Last week I said that Jesus Christ did everything for the glory of God, and not for his own glory, and I said that we, as Christians, are always called to do the same. But God’s glory is not always easy to see, is it? We may spend our whole lives living so that others see the glory of God, but so many times it can feel like those efforts are invisible. We know what the glory of the things of this world look like - successful businesses, tall corporate towers, career achievements. We could even add children, grown up with good jobs and happy marriages, or churches that are growing and overflowing with children. The glories of this world are about growth and money and achievement.
But the glory of God is harder to see. Because the glory of God doesn’t appear in buildings, or in financial success, or in the longevity of a business. The glory of God appears in people - in those moments when people transcend themselves, when they exceed what they thought they were capable of. Not in moments of athletic achievement, or anything like that, but when they exceed their own capacity for compassion, or forgiveness, or empathy. The glory of God appears in people when, in the midst of the pain and the failures of life, they demonstrate love and grace, rather than bitterness.
This is what Paul is saying in his First letter to the Corinthians. At first hearing, it sounds like Paul is giving thanks to God for the church in Corinth. Which would be odd because the church in Corinth had their problems, as every church does. They had divisions among themselves, they behaved immorally, they didn’t always take care of one another, they argued over Communion practice. They were, according to the world’s standards of glory, pretty abysmal. And, what’s more, they weren’t a church that lasted very long. The church in Corinth actually no longer exists in any way that Paul would recognize, as the original city fell to earthquakes and invasions fifteen centuries ago. So clearly, the glory of God can’t be seen in the congregation of Corinth continuing to this day.
And yet, Paul gives thanks to God for the church in Corinth. Actually, Paul gives thanks for what God did in the church in Corinth. For the glory of God that was shown in those individuals. He says, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace that has been given you ... for ... you have been enriched, ... Christ has been strengthened among you, [and that] He will also strengthen you.” Paul is thanking God not for the people themselves, who are argumentative and weak, but for using those people to demonstrate God’s glory in the world. The people did not achieve grace for themselves, or enrich themselves, or strengthen themselves in faith. God did it for them. Because of God’s work in those people, those very human Christians surpassed their own limitations in following Christ. Not to their own glory, not so that people could look at them and say, “What great Christians those Corinthians are,” but so that people would look at them and say, “Wow, look what God has done with that sorry lot of people. What an amazing God to have brought about such powerful things from such a weak source. What faith God gave to such faithless people!” Paul recognizes that the glory of God is only seen in those who are not glorious in the eyes of the world. And so Paul thanks God for condescending to use such wretched people to demonstrate God’s glory.
Which is a really good thing for us. Because according to the world’s standards, most of us are weak, we are incompetent, and we are failures. You might remember way back in 1999, when former-wrestler Jesse Ventura, who then became Minnesota’s Governor (and incidentally was raised Lutheran), said that “religion is for the weak-minded,” and he called it a crutch. And a lot of Christians were deeply offended by what he said. But he was right. Religion, more specifically God, is for the weak. It is for those of us who don’t have the inner strength to be the kind of people we are supposed to be. We *know* humans are broken and can’t walk without a crutch. And so we are profoundly grateful that there is someone outside of ourselves to help us to have patience when we’re impatient, to help us to be forgiving when we’re hurt, to help us to be peaceful when we’re angry, to give us strength when we’re afraid, to help us let go of worldly things and cling only to what is true and right and holy. Because we know we can’t do these things on our own.
God’s glory shines in the darkest of situations and the weakest of people. We can, of course, suppress God’s glory. When we allow our desire for our own personal glory, or our family’s glory, or our community’s glory to come first, we choose a path of worldly glory, where God’s glory does not shine. When we turn to ourselves for strength, there is no room for God’s strength. And when we turn to ourselves as the source of our own faith, the Holy Spirit will not act. It is possible to thwart God’s presence in the world because God does not force God’s way among us. God comes humbly, shining through the weak, and moving among us only when invited; offering to be our crutch but not forcing it on us. And so even well-meaning Christians can obscure the glory of God, when they mistake worldly success as proof of God’s presence, and when they pursue that glory instead of the path of weakness and humility where God actually is.
But just as Paul was thankful for for the glory of God that he saw in the people in Corinth, I am thankful for the glory of God that is seen in you, the people of St. John. Not that I’m saying you’re as wretched as the Corinthians. But, let’s be honest, by the standards of the world, this congregation is a failure. Aging, shrinking, on the verge of dying. And yet, you come, faithfully, every week. To support one another, to make painful but necessary decisions. Your faith is tremendously deep. To be clear, I do not thank God for you. Because your capacity to be here in this time, the most difficult time in the life of this congregation, is not a testament to you, or to your own inner strength, or to your commitment to one another. It is a testament to God, and to God’s working within you to give you strength and commitment, and to what God achieves in weakness. God’s glory is seen in your ability to be with one another through this pain. God’s glory is not seen in the fact that this congregation has continued for over 115 years, or in the beautiful building that was built by you. No. God’s glory was not seen in the days when the pews were filled with people and the Sunday School rooms bursting with children. God’s glory is not seen in those human measures of success. God’s glory is seen in the faith of people when all those successes have gone. A faith, let me remind you, that comes from God, and not from us ourselves. God’s glory is seen in the brave and faithful way in which you face and accept the death of this congregation, because it is God who is giving you the strength and faithfulness to do so. I have seen congregations argue and become divided over far less important issues than selling a church or discussing its closure, and the way in which this congregation has been so united in its decision-making, and so compassionate towards one another in your disagreements is so rare that I have to conclude that God is at work here in profound ways––that God is the reason you are so faithful and so compassionate. And so I do give constant thanks to “God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.”
Paul ends his words to the church in Corinth by telling them to continue trusting in the Lord, “because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” By the grace of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the Lord through all our labours, even if it appears that we’re labouring towards failure and not towards success. Because we know that in our failures, God’s glory shines through most clearly, and we trust in that. Not in what makes us look good, but in what makes God look good. In God. Because our God is good––gracious, and merciful, promising new life to those who die, strengthening our faith, and bringing us “into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Thanks be to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment