Isaiah 40.3-5; 2 Corinthians 3.4-6
In one of the greatest confessions of reality ever written, Paul the Apostle, says, Of ourselves and of our work, we are not competent to make any claims whatsoever …
Our competence is of God …
God has made it possible for us to be ministers, ministers of a new covenant …
Not of words written, but of the Spirit given … not by human decision or effort, but rather by the grace of God …
By the Spirit, who gives life …
In all of this, Paul does us an enormous favor … Paul shows us the way through the two most powerful temptations the Evil One brings our way …
Two temptations that damage our soul, and can even destroy us ...
The first temptation is arrogance … spiritual arrogance … pride of place, seniority in the kingdom of God.
The Little Jack Horner Syndrome …
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, “What a good boy am I.”
Paul does away with all such pretensions … of ourselves, we have no competence when it comes to the things of God … we can only be humble servants … doing the master’s bidding …available to God … with open hands awaiting our assignment, hearts open, waiting for the filling of the Spirit … disciples, one and all, waiting for our orders.
And all of that will come in various ways and times - our assignment is given, the Spirit fills our spirit, our marching orders are issued … such is the work of the Spirit … making us competent to be ministers … all of us … ministers of the new covenant, servants of the Most High God, friends of Jesus and friends with one another.
All of this is given to us, in due time, as needed … not of our own doing or competence, but of the Spirit of God.
Here’s the key to Christian fellowship … we’re all in this together … we need one another … learn from one another … rely upon one another … the Spirit uses all of us to build the body of Christ … the fellowship of the church … no one of us has everything needed; we all have something needed, and when we share together in the household God, good things happen, because we enrich one another with the gifts of life the Spirit gives to each of us.
There can be no arrogance in God’s people, nary a thought of being better than anyone else … arrogance is deadly, it’s divisive, its disordering … no one is better than anyone else … besides, we cannot know the heart of the other, can we? … so we cannot judge the other … no one can say,
I’m better.
I’m smarter.
I’m more spiritual.
I understand more of Christ.
I have a corner on the truth.
I’m closer to God.
I’m a better Christian than Joe or Jane.
Indeed, we may know a lot.
We may have tremendous experiences in the things of God.
Our lives can be exemplary.
But all of it is of God …
Of ourselves?
We’re not competent in the things of God … it’s of the Spirit who we are, and what we do ... and of the Spirit, we have competence to be ministers of the new covenant.
We can do all things … in Christ … not on our own, nor by our resolve or strength of character … but in Christ, and by Christ, by the Spirit … we are, one and all, ministers of the new covenant.
Herein Paul treats the second temptation - despair. If arrogance is the first temptation, despair is the second. If, in the first instance, we’re tempted to think too highly of ourselves, in the second, we debase ourselves and think ourselves unfit for the kingdom of God.
Despair about our spiritual state is the second great temptation … yes, sometimes our spiritual state is lousy.
Nothing new about that … tell the truth … be honest … our spiritual state is always marginal, fragmentary - our soul can be a tempest, and often is … a storm of dark clouds and harsh winds.
So the Evil One says to us: You see what a terrible person you are? You’re unfit for the kingdom of God. Why even bother showing up? Just go away; you’re no good, and you’ll never be any good.
Like Peter, after denying Jesus three times - Peter gives up and walks away; Peter returns to his nets and fish … overwhelmed by despair about his spiritual state.
Who am I to think that I could serve the LORD God Almighty?
That’s a good question, and Paul would approve. But it’s a question that demands a godly answer.
Unless we hear the godly answer, we might well decide in our despair that have no place in the kingdom of God, that we have no right to be here … that God can’t use us because we’re so messed up.
But we DO have a place in the kingdom of God … all of us, each of us, everyone of us - we have a role to play in God’s mighty purpose, the new covenant, the reshaping of the world, to bring life where there’s death … hope where there has been too much defeat … peace where there is war and rumors of war … healing and health and goodness and mercy …
All of us have a place in the kingdom of God ...
Because of the Spirit.
The Spirit gives us life …
The Spirit gives us competence …
The Spirit takes hold of our lives, and moves us along.
Like Saul on the Damascus Road …
Matthew at his toll booth …
Peter with his nets and fish …
The Spirit takes hold of our lives and moves us along …
Of ourselves, we’re not competent, yes, yes, yes … we must know that, lest arrogance take root in our soul … but of the Spirit, we have competence … of the Spirit, of God, and that we must know, too, lest despair take root in our soul.
And so the twin temptations of the Evil One are defeated … arrogance and despair.
Rabbi Simcha Bunim taught that every person should carry two pieces of paper, one in each pocket: in one pocket "For me the world was created." and in the other pocket, "I am but dust and ashes."
When we have moments of self loathing take out the first; in moments of grandiosity the second.
Our souls are poised between greatness and nothingness; in knowing both are we blessed [1765–1827; one of the main leaders of Hasidic Judaism in Poland].
All of this by the Spirit …
And how does the Spirit come to us?
How do we know it’s of God?
The Spirit comes to us in the strangest of ways sometimes …
The Spirit can be a small, insistent voice calling us beyond ourselves to that which we don’t even fully know … You can do it; yes, you can; you really, really can do it!
The Spirit can be a desire to strive for something greater than the profanity of the average day …
The Spirit can give to us the courage to say “yes” to life in spite of all the junk we’ve experienced … around us, and within us.
The Spirit can reveal to us that we’ve hurt someone … and then the Spirit helps us to find the right words that might restore the relationship …
The Spirit can give us a love that enables us to move a little more easily with someone we might not otherwise like … to look with a little more care at someone in whom we might otherwise have no interest …
The Spirit can conquer our sloth, when we cease striving for what we know to be the aim of our life … don’t give up … stay the course … be patient and endurance
[thanks to Paul Tillich for his thoughts about how the Spirit comes to us].
A thousand different ways and means … the Spirit comes to us us …
To give us life.
To the glory of God.
Amen and Amen!
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