So You’re a Priest: Swallowed up by Life!

First Sunday of Advent!

The Advent reading for this Sunday was Luke 1:26-38.

This is part 10 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. For weeks now, Paul has been contrasting two different kingdoms, two very different ways of living:

a law of the letter vs. a law of the Spirit,

a way of life that leads to death vs. a way of death that leads to life,

a fragility of the body vs. a tenacity of the Spirit

One is tempted to view reality as a duality: that is, a material world and a spiritual world striving for dominance. In Christian dualism, one believes that the spiritual world is good; the material world is evil, best avoided, tolerated when necessary, and escaped from ASAP. Christian dualism gives rise to cults, hermits, asceticism, and the worldview common to many evangelicals: the sooner the world goes to hell, the sooner we can be raptured and start living the good life in heaven. However, this is not the biblical worldview.

2 Corinthians 5

Commentary

v1 the earthly tent we live in. i.e. our bodies. The KJV translates tent as tabernacle, and the temptation then is to look at our bodies as a holy abode if God’s Spirit is with us. However, correct that might be, the main point here is the impermanence of our current abode, just as Abraham living in a tent (Hebrews 11:9) was a metaphor for the impermanence of his earthly circumstances.

v2-3 At first glance, these verses appear to support the Christian dualist worldview. However, I see in these verses a reference to two other biblical characters who were found naked. Adam & Eve’s great tragedy was not being naked, but breaking relationship with God through willful disobedience. One can imagine Adam & Eve evicted from Eden, groaning, longing for their idyllic home, but mostly grieving the intimacy with God that they had destroyed.

v4 swallowed up by life. We have an innate sense of how life should be: peaceful, secure, prosperous, happy, loving, healthy, fair. The Hebrews called this life shalom. It was the life Adam & Eve squandered. It is the life that Jesus promises. It is the life that the world will see one day when the dwelling of God is once again with men (Revelation 21:1-4).

Application

One of the controversies in the early church involved the role of Mary. For centuries, early church fathers had given Mary the title Theotokos, meaning Mother of God, or more literally one who gives birth to God. In the 5th Century, the patriarch Nestorius challenged this view, claiming that Mary should only be called Christotokos, meaning Mother of Christ, or one who gives birth to Christ. For Nestorius, it was inconceivable that the Son of God should have a conception (pun intended). Nestorious maintained that the divine aspect of Jesus must have existed from the beginning, whereas only God’s appointed human agent—literally the Christ—could be pinned down to a point in time. By arguing for two distinct aspects to Jesus, one divine and one human, Nestorius was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431 of heresy.

In the incarnation of Jesus, Christian dualism crashes against the hard fact of a life that is 100% divine, eternal spirit and 100% mortal, finite humanity—and yet this fusion of two worlds is life fully expressed.

There is a similar tension at work in us. We groan underneath the burden of the life we live, and yet there is another life, a life that predates us, that we are called to live: it is our life in the mind of God. Since the very beginning, long before the creation of the universe, we existed in the mind of God. We didn’t exist as disembodied spirits; we were not pre-incarnated in other bodies; we were simply in the mind of God until the appointed time when we were realized in our mother’s wombs. We did not receive a mortal body as something to be endured; rather, we received our bodies for the very purpose of learning how to live, to wit: life is a gift to be given back over to God.

A strange thing happens when we give our lives back over to God. At first it feels like losing control, giving up, or dying. Christians even call it dying to self. But then the miracle happens: our relationship to God begins in earnest, and we are swallowed up by life. We are swallowed up by the life that exists in the mind of God. The power of that life becomes possible only because of our relationship with God. Our lives start to change in ways that we could never have predicted, never have manufactured on our own. It is the power of God at work within us to will and to work, according to his purpose (Philippians 2:12-13).

