Malcolm Rogers on 2 Corinthians 3, 27 February 2005
Ministry is another word for service. And we have seen how our ministry, our service of God, is nothing more and nothing less than the ministry, service of Jesus. Together, we are called to continue Jesus' ministry. Again I draw your attention to that verse at the beginning of Acts. Luke writes, "In my former book ... I wrote about all that Jesus began to do". The implication is that the work of the church is the continuing of Jesus' ministry, which will only be completed when Jesus returns from heaven.
That is why we have been given different gifts and different 'ministries', services. That is also why we need each other. Because on my own I cannot continue the ministry of Jesus, and on your own you cannot continue the ministry of Jesus. We can only do that together.
It is important because here in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul is defending his ministry, his service, against people who would pull it down. That is what he is going on about when he is talking about letters (v1). Other preachers have been coming the Corinthian church, and they've been bringing letters from other people recommending them. Before the Bishop in Eds and Ips appointed me to the post in Bury, he needed a letter of recommendation from the Bishop of London. Paul here is saying, "I don't need a letter of recommendation, because you - the Christians in Corinth are my letter of recommendation". I guess I could have said the Bishop of Edmundsbury and Ipswich, "Go to the people of Holloway. They will be my letter of recommendation"
What Paul is saying is not something that only applies to himself or to other people with a specific church based ministry. What he is saying can apply to each one of us, in our different ministries, in our different areas of service.
What we have here are the three tests of authentic Christian service.
- Does my service lead to Freedom?
- Does my service lead to Transformation?
- Does my service lead to Glory?
Before we look at them individually, we need to emphasise that Christian ministry is about people and not about things. Paul contrasts the old ministry, the ministry of what we call the Old Testament, with the new ministry.
The old ministry was about things. It was about a law written on stone. You will remember (Deuteronomy 10:3-5) that when God gave the law it was written on two stone tablets. That is what Paul is talking about here. It was something external to people. I read the law, I said "That is the way to live life", and I tried to live it.
The new ministry, service, is quite different. It is not about things. It is about people. It is about the Spirit of God writing the life of God onto our hearts
I had a few days away a couple of weeks ago to reflect back on the time that I have spent in this parish. Some of these sermons are a product of that. I began by thinking of the things that had happened: the building work, the projects that we've set up, the finances, the numbers of services or even numbers on the electoral role, the website, hoped for legal agreements, the sermon series. But in the end, although it is all important, it was coincidental. None of it really counts. Even the ramp, which I sincerely hope will last for many years, and long outlast me (apparently it has more solid foundations than the church, and should even outlast the building!), doesn't in the last analysis count. What really counts are the people. What counts is you. Because you are the ones who will last for eternity.
The test of our service for God is not the things that we do, but the people who we touch. I remember fairly early on having one of those inspirational moments when I can say that I heard God speaking to me. I didn't hear a voice, but I had one of those clear simple thoughts that cut right across my thoughts, and that it seemed so right, and it set me free. It came at a time when I was particularly cut up about the numbers of people coming along. And God said, "Forget the numbers. Love the people". Whether I have done that is another matter. But God was saying to me, "People matter more than statistics".
And of course most of our lives is spent dealing with things. Building things, making things, organising things, teaching things, buying things. We've seen how people in the Old Testament were given special gifts to do with things: gifts of artistry. But if we are working with things for things sake, then we need to stop and think. We need to ask ourselves: "How is what I am doing with things, going to bring blessing to people?" Because in the end, it is people that matter.
So let's look at the three tests of Christian ministry.
1. Does my service of God bring freedom to people? (v17)
The old ministry, the ministry that was to do with a thing, the written external law, the 'tablets of stone' (v3) brought condemnation. The law was good. It told people how to live life that was truly life. The problem was that people tried to follow the law, tried to obey the law, rather than putting their faith in the one who gave the law. And that brings condemnation.
The new ministry, the service that is led by the Spirit of God, and that is to do with 'human hearts' (v3) does not bring condemnation. It is about the Spirit of God coming into the life of a person, assuring them of God's love and forgiveness, and writing God's law on their hearts. What that means is that they find that they begin to desire to do God's word. They discover that, in the words of one of the old Anglican prayers, "God's service is perfect freedom".
Jesus challenges the Pharisees: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are". That should be a verse that is burned into the heart of every evangelist or missionary. What is the result of my work?
Do I tell a person, "Become a Christian, and you must do this or that. You must pray every morning. You must read your bible. You must come to church and receive communion. You must give at least one tenth of everything that you receive. You must live a good life. You must serve others".
And what happens? They are crushed. They start to think: "God will only love me if … I do all those things". Or they become incredibly arrogant: "I do all those things. I'm a really great guy". No, the gospel is about the God who says to us, "I love you; I have sent my son to die for you; I offer to put my Spirit in you; repent of the past, turn from living for self to living for me, and I will give you new life". Next week we will be looking at this in more detail. After that, it really is a question of, as Augustine put it, "Love God and do what you desire"
Jesus ministry brought freedom. He set us free from law, from the power of sin and from death. Our Christian ministry, if it is authentic, will bring freedom. It will not impose burdens on people. It will lift burdens from their shoulders.
That does not mean to say that it does not need to be challenging. I am constantly being asked for money. Most of the time, because I don't like conflict and desire an easy life, I give a voucher. But that does not set people free. I have recently found myself saying to people, "You are a human being made in the image of God. You have to take responsibility for your own life. You cannot blame others, or a situation, for who you are now." And for someone to take it on, it can be very hard and painful. It is like going through the red sea and the wilderness. But that is the path to freedom.
Are you someone who lays burdens on peoples shoulders and then condemns them when they don't do them, or are you someone who sets people free? That is the first test of authentic Christian ministry.
