What if?

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.  For he says,“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.  We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.  Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;  in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;  in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;  through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;  sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.  We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.  As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children —open wide your hearts also.

What if?

My sermon from 6-24-2012

As I read the Scripture from 2 Corinthians in a few different translations, I had to ask myself, “What does it mean to accept God’s gift in vain”?  How does one “Ignore it”?  Paul says in this letter to the church in Corinth, that it is possible to look like we have received God on the outside, but to go on living like we are still the same person we were before we received God’s grace.  Paul goes on to say that he and his followers are living so that no one will stumble because of them, no one will find fault with the way they are living their lives. 

We’ve all heard stories of corruption, church employees being charged with theft and embezzlement, pastors having affairs or getting DUI’s, priests charged with molesting children.  The very people who we trust to guide us in our search for truth and justice sometimes are the ones who need that guidance the most.   Its very disturbing to hear these stories, and it affects how we trust people.   And unfortunately, those people cast a very negative shadow onto God’s image.

On the other hand, we have people like Mother Teresa, who lived her life as an amazing example of what Christ’s love looks like.  She cared for the orphans, the dying children of India, often holding them while they passed into the next world.  She fed them, bathed them, and loved them, and lived a life of utter poverty to bless the less fortunate. 

But what does it mean for us  to live a life that would cause no one to stumble?  How do we make sure we have not accepted God’s gift in vain?

When people look at my life, and your life, and all our lives, I want them to see us working in God’s love for the betterment of everyone.  I want people to see Christ in me.  If I met someone, and I couldn’t say anything to them, what would they understand about me by the way I act?  By the way I treat others?  By the way I share the love of Christ with others?  If you spend a day with me, do you leave happy and full of God’s love?  Or do you call me a hypocrite and shake your head? 

What would the world be like if we actually lived the life Jesus calls us to live?  What if we really did love all of our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, and we loved their children as much as we love our children?     

What if we only said things about others that we would say if they were present?   What if we encouraged each other and lifted each other up in our prayers?  What if we treasured our time together as if we were best friends?   What if we over-looked each other’s shortcomings because we want them to overlook ours?  What if we forgave others easily, because we wanted them to forgive us? I think the world would be a much better reflection of the world God meant for us to live in. 

Have you ever heard the expression, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”?  We usually say that in a negative situation, referring to the way a bad action from a child results from parents who also are considered to be bad people.   But what if we changed that and said it to mean good things?  Because the tree we are from is such a good tree, we should also be really good people!  In John 15:5 Jesus said to His Jewish  disciples,” I am the vine and you are the branches.”   I’m not Jewish, so I’m not a part of that original vine.  But there is good news!  Through the death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I have been grafted onto the branch!  In Romans 11:17 we are told that “some of these branches from Abraham's tree--some of the people of Israel--have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special olive tree.”

And Galatians 3:27-28 say, “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Those words mean that we, even though we were not born into the family of Abraham and Sarah, even though we were not God’s original chosen people,  He still made a way for us to be part of the body of Christ.  We’ve been adopted by the Creator as His own children, from shoots of a wild olive tree to children of the living God.   Its such great news that  regardless of whether we were Jewish or gentile, we are a new creation in Christ, living together in the New Covenant of God’s grace.

So what is this promise?  What is this New Covenant?  The promise referred to is the promise God made to Abraham way back in Genesis.  God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. “  That’s God’s promise, to bless Abraham and all his decendants, and all the families on earth will be blessed through us.  Yes, us, because by grafting us onto the vine we get that promise too. 

And the New Covenant?  Hebrews 8:8-13 says

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
⁹ not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
¹¹ And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

So not only do we get to be God’s children, we get Abraham’s blessing, and a new covenant .  And when Jesus died on the cross, and the tapestry was torn, the New Covenant was brought about. 

The New Covenant itself is pure genius.  God carves His new laws into our hearts and gives us a place at His table.   He throws out the old plan, the agreement He made with Moses, because none of them remained faithful to the old laws.  This time God takes us out of the context, since we mess things up all the time, our salvation and our faithfulness are all about Him.   2Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself. “    If He is in our heart HE CANNOT DISOWN HIMSELF!  He will be faithful to us FOREVER!

We want to believe that we are the important part of this relationship,  that it’s all about us and what we do and don’t do.  But in reality, it’s all about Him.  It’s about what Jesus has done for us to provide an unbreakable connection to God.   So when we do receive the spirit, and Jesus takes up residence in our hearts, it truly should cause us to change.  It should cause us to become totally different people, people who reflect the image of God. 

When you look in the mirror, do you just see yourself?  Next time you look in the mirror, study the reflection, can you see Jesus in there?  I bet you can.  Now look at your neighbors.  Really study them.  Can you see Jesus in them too?  Now look at the homeless man, the leper, the orphan, the widow, the starving children in Africa, can you see Jesus there?   

In the book of Matthew, Jesus tells us to take care of these people, that what we do for the least of these, His brothers and sisters, who are also OUR brothers and sisters since we are adopted into His family, what we do for the least of these, we also do for Jesus.  And if our heart is filled with the love of Jesus, then this will come naturally.  It will bring us joy to help others, and to show them the love that God has for us.  It will bring us joy to bring glory to God.  It will bring us joy to make others joyful. 

So if we live our lives by trying to imitate Jesus, we will never cause anyone to stumble.  If we imitate Christ we will be true to ourselves and to our Father.   We will be accepting God’s gift, not in vain, but with gratitude and thanksgiving.