It was never the case that our bodies were a mere inconvenience to be shucked ASAP in favor of a disembodied spiritual life. God’s plan for humans has always been for our relationship with him to be lived out within our finite bodies. In the words of Mary (Luke 1:38) we are God’s to direct, may it be unto us even as it is in the mind of God. See in Paul’s words today not the desire to shed his body as a snake sheds its skin, but rather to move into a world where the mortal has been swallowed up by immortality and the prayer "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" is a reality.

Points to Ponder

Compare the language of this passage with 1 Corinthians 15:50-54. What words, phrases, and ideas do you see in both passages?

So You’re a Priest: In Case of Emergency, Break

This is part 9 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. For a while Paul has been extolling "the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:4) and exhorting the Corinthians to live boldly and confidently in their faith. However, now Paul is going to take a different tack ...

Corinthians 4:7-18

Commentary

Through this whole passage, note how many ideas are repeated, but reworded in different ways. The rewording highlights contrasts (v7: power is from God and not from us), and limitations (v9: struck down, but not destroyed). Overall, these parallel constructions give us a picture of two worlds in opposition: a world of death that we can see clearly, and a world of life that is seen poorly—if at all—but is being made manifest of the Spirit of Jesus.

v7 jars of clay. Our bodies, formed from the dust of the ground, are metaphorical jars of clay. A literal jar of clay is a cheap and fragile container; only a fool would put something precious in such. However, the foolishness of God is to put his Spirit in us, fragile as we are!

v8-9 These verses are a peristasis catalog: i.e. a list of circumstances common to people. This is the first of several such lists in the letter (6:3-10; 11:23-33; 12:9-10). In this list, each circumstance is qualified—limited in its intensity—by the trailing clause. In short, we are broken, but not shattered.

v10-11 body. The NIV muddies the intent by taking two Greek words, soma & sarx, translating them both as body, even though the NIV rightly translates sarx most other places as "sinful nature." The KJV does slightly better, translating the end of v11 as "our mortal flesh."

Paul uses soma when referring to the body of Christ (i.e. the church) and there is a temptation to read v10 as references to the church, but nowhere else in this letter does Paul refer to the body of Christ, whereas he repeatedly refers to our weak human bodies.

revealed. In both v10 and v11 a better translation is "made manifest." What looks like dying from a worldly point of view at the last moment is turned into something else. The power of Jesus is made manifest as we work through physical trials (v10) and as our sinful nature is changed into something new (v11).

v18 temporary. Literally, "for a season."

Application

Looking at other sermons and commentaries on these verses, the temptation is to say that the message is "No pain, no gain," i.e. through our trials we endure, we earn, we work our way to glory.

That would be to trivialize the message.

One would never put valuable treasure, say gold, into a fragile jar of clay if the intent were to keep the treasure safe. One would only put treasure into such a container if the intent were eventually to break open the container, letting the treasure out to be seen, to be enjoyed, to be spent. Think about a piñata full of candy; it is only a enjoyable shell for the prize inside. To get to the prize, considerable violence is going to be inflicted on the shell. Likewise, consider the festive packages you will give or receive at Christmas; although sometimes the packaging is the valuable gift, usually the gift is hidden by layers of ribbons, paper, foil, tissue, cardboard, and tape.

To some extent, the Spirit of God living within you is like that. It is the treasure within you, and at just the right time, you must be broken for it to come out. The piñata and the Christmas gift must be torn open at just the right time—too early or too late, and something is lost. A treasure never revealed is a tragedy. Timing is everything.

In lots of buildings there is a glass box on a wall with the words "In case of emergency, break the glass." Inside is something important: a fire extinguisher, a fire hose, an ax, an AED. Again, timing is everything. Breaking the glass when there is no emergency is vandalism. Failing to break the glass when there is an emergency is a missed opportunity. For the Spirit of Christ to be at work in you during your trials, something in you has to give. For it to be otherwise would be like trying to get to the fire extinguisher without breaking the glass. How often do we try to get through our trials in one piece?

