So You’re a Priest: God’s Rollercoaster

This is part 27 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. In today’s passage, Paul boasts of his spiritual rollercoaster ride—the highs, the lows, and the bumps along the way. Many of us don’t like rollercoasters: it’s a scary ride for some; an invitation to motion sickness for others; just plain uncomfortable for some; the cause of real injuries for others; a source of personal embarrassment for some; an annoyance at the distress of strangers for others. The oddballs enjoy the rush—subjected to heights, drops, jolts, screams, and surprises, they are nevertheless alive to tell the tale.

2 Corinthians 11:30-12:10

Commentary

v30-33 The drop—literally! Paul’s escape from Damascus is also mentioned in the story of his conversion (Acts 9:1-25). As one commentator notes, "... no crown of gold for his crowning victory. Rather, like a coward in battle, he ‘escapes’... in what may have been a fish basket!"

v1-6 The heights. Most theologians believe Paul is speaking of himself in these verses. In contrast to his super-apostle critics—who puffed themselves up by boasting about their visions and revelations—Paul refuses to speak in a way that would only glorify himself. (Note the sarcasm in v6: Paul says if he did boast, he would not be a fool, because he would be speaking the truth about his visions. What is he saying about his critics and their visions?) Regarding the inexpressible things of which he was not allowed to speak, are there not truths about God that we know and yet cannot communicate to others? Divine revelation often goes straight from God to a person without an intermediary.

v7-10 The jolts. Paul proclaims an important truth: our spiritual highs tend to make us conceited and think that we don’t need others. God’s disabuses us of this notion by sending us situations that expose our human limitations. (Even Satan’s messenger is ordained by God!)

Application

How would you describe a rollercoaster ride to somebody who had never ridden on one? It’s like falling—except for the slow climb to the top and the jolts & bumps after the big drop. It’s like a taking an airplane through a storm cloud—except most of us have never done that either, and an airplane in a storm doesn’t have much of a view. It’s like sailing through choppy swells—except the girders of the rollercoaster structure aren’t threatening to smash into your car. The best way to understand a rollercoaster is to ride one.

There are truths about God and our spiritual life that similarly are best learned first-hand. Grace is hard to understand until we experience it for ourselves. The power of forgiveness to heal (the offender or the one offended) makes no sense until one is involved in forgiveness. Waiting for God to act looks like passivity—or worse, idleness—unless God has even told us personally, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). Humility looks like rolling over and playing dead if all we have ever known is standing up for ourselves and insisting on our own rights. The best way for others to learn about God is often not to tell all that we know but to let them experience God first-hand. But how if that going to happen if we don’t tell what we know?

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave the disciples a parable about not telling everything they knew to people who weren’t ready to hear. "Do not give dogs what is sacred," he said (Matt. 7:6). "Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." Isn’t this frequently what happens when we give people too much information about God?

The immediate context for this parable is Jesus’ more familiar counsel about hypocrisy:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matt. 7:3-5)

How often do we—with good intentions—try to intervene in the lives of others with pearls of godly wisdom only to have our advice discarded, trampled, and ignored? To us, the offenses in others are no mere specks; rather, their problems seem like huge disfiguring blotches, and we think, "How can they go on like this every day? I have to help them!"

This is exactly the situation in which Paul has found himself. Reading between the lines, his critics—the Judaizers—apparently claimed to have visions and revelations regarding the higher Christian life. Perhaps their visions supported their demands to adhere to the Jewish laws & customs even while being Christ’s disciples. Perhaps their revelations had the effect of puffing them up with a sense of their spiritual superiority. How tempting to try to set them straight, maybe even deflate their egos a bit. Certainly Paul has visions and revelations to stack up against anybody’s.

However, Paul does not tell everything he knows. While he owns his humble departure from Damascus, he refuses to own directly his rapture into the third heaven. [1] While his critics apparently have been quick to recount their ecstatic experiences, Paul refuses to reveal the details of his revelations. Dueling revelations is a fool’s game. Refuting his critics revelations by giving the details of his own would glorify anyone but himself and it would simply annoy his critics. Paul would be casting pearls before swine and becoming a hypocrite as well.

Actually, Paul does give some details of one revelation—not the grand revelation from the third heaven, but the revelation that came on the heels of the messenger from Satan. Weakness. Our weaknesses are the place where God often going to be found at work. Our weaknesses are the place where God’s power is going to be glorified. Paul’s strength is his intellect and his powers of persuasion (he’s an apostle of God, after all!) and yet that’s not the arena in which his critics will be silenced and his church in Corinth will be edified. Rather, God will work through his weakness—Paul’s pride, which must be suborned and silenced in the face of criticism—for the sake of showing the Corinthians a different way.

