Our Spirit is Being Renewed

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

June 7, 2015

The Gospel reading for today is difficult.

There one part is almost as complex as the other,

Jesus family tries to restrain him,

they say that he’s out of his mind.

There’s that whole thing that Jesus says

about the Holy Spirit which no one’s

ever given a satisfying explanation for.

And then at the end Jesus

pretty much says that his family is not his family.

Hard stuff.

So that’s why I’m going to focus on the 2^nd Corinthians text.

Like all of the New Testament writings,

we don’t know everything about the

situation surrounding the letter.

Most of what we know comes from the letter itself

that Paul is writing to a church in Corinth

that he helped start.

But what is apparent is that Paul and his people

have seen a lot of hardship prior to this letter.

They have been arrested and beaten

Cursed at and called names.

He and his travel companions the same.

All for the sake of the gospel.

In the opening paragraph he writes:

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,-- of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.”

My guess is he looked a felt pretty terrible

and that word had  gotten around that

he was not doing well at all.

It must have made people question

the work they were doing,

the risks they were taking,

Paul’s authority and the job he was doing.

It may even have made them question the gospel they were sharing.

But Paul tells his audience

that they should not be fooled by

his physical reality. He writes:

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…”

And that is a testament to

the power of the Spirit that lives in Paul.

It’s almost as if he has two realities, two tracks.

He doesn’t give much credence to outer -  the superficial

criteria of success that rules the rest of the world.

The world might see broken clay jars,

but Paul recognizes the spirit that’s held in it.

God’s Spirit gives us hope that goes beyond

our physical realities.

We have hope that’s eternal, that doesn’t

depend on our money, or comfort, or health.

The most inspirational stories

are those of people who overcome

physical and environmental adversities

and still have a drive to work

and make a difference, who still have joy.

We admire people like Helen Keller

who was born deaf and blind

learned to communicate and became

and inspirational writer

and a women’s rights activist.

Or Chris Gardner the man who

was homeless, raising his son

on the streets in San Francisco living in

bathrooms and train stations

while he was working at the same

time as a stock broker trying to

earn enough to afford an apartment.

Who now owns a huge company

and gives inspirational talks,

and is a strong advocate for the homeless.

And the world admires Mlala the Pakistani girl

who was shot  by the Taliban for talking about advancing

women’s education, but was not deterred.

She still came back to keep her work going

and won the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17.

We admire these people specifically because

they have seen hardship. Because

they have physical limitations or have survived difficult situations.

I think because we can see the Spirit

that still lives even though their vessels are broken.

Even though they may not be Christian,

we can see God’s Spirit working though them.

In the book we’re reading for our Adult Study

about the Holy Spirit, it says,

“Through the Spirit, we are transformed,

regardless of who we are or what our circumstances in life might be.
We discover that faith is about living with a freedom, a joy

and a peace that the circumstances in our life cannot affect.”

It’s not that circumstances don’t affect us,

they do. They shape us, change us, influence us,

they direct us and move us.

It’s not that we don’t cry, mourn,

and have terrible days and nights.

I’m sure all of these people we admire

went through their own dark places.

But the Spirit does not let those circumstances defeat us,

our inner joy, freedom, and peace

that is given us by God.

Because our hope is not found

in the temporary clay pots that contain us,

Our hope is found in something bigger than us,

stronger than us, more giving and merciful than us.

Our hope is found in the eternal.

Our hope is found in God.

As Paul writes in 2^nd Corinthians,

Even though our outer nature is wasting away,

our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

We do not trust the outward evidence that we see,

but the Spirit of God that lives in us.

Kintsugi is the Japanese 

art of fixing broken pottery

with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. 

As a philosophy it treats 

breakage and repair

as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

If you are living, or have lived, with a struggle, a pain, a loss,

if your life is difficult and complicated,

as most of us are. 

If your body is not what it was,

or it seems to be rebelling against you.

Remember that those breaks and scratches

are not ugly faults to be hidden.
They are your history, they shape you

and make you more interesting.

And most importantly,

they are a testament to the Spirit of God

that lives in you and has kept you going.

We do not trust the evidence that the world trusts.

We trust the Spirit of God that is alive in us.