2. Does my service of God lead to transformation? (v18)
The goal of Christian ministry is to point people to Jesus so that people become like Jesus. This is really a consequence of what I have been saying earlier. If our Christian ministry, service, is authentic, people's lives will change. Paul in this passage mentions three ways that people's lives change. These are just a few of them
a) This service brings 'righteousness'. (v9: "If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!").
This service is not simply about telling people to do right. It is about empowering people to be right.
This service puts people right with God, right with others and right with themselves. Their relationships are right. They do the right things at the right time in the right place in the right way for the right reason.
Of course, lives do not change overnight. I hold onto that, when I look at myself. Jesus was perfect, holy, righteous, and he says, in the last verse of Matthew 5, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v48), and it is very easy to expect perfection from ourselves and others. Jesus was perfect, that is, he was fully righteous. But we are not, and we have to allow those lovely fruits of the Spirit to grow in us. And that requires time. And that requires that we look to Jesus.
b) This service brings real hope to people. (v12: "Therefore, since we have such a hope").
Not any hope. Many people's work brings false hope: "Buy the lottery ticket and you could win. It could be you." Or the television advert, "Buy this woman, and you could have this sofa as well".
And those of us who are in positions of Christian leadership, who are seen by people to be God's reps on earth, need to be very careful about this. People sometimes ask us to pray a blessing on them. What they are asking for is divine approval that God is looking over them and that they will get on well in life. And they will say that they have faith: and they do have faith, in the blessing. But that is not the sort of blessing that God gives. He does not promise us that life will go well for us, that we will be successful, that we will have children, that we will not experience suffering. Of course we can ask him for those things, and he wants us to, but in the end no Christian leader can promise that to another person. We may have a very very strong sense that God is going to do something in a person's life, that God is going to answer their prayer as they wish, but all it is and all it remains is a very very strong sense.
There are however certain hopes that we can offer that are very concrete and absolutely certain:
- The hope that if you look to Jesus, you will become like him.
- The hope that nothing can separate us from his love.
- The hope that he can bring good out of every situation for those who love him.
- The hope of eternal life.
That is the blessing that the church as a whole can give.
c) This service makes people bold. (v12)
One of the real delights of working with new Christians is to see how they become bold in their faith. One of the joys of the Alpha courses is hearing people say, "I would not have done it before, but I now have a confidence to tell people that I am a Christian". We usually get to this point just before we have the session on "Sharing our faith" (God often gives a practical to people just before the relevant session: which really annoys me because I find I could have saved myself a great deal of work in preparing for it). So I don't need to encourage them to do it, because they are already doing it.
Sadly we often lose that boldness as we grow as Christians. That might partly come from God given motives: we become more sensitive to others, and perhaps more sensitive to the working of God in a person's life. But it can also come from our sin-driven motives, what we can call our death-drive: "I know Christ, I know the hope that he gives, I know his transforming power - but I don't want to make myself unpopular, so although I'll say it in church, I'm going to keep silent outside church."
People like Paul, and evangelists, and mission enthusiasts are real pains. We accuse them of being insensitive and bombastic. But they are the challenge to us that our silence is not right.
Authentic Christian service makes people bold. Bold in their faith. Bold in their actions. Bold in their service. Bold in their words.
So authentic Christian ministry, service, points people to Jesus so that people can become like Jesus. It is about transformation of lives for life. V6: "The letter kills but the Spirit gives life". And as I have said before, it is wonderful that we have the privilege of having the Paradise Project and the Asylum Centre; it is wonderful that Christians from our churches serve at MLK, in local politics, in their places of work, at home. But if the people who are doing the service are going to do it as authentic Christian service, there has to be a word dimension. In authentic Christian service, actions and words go together.
3. Does my service of God bring glory?
This passage is soaked in glory. Glory or glorious is mentioned 11 times in the NIV translation. The old ministry brought glory. When Moses came from meeting with God his face shone (v7). The new ministry brings 'surpassing glory' (vv9-11).
We think of Jesus when he was transfigured. We think of Stephen when his face became like the face of an angel. And I think of some of the people who I have met: who are radiant.
I recently had the privilege of meeting the man who is going to become the next archbishop of Seoul. He was visiting London and was being taken on a tour of various church projects. He came to see the asylum centre. He was obviously very tired. At the end he took me by the hand and looked me in the face - I started to look at him, and after a brief moment I had to look down: because there was such a sense of God, of glory, in his face.
Glory is bigger than practical action. It is bigger than words. It is something that cannot be defined or described. Glory is what God is. It was shown when Jesus turned water into wine, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, when he was crucified.
Glory is infectious. It is like fire. Glory gives glory. We catch glory from the One who is glorious. Glory is shown when his followers bear fruit.
Glory is the destiny of creation: Romans 8:22, "The creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God". And Glory is our destiny: 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Glory: it is that indefinable god-like-ness. We can't describe it. We can only experience it. And we can, amazingly, begin to share in it.
So we need to ask if what we are doing, if our service at work, or in the home, or in the church, is a service that brings glory. Does it bring that sense of otherness, that sense of God?
Authentic Christian ministry, service, is ultimately about people
- Sets people free
- Brings transformation
- And brings glory
Our lives are intertwined. Who we are does affect the people who we meet, who we come in contact with, who we serve. That is why Paul could claim the Corinthian Christians as his letter of recommendation. That is why you can claim that the people who you serve, who you come into contact with, are your letter of recommendation. We look at them and then we can say something about you.
That is why I, to a degree, can claim you as my letter of recommendation. And that is why you, and this is more intriguing, because of your service to me, can claim that I am your letter of recommendation.