2 Corinthians 4:5-11 Common English Bible
We don’t preach about ourselves. Instead, we preach about Jesus Christ as Lord, and we describe ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. God said that light should shine out of the darkness. He is the same one who shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.
We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies. We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying.
This is the first Sunday in Lent --- today we begin our annual journey with Jesus that will take us to that golden city of Jerusalem.
But this trip to Jerusalem will be different.
For this trip, while it will allow us to visit some of the sites that are near and dear to our faith --- it will also take some unexpected turns --- while maybe not completely unexpected for us --- but what took place in Jerusalem 2000 years ago was totally unexpected to that group of followers who accompanied Jesus as he made his way there.
Our past two journeys to Jerusalem have been unlike anything any of us have done before.
Lent 2020 saw us hunkered down in our homes
Confused and anxious about this unknown virus that was sweeping our world
Unsure if we were secretly being attacked by a foreign enemy
Or just living in an unlucky time
Lent 2021 saw us still in the midst of this horrific pandemic
But we seemed to be more hopeful
A vaccine was beginning to roll out and maybe --- just maybe --- the end was in sight
And now in 2022 --- we are all cautiously optimistic that we indeed are starting to turn the corner on COVID --- and hoping --- that for the first Easter since 2019 we will be able to gather together and experience the hope and joy of the resurrection.
But we are not there yet!
We are tired.
Tired of masks
Tired of zoom
Tired of that unease that we feel when we are with a large group of people
Even though we are tired and on the verge of exhaustion we must make this journey to Jerusalem
to try and understand the lessons that Jesus was teaching his disciples on their trek --- and seek to glean what it is that we need to learn today.
We are in a liminal time.
The word liminal comes from the Latin word limens, which means "limit or threshold."
Father Richard Rohr defines liminal time in this way:
"It is when you have left, or are about to leave, the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer."
Many of us seek safety and shelter during crazy liminal times like these.
We flee --- thinking that can keep us safe.
But there is no place to hide.
We must go through it.
The best explanation for liminal time that I have come across is to think of it as that space, that time, when a flying acrobat has let go of one swinging trapeze and is in mid-air, anxiously seeking the grasp of another who is swinging their way.
That moment is terrifying --- afraid that we might fail and fall.
We have been experiencing this liminal space these past two years during the pandemic.
The past is over, and we do not know what the future will hold
All we know is that it will be different.
As a denomination we have been stuck in this liminal time as well --- as we have sought resolution to the issues that are fracturing the United Methodist Church.
Frustratingly, on Thursday it was announced that the long anticipated General Conference has been postponed once again and now will not take place until 2024.
It is in this crazy time that we must begin this journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem.
Paul in our text this morning is trying to remind us --- again --- in very strong and evocative language --- that this journey is not about us!
Paul writes:
Remember, our Message is not about ourselves; we’re proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Master. All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus (The Message)
Or as the New Revised Standard Version puts it:
we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. (NRSV)
Slaves --- not a word most of us want to us to describe ourselves.
If anything --- our response to COVID has taught us --- that we do not believe that we are SLAVES to anything or anybody.
We think we are masters of our own destiny --- we seek our OWN freedom
But this journey to Jerusalem is calling to us to remind us that we are not the master
Rather we are the slave
And we feel broken
Our world feels broken as we witness the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia
I feel broken when I read of another young person shot and killed in our community
We feel broken as a denomination
Broken as a church
Broken as individuals
Everything seems fragile
Paul tells us that we have a treasure in our lives ---
We have a God whose light shines in our hearts giving us:
“the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.”
But what strikes me the most about the text this week is that Paul says that this treasure is stored in our lives which are a lot like clay pots.
Now the truth is --- most of us don’t use clay pots much anymore.
But for our sisters and brothers of the 1st century --- a clay pot was the most common storage item around.
You kept water or wine in it
Grain was kept safe in it
We even know that they were used to protect important papers (the Dead Sea scrolls) are the best example
But clay pots are also fragile --- they can be easily broken
And my guess is, that is why Paul chose to use a clay pot as a description for our lives.
We too are fragile.
We too are easily broken.
I invite you to take a moment and think of a time when you experienced brokenness in your life.
Maybe a divorce
Loss of a child, spouse or friend
Loss of a job
Someone you trusted deceived you
It is funny how quickly things can change in our lives
Monday, I spend the day with my mother --- working on her taxes, but just being together --- it was wonderful.
Thursday, we got the news that General Conference was postponed
It was like a gut punch to me --- It is time to just move forward! (but that is a topic for another day)
Then my mother called me to tell me that Sherri White, 51-year-old wife of my friend Bob and mother to Charlie and Kayly had died the day before.
We all have been broken
Take a moment and ponder some of the brokenness in your life
(SILENCE)
In our society we have made it a habit that when something breaks --- what do we do? --- we throw it out.
We discard it
But that has not always been the case. Our grandparents and ancestors understood that just because something was broken that it was no longer valuable.
They were creative and they fixed things.
The Japanese culture took this one step further --- not only would they fix an item --- in the process of fixing it they made it even more valuable.
It is called Kintsugi --- the art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.
What is so fascinating about this to me, is that as a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
It would add significance and meaning to an item
The broken pot becomes not just beautiful but also useful again.
We are a lot like clay jars --- fragile --- and yet God has chosen us to be God’s vessels to carry the wonderfully, life changing --- good news of the Gospel.
As we begin this Lenten journey, we are called to remember that our brokenness is mirrored and mended in Jesus’ passion.
In the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we see that God works through what is broken.
The promise from Jesus is that even in our suffering, we are not alone.
Jesus is with us.
And we remember that we are an Easter people
Yes, Jesus’ body was beaten, broken and killed
But we also KNOW that Jesus was raised from the dead.
Death could not contain him.
And Jesus promises to be with us in our suffering.
Actually, Paul tells us that we get to participate in this new life of Jesus.
In the Message, Eugene Peterson quotes Paul this way:
We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives!
For the life of Jesus to be made visible in our bodies does not mean that our jars --- our very lives --- become fixed and smooth, like they were never broken.
Holding the life and death of Jesus in our bodies at the same time means we have gold seams mending us --- like in kintsugi.
The “extraordinary power” of putting us back together --- creating life from and within death --- belongs to God and God alone.
The clay jars of our lives, broken and repaired, are evidence of God’s loving, tender work in and through us.
We can trust that no matter what happens, God will never abandon us.
I went out for a run the other day along the Monon trail --- it was such a beautiful day --- I just couldn’t just run on my treadmill.
As I was running, I noticed a small figure with a sign taped on it.
I saw this as a sign from God that I could stop for a second and I read this simple sign --- all it said was "Breathe," along with a drawn heart.
And I realized that it was indeed a gift from God.
That sign expresses my hope and prayer right now for all of us.
That even in our brokenness --- may we all find a way to breathe in ---and out --- a little more love in this liminal time --- and allow God to mend us.
May the light of love shine on you during this liminal time of darkness, and may you know that the darkness will not --- cannot overcome that light.
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