2 Corinthians 4: 7-12
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.†
Jars of Clay
I may have started this text a verse late. The prior verse connects us to last week: 2 Corinthians 4:6:
For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Right there is the difference between faith and disbelief. Those of us who believe can take no credit for believing; rather we are recipients of God’s self-revelation. God has spoken light into our hearts which reveals Jesus for Who He is: The Lord.
This is a miracle: everyone who believes in Jesus does so as the result of a miracle—the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul continues with our text, verse 7:
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.
Clay jars: that is us—that is our life in the flesh and weakness—so that it may be clear that you and I do nothing to believe and can take no personal credit for our faith. Our weaknesses—our flaws, failings, and the sins we continue to struggle to overcome—keep us humble and pointing beyond ourselves.
Friends, let’s be clear: in our evangelism, we are not offering people ourselves or the Church as a means for salvation. We have a lovely fellowship here, but fellowship saves no one. We cannot and do not socialize anyone into the gospel. Coming to Jesus is an either/or proposition and nothing else: we present Jesus as accurately as we can: others will see Him as The Lord or they will not. Whether they do or do not has nothing to do with you and me and everything to do with the work of the Holy Spirit. God will self-reveal to those whom He chooses, period. We are not to lose heart. One invitation does not exhaust our evangelism. We take the story and the witness out again and again, angle by angle, patiently and persistently as flawed, clay jars—and rejoice in seeing God work changes in the lives of others.
suffering for it
And think how hard it has been for us to share the gospel with others. We are attacked, oppressed, and opposed at every turn, aren’t we? Just as Paul says in verses 8 and 9:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
Afflicted, persecuted—but wait, that’s not happening to us! We’re not persecuted for being Christians. There are some Christian websites that regularly talk as though we are in danger of being put into concentration camps, but that is far from the truth and we know it. We live in a free country built upon freedom of religion. The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, before mentioning freedom of speech or the press, speaks of freedom of religion. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion—that doesn’t mean that our government will disrespect faith—far from it—it means that for them it was so important to our basic freedoms that congress and the government would keep its nose out of it and leave it to the people. The churches would be their own power with their own authority and the government would not interfere. Many Americans do not know this and some would like to see it changed, but it remains the reality.
Yes, there are many places in the world where Christians are persecuted for being Christians, and we must regularly keep them in our prayers. But America is the safest, sanest place in the world for Christianity to flourish. So we are not persecuted, crushed, or perplexed by any stretch of the imagination and for this we should be supremely grateful.
Our chief danger is not being persecuted, but being protected to death. Our religious freedom has made many complacent—so complacent that the life and heart of our practice is in danger of draining away entirely. Is it possible that the Church flourishes better when it is opposed or even persecuted? It was certainly born in persecution and grew enormous—against all probability—while persecuted. In fact, a look at church history reveals a principle that whenever the Church is oppressed, its faith seems to run all the deeper and more authentic. When Christians are willing to suffer—to carry the death of Christ within their midst—their convictions only deepen, their inner peace increases, and their witness shines most brightly.
Death by Suburb
Author David Goetz, in his book, Death by Suburb, says that the goal of suburbanites is not to live a Christ-like existence; it is to maintain a certain quality of life. And we expect God to help us do that. Suburban Christianity tends toward a kind of contractual arrangement with God. If I do good works, God will bless me. We go to church, we give money, and we try to do all the right things so that God will never put us in a position where we actually have to trust him. Suburban Christianity seeks God’s blessings upon our comfort zones. We pray and plan and organize to protect ourselves from trouble, but also from the calling—from the challenges and adventure of following Christ and living by His Spirit.
Marva Dawn says: "The gospel is no long life-changing, but merely life enhancing."
But we don’t want a shallow Christianity; there can be no “semi-Christianity.” Our Vision Statement confirms this:
DEEPLY-COMMITTED
EVER-GROWING
DEEPLY-CONNECTED
EVER-SHARING
The first line of our vision statement says that we seek to be deeply committed. This means we are not settling for half-committed or shallowly committed. Ever growing, deeply committed, ever-sharing—that’s our picture of mature faith. Does that mean committed up to a point? No, it means that our spiritual development—our growing into Christ—is a matter of learning year by year what greater commitment means. We jump in with both feet and more completely give of ourselves to Christ.
