Sunday 23rd June 2024
Facing Adversity
2 Cor: 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-end
May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son & of the Holy Spirit.
Our two readings today both refer to adversity and hardship but in very different contexts. The Gospel reading from Mark is the well-known story of Jesus calming the storm, and our first reading from 2 Corinthians relates to the hardship that Paul and those who work with him had personally had to face whilst establishing the early church in the countries around the Mediterranean sea.
When I was preparing for tonight, there were a number of areas that I could have focussed on, including:
- The challenges of leadership
- Setting an example
- Facing adversity
- Christian Hypocrisy
- Faith
- God’s power.
There are more topics that presented themselves but you get the idea!
As some of you may know, my background is in the Baptist church and if this was a Baptist sermon I would end up going through it all in great detail and you would all be still here at 8pm tonight! As I knew you would all enjoy listening to the sound of my voice, I hope you are sitting comfortably 😉
Before you get up and walk out, I just want to say that I am only joking, you will be pleased to know that I have put my youth work hat on and will make sure that I keep it short, to the point and (hopefully) relevant.
Looking at the passage from 2 Corinthians, it is thought that this is part of the 4th letter that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and was written, around 5 years or so after the church had been set up and Paul had heard that people within Corinth, had started spreading rumours about him. These rumours suggested that he was unqualified, unstable, boastful and a liar and were fuelled partly by his decision to change his plans to visit the church once instead of twice.
In the lead up to our reading, Paul has explained the reasons why his plan changed and is having to justify what he is doing to the Corinthiains. Bearing in mind this letter was written in around AD55, it is nice to know that two thousand years later, leaders are still having to do exactly the same thing when people doubt their actions, although these days the method of communication is likely to be via email than letter! In chapter 5 Paul once again spells out the sacrifice that Jesus made for sinners and the grace that God has given to every single one of us.
As we move into our reading in Chapter 6 today, Paul pleads with the Christians in Corinth to not let God’s grace be in vain and for them to continue to have faith in God, despite what others might be saying around them. Paul then goes on to provide evidence to the church to counter the claims made by those who were seeking to discredit him, including outlining the suffering that he has personally suffered, explaining that no matter how he and his team were treated, they still had faith in God’s plan and continued their work.
I am sure that many of us can relate to the scenario, particularly those involved in Christian leadership, but the things outlined by Paul are not just confined to leadership roles. All of us, I am sure have been in positions like the Corinthians were where people try to discredit our faith, maybe even say things that are untrue about us, or perhaps spread rumours about the Vicar to stop us coming to church. Or maybe the intention of those rumours might be to make the Vicar get fed up and leave, leaving the church in Bexleyheath without a wise and knowledgeable person in charge.
When this happens do we let ourselves be swayed by the opinions of others and lose our faith when the going gets tough like the church in Corinth were doing, or do we ‘fact-check’ what is being said and let God show us the truth?
As Christians in a society, where the pews are empty on a Sunday evening but the pubs are full, can we show to those that try to discredit our faith that through our actions, deeds and words, we are firmly rooted in Christ and practice what we preach, just as Paul was able to show within this chapter, to those in Corinth? Or are we tick box Christians who come to church on a Sunday, but outside these four walls, our faith flounders and we don’t live a life that reflects the grace of God?
What is clear from this reading is that during our Christian life, we will face adversity and challenges. Lets hope they are not as bad as those that Paul outlines in this chapter but I would like to ask yourself this, if you were in Paul’s position, would you be able to respond as robustly as he does, rejoicing in the faith we have that God watches over us and brings us through the other side no matter what happens? Would you be able counter everything somebody accuses us of doing that reflects the grace of God, with a truthful answer that shows they are wrong and that we are not the sort of person that they are painting us to be?
The one thing that I love about the Bible are the themes that follow through different books. As most of you know, I am the Captain of a Boys’ Brigade Company up in central London and after reading both of todays readings, the verse that instantly sprang to mind was Hebrews chapter 6 verse 19 & 20,“ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus has entered on our behalf.”
And so I will leave you with this final thought, are we like the disciples on the stormy sea, who panic and our faith flounders when everything around us gets a bit crazy, or do we show the world around us that our faith is firmly anchored in the Lord Jesus Christ & that the grace we received from God was not, in vain, no matter what we are going through in our lives?
Amen.