15 Since I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double favour; 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes and No." 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." 20 For in him every one of God's promises is a "Yes." For this reason it is through him that we say the "Amen," to the glory of God. 21 But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, 22 by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment.
When you look at the context of this passage you see a typical work of the God and Father of Jesus who is in the business of making silk purses out of sow’s ears!
The pig’s ear is a church leader accused of vacillation.
The silk purse is a beautiful affirmation of God’s faithfulness.
The accusation of double-mindedness came from people at Corinth seeing Paul had promised to visit them on the way both to and from Macedonia before leaving for Judea and hadn’t done so. It sounds a rather niggling complaint and you get the feeling Paul is more than niggled – he’s thoroughly irritated. No wonder in a way. The Corinthians - most charismatic, most sinful, most divided - are a difficult crew. Not in the same league as Ardingly, Horsted Keynes, Lindfield, Scaynes Hill or West Hoathly – of course they’re not! We’re full of English sweet reasonableness – however much good that does us!
Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Paul writes. Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes and No."
There’s an element of self justification hidden in all of this, but then Paul’s the writer who readily admits there’s sin in him (Romans 7) and Christ in him (Romans 8) so no surprise here – we just have to bear with him. One’s English sentiments are rather shaken though by a man assuming that because he’s God’s man he’s going to be a fully truthful man. Elsewhere Paul says in Romans 3v4 let God be true and all men liars! He goes on though from this sow’s ear situation to give us the great silk purse of a verse that our celebration tonight seems to have been built around.
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." 20 For in him every one of God's promises is a "Yes." For this reason it is through him that we say the "Amen," to the glory of God.
Christianity – for Paul or for us – rests not on a truth we build but on a God who is truth, who speaks truth, who acts out truth on Calvary and who promises to lead those who trust him into all truth. God’s Yes has no ambiguity about it, unlike our own affirmations. No "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." That cry of Barack Obama yes, we can catches us especially as Christians because our religion is a real ‘yes, we can’ religion and our bishops and priests and people are ideally ‘yes, we can’ guys mirroring their ‘yes, we can’ Lord.
But are we? Are we united in that conviction? For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not "Yes and No". The Corinthians had “Yes men of God” Silvanus, Timothy and Paul. Chichester Diocese has Yes men of God John, Mark elect and Wallace. The Cuckfield deanery has John, Alan, Mark, James, John and so on – in the service of the same God who’s presented his truth in the face of Jesus Christ. The God who wants many more gifts released from his people on High Weald than are presently exercised. ‘Yes, we can’.
We can better operate together though, hence the delight we share tonight as we gather as churches in apostolic partnership like Silvanus, Timothy and Paul, a partnership that extends also tonight beyond these shores through Fr. John and his family from our mission partners in Cameroon.
Apathy and unbelief are too powerful foes for a divided church. The renewed partnership we seek in faithfulness to God’s Yes is of course to be wider than Anglican. I was reminded of this when I was invited to say the opening prayer at Ruwach’s recent mission at The Olympos in Haywards Heath. It’s claimed that no less than 25 people became Christians that weekend. It seems the New Churches are looking to the historic churches. We should look to their apostolic vitality. Even if we still have questions about their ecclesiology, as it says in our diocesan vision, what good is apostolic order without apostolic vitality?
Coming back to the scripture, I wondered when Fr. Alan sent me it on Friday (!) why I knew this 2 Corinthians 1 passage so well. I eventually realised it was because the Anglican-Roman Catholic document ‘The Gift of Authority' draws upon it.
Authority is so absolutely vital to mission. This weekend we lament the loss of agreed authority in our church worldwide and the damage it’s doing to mission. Building on this passage from verses 18-22 the agreement states ‘Authority is exercised within the Church for the sake of those outside it, that the Gospel may be proclaimed "in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction"... God gives his "Yes" to humanity in Christ, and again, in Christ, all of humanity is called to make a responsive "Amen" to God in the Church. This 'undivided sharing in Christ's one "Amen" to the glory of God' is the Churches' goal, which will become evident when they share in one "Amen" to one eucharistic prayer.
So to the last verses of our passage which should speak to our hearts: 21 But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, 22 by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment.
God’s great scheme, his Yes to us, is in the establishing and gathering together of all things in Christ. He needs our Yes for that to be accomplished. Yes to the unification of the cosmos. To say No is hell – the Trinity or hell, there is no middle way - that’s Christian Faith.
Mid-Sussex is a richly gifted place with richly gifted people. How do we get more of these gifts consecrated to God’s praise and service? Christianity isn’t just a crutch for the weak – it’s that OK I well know it – it’s a direction of strength to good. So many strengths are put to destructive use, yes, even in mid-Sussex! Nimby-ism is one facet. We’re in God’s backyard actually, look at the fields!
It is God who establishes us with you in Christ or as Paul says two chapters on, our sufficiency is of God. If we accept Jesus we lose ourselves to gain ourselves and contribute to the gaining of God’s universal plan to bring things to himself. In the process we gain confidence, not self confidence but the certainty that rests on the certainty of God we’ve given way to.
With this comes the Spirit’s anointing. It came with that first great Yes from Mary in Nazareth. Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to your will she said and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. She received the seal upon her and the gift of his Spirit in her heart as a first instalment. There was a second instalment for her at Pentecost and now she is surely at the centre of that establishing and gathering up of all things in her Blessed Son Jesus Christ.
God sought Mary’s Yes and he seeks ours so he can anoint us as he anointed her. He seeks our gifts to be employed for his praise and service. He seeks our devotion. With devotion comes anointing in the Spirit, you rarely see one without the other. With devotion comes anticipation on earth of the joyful goodness of saints made perfect in heaven as a first instalment.
God seeks our Yes before he seeks our success both as individuals and as churches. He seeks our devotion more than our mission strategies, important as these are.
As with the Corinthians and Paul his faithfulness, his great ‘Yes’ will carry us forward into the spiritual battle that is ours and the consummation of it in the unification of the cosmos.
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I have been reading and enjoying your thoughts on your blog, I am a Christian and I do feel that if we could have a servant heart/attitude towards others and use the gifts we have been given by God things would be so much better. In a fallen world this is not going to happen BUT we can try as individuals.
ReplyDeleteMy son and I visited your chuch last week when we had to travel to Sussex for a funeral, my Grandmother Henrietta Cole and her husband are buried there and we met a delightful lady called Connie who was cleaning the Church who remembered her and the family who all grew up at Great Oddynes farm.We would have liked to have looked at the book of remembrance to see if there were any Wickens or Sturt's there but she did not have access to it, I was wondering if the records are on line anywhere?
Anyway thank you for reading this, and I will continue to read your notes on here,.