This is not the same a suburban Christianity. Suburban Christianity is attractive—a nice life. Everything sweet: picket fence, tulips in the sunshine gently waving in the wind, a dog barking, and gentle swish-swish of a neighbor raking leaves. No real trouble. That is suburban heaven and I think I want it as much as anyone in this room. It’s a wonderful thing, but this is not what our faith calls us to.
The text says that we carry the death of Christ within us. That means that we are carriers by baptism of the death of Christ. That means we do not live in the avoidance of death like the rest of the world. By death I don’t just mean dying—it means sin, abuse, and trouble. It means all the trouble in the world—which is all part of death for humankind. Sin itself is death—it is the working out of death. As followers of Jesus and cross-carriers, we bear that death in us, but Suburban Christianity seeks to avoid it at all costs.
Suburban love
Suburbs are the creation of those who wanted out of the city. Our suburbs are ultimately about avoiding all reminders of death, sin, and corruption. Moving to the suburbs means moving away from the trouble, away from the city and all of the urban mess. And who in their right mind wouldn’t do that? We all just want a place where we can raise our children—we want them to be in in a place that feels safe. We don’t want them accosted by meth addicts as they walk to and from school. Is there anyone here who doesn’t want that? The safe place—a place where we’re apart from all of that death.
The result is we’ve created a bubble. We’ve left downtown. We’ve driven out far enough that we can create a neighborhood called Upland and not have to deal with all that garbage. And in this bubble, which I’m grateful for, there’s danger of our faith going stale. There’s danger of our faith going shallow and resting only on the surface. A life-enhancing faith, not a life-changing faith. I don’t say this to beat up on us, but part of storming the gates is storming the gates within as well. We should be the happiest people in the world in America, should we not? Christians in America? We should wake up every day dancing and singing, so glad to be here. But we are not. We’ve become a nation divided by stupid political convictions. A nation divided by arguing and complaining. What happened?
Humorist P.J. O’Rourke puts these words so wonderfully, I’ve almost got them memorized.
“Moans of “unfair,” “unjust,” and “poor me” are heard round the planet nowhere louder than here. America—the Great Colossus that stood astride the earth now lies on the floor pounding its fists and kicking its feet, transformed into a fussy-pants and a sputter-budget. . . .Crybaby to the World. . .a land with a bad case of the grumbles.”
Can you see it? Got cable? Any kind of television at all? We, who have everything in this country—an enormous inequity of the world’s wealth—spend more time griping, complaining, whining, and grousing than anyone in the world. And it’s as if in all of that griping, complaining, grousing, and kvetching we expect a full sympathetic audience for our every whine. What in the world has happened to us?
Well, what do we need? We need gratitude. This is what happens when people lose their gratitude. In the coming of this Thanksgiving we need to learn and to remind ourselves and other Americans how to live in that gratitude. So how do we find that gratitude?
GROWING GRATITUDE
One of my pet peeves is how America is going increasingly Godless. Think of a a piano string being pulled across the edge of a torn tin can. That’s my nerves whenever I hear somebody say, “Well, thanks to the Universe….” Here’s the thing: gratitude is absolutely meaningless without a personal recipient. You can’t be grateful to a rock. You can’t be grateful to the trees, come on! Gratitude demands a relationship and somebody to receive that thanks. To be grateful, to be thankful, means to be grateful to someone, absolutely. And anything less is nonsense.
So, here are four ways we can grow gratitude:
1. We acknowledge the LORD. This is what our evangelism is about—it’s trying to get people to acknowledge that God is God—Old Testament and New. Acknowledge that God is God. Has it occurred to you what percentage of worship is actually just giving thanks, just saying, “Thank you, God”? It’s an enormous part of worship. The only way you can say Thank you—the only way you can feel thankful—is if something has been revealed to you as good. If someone gives you a gift you say I have appreciation, I receive—thank you. The moment we acknowledge God as God, gratitude becomes easy.
