Hope--In a Hard Time

photo by Smile-me /flickr

Gracie Allen used to say: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma." Have you ever done that? Of course you have. We're all done that. ? Of course you have. We’ve all done that. All my life I have been bumping into something difficult and hard--and I would say: "I can't do that. I just can't do that." All my life I have been bumping up against something difficult—and I would say say:  “I can’t do that. I just can’t do that.” What I was doing was getting out my pencil and placing a large period where I should have marked a comma. I said no when I should have said yes. 

Corinth understood this. They were having a lot of trouble with the commas and periods sometimes they did not know which went where. They had a lot of problems. They were surrounded by a pagan culture and it was easy to believe about anything except what they heard on Sundays. They met in somebody’s living room. They were small in number. And even though they were only a handful they had a hard time getting along. Some were rich and some were poor and that complicated things. Some wanted Paul to be their preacher while others wanted Apollos or Peter. They couldn’t agree on what worship was to be about—and speaking in tongues was a real problem. And if that was not enough there were sexual problems there that were downright embarrassing. All these things had taken a toll on that little church. Their numbers were dwindling. People were upset or worried. Some were taking it out on one another. And some were beginning to say: “I have had about as much of this as I can take. I don’t know if there is anything to this faith or Jesus business. Seems like a mess to me.” They were just overwhelmed.

Paul had been their Pastor. He had stayed there longer than any other place he had ministered except Ephesus. He was there for eighteen months and in that time he had grown to love them and knew what an important work they did. In a wild seaport town where you could find about anything you wanted—Paul helped them establish this little lighthouse of the gospel. Tiny, but very important. Shining as a beacon of hope in a dark world. 

But now they were in trouble. And Paul in Ephesus sat down and wrote letter after letter that became in time First and Second Corinthians. And running through all those chapters I think we can find one shining word: never place a period where God has placed a comma.

So when we come to I Corinthians 4 Paul was talking about not losing heart. Different translations use different words. Corinth: faint not. Corinth: do not play the coward. Corinth: never give up. Corinth: do not be discouraged. This phrase do not lose heart is like a parenthesis. Paul used these words at the beginning of the fourth chapter and at the end of chapter four. (vs.16) And in between he gave them a reason they could not stop. They could not put down some period and just walk away.

And this is what he told them in verse 7: “We have the treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that his extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”

photo by kiarras / flickr

They were only clay pots, he said. Now what does that mean? Clay pots were really candle holders. Every household had them . No electricity of course. These clay pots were small pottery lamps which were cheap and fragile. You could buy them at any shop in Corinth. 

And Paul knew that many of them in Corinth were giving up the fight because of problems in the church. They were putting down a period because things were tough. 

Even after all these years some things have not changed. Every denomination I know is having difficulties these days. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics and even Baptists. Who would have believed it—-even the Baptists? Every major faith group is divided and troubled. And we need to listen closely to what Paul said to another church in a hard time. We always have the treasure in clay pots. 

But let’s not just take it out on the church. Let’s look at our own lives. Yours and mine.  Paul tried to tell them that humanity is often a burden. Even the saints among us have clay feet. To be human is to have a back that hurts. It is to risk losing a job when you did something wrong. It is to have a bad lab report. It is to have a child to break your heart—or not be able to have any children at all. It is to live in a world where sometimes you wonder if there is going to be any Social Security or enough in your retirement account when you get there. To be human is to suffer and to wonder.

This is the way Paul puts it in verse 8. “We are afflicted in every way. We are perplexed. We are persecuted. We are struck down. Our outer nature wastes away.“ And if that were not enough run your finger down to his sixth chapter. An Paul confesses here that even the Reverend had experienced: afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger…” (6.4b-5)

To live a life is a hard thing, he says. And the only way it ever comes, this business of living is in a clay pot. A fragile vessel. And sometimes we wonder why the best Christians we know have suffered so much. We need to remember that to be a human being is sometimes a burden.

I like the way Leonard Cohen, the folk singer, put it: “There are cracks, cracks in everything—that’s how the light shines through.” For down beside the periods we have almost punched into the paper, God comes along and erases them and places a comma. The cracks are where the light shines through.

That’s what Paul was telling all-too-human Corinth and I think himself, too. Any good sermon is one in which you really do preach to yourself. But this is what he said: “We have the treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made perfectly clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us.” 

And what he says to them and to us is don’t get stuck with an all-too-human-denomination or church or even a divided nation or just yourself. Life is messy and sometimes embarrassing. Look art out history. We disappoint ourselves and those around us.

But this is the good news. It does not depend on us, thank God. The power belongs too God. Listen to how Paul puts it:

“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 let your finger run down that page and he writes, there toward the end of that chapter: “So we do not lose heart…” Why? “Because we look not at what can be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (16,18)

Let me tell you a story. Years ago when I was Pastor at Clemson—the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Center people came by and said, “You all have this house back of the church you are not using right now. And we need a place where men with drugs and alcohol problems might come as a half-way house—hoping to help them. Do you think we might rent your house?” 

Well, I took their request to the official committee and we sat around a table and discussed and discussed. Finally—finally—they reluctantly agreed to let the Drug and Alcohol Abuse folks use the house. And men with all kinds of problems came through those doors and lived there for a while. One of the men, Curtys was a mess. He had lost his job and family. I got to know him and he told me his story. Messed up everything he ever did thanks to drink and drugs. But he said he wanted to do better. He wanted to get his family back together. He wanted, I never will forget, to “make a contribution to the community.” Well—he got better. He talked his wife and children into coming back. They lived in a tiny apartment. 

About that time the church decided to build a Habitat House. It was the first Habitat House

built in Pickens County. And when we talked about the recipients of that house—we chose Curtys and his family. I never will forget the day we dedicated that house. The kids opened the front door and invited us in. The little daughter said , “Let me show you my room.” And her brother said, “Look at our bath room.” They pointed to the refrigerator and the stove and they were so proud. We stood on the porch that afternoon and dedicated that house. It was a holy moment. I cried all the way home.

We left there and moved away. Some twenty-five years later we decided to move back to Clemson. And one morning after we moved I had forgotten to put the garbage out—and the truck came by my house. I ran out the back—grabbed the garbage sack and started running after the garbage truck. “Stop…Stop…I have this garbage.”

They stopped and a black man got off the back of the truck and came toward me. As he got nearer I knew him. “Curtys,” I said, “Curtys?” And he peered at me and smiled and said,  “Dr. Lovette—is that you?” 

I told him I had moved back. And I asked him how he was doing. and how his family was. He said, “Fine. Haven’t had a drink in years and years.” “You still living in  the same house?” And he said, “Yeah, me and Albertine still there. Just paid off the house.” Been working on the garbage truck for the city all these years…getting ready too retire.”  He took my garbage and walked back to the truck. 

And as I was putting together this sermon I remembered Curtys and his family. And I think it fits what Paul said: “We have the treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from use. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted,  but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…” (II Cor. 4. 7-10)

But we can’t stop there. We have to follow his words down the page to the sixteenth verse: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory behind all measure, because we look not at what can be seen; what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” (II For. 4. 16-18)

Gracie Allen was more right than she knew. “We should never, never place a period where God had placed a comma.” No wonder Paul said none of us should ever lose heart. 

For God in his amazing grace keeps coming and in his hands he holds an armful of commas. Thanks be to God.

photo by David Seibold / flickr

(I preached this sermon at the Faith Memorial Chapel, Cedar Mountain, North Carolina, June 10, 2018. Several year ago I published a similar sermon on my blog--but these two are not the same.)

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com