June 16, 2024 2 Corinthians 5:1–17 Series B
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
There is this guy that most of you probably haven’t heard of before, his name was Pliny. Yup. Pliny. Specifically, Pliny the younger, or junior I suppose. Anyway, He was a mid-level bureaucrat for the Roman Empire a long time ago. Historians remember him for a few important reasons. One, he seems to have been kind of a collector. He kept very, very detailed records. And this is a big deal for historians as his detailed collections: collections of letters, legal documents, diary entries, that kind of thing, they give historians a glimpse, a good glimpse of what life was like when he lived.
He is also important to us as Christians as he writes one of the oldest outside the bible accounts of Jesus, and is one of the first people to use the word, “Christian.” In his writings, he is asking the Roman Emperor himself for help in what to do with the Christians. You see, he has a problem. The Christians were converting people and that meant that people were not worshiping false gods anymore. That caused a problem for the economy as people didn’t buy stuff for offerings and idols, and temples and such.
So he asks the Emperor what to do about it. Ultimately they decide to make the Christians into Martyrs in one of the first well documented persecutions. But this is how he describes the Christians living in the year 112. This is in modern day turkey, where the Apostle John, the beloved disciple lived and died. Jonn died maybe 20 years before this letter was written. Here is what he says:
“"They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food - but food of an ordinary and innocent kind”
That’s a pretty glowing review from someone who is about to put you in prison and execute you for crimes against the Empire. To me, that seems like the kind of people you would want as citizens, but I guess Emperor Trajan and Governor Pliny thought differently.
I wanted to share this quote with you because I think there is something important we can learn here. We are not alone as we walk through this world. The world is increasingly hostile to what we believe, and how we act as Christians. And in the midst of this growing hostility, we look to people who endured hostile times before. People like these ancient Christians in Turkey 1900 years ago.
And when we look at them, and see what they did, we see that they embraced Paul’s teaching that we have today from 2 Corinthians. Hear again the words from our text, starting at verse 6, “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
They had eyes that saw. Eyes that focused on the truth, eyes that we could all use. Of course i’m not talking about 20/20 vision or being an airforce pilot or something like that. But eyes that see us as we truly are because of Jesus Christ.
Paul in our text today tells us that what we see of ourselves is like a tent, like camping. It’s fine for a little bit, but it’s not a true home. So it is. What we see right now is fine for a little bit, but not our true and lasting home. This is something that all of us struggle with. We are too focused at time on the tent, and not enough on the home.
It’s no secret that I like camping. I always have. My brother does too, it’s something we grew up with, and something I am now blessed to share with my wife and children. I vividly remember as a child there was this camping/outdoor store a few blocks away from where I lived growing up. My brother and I would walk to this store with a pocket full of money from our paper route and we would just dream, dream of being able to buy some new camping gadget, like a flint to strike to build a fire without matches, or a sweet pocket knife, or whatever. It was so easy to get sucked up in that, into that store, dreaming about being in the tent, that we would forget about our home.
And we do that now. It’s so easy to get sucked into the world of the here and now and treat the things that we see as though they are what is lasting, and what matters of the utmost importance. And we don’t see with the eyes that Paul tells us about, eyes that see the truth. The truth being that everything we see will pass away. Nest eggs, property, homes, gadgets, pocket knives, it doesn’t last. It’s just for camping now.
What does lasts is Jesus Christ and the home he is building for us in paradies. A home that he purchased for us with his precious blood, shed on the cross. A home to which was paved a road by his righteousness, to which he calls us, on which he leads us and guides us as our good shepherd. A home that we didn’t build, buy, or earn, but was given to us solely out of God’s divine love, his mercy and goodness.
And we ask for eyes to see this. To see through the tent, to see through every aspect of our lives that would pull us away from this goal, eyes to see what pulls us away from Christ and from our salvation.
Those Christians in ancient turkey could see the tent. Their gatherings at church were focused not on stuff of the world, but on living a life pleasing to God. Living a life which remembers what God has done. They saw the things that last into eternity: You. Stuff won’t enter into paradise, but you will. And their lives reflected that. They treated everyone as though they were made in God’s image. They didn’t lie or cheat to get ahead. Their word was their word. They kept their oaths. They lived decent and holy lives. They lived in chastity.
Well they tried too. They were sinners too. So they gathered each week to encourage one another to do these things. To help each other in their struggles. Is someone among us struggling with lying? Let’s help them out. Is someone struggling with unchastity? Let’s help them out. Is someone not keeping an oath? Let’s help them. Let’s encourage them to live a life in Christ.
How? By teaching about what Jesus has done. They sang hymns. They read scripture. They told what Jesus did. And they were refreshed and renewed in the Lord’s Supper, to receive forgiveness. To be strengthened to holy living. To ask God for help to see one another to see the world in the way that he does.
And I would like that to be the goal here at St. Paul’s. That we would encourage one another to see the way God does. That we would walk alongside one another and help each other out, encouraging each other to be pious, to live as God asks us too. To share our struggles. To bear each other's burdens.
And most importantly, to tell each other about Jesus. To constantly remind each other about what Jesus has done for us. To remind each other about how Jesus rose from the dead and our sins are forgiven. That this tent is passing and a greater home is in store for all of us. Because of Jesus.
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