2. We give GOD thanks for everything.
This takes great maturity because in Suburban Christianity you thank God for the blessings and you curse God for the curses. But I think we want to say God, in your providence you see that even this is working for my sanctification. God, even this struggle—even this incredibly difficult family member whom I want to throttle—Lord, I accept that you are Lord and that your providence is perfect. So I thank you even for this because through this you are making something out of me that I could never have been otherwise. That’s gratitude. Lord, thank you for my life. Thank you for the adventures you’re putting before me.
3. We thank GOD unconditionally.
Otherwise we’re playing the bargain game. Lord, we give you thanks no matter what. I have a privileged position as a pastor. I see people in the hospital. I hold hands with people near death. Larry Bledsoe—he’s been in the hospital for 11 months. And when I can get him communicating—which takes a lot of work right now—the thing he struggles to get out on paper is thank you, thank you. And I know he’s feeling that for the Lord. Thank you God, for my life. He might also be saying, Lord, protect Jane. Lord, help but thank you. That is mature Christianity. That’s what we’re all stretching toward, that ability to be in a miserable situation and be able to say Lord, thank you for my life. Thank you that I’m alive. We, brothers and sisters, all need to cultivate this. But how can you simply throw that thankful switch on? How can you just say be thankful? That’s pretty hard advice; I won’t give you that advice, but we are right to seek and find in our hearts that place where we experience gratitude and to feel it and to keep that fire burning in there. This is why your grandmothers wisely told you count your blessings. Count your blessings. The surest way to pull yourself out of a funk—if there’s a practical way—is to start counting things you are thankful for. It’s like priming a pump. Just think of three things to be thankful for.
The worst time in my life was being in between churches and living at my brother’s house. I was painting his house and feeling like I had no prospects for moving forward— just a down, down time in my life. I had been part of a new church development that was shut down and I felt like a loser—a worthless failure. God had nothing to do with me, I felt, and as I was painting my brother’s house I would pray, God, today give me one thing to be thankful for (and there’s more than a little bit of self pity behind that if you can hear it). Give me one thing to be thankful for. That’s where my heart was. But almost immediately something would come, and then something else. And then something else. Yes, I was enjoying great time with my nieces and nephew, and loving that. My friends were all supportive. Pretty soon, all of that self pity drained away. Suddenly I was able to thank God for a hundred things, then a thousand things. And there I was, without a job, living at my brother’s painting his house and thinking, My life is wonderful, God is so good, I’ve got everything! The capacity to find gratitude is an important foundation of your and my spirituality. It’s also one of the best parts of our witness. We must find our gratitude.
4. We proclaim GOD’s perfect goodness to the grateful and ungrateful alike. This is usually the hardest part. In a week and a half you’re going to have people gathered for Thanksgiving dinner. Kids and grandkids, etc. I should say that I expect every one of you in this room to make sure that your family prays at that Thanksgiving dinner—of course you will—but there’s going to be someone who’s uncomfortable with it. My first thought is, good. Thanks and gratitude mean nothing without a personal recipient. So we aren’t thankful to Nature. We’re not thankful to the Universe. We thank God. And because we thank God everything else can be bathed in meaning, purpose, and God’s Power and Presence. Our role is to invite other people into that gratitude as we can. Not by twisting their arms, but just by gently inviting them into the peace and the gratitude. As we said, Thanksgiving is probably at least half of our worship. Praise is also part of it, but what does it mean to praise God but to acknowledge God and to be thankful for who He is? Praise and thanks go together.
ETERNAL THANKS
And here’s a final thought with that: When we go to be face to face with God—when we’re worshiping together in that indescribable, ineffable Heaven of the Presence of God, do you not think that you will be feeling grateful? Do you think gratitude will be exhausted or burnt out? Or will gratitude rather be something that you feel in greater and greater volumes than you can possibly imagine? Gratitude is eternal and will grow eternally.
Do you want to know what Heaven is? It is the ever-expanding gratitude of a soul that grows into greater gratitude. We will be grateful and more completely grateful every year of eternity. Give that some meditation in your quiet time. God has given us a Suburban Heaven. We live in a free country to practice our faith and we should be very, very grateful as Christians. But because we follow Jesus we can be grateful for so much more and the everything that is under His care and Providence.†