Of All People Most Blessed, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 4:13-5:1

4:13  But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture --"I believed, and so I spoke" -- we also believe, and so we speak,
4:14  because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into His presence.
4:15  Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
4:16  So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
4:17  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,
4:18  because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
5:1  For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

             In the early 1800's, the poet William Wordsworth wrote, "The world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: little we see in Nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!"

             The reviewer Mary Moorman has suggested the lines reflect a memory of Wordsworth's visit to Calais in the north of France, a lament for modern man's lost appreciation for nature, part of a group of sonnets reflecting England's unworthiness during the Napoleonic wars when so much was demanded of her.

             That opening phrase, "The world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers..." would also reflect where mankind stands today among the wonders of the electronic age.  Conversation, dialogue, has become relegated to the coldness of electronic messages, the very worst of ways to communicate, bypassing any human contact, any intellectual give and take.  Misinformation and opinion pass for facts, causes and movements rise and fall upon the passions of professional word merchants and lobbyists.

             In that electronic world of Ebay and CraigsList, and others, we find the charlatans, tricksters and outright thieves continuing to take advantage of the innocent, the trusting, and the legal community has not kept up with the ingenuity of the greedy and dishonest.

             But that sly humorist of the early 1900's, W. C. Fields. said a mouthful when he declared, "You can't cheat an honest man."  Fields even used that as the title of a screenplay starring ventriloquist Edgar Bergan and his mannequin Charlie McCarthy.  It just seems elegantly appropriate that one of them was a dummy.

             The truth is human nature hasn't changed all that much since Christ walked this earth with us.  A wise old man once said, "Them what has, gets, and them what hasn't gets got."  So anyone with a mind to lament the sadness and unfairness of life has plenty to lament, feel sad, and unfair about.  For if you go about life under your own power, sooner or later you're "gonna get got", and there just isn't much that can be done about it.  Ezekiel 28:12-15 reminds us that Satan was created by God as the "pinnacle of perfection and full of wisdom" before he fell from heaven.  Those outside of Christ don't stand much of a chance against the evil machinations of Satan, and this world is full of his nonsense.

             Those who belong to Christ, however, live a very different life.  We are of all people most blessed.  

             In today's scripture, we see that Paul has absolute faith in who God is and what He can do.  After all, a God who can defeat death would see no problem with mere mortals who challenge His power and authority.  In fact, God uses those who are subject to death to bear witness to His glory.  When we read Paul's letters to the Corinthians, we see that he urges them not to let the present problems stop them from testifying to the power and the reality of God's new creation.

             Paul himself writes of the beatings, shipwrecks, and other near-death experiences to demonstrate the danger of his mission and the sincerity of his faith, detailing hardships that exemplify that "death is at work in us."  Even though death is seeming to win small victories that afflict, perplex, persecute and strike down the faithful, we know that God has already defeated death by raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave.  And the same God, according to 2nd Cor. 4:14, "will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into His presence."

             Because the follower of Jesus Christ knows that everything he sees in this world is only temporary, since the eternal cannot be seen, the idea that " this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure" makes perfect sense.  It gives us the solid ground to stand on as we give back to those who can do nothing for us, just for the sake of doing what is right.

             In an article for Campus Life magazine a young nurse writes of her own pilgrimage in giving to those who can't give back; learning to see in a patient the image of God beneath a very 'distressing disguise.'

             "Eileen was one of her first patients, a person who was totally helpless. 'A cerebral aneurysm (broken blood vessels in the brain) had left her with no conscious control over her body,' the nurse writes. As near as the doctors could tell Eileen was totally unconscious, unable to feel pain and unaware of anything going on around her. It was the job of the hospital staff to turn her every hour to prevent bedsores and to feed her twice a day 'what looked like a thin mush through a stomach tube.' Caring for her was a thankless task. 'When it's this bad,' an older student nurse told her, 'you have to detach yourself emotionally from the whole situation...' As a result, more and more she came to be treated as a thing, a vegetable...

             "But the young student nurse decided that she could not treat this person like the others had treated her. She talked to Eileen, sang to her, encouraged her, and even brought her little gifts. One day when things were especially difficult and it would have been easy for the young nurse to take out her frustrations on the patient, she was especially kind.  It was Thanksgiving Day and the nurse said to the patient, 'I was in a cruddy mood this morning, Eileen, because it was supposed to be my day off.  But now that I'm here, I'm glad.  I wouldn't have wanted to miss seeing you on Thanksgiving. Do you know this is Thanksgiving?'

             "Just then the telephone rang, and as the nurse turned to answer it, she looked quickly back at Eileen. 'Suddenly,' she writes, Eileen was 'looking at me... crying.  Big damp circles stained her pillow, and she was shaking all over.

             "That was the only human emotion that Eileen ever showed any of them, but it was enough to change the whole attitude of the hospital staff toward her.  Not long afterward, Eileen died.  The young nurse closes her story, saying, 'I keep thinking about her... It occurred to me that I owe her an awful lot.  Except for Eileen, I might never have known what it's like to give myself to someone who can't give back.'" 

             When we are confronted by what seems impossible to overcome, that's the time to allow God to meet those needs with His divine resources, accomplishing the impossible, and usually putting us into the game to meet the needs of others along the way.  Put the impossible, and yourself, in the hands of Him who loved you first.  Amen.

Week of Worship

June 10, 2012

Invocation:  Our Lord Jesus, whose word is always authority, speak to me now, that I may hear Your special word for me today.  In the name of Jesus Christ I pray.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 103

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Colossians 1:15-20

Tuesday               Acts 3:1-10

Wednesday          Acts 5:1-16
Thursday              Acts 5:33-42

Friday                   Acts 9:1-19

Saturday               Acts 12:1-11

Sunday                 1st Samuel 16:1-13; 2nd Corinthians 4:5-12; Psalm 20; Mark 2:23-3:6

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies"

Benediction:  I have heard Your call to me in this hour, and I bind Your word to my heart as the guide and rule of life.  Speak to others through me, I pray..  Amen.