasure in jars of clay’.
And therein lies the hope for the church. It has always been in jars of clay, despite our efforts at times to try and tizzy it up a bit and make it more attractive.
The Gospel does not need our efforts to make it attractive or effective: ‘…we have this treasure in jars of clay…’ Why? ‘…to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’.
The good news of Jesus is its own power. It does bring comfort and hope. It does bring peace and life. Our weakness and brokenness need not hinder the Gospel. It can serve it. It can bear witness to it.
We are not the good news. What we build and fashion and create is not the good news. Jesus is. We have received him and his light in our lives. And he is pleased to have this treasure contained in us and to have it conveyed to the world through us.
It is an ordinary, seemingly flawed way to do it. It seems to be a weak way for God to do it. But that is what he does. He chooses you and me, in all our vulnerability, to shine his light in the world.
Being a disciple of Jesus and being the church is not easy. When you answer the call to follow Jesus you enter the struggle and paradox of the Christian life. The apostle Paul lived and breathed that paradox in his life and ministry and so do we.
We too may be hard pressed on every side, but we will not be crushed. We may ‘be perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body’.
You carry the treasure of the Gospel of Jesus with you and in you wherever you go. You may be weak but he is strong. May you see his all-surpassing power at work in your life and in the lives of others. May you see that his grace is always sufficient, enough, for you as he sends you out to shine his light in the world. Amen.
