A Slight Momentary Affliction

By Rev. Chris Jorgensen
February 27, 2022
Video of entire service: https://www.facebook.com/hanscomparkchurch/videos/1474213809640339

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:6-10, 15-18

So we’ve been spending a lot of time in the gospels during this sermon series, but I am letting the Apostle Paul have the last word here. The scripture we heard today is from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Here in this section, we find Paul talking about the relationship between the human condition and the divine condition. 

Paul uses this metaphor that we have the treasure of God’s presence (we have this divine condition) in clay jars. Our human bodies, our human condition is like a clay jar. Clay jars are not the fanciest or strongest containers. They get cracked. They are not super durable. Just like those jars, we humans are fallible. Sometimes we are broken. Sometimes we are fractured. 

Paul notes that as humans, as these clay jars, we are going to experience difficulty. This is a just fact to him. We will have difficult experiences and difficult emotions as a response to those experiences. Paul knows that life is hard. He knows that trying to be a faithful follower of Jesus and do ministry is especially hard. It has challenges, unexpected bumps in the road, failures, rejection. Paul has experienced all of that, but when he talks about it here, he uses the plural “we” to warn the Corinthians: you are going to experience these hardships, too. 

Paul writes, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Yes, our challenges and emotional responses are real. We ARE perplexed. We ARE afflicted. We ARE crushed sometimes. Our human bodies and our human minds experience all kinds of suffering and hardship. We have all kinds of human feelings, and as we have been discussing, some of them are positive, and sometimes we struggle. All of us. Emotional responses are part of the human condition.

Paul would agree this is true! Yet Paul here jumps in here with a “But God.” Yes, we all struggle he says…But God. God is in these clay jars, and we hold something more essential, more real, more everlasting than our momentary afflictions. As Christians, there is something in us that does NOT allow the hardship have the last word. Our hope is not in our own power. Our hope is in Christ: the God who transforms and sustains us.  

So Paul invites us to cast our eyes and our hopes not on what we can see. Paul directs our attention to the eternal. He wants us to hope for what cannot be seen, and he reminds us that the resurrection power of God transforms every affliction into possibility.

Yes we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair, struck down but not destroyed. Unexpected (and even expected) difficulties are part of the human experience. But God. Our being able to endure and overcome them TOGETHER is part of the divine experience. But it doesn’t stop there. Community is good. It is essential. We need each other. But what we are doing here together is so much bigger than me or you or even us in this building and online today.

We are part of a larger denomination, The United Methodist Church. We are United Methodists, and there are United Methodists all around the globe – over 12 million of us at last count. And we all have the same mission statement. It is “Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” 

Just like in every United Methodist church around the world, we have that mission here at Hanscom Park church. We do it in our particular way with our mission foci: embrace people as they are, share God’s love in word & deed, and grow in faith together. That’s the particular way this congregation is living out the mission of all United Methodists. But ALL United Methodists, ALL around the world, are following Jesus together so that we can transform the world to be more like God’s kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. 

Now, many of you know that part of the Methodist tradition is that our pastors do not get hired by local churches. We are appointed to serve by the Bishop. This brings some advantages. I mean – I would not be here if the Bishop had not appointed me nearly five years ago. And it also brings moments of affliction. 

I won’t beat around the bush here. Bishop Saenz has appointed me to another church starting on July 1st of this year. When I found out, it was as much a surprise to me as I’m sure it is to you. It is not something I was seeking. I thought for sure I would be here next year. 

But the Bishop and the cabinet have discerned that I will be the Senior Pastor at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church here in Omaha, and they are announcing this news in their congregation this morning as well. I want to assure you that because Pastor Peter is a Deacon, the cabinet cannot just sort of unilaterally move him like they can move me. So Pastor Peter will be here to continue his amazing ministry with New Americans and help with the transition to your new Senior Pastor. Our DS Chad Anglemyer will be meeting with the SPRC very soon to introduce the new pastor to them, and I expect the announcement of that person will happen within the next two weeks.

Okay, that’s a lot to process. Let’s practice what Pastor Peter taught us just a minute ago. Let’s take a few deep breaths. 

Let’s put up that feelings chart, can we AV Team? Take a few breaths. Just feel what you are feeling. Pick a word. Just one word. If you want, you can tell it to somebody sitting next to you. Folks online, share an emoji if you’d like. Maybe not the poop emoji. Or whatever – I’m sure the Bishop is too busy to watch this service.

Sorry –  I use humor as a coping mechanism. Take a few more deep breaths.

Okay, AV team you can put me back on the screen.

I want you to know that whatever you are feeling right now is okay. This is a big change. All change includes grief. Every change involves grief – even if it’s good change. Did you know that? When I first learned this, it blew my mind. Even it’s great, really wanted change (like when you have a baby for example), you will grieve the loss of what life used to be like. So even if you have been waiting to get rid of me, you will experience grief. Take that! 

Grief involves all kinds of emotions. If you think of that emotions chart, you might be somewhere in the blue (sad, disappointed, discouraged). You might be somewhere in the red (angry, uneasy, anxious). Maybe it’s not all bad for you, and you’re hanging out in the yellow being surprised. Maybe you have been through this pastor transition thing before and you are chilling in the green quadrant. 

I will tell you that I have been all over that chart since I first heard. I’ve definitely visited the blue and red quadrants. When I told our staff parish relations committee the news on Thursday (that’s always part of the process that they are informed first), I was feeling all those things, but they were so loving and understanding, that I could not help but feel green: touched and fulfilled and grateful. I am also in the yellow. I am hopeful because I know that you all are going to continue to follow where God is leading us. And when I think of all the amazing ministry we have done together and how we are going to celebrate the heck out of our time together in the next four months, I am joyful. 

But maybe most of all, I am grateful. I am grateful that Pastor Peter is going to be here to continue to lead you alongside your new Senior Pastor. I am grateful that so many people are so invested in the leadership of this church that you have everything you need to support one another and keep our good work going. I am even grateful that my heart is breaking because we have been foolish enough to love one another – which is always just a disaster waiting to happen. That is such a beautiful thing that we get to experience.

The last thing that I am grateful for is that when I go to St. Andrew’s, I know that we are all still in this work together. God’s dream for the world needs all of us: you and me and your new pastor and the people of St. Andrew’s. And I know that in and through and sometimes even in spite of all of us, God’s dream is going to continue to unfold in the future even though we can’t see it yet.

I’m going to need the Apostle Paul to take it from here:

“So we do not lose heart. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

May we trust that God will use these clay jars and create a future that is not just as good as it has been but is glorious beyond what we are able to imagine.

Thank you. I love you.

Amen.