But these analogies don’t tell the whole story. First, we’re not supposed to save God behind glass only for emergencies. But the point isn’t about how to live the Spirit-filled life when everything was going well, but rather what to do when you are hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. Are you going to have the good sense to let the glass be broken and let the Spirit work?

Second, for the piñata, and the Christmas gift, once the package is opened and the hidden gift away is revealed, usually the packaging is rubbish, an annoying cleanup chore. I wonder if our fears about becoming rubbish in the sight of God don’t drive us in one of two directions. On one hand, we resist being opened up, afraid that what little treasure we have might be lost or frittered away. On the other hand, we fear that maybe the treasure is gone (or worse, was never there) and we are already rubbish. On one hand, we fear losing what little value we might have; on the other, we fear we have already lost whatever value we ever had. But we are never rubbish in the eyes of God; even when we are broken, we are not abandoned (v9); even when we fail God, he will not fail us.

All of these analogies fail, in part, because the treasure is inanimate even as the packing is dead and lifeless. Perhaps the fuller analogy of the package with the treasure hidden within is found in the insect world in the form of a cocoon or a chrysalis. The living larva spins the material for its new casing and, once completed, inside the treasure begins to form. However, for the new creation—e.g. a butterfly—to be revealed, the casing must be broken. Old life in old forms gives way to new life in new forms, and so it is in the world of the Spirit. The old world and its ways, which we see and tend to live by, must give way to a new world being birthed by the Spirit of Christ. We can see this new world only faintly. Like blind men, we tend to grope our way along in this new world by faith and not by sight.

Like the clay jar we have been designed to be broken in order to let the treasure out. However, like the caterpillar, we have been designed to be transformed, old life replaced by new life. We are never broken and discarded like rubbish, but brought into a new way of living that makes the trials—the labor pains of new life being born—a fleeting memory.

Points to Ponder

Where have you tried to get through trials without being broken? Could it be that admitting your need for God and trying a new course of action would have shortened the trials?

Birth is a trial, but it is only for a short time. Even the longest labor is fleeting compared to the promise of life to come.

So You’re a Priest: Let There Be Light!

This is part 8 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Today’s passage is linked with last week’s passage where Paul spoke about the veil of Moses and how a veil comes over people’s minds when they hear the Old Testament law. Last week I said that one of my great frustrations is that people frequently don’t want to see, or hear, the truth. I can watch them put on their veils:

a veil of hard-heartedness (the response to something they don’t want to hear);

a veil of false ignorance (the response to something to which they don’t want to be held accountable);

a veil of righteousness (the presumption to know better, or to be good enough already).

The bane of Christians is the presumption to think they have it all figured out, but as soon as Christians begin to presume to know it all, or to at least know enough, they have set themselves up for a fall. When Paul wrote in the last chapter about those who are blind to the truth because of the veils they wear, he was talking about precisely the people who would have called themselves God’s chosen people. The biggest veil, the largest deception, is to assume that these verses are talking about somebody else and not us!

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Commentary

v1 Therefore ... If there is ever a sure-fire hint that you have to check the preceding verses for context, this is it. Just in case we weren’t sure, two of the oft-repeated words from last week—veil and glory—pop up here as well (v3 and v4,6, respectively).

We do not lose heart. We are supposed to be bold and unabashed in speaking to others. When our veils drop (not if, but when they drop) as with Moses, we should be reflections of the glory of God.

v2 This verse elaborates the implications of not losing heart. If not losing heart means abandoning secrets, shameful ways, deceptions, and distortions of the word of God, then losing heart means to embracing secrets, shameful ways, etc. Losing heart is to deceive our selves about the promises and power of God in our lives.

The power behind our deceptions is revealed in v4. The devil, the god of this age, darkens the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot perceive the gospel of Jesus as the way to a new life. The temptation is to read the word "unbeliever" and think that this verse has nothing to do with us "believers", but this way of thinking is not biblical. In the Bible, belief is borne out by what you do—how you live your life—not by what you say or think.

v6 Let the light shine out of darkness. God’s light doesn’t shine through the veil and God doesn’t take down the veil. God does what only he can do: circumvent the veil altogether and take his light straight into the darkest place—the human heart, the heart of the unbeliever, our own hearts even, when we choose to put on the veil and be stubborn, or play ignorant, or lie to our selves.

