“Authentic Faith: Letting God Shine Through”

Life as a fancy vase

What are we supposed to look like here at church?  Sometimes that issue can be a comical one…

Imagine a couple on their way to church.  In the car ride over, they are arguing over something.  Finances…housework…you name it.  They are frustrated with one another and they are mad.  But when they pull into the parking lot and head to Sunday school, they immediately turn on the smiles and the “how’re the kids?” and the handshakes.  They sit through the service and tell the preacher what a great message that was.  And then all the way home, they talk about how bad the sermon really was.

Sometimes it can be more disappointing…

Imagine… a co-worker says he can’t start going to church with you because “my life isn’t good enough.  I’ll start coming with you when I get myself back on track.”

Imagine… a Sunday school teacher steps aside from teaching her class, citing busy-ness.  But she tells close friends that the real reason she left is she was tired of trying to sound like she lived the perfect life every week.

Sometimes, it can be downright tragic

Imagine…a popular preacher steps down after a sex scandal and when his congregation asked him why he did it,  the surprising answer: “It was easier to make this mistake and get kicked out than to try and keep living up to the expectations.”

What do these stories have in common?  Expectations?  Perfectionism?  Unrealistic requirements?

I think all of these people feel the pressure of being fancy vases.  We have a fancy vase here and it looks like something that deserves to be looked at and admired.  It is something that looks like it should be put up on a pedestal.  It is something that should be placed in a place of honor.

So many times, we make the Christian life out to be some type of fancy vase.  And Christian leaders see those unrealistic standards the most: “I can’t teach that class…I’ve made too many mistakes.”  “I can’t make that kind of commitment…I don’t know enough.”  We set ourselves up to be fancy vases, who deserve to be held up and admired.

Paul as a fancy vase

For many people, the Apostle Paul was a fancy vase.  In the city of Corinth, a controversy brewed about Paul’s leadership.  Many held him up to be a fancy vase.  After all, Paul was the hero of the early church.  He was a hero of the missionary movement that took Christianity from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the ancient earth.  But as soon as he was placed up on the pedestal, there were other leaders, rival leaders, who started to question how fancy of a vase that Paul was.  They questioned whether he had the right credentials to lead them.  They questioned his personal life.  Apparently, there were visits that were tense and uncomfortable as they tried to assess if he was a fancy enough vase.

Paul as a Jar of Clay

But Paul shattered their expectations with the letter recorded in the 4^th chapter of his second letter to the Corinthans.  We read these verses:

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

We are not fancy vases, Paul says, but simple jars of clay.  A fancy vase was probably made with a long and extensive process with precious materials and tools.  But Paul is talking about something else:   Earthenware vessels made from mud and hardened.  They might well be used to carry water from the well to the home…jars that if they slip from someone’s hand and are broken, nobody would be too upset.  Paul sets himself next to the fancy vase and says, “I’m no fancy vase.  I’m a jar of clay.  Don’t put me on a pedestal to be admired.  My life is nothing special to look at.”

Inside vs. Outside

And for Paul, the metaphor continued:

It doesn’t matter what the container looks like.  It’s not about the outside that counts, but what is on the inside that counts. 

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

It doesn’t matter what the container looks like.  It is about what is inside of the container.  Now, we can take image too far, can’t we?  To say that it doesn’t matter what we do in our lives, that our choices and our lifestyles don’t matter and we can live however we want.  My point is not that our choices and our lifestyle don’t matter…do whatever you want and Go will still shine through in all we do.  Absolutely not.  It isn’t the case that our lifestyles as Christian witnesses do not matter.  And it isn’t the case that potential leaders don’t need to ask whether or not their lives are in a place where they can lead other Christians.

But we are all broken:

Paul’s point, however, and my point today, is how high we set the bar of expectations.  After all, isn’t it true that we are all broken?  None of us deserve to be put on the pedestal.  Listen to what Paul says about himself and his fellow leaders:

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

This is one of several examples in Paul’s writings of a hardship catalogue, or list.  He makes the point that he is not a fancy vase without chip or crack.  We are hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down.  We are not fancy vases.  We are all broken.

We all suffer brokenness in our lives.  To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the nature of suffering.  Look at Job and his friends, who thought it was his sin that caused him to suffer.  Look at the blind man that they brought to Jesus and asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents”.  Look at the Corinthians, who said that Paul must not be a good leader: look at all the suffering in his life.  All of them were looking for the same thing: A fancy vase.  Paul stands up again against this way of thinking: We are all ordinary.  We are all broken.  We are all normal, everyday pots of clay.  And we all have a few cracks.

The Good News I: in suffering, we identify with Christ

But here is the good news, straight from Paul’s pen.  This is the news that keeps me going.  Sometimes, it is in spite of or because of our suffering – in spite of our cracks – that we are able to identify with Christ.  Sometimes our afflictions are a sign of the strength of our faith, not a sign of its weakness.  Because, as Paul says, “Our present affliction leads to future glory”.  It is not about the here and now, the external, but about the eternal and the internal.  The unseen instead of the seen.  Our suffering allows us to identify with Christ

Mary was in hospice for the advanced stages of bone cancer.  She suffered terribly and at times said that she would do anything if only the pain would stop.  She often said that her illness had given her a new perspective on life.  And she never went as far as to say that she could presume to know what Jesus went through, but she definitely had a new understanding of the cries uttered in Scripture:

At times: “Lord, let this cup pass from me.”

And other times: “Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?”

In different ways and at different levels, many of us have been able to identify with Christ through our own suffering.

First Baptist, Topeka, we, too, are jars of clay.  We too, have had our share of suffering.  Our share of death.  Our share of loss.  Our share of brokenness.  And some will look at us from the outside and say, “What did they do wrong?”  Some will look at our brokenness and say, “Whose sin caused that problem?”

The Good News II: opportunity to share the Christ on the inside

And to continue Paul’s metaphor:  The good news is not about the container.  It is not about this set of expectations that someone puts on us from the outside.  It is what is inside of the container.  It is the ministry of the new covenant.  It is the hope of Jesus Christ.  Our call is to let God shine through our brokenness.  Our suffering allows us to be a witness to others to the power of Christ. 

Friends, we have seen our share of that as well.  I have seen those in this church that have taken their brokenness as a chance to share God’s love and hope.  I have seen those who have – like Paul – not run and hid from their brokenness, but used it as an opportunity to let God shine through the cracks.  They have not tried to be perfect or live up to everybody’s expectations.  They have not tried to hide their mistakes or pretend they are something they are not.

They have lived an authentic faith – one without pretense and perfectionism.  A faith that does not try to be a fancy vase.  Over the next weeks, we are going to explore what it means to live an authentic life…to let God shine in and through us.  Throughout the worship series, let this be our mantra:

There are no fancy vases.

There are no perfect Christians.  Only forgiven ones.  There are only Christians that have the chance to show the world what treasure they hold inside.  Friends, it’s our time to shine.