What Paul is doing is incarnational ministry. The best way for him to teach is to live out the lessons he wants others to learn: humility, forbearance, silence. As a pastor, I have found it rarely works to tell someone everything I know. The best way for most people to learn God’s truths is for me to sit with them while the Holy Spirit works on them. It rarely seems like the fastest way to learn, but it is frequently the best way for the lessons to take root and change lives.

God calls us to live incarnationally. The best way for others to learn about God is often not to tell all that we know but to let them experience God first-hand. We are called to tell what we know by living what we know living side-by-side with those who know not. It’s a rollercoaster ride: sitting with people while they complain that nothings happening right before the big drop; riding with them while they scream that this is horrible (and it’s all somebody else’s fault); enduring the jostling while they ask how much longer the ride is going to last. The best way to learn about rollercoasters is to ride with somebody who loves rollercoasters. The best way others to learn about God is first-hand, riding through life together with us.

Points to Ponder

Some think Paul’s thorn in the flesh was a physical ailment. Others think the thorn was a sin Paul with which struggled. Others (and I count myself in this group) think the thorn was a relationship—e.g. the Judaizers—that Paul could never quite make right. What do you think?

End Notes

1 - Whatever that may be. Certainly the point of this account is not to give any sense of heavenly geography.

The Stethoscope

The "genesis" of today’s message is the video "Stethoscope" sent to me by Ann Curtis. While I hope you will find the video entertaining, it does raise interesting questions:

What is the soundtrack running within you? That is, what is the script you follow through life?

What does it mean to have Christ in us? Are we born with Christ in us?

What is the point of having Christ as our script? If we can still do evil, what is Christ worth?

These questions all point back to the same issue: What is our essential human nature?

If everyone is essentially good, then what’s the point of religion?

If everyone is essentially broken, then how can we be mended?

If religion has something to do with mending us, then how come so many religious types seem as broken and dangerous was everyone else?

We begin by looking at our essential human nature as it is told in the creation account in Genesis.

Genesis 1

Commentary

v26 God decrees two things: making humans, and giving humans stewardship over creation. The message today concerns only the first. Some people want to read a lot into the plurality of God here: Let us make man in our image. On one hand, some want to interpret this as evidence of the Trinity; on the other, some interpret this was God speaking to a divine council of angels; others interpret it as what Hebrew calls "the plural of majesty’ (i.e. some things, like the heavens, are too vast to be singular). However, all each of these interpretations fails to explain all the data: God is again singular in v27; God nowhere else speaks as if to a divine council in the creation account; the image bestowed in v27 is the image of God alone.

v27 Nevertheless there is a plurality within the singularity in the essential human nature. God created him (singular) but male and female he created them (plural). One must read these last two clauses in v27 as an elaboration of what it means to be created in the image of God.

Application

The image of God (Gen. 1:26-27; 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15). Theologians agree it’s not the physical form that defines the image of a spiritual deity, but rather something at the same time intangible and yet essential to whom we were created to be. Something that, at its best, is the intimation of God with us, and, at its worst, bears witness to how far we have strayed from whom we were created to be. Theologians agree that—whatever the image of God is—it is seen purely in Jesus (Col. 1:15) and it is manifested poorly in us in our brokenness. If Jesus’ soundtrack is a hi-fidelity DVD, our soundtrack is a scratchy vinyl record.

But what is the image of God? What is it about humans that most clearly points to God and distinguishes us from the rest of creation? Theologians disagree: some say it’s rational thought; others say it’s speech; still others say it’s creativity. The problem is the more we understand the animal kingdom, the more we realize that animals have capacities—albeit limited—for rational thought, speech, and other "human" attributes. So what is the image of God?

One is tempted to say that the image of God is love. "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16). Love requires an other (hence a plurality) and at the same time promotes unity (a singularity). We are close to the truth! However, animals are capable of forms of love themselves, as many pet owners will attest. Nevertheless, there is at least one form of love no other animal is capable of: forgiveness. If I beat my child, he may one day forgive me; however, if I beat my dog, my dog will never learn to forgive me.

Forgiveness is divine. When we cannot forgive, we are broken. When we forgive grudgingly, we bear a tarnished copy of the image of God. But when the Spirit of Christ is alive within us, we forgive others us Christ has forgiven us.

Points to Ponder

To what extent does our sense of being forgiven limit our ability to forgive and love others? (Hint: Luke 7:36-50)

When has a lack of forgiveness ruined a church? Why did the church let it happen?

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

Today

Easter Sunday!

The message today is primarily the video "Today", by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. This video is one of 23 "Nooma" videos which explore various aspects of what it means to live as a Christian.

John 20:1-2,10-18

Questions (from the discussion guide with Bell's video):

When you think of your life, what was the best time?

Have you ever tried to make anything in your life how it used to be, only to find out that you really couldn’t?

Does your life today look anything like you would’ve imagined it 5, 10, or 20 years ago? If not, what are some things that you would never have imagined?

