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When I made my first visits in a congregation as a vicar, I experi-enced something strange, though it was quite normal for that region of Germany. As soon as I was invited into the entrance door, people more or less pushed me into a special, second and very neat living room of the house. It was mostly a room, which is only used on special occasions or when special visitors come to visit. I found it strange not only because of the thought of having such a second living room. It seemed odd to me, because I very often ex-perienced that the air in these rooms was stale, which indicated to me that these rooms don’t get used very often, which is either sad or a waste. However, the intention to present ones home – and with it oneself – in a neat and presentable way, is most certainly also known to us, even though not necessarily in the same way. But I am pretty sure that even South Africans would try to conceal an untidy room from you, if they would have you as a guest in their house. It tells us something about good hosting, if everything appears neat and tidy. It hides on the other hand the reality of our daily routine, or the trouble and effort, which one puts into the preparation for a visi-tor, if one conceals for instance the kitchen with all the cooking equipment that is still dirty. What I actually want to point out to you by means of this very common behaviour of hosts is the following: This behaviour shows, how we, very often, deal with each other or with ourselves in other areas of our lives: in our relationships, in our jobs etc. Or don’t we prefer to see and present ourselves in a positive way, while we tend to blind out where there is chaos and frustration in our lives, or things that we haven’t managed? We do, don’t we! We wouldn’t include our weak points in an application for a job that we desperately want to get, would we? Neither would we admit a lapse, if we had to fear that our reputation would suffer severely, or our relationship could end because of it! Now Paul says: Such an attitude and behaviour is not only unnecessary in a Christian congregation, it is fatal. And with today’s word for the sermon, Paul points out why it is like this. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthians he writes as follows:
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Just to give you the background of these words for a better understanding: Paul just escaped the danger of death. A couple of verses after today’s word for the sermon, he writes about a situation, in which he had already given himself up. He was ready to die, he says. So he must have been in a very poor condition. However in the midst of this depression he experienced something that built him up again – Christ’s comfort as he puts it. He experienced, how he got strengthened and redeemed by a power that was definitely not his own, but Christ’s, as he says; a divine help, which enables people to endure even the most hopeless situations of sorrow and tribulation. It is this experience that determines Paul also in view of the Co-rinthian Congregation and its particular situation, for Paul’s words are part of a serious dispute with members of this Congregation. However being assured of God’s help and comfort, Paul does not fear this quarrel, but has the best hope for the future of the Corin-thians. He even speaks positively about them, because he knows that God’s help proves itself, when one is stuck and isn’t able to help oneself anymore. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the best example, as Paul indicates: Jesus prayed for instance for God’s mercy in the garden of Geth-semane, crying, because he was so frustrated and burdened. He was frustrated about His best friends, who would abandon him, being afraid to share his fate; a fate that was caused by one of his friends who had sold him to his opponents. And he was ultimately burdened with the guilt of the entire world. Nonetheless Christ surrendered himself in this deepest depression into God’s will, trusting in God’s help. So he died, but eventually was raised from the dead by God’s glory. Thus he became the proof of God’s help that proves just in situations, in which we aren’t able to help ourselves anymore.
Sharing exactly these kinds of experiences is, what helps and comforts us in faith, says Paul. Christians shouldn‘t therefore stay with the neat and tidy areas of their lives, pretending to each other that everything is just fine. Because: First of all, we know that it isn’t everything just fine. And secondly it doesn’t help us at all to pretend that everything is just fine. It makes us rather lonely. Paul therefore invites the Corinthians as well as us today to be open to one another as Christians, and not to hide the untidy areas of our lives at all costs. Because: Only if we are open and straight with one another, we can give each other the chance of mutual comfort. This is by the way, what makes us as Lutherans so unique: Following Paul we do not pretend that we as Christians are free from error. To be reborn by God’s Spirit does not make us sinless and perfect; it makes us trusting in God’s forgiveness and help, and seeing the sense of his good will; a will that shows us our errors and helps us to make it better. And how else should someone hope for God’s comfort, if this person doesn’t learn about God’s sincere help from other Chris-tians? How else should someone hope for God’s comfort, if he or she doesn’t hear from his brothers and sisters in faith that God has helped them in situations of affliction, sickness, mourning, when they were hurt, burdened or lonesome? To be open for the sorrows of others as well as to be open in view of one’s own weak points, this is it, what Paul invites us to do. This is it, what gives us the chance to comfort each other by shar-ing the experience of God’s help with one another. And I say it again, this applies to everyone in our congregation, who shares the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. Because: Each experience of God’s help – and not only the Pastor’s experience –can serve to edify the congregation in its spiritual life. AMEN |
