First Presbyterian Church
Promise not Strategy
Sermon for June 21, 2009
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our epistle reading begins on page 181 in your pew Bibles. Paul has to give a hard message to the church in Corinth . This is part of the painful letter, when he has to defend himself to the church there. We're not sure what the accusations are. Paul is defending himself against those false teachers who are bragging about their status.

In those days, students, or disciples, took pride in the status of their teachers, kind of like the childish taunt, “My dad can beat up your dad.” Perhaps some Corinthians saw Paul as a person of small status, too little to be considered a true apostle, since he didn't travel with Jesus, like the first disciples did. Perhaps the false teachers were offering just comfort and solace to the church in Corinth , rather than challenging them to take on the demanding work of following Jesus.

So Paul reminds them that he himself has been jailed and beaten just for preaching the gospel of Jesus. He too needs comfort and solace, even as he meets the challenge of the gospel. Listen for the word of God as it is found in 2 Corinthians 6:1-13.

1 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. 12 There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. 13 In return-- I speak as to children-- open wide your hearts also.

This ends our epistle reading.

Paul's list of hardships show that he knows faith doesn't protect him from hard times and difficulties. Trouble doesn't mean God is punishing him. Faith, that is, our trust in God, assures us “that God is on our side through tough times and good times. …Nothing, no matter how bad or how terrifying, can separate us from God's love.” 1

Our gospel reading is on page 39. It begins just after Jesus has finished speaking to the crowds about the parables of the grain and the mustard seed. At the beginning of our reading, Jesus, the apostles, and the disciples in the other boats head over to Gentile territory, across the sea of Galilee. Jesus is at the tiller of his boat. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Mark 4:35-41.

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.

37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"

41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

This ends our reading from the gospel.

The text says that Jesus was asleep on the cushion in the stern. The cushion was the place you sat to steer. Isn't it interesting that when Jesus decides to expand his ministry, to go into Gentile territory, the storm comes up as if to prevent him from going to the gentiles. The disciples panic.

Already in the gospel of Mark, in the first four chapters, we've heard that Jesus was healing, preaching, teaching, exorcising demons, eating with tax collectors and sinners, harvesting grain and healing on the Sabbath. Then he gave the disciples authority to proclaim the message and to cast out demons. He shared his power with them; he taught them how to do what he did. But how many of them were really listening and learning? Did they learn about the power of God, about the good news of God? Or did they learn that when trouble comes, it's time to start depending on Jesus? Why was it only Jesus who could move the tiller of the boat?

Jesus asked the disciples why they didn't have faith. He wouldn't have gone to sleep if he didn't think they could handle a storm. They just had to reach across the cushion to the tiller. But they would rather blame him for the storm than take action to save themselves. He asks them if they had faith or not.

What's the difference between faith and belief? Scholar Dom Crossan says that if the doctor tells you you need a heart transplant, you might say, “I believe you.” But if you have faith in that diagnosis and solution, you'll show up for the pre-op at 5:30 a.m., having eaten nothing all night, having filled out all your paperwork the day before, so that you're ready for surgery. Believing isn't enough; acting on the belief is faith.

Jesus fell asleep; he trusted the disciples could handle things. If he hadn't been there, maybe they would have handled it themselves – we know at least two of them had experience in boats.

The word of God doesn't call us to just believe; it calls us to act.

Andria Hall is an author and the daughter of a Baptist minister. She and her friend Linnie Frank wrote This Far by Faith: How to Put God First in Everyday Living. Linnie had a miscarriage in 1996. It was devastating, and it made her want to write a book about the everyday faith that was her comfort. She wrote, “Surrendering is first – yielding your will to a higher will…then you have to believe your prayers will be answered, which may just be saying, ‘I'm really going to try this.' …The first thing to let go of is thinking that faith means never being subject to hardship or pain. Losing your attachment to the outcome - that's hard. But one thing's for sure, not having faith, living by fear, gets you deeper into darkness.” 2

Perhaps Paul's detractors admitted no hardships, only advantages. So Paul wants the Corinthians to look carefully at these false teachers. What sorts of risks have they taken for the gospel? Have they spent their efforts keeping themselves safe and comfortable?

Paul emphasized to the Corinthians his heart was open to them. Anyone who has endured afflictions, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, and hunger can't help but be marked by those experiences. They cause the person who has undergone them to have very clear priorities. Paul needed the Corinthians' affection and support. Paul lived out his faith by supporting the Corinthians in their hardships; now he was asking them to live out their faith and salvation by showing affection to him.

Why did they need to be asked? Even people who have faith in Christ can fall out of faith. Those who have made a commitment to behave as brothers and sisters to one another, can, like all families, get irritated with one another, and start sniping and blaming and being defensive instead of hearing each other. So Paul reminds them to open their hearts. He tells them how serious his situation is. Being imprisoned and beaten isn't a minor inconvenience; it is a lasting trauma that can be healed with love and support.

People often want the Bible, or a worship service, or a sermon to comfort them. They face uncertainty at their jobs, or with the weather and their crops, or in financial markets where their savings are invested, in political situations where the economy and ecology are at stake. When you factor in the ever-changing human condition, with illness, accidents, and aging, we sense that we are in an anxious-making time, as if a storm all around us.

When we human beings are anxious, we find it difficult to make good decisions. Sometimes we embrace any dramatic action, without thinking it through, because it promises a release for our anxiety. Doing something fast feels better than taking time to think things through; but acting without thinking creates greater problems.

Anxiety makes us vulnerable to forceful persons who offer simple strategies and easy to remember slogans. We long for clarity and an end to our anxiety. But sometimes anxiety comes from within; it comes from not trusting. Anxiety is a condition that grows the more we feed it. When we don't give in to our anxieties, and instead focus on something else, like, say, the love of God, our anxiety stops growing. All the provoking conditions might still be there, but when we quit feeding our anxiety, we are able to be comforted.

We think of our heart as the seat of our emotions; but to the people in the Bible, the heart was the place where our understanding, our will, and our conduct comes from; we think of the brain as the source of our thoughts, but to biblical people, you thought with your hearts. So Paul urges the Corinthians to open wide not just their hearts for him, to feel sympathy, but to open their minds, and think reasonably.

And so Paul speaks of the Corinthians as his dear children, that's how much affection he has for them. He opens himself to the Corinthians, telling them he has need of their affection, since he has experienced so much violence as he continues to preach the gospel.

The gospel isn't a strategy for coping: “practice these exercises and affirmations daily, and you will be saved.” Instead, the gospel is a promise. 3 “I will be with you.” “Now is the day of salvation.” God's good news is at hand. Be comforted. Amen.

1New Interpreter's Bible XI, p. 99.
2 Britt, Donna, “When did God slip off Americans' to-do list?” Seattle Times, November 1998.
3 Brueggemann et al, Texts for Preaching, year B, p. 401.