Do you believe God has provided us with everything we need in our lives today? If so, why do you think so many of us still tend to look to the past for how we would like things to be?

Are there things in your past you haven’t thoroughly dealt with in order to move on?

Do you think we can live our lives today to the fullest if we’re in some way still stuck in the past? What kind of consequences do you think it could have?

If you’re in any way stuck in the past, are there people around you who might suffer from you not beings fully [in the] present? How?

What part do you think you’re supposed to play today? Is your life in a place where you can fully embrace today and play your part? If not, what steps do you need to take?

Application

On Easter, we talk about Jesus rising from the dead; we talk about trusting in him and having eternal life; we talk about dying to self, and being born again. But what does it all mean? How does one begin?

Often, like Mary, we hold on to the past. We want things to be the way they used to be. There are many reasons why we try to hold on: fear; control; failure; loneliness; security; grief. However, holding on to something in our past usually indicates a lack of trust that God is in control, for God is calling us into a future he has planned for us … if only we will let go of what was and trust completely in him for what will be.

Just as Jesus’ relationship with Mary was going to change, so God wants his relationship with you to change. There is eternal life waiting for you, but it begins today by letting go of things. Let go of your past—it does not define who you are or what you may be. Trust in God to lead you into a fresh, healthy, wholesome way of life. God is faithful, and he will do it. This is just the start towards a whole new way of life.

Benediction

"May you accept the past for what it is.
May you celebrate what needs to be celebrated
And grieve for what needs to be grieved and then,
May you receive from God a new spirit, one for here, now, today"
— Rob Bell

Passion Week ...

Tonight, for Good Friday, we are watching Mel Gisbon's The Passion of the Christ and then taking communion. It will be a minimalist service, leaving each person to their own meditations.

However, Wednesday night we watched Stephen King's The Green Mile and had a discussion afterwards. What follows is the handout from that service:

The Green Mile
a picture of Isaiah’s Suffering Servant

Tonight, on the Wednesday of Passion Week, we are looking at a Christ’s suffering on our behalf from a different point of view. Isaiah 53 describes someone called the Suffering Servant who docilely accepts brutal treatment for the sake of others. Matthew 8:17 cites Jesus’ healing miracles as fulfillment of Isaiah 53:4a, while 1 Peter 2:24-25 cites Isaiah 53:5b-6a as a statement of what happened on the cross. The Green Mile is a secular picture of this Suffering Servant.

Isaiah 53

Questions

The Green Mile is the nickname for death row in a fictitious Louisiana prison. The guards see themselves as preparing convicts for death and keeping them calm until the day of their execution. How is this like the priests and the temple without the redemptive power of Jesus?

One of the convicts on death row has the initials J.C. and has the power to heal others. However, as a convict he has been rejected by a society that does not, and does not care to, know him. What parts of Isaiah 53 describe the convict John Coffey?

What parts of Isaiah 53 describe Jesus’ life, ministry, arrest, trial, death, & resurrection?

In the movie, John Coffey takes others' infirmities upon himself during his life, while 1 Peter 2:24-25 says Jesus took our sins on himself while he was on the cross. What do you think it cost God’s Son to live and minister to us as a human being?

In the movie, who repents of their former way of living, and what forms does repentance take?

What does forgiveness look like in the movie?

Who is at peace by the end of the movie?

So You're a Priest: The Village Idiot Speaks

This is part 26 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. When I first moved to Maine, part of the local culture that I had to figure out was the New England town meeting. Although everywhere I had lived in Virginia, New York, California, etc. had town meetings, they were different in format and intent than New England town meetings with warrants, voting on the school district budget, etc. I was very impressed by the sense of involvement—or at least the potential for involvement—by individuals in the operation of the town. [1]

Although town meetings are usually a forum where anyone can speak, at first I was intimidated and fearful to speak up at the meetings. Certainly I was not intimidated by the size of the crowds or the forceful personalities among the selectmen. Rather, coming from California, I knew that a lot of what I took for granted as to how things were done did not apply in New England—property taxes for example. I refrained from speaking, because I knew my odd ideas would brand me as "from away." I did not speak, because I knew that lots of my attitudes would reveal my ignorance of how Mainers operated. I did not speak up, because I did not want to look like the village idiot.