Application

"Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe." (Demosthenes, circa 350 BC)

We don’t think of ourselves as Christians as delusional or self-deceived, but then neither did the Jews. The Jews would have said they were the people of the word of God; they were the people of the law; they a holy nation, a chosen people. They knew what they needed to do as individuals and as a nation to be healed, to bring justice, to be saved. "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

Nevertheless, the complaint of the prophets was that the religious elite had lost their way. Using Paul’s language from v2: some adopted shameful ways, worrying about their needs before the needs of the people for whom they were supposed to be the keepers of shalom; some adopted secret ways, becoming cultic in their worship of God; some distorted the word of God, making the holiness of God into a set of rules to be followed instead of a gift that God bestows on those who love him.

The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don’t read what they write, don’t ask them what they believe, just observe what they do. (Ashley Montagu, anthropologist)

Those who had lost their way would have claimed to believe in God. But belief is not a function of what we know, but what we do. Adopters of shameful ways believe in indulging self before God; adopters of secret ways believe in fears that drive them to live out their neuroses trying to get life right; adopters of a distorted word believe trying to manipulate the word, forgetting some parts and expanding on other parts, in order to control it.

These are some of the ways the god of this age, Satan, works to veil our minds to the saving truth.

Could it be that Christians too go through life with blinders on, veils lowered, and eye shut? Could it be that most of us go through life oblivious to reality, realities that are simultaneously more beautiful and yet more ugly, more full of grace and yet more demanding, more joyful and yet more sobering than we could imagine?

We want to believe the beauty, the grace, and the joy, but we throw on our veils when we see the price tags that this life comes with. This life of beauty, the gospel of the glory of Christ, demands our whole life.

God will not rip our veils off. Rather, God speaks straight to the darkness in our soul and says, "I love you. I never said that following me would not hurt; I just say it will be worth it. I never said that following me would be easy; I just say that I will help you carry the burdens. Now, when you are ready, take off your veil so you can see clearly to follow me."

Points to Ponder

How do these quotes relate to the sermon?

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. (John Ruskin)

Some things have to be believed to be seen. (Ralph Hodgson)

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. (Freya Madeline Stark)

Which of these quotes best describes how you think life works?

How does the following relate to 2 Cor. 3:12-4:6?

Parable of the Olive Grafts (Romans 11:13b-24)

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

So You’re a Priest: Immodest Christianity

This is part 7 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Today’s passage is sometimes called a "Christian midrash" of Exodus 34:29-35. (Midrash is a Jewish form of interpretation, where one passage is used to interpret—and expand upon—another passage.) In Exodus, after Moses received the 2nd set of stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, his face was radiant and the people feared him, so he hid his face beneath a veil until the radiance faded. Veils frequently connote modesty—e.g: a bridal veil, or a niqāb, the veil often worn Muslim women, often in conjunction with a hijab—but veils can serve more sinister purposes as well.

2 Corinthians 3:12-17

Commentary

v7-11 Paul’s argument in these verses proceeds from the lesser—the ministry of the Mosaic law—to the greater—the ministry of the Spirit of Christ. The lesser ministry brought death & condemnation and faded away, but the greater ministry brought the Spirit & righteousness and lasts forever.

