2 Corinthians 6:3-13

This is the last of a series of 5 sermons on ministry. It has a been a good opportunity to be able to reflect with some of you on the nature of Christian ministry: that is important as St Mary Magdalene's and St David's think about the sort of person who they wish to appoint here; and it is important for me as I think about future ministry in Bury St Edmunds.

I guess when we talk about ministry in Christian circles, people immediately think of ministers and what they do. He's got the dog collar, she has the title Revd, he has the title pastor. And people will ask me, and I'm sure they ask David or Jonathan the same question: When did you go into the ministry?

We've been looking at what the bible teaches on this subject, and it is very clear that the work of ministry is not the work of the vicar or pastor. It is the work of Jesus: everything is his ministry, and it is the work of the church, his body on earth. We have also seen that the word ministry simply means 'service', and the word minister simply means 'servant'.

However, you will be pleased to know that there is a very important distinction between someone who has a dog collar and someone who hasn't. I learnt it when I was at a vicar factory, and we went to visit the local Cambridge crematorium. We went round the back to see the ovens. And the crematorium attendant told us the difference: he said, "We like to keep the little distinctions in life as in death. So when a normal person comes in, we put them in feet first. But when a person of the cloth comes in, we put them in head first." So if you wish to know the difference between a vicar and a normal person, there you have it. You go in feet first; I go in head first. It sort of sums it up.

But we have seen that Christian ministry is not about Christian 'ministers'. It is not simply the work that is done in the church building or at church meetings or on Sundays. The word that the New Testament uses for ministry or for minister is the word that was used for everyday service and servanthood.


And the word 'Minister' is just a smart word for 'Servant': and anyone who professes to be a Christian is, as we have seen in the past weeks, a 'servant of God'.

Today we are looking at ministry and integrity. Basically it is about service of others in the name of Christ with integrity. Paul here, in 2 Corinthians 6 is being accused of 'serving without integrity'. People who claim to be apostles are saying that he doesn't speak very well, he doesn't do many miracles, he says one thing and he does another, and clearly he isn't up to much because there are times when he has to do paid work to support his ministry.

Paul is concerned that he is losing the Corinthian Christians: that they are turning to a message that promises them resurrection and power without the cross. And so he defends his ministry, he defends the integrity of his ministry. He writes, "We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited." What could those stumbling blocks be?

It is very easy to think of vicars or 'ministers' who use their position to abuse children; or we have the sex scandals and the financial scandals. I remember one several years ago, when a vicar had been fiddling fees over a period of 10 years, and had managed to take £15000. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. I remember being shocked by the harshness of the sentence, especially in the light of  shorter sentences that people were receiving for far more serious financial crime; and I think that the sentence was reduced on appeal. But the severity of the sentence was due, in part, to the fact of the breach of trust. Someone who was thought to be serving the interests of Christ was seen to be serving their own interests.

Paul goes on to list a whole series of circumstances in which Timothy and himself commend themselves as 'ministers', servants of Christ. Basically Paul is saying, we live what we preach:

1. We preach the cross and we live the cross.
2. We preach the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and we live the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
3. We preach the citizenship of heaven and we live as citizens of heaven.

1. We preach the cross and we live the cross

We see from 2 Corinthians 5 that the cross is central to Paul's preaching. In these verses he is claiming not only to preach the cross, but to live the cross, to live this daily 'dying to self'. For the sake of Christ I go through: "endurance, troubles, hardship, distresses, beatings, imprisonments and riots, hard work, sleepless nights, hunger".
 
This week I received an anonymous phone call accusing vicars of being in it for the money! It is very easy to point the finger at other people and to question their motives: "They're in it for the status or the money". Having said that, becoming a church leader is not the quickest way to get money or status.

But the challenge of this passage is for each one of us to stop judging our neighbour, to look at ourselves and to ask, "For whom or for what am I in this for? Is it for my self esteem, my sense of identity, my financial interests, and my comfort? Am I in this for me or for Christ? Am I really prepared to die to myself and to live for him? Am I prepared to live the way of the cross for him?"

No one could accuse Paul of being into it for the status or the money. Paul was in it because he had been captured by a vision of the love of the Christ, of the power of the cross and of the hope of heaven.

Christians sometimes say, "Even if it is not true, and there is no heaven, it is worth being a Christian for what it gives us while we live: peace and hope". That is not what Paul says. He says, (1 Corinthians 15:19), "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all people". That is the test of authentic Christian living: If there is no resurrection would your life look pointless?

I wonder what we are prepared to lose for the sake of service to Christ: One evening a week, 10% of our income, a few snide remarks or insults at work, some time in the morning or evening to pray and read the bible, a reputation, a friendship or relationship, a grudge against someone who has really hurt us, a holiday with our family, our time, our job, our home, our security? The fruitfulness of our service is dependent to the degree that we have submitted ourselves to Christ. We share in the power of the resurrection to the degree that we have shared in his sufferings.



2. We preach the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and we live the transforming power of the Holy Spirit

Paul continues: We commend ourselves in every way: "in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left." If we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives, then we need to see some evidence that our lives are being transformed and changed.