2 Corinthians 11:16-30

Commentary

There are 3 parties involved in this diatribe: Paul, the Corinthian church, and Paul’s critics, the super, but false, apostles from v5,13. When Paul refers to "anyone" or "no one" or the "many" (v16, 18, 20, 21-23), he is referring to the apostles of a different gospel (v4).
Paul’s diatribe continues into chapter 12; but the part we’re looking at today can be broken into three parts:

v16-21 Paul establishes a fool’s forum: he sarcastically chides the church for putting up with boasting fools, but then asserts his fool’s right to speak (or boast) & be heard. Through this sarcasm Paul does 3 things: (a) he calls others who are boasting—i.e. the false-apostles—fools; (b) he chides the Corinthians for idly tolerating un-Christ-like foolishness (v19-20); and (c) he claims the fool’s right to speak that the Corinthians have accorded to Paul’s detractors.

v22-28 Paul springs the trap—while his critics boast of their achievements, Paul boasts of his suffering! For Paul, that in which he placed his confidence is the resurrection power of God that can only appear when one surrenders control.

v29-30 The climax: while Paul’s critics might claim to be perfected, Paul will make no such claim; but Paul will boast of his weakness even as he is driven deeper into Jesus.

Application

In discussing Paul's diatribe against his critics, remember that his critics were nominally Christian. While Paul calls them false-apostles, and apostles of a different gospel, likely they were members in good standing at a church—perhaps the Corinthian church, but more likely the church in Jerusalem, or one of the other churches that Paul had founded. (Paul seems to have had an entourage of critics that trailed after him on his missionary journeys, showing up after Paul had established a church in an area.)

The point is this: Paul diatribe is not directed against outsiders, this diatribe isn't us (or me, Paul) against the world; rather, his tirade is a stinging rebuke against people who should have known better, should have acted better, and should have loved each other better. It is the bane of the church—being full of sinful men and women—that when it sins, when it is off the mark, it is no longer an agent of grace. It is the bane of us as Christians—being sinful even while we are saved—that when we sin, we are no longer ministers of reconciliation. Rather in our sin we become ministers of dissolution.

Most likely Paul's critics were Judaizers—Jewish Christians who wanted Gentile converts to Christianity to follow all of the Jewish law. Perhaps they, like Paul, were also former Pharisees, adherents of a strict code of holiness. They came to Corinth and boasted of their piety and their obedience to the Jewish law. Given Paul's criticism of them in this letter, apparently his critics had been very influential in Corinth. Church history through the ages testifies that individuals and churches regularly stumble by subscribing to a form of spirituality that they try to manufacture on their own.

Rather than counter his critics logically, refuting them point-by-point, Paul takes a different tack. Sarcastically he confronts the church: "Since you are so tolerant as to listen to their boasting, be tolerant enough to listen to the rants of a fool like me." Simultaneously he delivers a backhanded insult to his critics: "If I am a fool for boasting, what does that make you for your boasts?"

After setting his readers up to expect a prideful list of achievements—and starting by laying out his credentials as a Jew—Paul's boasts go in an unexpected direction. In fact, they go in completely the opposite direction, as Paul recounts what to most people would sound like the low points of anyone's ministry: beatings, arrests, and miseries galore. In fact he goes so far as to claim to be the weakest and the most sinful (v29). Christian mystics over the ages have agreed: the more one grows in Christ, on one hand the more one realizes the depths of one's need, the darkness of one's depravity, but on the other the more one realizes the grace that has come into one's life through Jesus. It is grace that we can not supply for ourselves; it is grace that we can not manufacture through hard work; it is grace that we can not summon on demand.

This is Palm Sunday: what is the church of Jesus (i.e. his disciples) boasting of when Jesus enters Jerusalem the week before Passover, and how does that compare to what Jesus boasts of a week later during his arrest, trail, and execution?

We are not Judaizers, we are not Pharisees, but we nevertheless boast of the high points of our Christian walk, while Paul, the fool, advises us to boast in the low points when our need for Christ is greatest.

Points to Ponder

What does Paul mean in v17, when he says that what follows is not, "speaking as the Lord would"?

Is this merely a rhetorical device to disarm his critics?

Is Paul saying, "Jesus wouldn’t be this sarcastic with you—but I will be anyway!"?

Or is Paul saying that what follows is merely Paul’s opinion—and not an inspired word from God?

There are other places in his letters where Paul sounds very human, even petty, (e.g. Galatians 5:11-12) or appears to interject a personal opinion into the middle of a theological discussion (e.g. 1 Cor. 7:10,12). How do we reconcile the gritty, human aspect of some of what Paul writes with Paul’s later statement, "all Scripture is God-breathed [i.e. inspired]" (2 Tim 3:16)? If God can use sarcasm, petty comments, and personal opinions to touch other people, then maybe our understanding of the inspiration of Scripture is out of whack. Somebody once said, "Don’t be so heavenly-minded that you’re no earthly good!" Is it possible to be heavenly and earthy at the same time? If so, how would that change our understanding of what it means to be spiritual?

End Notes

1 - That being said, I am disturbed by how little members of our church appear to participate in these meetings. Usually when I go, the only church members I see at the town meetings are the ones I have dragged along with me. While I believe there are a lot of reasons why we rarely attend the meetings, how can we expect to change the world if we are not engaged with, and working to change, the community?