2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-15
Brethren, it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
LUKE 6:31-36
The Lord said, "As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."
What’s that smell? It smells like death. Did something die in here? We’ve all had that moment, right? The moment when your nose fills with something rotten and you do your best to hold your breath. Quick! Find it! Get it out of here! The smell of death and rot is the worst. So, did you know that’s what we all smell like? Or at least we’re supposed to.
We read a passage today from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. To give some context to our passage, I’m going to jump just a bit earlier in the same letter. It is there that Paul says: “We are for God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved, as well as among those who are perishing. To the one we are the scent of death leading to death, and to the other the scent of life leading to life.” Now that’s special. We are called by God to bear the fragrance of Christ, and that fragrance is to some the stench of death, but to others the aroma of life. So, yes, to much of the world, we stink of death.
This letter was addressed to Corinth, a very prominent city in the Roman world. Rome had largely taken control of Greece at the end of the Second Macedonian War, around 150 BC, by leveling Corinth and forcing Macedonia and their Greek allies to surrender. By the time Paul is writing, 200 years later, it has been rebuilt and is serving as the provincial capital of Greece for Rome. As such, it was a very metropolitan city, attracting Romans, Syrians, Egyptians, and Jews from around the empire. And as Paul attempted to bring all of these diverse peoples together within one church, it was likely inevitable that there would arise differing factions. This is perhaps why Paul dwells so much on themes of the proud being humbled and God’s preference for the weak.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul had written, “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: So that no flesh should glory in his presence.” St. John Chrysostom points out in his commentaries on Corinithians that the Lord has always worked in this manner. He has always elevated the weak and toppled the strong. “In the Old Testament,” he wrote, “whole hosts were turned to flight by gnats and flies, wherefore also he called the caterpillar his mighty force; and in the beginning, by only confounding tongues, he put a stop to that great tower of Babylon. And in their wars, too, at one time, he routed innumerable hosts by three hundred men; at another he overthrew cities with trumpets; and afterwards by a little and poor stripling, David, he turned to flight a whole army. So then here also, sending forth twelve only he overcame the world; and those twelve persecuted and warred against.”
So Chrysostom sees no change in the Lord’s behavior between the time of the tower of Babel and the days of St. Paul. God has always aligned himself with the poor and oppressed. This is in fact how the Lord introduced himself to Moses in the burning bush, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land flowing with milk and honey.” The Lord hears the sorrows of his people.
And indeed he saves his people, working in the process many of the miracles cited above, freeing the enslaved Israelites and creating a free people. But after they live in the land of milk and honey for a time, they forget who gave it to them and begin to beg for a king to rule over them. In answer to this, Samuel declares, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you: And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us.” To God, Israel’s longing for a king is essentially a longing to return to slavery. Eventually, God relents and allows Israel to have a king, and gives this king the mandate to care for his people.
King David, the young stripling who had put armies to flight, rose to be one of the greatest of these kings. But even he was brought low. St. Paul alluded to one of his psalms in his letter this morning when he wrote, “I believed, and so I spoke.” This is an excerpt from Psalm 115. Let me read just a bit more from that text.
“The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, ‘All men are liars.’ What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
In this Psalm, David realizes that “the Lord preserves the simple” and that he needed to be afflicted and brought low before he was in a place where the Lord could help him. We are often too proud. It is difficult for the Lord to show us the way when we believe we already know it.
But when we are humble, when we are quiet, the Lord is able to work great things through us. St. Paul told us this morning, “Friends, it is the same God who said, ‘Let light shine out of the darkness,’ who now has shone in our hearts…But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” In the same way that God raised up slaves to become a free people, and raised a stripling boy to become a king, he has placed his divine image within our earthen bodies. And as with the kings of old, this gift came with a responsibility.
St. Paul goes on to say, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” Here we learn that it is specifically as we are persecuted that the image of God is most fully manifest in our body.
For when Jesus was healing the sick and feeding the hungry and speaking the truth, the masses were more than ready to follow him. They paraded with him into Jerusalem shouting, “Hosanna! Glory to God in the Highest!” The world loves all of these things. And we are called to follow his example by feeding and healing and teaching. And it is easy to be excited about doing these great works. But when that same Jesus was captured, beaten, and mocked, those same masses cried out, “We have no king but Caesar!” It’s so much harder to follow our Lord’s example in the face of such crosses.
But that is what we are called to do. And it is there that we take up the fragrance of Christ, the fragrance that is the stench of death to those who are dying but the aroma of life to those being saved. So what does Christ smell like to you? What do you see when you look at the cross? Is it an instrument of death or the tree of life?
How we answer that question will have a lot to do with how we greet the crosses in our own life. If we cannot see the potential for life in the cross of Christ, we will have difficulty seeing it in our own crosses. Listen to the words of St. Mark the Ascetic: “It is a great virtue to accept patiently whatever comes and, as the Lord enjoins, to love a neighbor who hates you. The sign of sincere love is to forgive wrongs done to us. It was with such love that the Lord loved the world.”
St. Paul says something similar to the Corinthians: “We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” Christ is manifest in us when we meet tribulations, distress, and tumult – when we meet our crosses – with patience, kindness, truth, and love.
These same virtues were also taught by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them….But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Love your enemies? To the world that looks like weakness. Give and expect nothing in return? That is foolishness! But that kind of weakness, that kind of foolishness, is in truth the power and wisdom of God. For “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
There will be those who visit our space here and won’t recognize it as a church. Maybe they expect a bigger building or more people. Or maybe they expect to find a charismatic preacher at a pulpit. But the truth is that Jesus does not need buildings so large they can hold hundreds or thousands of people, what he wants are hearts so large they can love the entire world. And Jesus does not need a prestigious congregation; he would much prefer two or three who are able to interact with one another in humility and grace. And he has no need for revolutionary speeches, for the power to transform the world is much more likely to be found in prayerful hearts.
The masses will always seek a spectacle, and the skeptics will always seek proofs: And all we will ever have to offer is Christ crucified and ourselves crucified with him. This will always be a disappointment to the masses, and nonsense to the skeptics. But to those who are being saved, who recognize in the cross the scent of life, it is our love that in the end will best display the wisdom and power of God - to whom be all glory honor and worship, forever. Amen.