I know we need to get a balance here. Often church goers are accused of being hypocrites; and we respond by saying, "Yes, that is probably true. But at least we recognise that we are hypocrites, and there is always space for one more". But there has to be some matching, some correspondence between what we profess and how we live.

Shame is brought to the church of God when you have a person who professes to love God and yet who lives for their business. Shame is brought on the church of God when you have a person who professes to serve Christ and yet spends so much gossiping. Shame is brought on the church of God when a person condemns another person for sexual immorality and yet is looking themselves at pornography on the internet. Shame is brought on the church of God when you have people who profess to follow Christ and yet are a self serving clique, who claim that they are welcoming.

The story is told in the days of apartheid of the black man who went to a white man's church. He wasn't allowed in.  He went back the following week. He wasn't allowed to go in. He went back the third week. He wasn't allowed in. "God", he prayed, "I've been there three times and they wouldn't let me in". God replied, "I know what it's like. I've been trying to get in there for ages and they still won't let me".

It is obvious really. If what we say with our lips, matches with our lives, then God can work through us. If what we say with our lips does not match our lives, he can still work through us: but it is going to be much harder.  

Let's look at this list:

Purity: Lives that are clean and transparent
Understanding: growing in knowledge. Using the mind and the Spirit. It seems to me that there are types of modern Christian spirituality which put the mind into neutral so that we can get more in touch with the Spirit. Certainly I think that we need to get more in touch with the Spirit, but not at the expense of turning off the mind.

Patience and kindness: I love this one. Paul is often thought of being as bombastic, but time and again he emphasises the qualities of patience and kindness. And these are two qualities that we do need in our churches.
Patience: not expecting people to become holy overnight; not expecting God to change us instantaneously. His time scale is eternity.
Kindness: Showing mercy. Picking up the person who has fallen over, comforting, reassuring and strengthening them and then sending them on their way.

In the Holy Spirit and in sincere love: It is significant that these two are put together. The supreme fruit of the Holy Spirit is love: love for God, love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, love for the people in God's world.

In truthful speech and in the power of God: Again it is interesting how these two have been linked.
Truthful speech: there is something here about honesty. Nobody is asking anybody to be perfect. We all struggle with temptation; we can all find it hard to forgive; we all make mistakes; we all fail; we all at  times feel crushed; we all go through times when our faith seems very weak and our love grows cold. Our service to others in the name of Christ (whatever it is) suffers not when we make mistakes or fail or when we lack faith or when we struggle with forgiveness, but when we pretend to be people who we are not.
Truthful speech and the power of God: I like to think of it this way. There are three sources of our speech. There is the head - and sometimes we speak from the head. There is the stomach - and sometimes we speak from here. And when the two are put together there is power. But there is a third source for the Christian, and it is the Spirit. We can't locate it anywhere in the body, it includes the body but is bigger, is beyond the body. And when we speak with head, stomach (heart) and spirit: that is when things really happen.

With weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left: It reminds us of the word of God, the sword of the Spirit; and the shield of faith that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6.

Paul never claimed to be perfect. He never claimed that he loved anyone. He never claimed that he always had 100% faith. He never claimed to always be succesful in his Christian life. What he did preach was that he was a servant of Jesus Christ, committed to serving Christ, to seeking to love people because Jesus loved them. And his writings show him to be remarkably transparent. What you see is what you get. And he never preached that you had to be perfect. He preached that in Christ there is forgiveness and through the power of the Holy Spirit, strength to begin to change. He preached the power of God working through his weakness.



3. We preach the citizenship of heaven and we serve as citizens of heaven.

Paul continues his list in verses 4-10. We commend ourselves in "through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." (verses 8-11)

Paul preached that our true home is not here, but in heaven. And that should set us free from anxiety about what people say of us: "dishonour, bad report, regarded as impostors, unknown".

Listen. It really does not matter what people say about you. It does not matter how people judge you. It doesn't even really matter about how you judge yourself. What matters is how God judges us. And if he has said that he loves you, and that he has forgiven you, and that he calls you to be a saint, a priest and prince or princess in his kingdom - then that is what matters.

That should also set us free from anxiety about our current circumstances: "dying, beaten, sorrowful, poor, having nothing". Why? Because as citizens of heaven we "live on, are always rejoicing, make many rich, possess everything". It comes back to living the cross but in the light of the resurrection.

Sometimes it is said that Christians can be so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. It is actually not the case. When our minds are set on heaven then we are liberated to serve here on earth.

That is why people through the centuries have been able to give up their freedom and their lives in the service of Christ. That is why someone will give everything that they have. That is why someone will kneel down in front of someone else and wash their feet. Because what people say about us, and what happens to us does not ultimately matter. What matters is what He says about us, and what He gives us.

So Paul defends the integrity of his ministry. It is a very emotional appeal:
Verses 11-13: "We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange - I speak as to my children - open wide your hearts also." At the heart of it all is his love for the Corinthian believers.

So if our service of Christ is to be fruitful, it needs to be a service that has an integrity.  If we preach the cross, we need to live the cross. If we preach the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we need to live the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. If we preach the citizenship of heaven, we need to live as citizens of heaven.

May God, in his love and mercy, equip us to live for Him, love Him and serve Him. To Him be glory.