The Joy of Glory

As I’m sure many of you have already pondered, it is quite remarkable that this pandemic has aligned with this Christian season of sacrifice and longing. For the greater societal good, governments around the world request we social distance and have only the most necessary businesses operational, sacrificing our social lives and our finances. Many of us have lost jobs and feel useless sitting at home doing nothing. Or these changes have made it difficult for us to maintain healthy habits or work from home efficiently. We have been forced to endure a Lenten season of sacrifice in a rather unexpected way: we didn’t get to ​choose​ this sacrifice, God determined it for us, and it looks like this sacrifice won’t end until long after Easter Sunday 2020. This sacrifice doesn’t have a known end date, and we get no “cheat days.”

2 Corinthians 8:9 is a helpful reminder in this unique season that Christ’s sacrifice did not consist solely of Holy Week. His suffering was long. The sum total of his suffering was not his arrest, trial, scourging, humiliation, and death, though clearly they are the climax of all his suffering. It began long before when the Son of God put down his right to glory as God, to dwell among sinful people in a broken world. It began when a baby was born to a virgin, having left the riches of glory to be with his spiritually impoverished people, his creation who rejected him in the garden and continued to reject him to the point of killing him on the cross. He put down the richness of his divinity. He took on the poverty of humanity. He left his royal status as an eternal inhabitant of heaven to become a temporary resident of earth, facing all the trials and difficulties we do: hunger, thirst, weariness, meanness, and rejection.

And he’s God! He didn’t ​have ​to endure any poverty. His riches are eternal; he gave them up. That is the grace Paul speaks of here in 2 Corinthians: Jesus’ whole life on earth was a sacrifice, and he endured it willingly for the sake of us. He left the presence of God the Father to be in the presence of an undeserving people in order that they… in order that we… could be made deserving. He left the richness of the presence of God so that we could one day enjoy that very same presence. He endured the poverty of this broken world so that we could receive forgiveness and be restored to God. One day we will enjoy this richness in full in the new heaven and the new earth, in the new Jerusalem where we will finally be in the glorious presence of our Lord forever and ever.

Christ became poor so that we might become rich. As we endure this pandemic-induced lifestyle of sacrifice, let us remember that though he was rich, Christ became poor so that we might–now in part, later in full–enjoy the richness of the Lord.

Reflection
It’s good to remember that the Apostle Paul lived with a lot of uncertainty. In our text for today Paul reveals that he is being guided by God to go towards Jerusalem. Yet, it is a journey of uncertainty. He does not know the exact purpose or what will happen to him. It seems that all he knows is that suffering awaits (If I had to pick one thing to know, I’m not sure that would be it).

Still…Paul does not know what will be the end of his suffering… Will this lead to death? Once again… He doesn’t know… but he is certainly prepared for that possibility.

One would think that this knowledge of suffering would lead Paul in a different direction. But it doesn’t… Why? Paul remarkably does not see his own life as a possession to hold onto at all costs. For Paul, what matters more than his own life is finishing the course that God has prepared for him… No matter the end.

As I read Paul’s speech here, he almost feels like an otherworldly figure… The call on his life, and the suffering he was faced with, feels so far removed from my daily christian existence (I type this as I sit in my office wishing the temperature was 72 degrees rather than 73).

I need to be careful though because to make this all about what Paul did would be to remove myself from God’s story of redemption… It would be to make myself an audience member instead of a fellow actor called to take up my cross.

I need to be reminded that God has gifted and placed all of us in a specific moment to accomplish his purposes in creation whether we are a student, stay at home mom, plumber or retired.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul writes, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”

Here, Paul is telling the readers that when they become Christians it doesn’t mean that have to change what they are doing in their life – marriage, parenting, social station or job in order to live holy and pleasing lives before the Lord.

In the context of the chapter it’s clear that Paul is talking about everyday work. He uses the words “assigned” and “called” to refer to everyday tasks in society. Just as God calls people into faith and gifts them for building up the church so God calls and equips believers with various abilities and talents to work for the good of the community.

All of us, no matter how ordinary it may seem, are called with Paul to lay down our lives for the ministry that God has given us… All of us in our various vocations have a singular mission: the Glory of Jesus Christ. With this calling there will inevitably be uncertainty and a particular type of suffering.

So let’s mediate and wrestle with the reality that our lives are not our own. Lets ponder together what it looks like for us in our various vocations to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. All of us have been called. All of us have a race to run. All of it matters. Amen.