2 Corinthians 13:11-13

The Lectionary Epistle reading tonight/ this morning is from the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13. I want to say just a word to put this passage into a context for us today, before we read it. 

The Corinthians were Paul’s… well, they were his problem children. You know what I mean? They struggled with their faith more than any of the others. They struggled with building new ways of doing things into their lives – the old way kept rearing it’s head up. They struggled with issues like humility, and putting others first, and wanting to be the center of attention; they struggled with issues within the church like unity, and forgiveness, and basic stuff like that. And there were some moral issues as well. In other words, they were real people! 

And so Paul ended up not only writing more to the Corinthians than to anybody else (two letters, 29 chapters!) but we can be thankful for all the issues that the Corinthians had because as a result of them, we’ve ended up with some of the most important New Testament teachings that we have about how a church works. 

We find more in these letters about Spiritual gifts than anywhere else, more on unity, on marriage, on Christianity in the marketplace, on Communion and the Resurrection, and of course possibly the greatest chapter in all the New Testament – 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter”… was written to these struggling Christians.  “Now, let me show you a more excellent way!” 

Ok, my point here is that there is a lot of stuff brewing behind these two letters to the Corinthians; and Paul has had to be rather firm – direct - with them at times.  So, I think that this context makes his ending all the more significant. How does Paul sum up all the teaching, all the instructions, all those warnings that he has just given them in the previous 29 chapters? 

Well, he ends with a clear call for this church to constantly examine themselves, and put themselves to the ‘test’ to be sure that ‘they are in the faith’.  That’s what he writes in verse 5: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”  Now, since he’s writing to a church, that’s pretty significant!  They are there, presumably, because of their faith in Christ. And Paul’s final word is: “Make sure you remain Christians!”  Check yourselves constantly on this. 

Today’s Lectionary reading is actually only verses 11 – 13, but I’d like to read this passage beginning with verse 5 for a larger context. And I’m going to read it from “The Message” which, I think captures the urgency of Paul’s words:  hear the Word of the Lord… 

  Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won't show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours. We're rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn't possibly do otherwise.

   We don't just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.

    I'm writing this to you now so that when I come I won't have to say another word on the subject. The authority the Master gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. I want to get on with it, and not have to spend time on reprimands.

    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. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello. 

I was thinking that this is a very appropriate passage for this important weekend in our church. In our celebration of Pentecost (one week late), we are welcoming new members and our confirmation class into full membership in this congregation. Something like 30 new members, and 23 in the Confirmation Class of ’08.  We are welcoming people into every service which is important because part of our membership liturgy (as well as our Baptism liturgy) is where you – the congregation – affirm your commitment to Christ and your commitment to this local church. 

In effect, while some are making vows here for the first time, others of you will re-affirm vows previously made, and say in front of God and all the witnesses around us – “Yes, Lord. I still believe this. I still intend to do everything I can to fulfill my promises to you.”  That is surely not something to be taken lightly. These are more than mere words. 

One of our new members asked a really significant question in one of our classes. (Actually they asked it to Pastor HeyYoung.) “If I can receive all the benefits of being a member without actually joining – i.e., I can participate in the services, volunteer, I’ll be taken care of when I’m hurting, even be elected to most positions of leadership – why would I bother to join?”  HeyYoung’s answer: “Ask Pastor Steve!” 

Well they did! And I tried to point out the difference between attending and joining in three statements:

1. There is something very significant about a public proclamation of our faith.  Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  It’s one thing to have an inner belief, it’s another thing completely to stand up and be counted – to make this inner belief public. And apparently, both are necessary. 

2. There are different expectations for a ‘member’ than for an ‘attendee’ in a congregation. When someone stands up and commits themselves to a community of faith, we form a Covenant bond with each other.  That means that we are going to expect some things from you – those very things that we agree to in our membership vows (matters of faith and witness, and to support the church through our presence, our prayers, our gifts and our service.) 

