Matthew 28: 16-20
SERMON TITLE: “And That’s About It!
SCRIPTURE:
2 Corinthians 13:11-13 [MSG] [other]
And that’s about it, friends.
Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.
Genesis 1:1-2:4 [MSG]
it was so good, so very good!
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever made something in life far more complicated than it needs to be, mainly so you just won’t have to deal with the implications of the plain, simple truth? As an illustration, I was tempted to show a short video I listened to that, in concise, incomprehensible terms, explains why physicists have a problem with using Schrödinger’s linear equation for quantum mechanics to resolve real-world examples of chaos, as demonstrated in the unpredictable orbital orientation of Saturn’s moon, Hyperion. I said I was tempted; I didn’t actually bring it.
Today is Trinity Sunday, which highlights one of the most unfathomable mysteries of the Christian Church. Still, from the lectionary readings prescribed for today, we’re going to hear about God’s version of our world as recorded in Genesis and a short exhortation from Paul the Apostle in his second letter to the church in Corinth. I am hoping that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, who together created and sustain all things, will convince you of just how simple, clear and unadorned is the plan of salvation, redemption and restoration that was conceived from the very roots of creation. And as Paul wisely concludes, “And that’s about it!”
SERMON:
I must admit that I have enjoyed, since my retirement, attending McGill University and studying for a Bachelor of Theology degree. Under the tutelage of learned professors, we often study the ancient writings of what are known as the Church Fathers, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Augustine of Hippo, to name only a few. Over the course of 700 years, these and many other scholarly clerics produced thousands of pages of argumentation defining and establishing the belief and practice of the early church and weeding out heretical doctrine.
Most of us today have encountered someone who protests they will have nothing to do with the church or formal Christian religion because of the alleged atrocities that have transpired in its name. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me, “I just can’t believe in a god who would allow that to happen!” They have their own, “just get along together” spirituality, which prompts me to bite my tongue before saying, “as long as your needs are met first.”
However, I’m inclined to agree with them. In fact, they don’t know the half of it. Professor Kirby conducts a lively and enlightening class on church history from its inception with Peter and Paul up to the 14th century. The big question the church, which was not, as yet, a universal institution, was trying to answer was this idea of the Trinity, the triune nature of God, and exactly how much of Jesus was God and how much was temporal human, and how did these parts interact?
This was considered so fundamental and vital that, over 400 years between 325 and 787 AD, the church of the known world held seven ecumenical councils to address these questions and respond to perceived heretical views. The first, in 325 AD, was held at Nicaea, near Constantinople, from which we have the Nicene creed. The Apostles’ and other confessional creeds used today would follow from further councils.
What followed as well was a lot of persecution of fellow Christians who didn’t align themselves with the doctrinal flavour of the month. The watchword of the church for hundreds of years was schism. Whichever opinion won the scholarly vote would silence all other discussion, branding it as heresy that needed to be eradicated from their midst. However, if the alleged heretics had aligned themselves with a local political authority, they could promote their beliefs until a political solution occurred, usually, in a religion-inspired blood bath.
I am often thankful that St. Edward’s history only goes back 192 years; however, if you take Professor Kirby’s course on church history from 1300 to the present, we have very, very little to be proud of, even in our age of ‘woke’ ‘bespoken’ enlightenment.
The Apostle Paul has had some very strong things to say to the Corinthian believers in both of his letters. The church is factious, sexually immoral, and misguided in practice, worship, doctrine, and fellowship—a kind of “everything that can go wrong” scenario. The second letter is a little more encouraging than the first because he has heard that they have listened and taken steps to begin correcting the issues. So he concludes his admonitions with the passage we heard read today, “Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable.”
So what’s that all about? No, right doctrine of the Trinity. Nothing about The Breaking of Bread, how it’s done or who can do it. Nothing about Baptism or proper church forms. What to say, wear or sing. Not even advice on how often and how long to pray and read the scriptures each day. How about, at the very least, telling them to attend church once a week and give generously. Nadda, nothing. When Paul wants to end off by really getting down to the heart of the matter, to what’s really essential, what’s really important. Nothing we love to uphold as vitally important even gets a mention.
“Be cheerful.” Well, there’s a tough one. Try that on a daily basis if your relationship with Jesus isn’t working so well. “Keep things in good repair.” Maybe you think that’s just Peterson’s liberal translation, so I’ve included some others for comparison. “Be restored” or “be perfected” are the most common. I think we can easily see this as Paul telling us to keep all our relationships in good repair. Each in its appropriate place and function.
“Keep your spirits up,” I don’t think Paul is reiterating “be cheerful”. The other translations say “be comforted” or “be encouraged.” I think it’s much like the fruit of the Spirit, joy. Something that springs from within that gives us what the Bible calls, Shallom. A deep sense of well-being that restores peace.
“Think in harmony.” Yes, you’re right, we all just failed the exam. This is probably the toughest of Paul’s encouragements, even more so than his final one, “be agreeable.” You see, being agreeable simply requires you to love each other and get along. Ok, not always so simple, but I only suggested that it was easier than thinking in harmony. To think in harmony, you have to find it in yourself to be truly humble. To put your thoughts on what’s right, wrong, and necessary in the trash. Humility requires complete faith.
You’re trusting that God the Holy Spirit is thoroughly able, without any help, intervention or judgment of yours, to manage the affairs of His church. Such that it becomes more important to be in harmony of mind than to be what you think is right. Complicating the Gospel and standing up for right doctrine and against perceived heresy is what bathed the early church in controversy, disunity, dishonesty, and even innocent blood. God may, at some time, call you to stand in the breach, but be very clear that it is God’s call against every fibre of your being seeking same-mindedness, not yours.
“Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure.” However, as Paul knew his Corinthian audience did, I already know that for the God of love and peace to be with me, for sure, Jesus Christ has to be living in my heart. Without forgiveness and salvation, the Holy Spirit working in my life, I’ll never even come close to Paul’s admonition, “Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable.”
It’s not “Power of Positive Thinking” ideology or ancient self-help guidelines; Buck up and make the best of it; Get along or get out! Paul is saying that if Jesus is Lord of your life, then this is how you’ll live in His creation. And that’s very much the point, isn’t it? It’s His creation, and you are a part of it. We forget sometimes that we are part of day six. We weren’t moulded of heavenly stuff and set down here to suck up creation’s juices for our benefit, as humans, Christians or the Church. We’re here to be cheerful and agreeable and keep things in good repair and our spirits up.
Listen to what God says as he creates:
“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.”
This is the stuff of creation. A chaos of quantum physical matter to which we owe our existence. It is God’s Word that, step by step, day by day, speaks order into his creation.
Over and over, the process is repeated: “God spoke,” followed by “God saw that it was good.” Order came to chaos, and the potter formed the clay. God made humans from this same stuff, but especially endowed them with the qualities needed to reflect His nature so that they, we, could cooperate together, taking care of His creation. He made us cheerful and able to keep things in good repair, keep our spirits up, and think in harmony, being agreeable with one another. But we used our God-given abilities to satisfy our own desires instead of caring for each other, so we could, together, care for creation.
Now we find it so very difficult, I dare say impossible, to embrace Paul’s five imperatives so that the God of love and peace will be with us in creation, for sure. Paul saw through all the complicated arguments, disputations, deflections, and questioning of the church fellowship in Corinth. In his letters, he systematically sifted through each one, setting them aside to point to Christ crucified, and nothing else, concluding, “And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure.”
Amen