The lesser ministry brought death and condemnation, because the Israelites were judged and found wanting by the very law that given to save them. The fault was not in the law, but in people, for it is the bane of humanity to take that which could benefit them and use it unscrupulously. (Note also that the lesser ministry is still deemed glorious.)

v12-13 Rabbincal interpretation of Exodus 34 is varied, but modesty is frequently the motivation ascribed to Moses (e.g. not wanting the Israelites to see the radiance diminish over time). In any event, Christians, by contrast, are to be immodest —"not like Moses"—and bold, or open, in their ministry.

v14-15 I said it is the bane of humanity to take that which could save them and use it unscrupulously. That is the process at work here: self-righteousness that schemes to find justification within the law; selfishness that seeks to transform the law to personal benefit instead of being transformed by it. It is the lawyer asking Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" not to be edified by, but to diminish the moral requirement of, Jesus’ teaching (Luke 10:29). It is the child failing to care for parents even while professing dedication to God (Mark 7:11).

v16-18 These verses are a study in contrasts between the greater and lesser ministries: open vs veiled; free vs fettered; Spirit-life vs spiritless-death; ever-increasing glory vs glory that fades away.

ever-increasing glory. Don’t miss this! Even for the mature Christian, there is no "good enough". How much more does God have in store for those who follow him?

Application

As a pastor, one of the great frustrations is that people frequently don’t want to see, or hear, the truth. I can watch them put on their veils: a veil of hard-heartedness when I teach something (like tithing) they don’t want to hear; a veil of false ignorance ("I just don’t understand") when I say something to which they don’t want to be held accountable; a veil of righteousness that presumes to know better, or to be good enough already.

However, as a pastor, one of the great joys is when veils come off, for the promise is that we will look like Jesus (v18). To let the veils fall off is to be healed.

Points to Ponder

What veil, or veils, are you wearing? What are you reacting to?

If you take off your veil, what will people see: Jesus, or another veil?

So You’re a Priest: Are You a Bible Worth Reading?

This is part 6 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Last week, Paul alluded briefly to "peddlers"— itinerant preachers and philosophers who peddled the word of God for profit (2 Cor. 2:17). They would come to town with a long list of accolades, excite the locals into coming to hear them speak, give a rousing speech, take a collection, get more accolades, and leave. Today, Paul contrasts his ministry with that of the "peddlers"—compared to the peddlers’ flash and hype, what gives Paul’s ministry substance?

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Commentary

v1 some people. i.e., the peddlers. Paul asks two rhetorical questions about his own ministry, each of which presumes a negative answer: no, Paul should not have to sell himself to his own church; and, no, Paul’s ministry is not about wowing congregations with long lists of accolades.

v2 You yourselves are our letter. The only worthwhile commendation is the one evident to everybody in changed lives.

v3 you are a letter from Christ. The glory does not accrue to Paul, but to the Spirit of Jesus; it is through the Spirit of Christ that the ministry happens.

tablets of stone ... tablets of human hearts. Paul draws upon Ezekiel 36:26-27:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

In changing the words of Ezekiel from heart to tablet, Paul does two things: (a) he gives an interpretation of Ezekiel, i.e. a new heart implies a new way, a new law, of life; and (b) he sets up a metaphor for talking about God’s new law, his new covenant, over and against the old law, given to Moses and symbolized by the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in the verses that follow (2 Cor. 3:7-18).

v6 ministers of a new covenant. Paul is the first NT writer to mention the new covenant. Chronologically, the new covenant is probably first mentioned in 1 Cor. 11:23-26 and then is mentioned here. What Paul has in mind is a fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:31-37:

The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah..."

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people..."

letter. A minor translation difficulty: prior to this verse, "letter" refers to an epistle, a piece of correspondence; however, here "letter" refers to the written word. Just as ink—the written word—is contrasted with Spirit in v3, here the written word is also contrasted with Spirit. In both cases, the power of the Spirit is desired to the power of a written word.

Points to Ponder

If you asked Paul what the most important letter he wrote was, would he say, Romans, or Galatians, etc., or would it be the letter written in people’s hearts?

What written on your heart? More to the point, who is commended / glorified by what’s written on your heart?

I wonder ... could it be that the most important letter of the Bible is written in your heart? Could it be that we err by trying to make others read the Bible when it is a more effective witness for them to read us?

God has empowered you to live according to the new law written in your heart. As you live according to that law, you are a minister, an agent, of that new way of living.