3. (The other side of #2) Joining the church changes the perspective from “I” to “We.” Yes, there are expectations of the members, but just as importantly we, in turn, have expectations of ourselves to you as well. Or put it like this – in joining this congregation, you are not only committing to us, we are committing to you. We are going to support you in your walk with Christ. We are all going to hang in there with each other, because we are in a covenant bond together. That means we’re not going to walk away when it gets tough. We’re not going to shun people because we can’t agree on everything. We’re going to be patient with each other, forgiving one another, building each other up, because we realize that none of us is a finished work! Not yet. 

And this is the kind of thing that Paul is talking about in his closing words to the Corinthians.  “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith” – keep checking and make sure that what you do aligns with who you say you are. Make sure that your intentions are being borne out in your actions.  Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony… 

Paul’s assumption here is that there are some things about living as a Christian that should be obvious in each one of us. It’s who we are. Not that we’re all ‘cookie cutter’ images of each other, [that would be terribly boring!] but as we take on the mind and heart of Christ, it should make a difference – and some of those differences will be very similar in all of us. Seen in clear cut, obvious ways. So that we can test ourselves, and do these self-evaluations. 

There is a guy by the name of Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the U.K. Guardian. Hattersley is an outspoken atheist. And he had some interesting things to write recently in this regard of knowing what Christians ‘look like’. 

“It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian.” (Hattersley came to this conclusion after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the relief effort after Hurricane Katrina.) 

“Notable by their absence,” he says, were “teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity.” According to Hattersley, it is an unavoidable conclusion that Christians “are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others.” 

Hattersley also notes that this pattern of behavior goes beyond disaster relief:

“Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment. 

“The only possible conclusion,” says Hattersley, “is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me.”[1]

Paul says, “Test yourselves to see that you are in the faith”.   It will be fairly obvious.

Harvard University researcher Robert D. Putnam announced these findings: 

   “Regular worshipers and people who say that religion is very important to them are much more likely than other people to visit friends, to entertain at home, to attend club meetings, and to belong to sports groups; professional and academic societies; school service groups; youth groups; service clubs; hobby or garden clubs; literary, art, discussion, and study groups; school fraternities and sororities; farm organizations; political clubs; nationality groups; and other miscellaneous groups.”

   “In one survey… “Regular church attendees reported talking with 40 percent more people in the course of the day.” …“About 75–80 percent of church members give to charity, as compared with 55–60 percent of nonmembers [and give considerably more, by the way] and 50–60 percent of church members volunteer, while only 30–35 percent of nonmembers do.…[2]

Paul says, “Test yourselves to see that you are in the faith.” Don’t take this for granted. People are watching. 

Robert Philip Hanssen, was a former FBI counterintelligence agent, who caused the worst intelligence breach in U.S. history. Ironically, this self-confessed traitor considered himself a devout Christian. Throughout his 25-year FBI career, Hanssen told friends and colleagues that without religion, men were lost. When FBI agents held going-away parties at strip clubs near the bureau’s headquarters, Hanssen refused to attend, saying it would be a sin. 

When he was arrested on charges that he’d been spying for the Russians since 1985, people who knew him were stunned. His closest friends and colleagues said they could only guess why a man who seemed to possess such strong Christian faith would engage in … espionage. A local paper, the Charlotte Observer, made this observation: he “must have been able to compartmentalize his life, deluding himself into thinking that espionage was simply an exciting intellectual challenge that had nothing to do with leading a good, moral Christian life.”[3]

Paul says, “Test yourselves to see that you are in the faith.”  The stakes are high; we are God’s witnesses in this world. We are his hands, his feet, his eyes… we are his voice. And o how the body suffers when one of his children fall in such public ways. 

It means something to make a vow to God. Whether you are a teenager, or an adult, whether you are making a vow for the first time, or reaffirming old commitments, it means something. 

This is important. These promises say something about who we are. There’s an expectation that comes with them – both within and outside these walls. We are God’s representatives – being the Body of Christ to each other and to a hurting world. It is a wonderful and fearful privilege. 

So, let’s do test ourselves… Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep our spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. [Because when we…] do all that, the God of love and peace will be with us for sure.

Amen.