Through Slander and Praise

4th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 7)                                                                         LSB #665

Text – 2 Corinthians 6:8

 

…through honor & dishonor, through slander & praise.  We are treated as impostors, & yet are true;

 

THROUGH SLANDER & PRAISE

 

 

“…to have & to hold  |  from this day forward  |  for better, for worse  |  for richer, for poorer  |  in sickness & in health  |  to love & to cherish  |  till death us do part  |  according to God’s holy will…”  To many people those are familiar words, but they are increasingly words of a past history. 

Even if  a man & woman choose to get married today,  they often do not comprehend anything close  to the depth of meaning of these  three  phrases: “…for better, for worse  |  for richer, for poorer  |  in sickness  & in health…”   Today’s sermon text is the work of God’s Holy Spirit inspiring the apostle Paul to enlighten us.

And every single one of us needs to be enlightened!   Married or single,  happily married or not,  divorced & bitter about it,  or divorced & happy about it,   no matter what are the circumstances of your life,   you too need  the enlightenment & the encouragement that your heavenly Father offers  to you. 

“…through honor & dishonor, through slander & praise.   We are treated as impostors, & yet are true;   as unknown, & yet well known;   as dying, & behold, we live;   as punished, & yet not killed;  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;  as poor, yet making many rich;   as having nothing,   yet possessing  everything.” 

There’s as much tension in those words as there is in any one of our lives.   Like you, Paul was a holy child of God living in a very broken & a very unholy world.   It’s that tension, on a whole other scale, which Jesus faced the night He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.  God Almighty, in such tension due to His human flesh, that it was sweating drops of blood.  Do you feel the agony of that tension in your soul?   If not, your sinful nature is working to turn your heart stone cold. 

If you allow that to go on long enough, you can end up like that  depraved young man in Charleston who killed nine people in cold blood after listening, for an hour, to them studying the Word of God.  I guarantee, that boy didn’t end up that twisted   in just a few hours, or days or months.  It was a lifetime of spiritual coldness that brought him to such a fateful decision.

In light of such a vicious crime, how can that church move into the future with hope & joy?  The answer is important, not just to the Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston.   It might seem a stretch to you, but the answer is just as relevant to your life.  To deny it is to claim that you have no need for a miracle working Lord. 

Maybe you’re trying to get through life on your own terms.  Maybe you struggle with bowing down to a Lord & Master other than yourself.   Submitting to suffering, on God’s behalf, might not be your ‘cup of tea.’  Jesus was humble enough to submit in total obedience to His Father in heaven.  Yes, that did lead to His death.    It also led to His resurrection. 

In Luke 17, Jesus says, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,   but whoever loses his life will keep it.”  (V. 33 ESV)    The logic of that seems completely backwards, yet that is just how God describes His work of salvation.  “…God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong…”  (1 Corinthians 1:27) 

Jesus actively works against our reliance upon our own wisdom, because He knows where that leads – to sin & death & destruction.  He doesn’t want anyone to go there.  He felt so strongly about it that He suffered hell & died so we don’t have to.   He’s set us free from that slavery to the law.  He set us free so we might live in Yahweh’s wisdom.   Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”  (V. 33 ESV)    There is as much tension in those words as there is in the reading from 2 Corinthians:

“…through honor & dishonor, through slander & praise.   We are treated as impostors, & yet are true;  as unknown, & yet well known;  as dying, & behold, we live;   as punished, & yet not killed;  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;  as poor, yet making many rich;   as having nothing,   yet possessing  everything.” 

In every one of those pairings, God’s children suffer in some way, yet through that suffering they witness to the world of our Savior’s incredible life giving power & wisdom.   If we give our life to Christ, He gives it back to us a thousand times over.   Through slander & praise we are treated as impostors & yet are true; as dying, & behold, we live. 

The nine Christians murdered in South Carolina are alive today in the arms of God.   On the other hand, just the fact that we are also suffering, in some way or another,   does not always mean we are suffering for Christ. 

The boy who committed those murders is clearly suffering, yet he did not   kill those people in the name of Jesus.  He was following the devil’s will, instead of God’s.   The hard truth is, we also follow the devil’s will.  That brings misery & suffering to our heart & soul, as well as to the people around us. 

Like the national news, all human beings tend to focus primarily on the bad news in life.  It sells much better than stories of good news.   St. Paul wants to counteract that.  He’d like us to realize that in spite of all the suffering we see, & all the suffering we feel, there is another reality.  It is a godly reality.   It’s the devil who is always accusing, always pointing out the negative.   

After God finished creating, He declared everything to be very good.  It was a perfect world, with not a hint of corruption, nor the slightest stain of disharmony.  Satan couldn’t stand himself.  He simply had to destroy it.  Adam & Eve bought into the false narrative that Lucifer spun for them.  They took the bait & swallowed the bad news, even though it was a lie.  The devil is still using the same narrative today.  He has nothing more to offer than lies.  Now, he is an excellent liar, but in the end it still boils down to trusting God or trusting Satan.

