Getting out of our own way

 

2 Corinthians 6: 1-13
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
June 20, 2021

As part of his introduction to the church in ancient Corinth, Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase The Message begins with these words: “When people become Christians, they don’t at the same moment become nice.” He goes on to say that the people of Corinth had a reputation for being unruly, hard-drinking, and sexually promiscuous. Right there we can see how Christianity—Catholic, Protestant, reformed, evangelical—constructed its unhealthy values of sexually pure, proper, well-behaved Christians as the norms of true belief and practice. One of the main themes of religious history, human history is one group proclaiming “we’re not like those people over there” while at the same time committing their own atrocities and transgressions that serve their self-interest.



As their first pastor, the apostle Paul spent eighteen months with the church in Corinth, teaching them what it means to live a life of holiness and how to live as a community of faith. Sometime after he left to visit other churches, he heard that the church in Corinth was in trouble and received a letter from them asking for his help. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth is loving and pastoral, but also instructive about what it means to follow the way of Jesus. In response to this fractious group of people, Paul wrote some of the best poetry of his life. Even when Eugene Peterson paraphrased it, Paul’s message is loud and clear.



“Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.”

—The Message, Eugene Peterson



And yet even after such words of love, liberation, and acceptance, the people in Corinth rebelled against Paul and his leadership, as if they could not believe that God loved them, would always love them, that they could love like that, despite their unruly behavior. So, Paul had to write a second letter, defending his leadership, not by putting himself in the center but by centering God’s grace as it was uniquely known through the life of this community of faith.



Liberating love is powerful, and these Corinthians had never known love like this: unconditional, undeserved, unlimited. They confused Paul’s leadership with this power, the conviction and authority with which he spoke, as a power grab. Sometimes it’s hard to live your truth and not come across like a locomotive, especially when that truth has set you free. Paul thought of himself as the worst sinner of all after what he had done, and now that his life had turned 180°, running toward God rather than religiosity, sometimes his intensity got the better of him. While Paul was away preaching and teaching, the Corinthians welcomed other leaders, rival apostles who used magic and supernatural claims to bolster their authority. In contrast, Paul declared that his power, his strength was found in weakness, that is, in his humanity, his vulnerability, his authenticity, in the manner of Christ who made himself weak, even unto a cross.

Life is hard enough without us making it harder for others and for ourselves, or as Paul said it, putting obstacles or stumbling blocks in anyone’s way. The past few years, and particularly the last sixteen months, have been arduous for some and traumatic for many. The love of God that liberates can be hard to hear and see and feel and witness, especially when our society, when Church spends more time and resources constructing and fortifying barriers to equity and equality, to connection and belonging than we do tearing them down.



As we are preparing to go back in our building and gather in person as well as online, I can understand that maybe for some of us it still might be difficult to experience the love of God that liberates us. In fact, I can understand that for some of us God might not be a favorite friend right now. Do not let that feeling take you away from church, as though what you believe or don’t believe is an obstacle or a stumbling block between you and the people you love and who love you.

As I heard in a song recently, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay if you’re lost, we’re all a little lost sometimes, and it’s alright. Jane Marczewski from Zanesville, Ohio, known as Nightbirde when she sings, has metastatic breast cancer and tells herself, sings out loud it’s okay. This isn’t the positive thinking, glass half-full philosophy. It’s about traveling down that shadowed road that leads you where you’d rather not go and going anyway.



She writes this about her relationship with God:



“I am God’s downstairs neighbor, banging on the ceiling with a broomstick. I show up at His door every day.

Sometimes with songs, sometimes with curses.

Sometimes apologies, gifts, questions, demands.

Sometimes I use my key under the mat to let myself in. Other times, I sulk outside until He opens the door to me Himself.

I have called Him a cheat and a liar, and I meant it.

I have told Him I wanted to die, and I meant it.

Tears have become the only prayer I know. Prayers roll over my nostrils and drip down my forearms. They fall to the ground as I reach for Him. These are the prayers I repeat night and day; sunrise, sunset.

Call me bitter if you want to—that’s fair. Count me among the angry, the cynical, the offended, the hardened. But count me also among the friends of God.”



After her audition on America’s Got Talent, she told the judges and the audience, “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy”. And it’s not a blissful, easy, or even a joyful kind of happy. It’s a happy without obstacles even though the obstacles, the pain may still be there, without dread or fear, and some of us need more help than others getting there. That’s why we need Church, community, so we don’t have to get there by ourselves; so we have help getting rid of the obstacles between us and unconditional, undeserved, unlimited love, between others who need to know that love in their bones and in this world.



As Rachel Held Evans said, God is whatever makes you feel safe, whatever makes you feel brave, whatever makes you feel loved, and if Church isn’t one of the places, the people where we feel that, then Church needs to get up and remove the obstacles between us and that grace. Because when we feel safe and brave and loved, we really can do hard, hopeful things together.

Benediction