Paul’s unwavering hope

Cheddington 10 June 2012

Reading 2 Corinthians 4.13-5.1

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Sermon

Young – slightest illness causes worry. Concerns highlighted because everything normally works well. Body heals itself quickly. Signs of age not long in coming. Aches and pains become more common, whereas if we were young we may have sought medical advice. In older age, these things are always in the background.

Life expectancy has been rising throughout my lifetime. It has gone up by 9 years since I was a teenager. The search for longevity seems right and proper when you are young. When you get older, to be told you will live on into 90’s may be less welcome. Operation – longer lifespan not what I wanted to hear.

One of saddest aspects of new atheism is they have no hope for the future. What happens after you die? Oblivion. Never to meet loved ones again. No thought of eternity or resurrection. Just nothing beyond the grave.

Paul lays out alternative clearly in letter to Corinthians. Paul shows his profound faith in God’s power to save. God is a God who can defeat death itself. God is a God who chooses mere mortals to reveal his divine glory here on earth. What then are the sufferings of this present age, when such a hope of glory beckons from beyond the curtain we pass through called death?

Paul himself is no stranger to suffering. We don’t know what was the thorn in his side, but he refers to a severe affliction elsewhere in the same letter. The apostle also recounts beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck and other near death experiences which he suffered for his faith. Just before this passage comes a catalogue of human frailty. All of these hardships, Paul says, prove that “death is at work within us.”

This situation is not permanent. Outwardly, what is visible in our bodies is that we are wasting away. Spiritually as well as physically. Inwardly, though, we are being renewed day by day. The troubles we experience are momentary and light, when compared to the hope of eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, rather than look down on what we see in our bodies, we can look up to what is unseen. For what is visible is temporary. But what is invisible is permanent and eternal. And this hope is that this same God “who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us ... in his presence.”

Underlying this passage, and indeed the whole of II Corinthians is the certainty Paul has that what he describes will come true. This vision extends from the empty tomb, the very heart of our Christian faith, without which our belief is as nothing. So it matters less and less that we age and become more frail, because what is really important is the permanent hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ. I like the simple image Paul shows us. It’s like our present existence on this earth is in a tent. Tents are fragile. They are buffeted by the winds. They let in water. They don’t stand up to the elements. Tents are no more than temporary structures. No matter – because we have a permanent building that is from God. An eternal house in heaven. One not built with human hands.

This age says Paul is passing away. Our citizenship is no longer on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. This is why Paul calls the church to think in terms of God’s new kingdom – a place where death is swallowed up by life – not this time an extension of our earthly existence where we continue to suffer more aches and pains – but a permanent life with Christ in the new Kingdom of God.

Amidst real hardships and suffering, Paul expresses hope in God’s work to redeem and to transform.  The threat of hardship would be enough to drive most believers away, but Paul will stop at nothing to be a bearer of the gospel to others.  For he knows that the God who is at work in his mortal body is the same God who resurrected Jesus from the dead.   It is in this God whom, like Paul, we can place our unwavering hope.

Amen