God is good.  God is love.  He created a perfect world which had the sole purpose of being our home.   The devil comes to steal & kill & destroy.  There’s no question who we should follow, yet we get it wrong more times than not.  So our heavenly Father sends His Son Jesus to take our place in hell.  Then He raises Him from the dead to connect us to another perfect world.

The problem we have, the issue we struggle with, is that we aren’t there yet.   Until we get there, our eyesight is all messed up.   Our decision making is twisted by the fact that each of us is nearsighted.  We see the evils of this world so prominently, the impostors & that so many are unknown.  We see the dying, the punished, the sorrowful, the poor, & those having nothing.

What we fail to see is the true, but also upside down, reality in which God has chosen the foolish in order to shame the wise.  He does so because humility is a virtue & pride is a vice.  If we could see life with the eyes of our heavenly Father this is what we would see:

Yes, we are impostors, & yet we are true;  we are unknown, & yet well known  by Christ; we are dying, & behold, we live;  we are punished, & yet not killed; we are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;  poor, yet making many rich;  we have nothing   yet possess everything in the universe. 

In a parallel thought, just a chapter earlier in 2 Corinthians, St. Paul stated: “So we are always of good courage.  …for we walk by faith, not by sight.”  (5:6a & 7)  With that sort of trust in our heavenly Father we do not need to live, here on earth, by our sinful, nearsighted view of life.  Rather, we can serve God & our neighbor with diligence, in spite of all obstacles:

“…through honor & dishonor, through slander & praise.   We are treated as impostors,

& yet are true;   as unknown, & yet well known;   as dying, & behold, we live;   as punished, & yet not killed;  as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;  as poor, yet making many rich;   as having nothing,   yet possessing  everything.” 

The Christians who were killed at Bible study in Charleston were treated by a sick young man as dying, & behold they live in the arms of God.  It’s obvious that none of us here have yet been called by our Lord to make that sacrifice.  However, through slander & praise   our Lord does call us to live by faith, not by sight, no matter how difficult that is to do. 

Yet we have the promise of Almighty God to reverse every setback we experience in this life.  It is because of our Lord’s promises that we can live by faith, not sight, through slander & praise.  Despite what our eyes see, Yahweh is working, behind the scenes, through the scenes, even in advance of the scenes, to bring all things to good for those who love God. 

In the Gospel reading, we heard the familiar event of Jesus calming the storm.  In it, what the disciples saw with their physical eyes was certain death.  Yet Jesus fulfilled His promise & brought them peace instead. 

Last Wednesday evening, the people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston had gathered to study the 4th chapter of Mark’s Gospel.  It was our appointed Gospel reading this morning.  Jesus calming the storm may well have been some of the last words those children of God heard, here in this life. 

And although they departed this life that night, Jesus did fulfill His promise to them as well.  They have now perfectly received that peace which surpasses all human understanding.  Jesus offers that same peace to you, right now.  As St. Paul wrote:

“Working together with [Christ], then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  …Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  (2 Corinthians 6:1 & 2b)  Tomorrow may never come, & you might not be studying the Word of God when He calls you to depart this life.  If you’re not a believer, St. Paul is encouraging you to turn back now.  The road you’re on leads to an eternity of dying.        If you are a child of God, St. Paul encourages you onward in faith, onward in sanctification, onward in growing closer to Jesus. 

Never mind all the contradictions of being one of God’s children.  Accept, & love & cherish the grace of God no matter how weak or hidden it might appear to be.  In Jesus Christ, all of God’s promises are already fulfilled.  Thus, in Jesus Christ, we live & move & have our being.  In Jesus Christ we have eternal life already today.  Now is the day of salvation.

Our Father in heaven has given us His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.  It’s in that heavenly Father that all human fathers can find the strength to live out their calling, as well as the forgiveness & healing to overcome their failures.  “…through honor & dishonor, through slander & praise…” Jesus continues to love us.

In 2 Corinthians 6, St. Paul gives us a mighty example of God’s gracious power which appears & works in & through us, God’s suffering children. 

The Apostle also rounds out the picture of our lives as God’s chosen people – humanly insignificant & defeated,   yet divinely significant & triumphant.    Dying, & yet, behold, we live!  Through slander & praise, this we live by faith, not by sight.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

Be strong in the Lord in armor of light; with helmet & sword, with shield for the fight;     on prayer be dependent,    be belted & shod,    in breastplate resplendent:   the armor of God.    Integrity gird you round to impart   the truth of His Word   as truth in your heart;    His righteousness wearing    as breastplate of mail,    His victory sharing    be strong to prevail.   With eagerness shod    stand firm in your place,    or go forth for God   with news of His grace;    no foe shall disarm you    nor force you to yield,   no arrow can harm you   with faith as your shield.  Amen.