Unstuck: Get Up, Again!

January 29, 2017

Dr. Tom Pace

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

We are continuing our series called “Unstuck.” Two weeks ago we talked about what is your calling, last week we talked about who you are becoming – what is your north star? What are your values? This week we want to talk about how you deal with adversity.
Our Scripture is from 2 Corinthians. Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian church was rocky. In fact, part of Second Corinthians is called by scholars the Harsh Letter. He kind of lets them have it.
In this section Paul is saying to them, “Look, no one said it was going to be easy, and you’re going to have conflicts and difficulties, but we keep on going.” So listen now as we hear the Scripture read this morning.
But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (II Corinthians 4:7-12 NRSV)
Join me in prayer, Gracious God open us up for what you have for us today. Open our eyes that we might see and our ears that we might hear your words in the midst of these words. Open our hearts, break them open if you must, that we might feel and then, O God, open our hands so that we might serve. Amen.
Three weeks ago I told the congregation, you all, the story found in the Gospel of John about the paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. Jesus came by and the man couldn’t get into the pool to be healed. Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk.” The Gospel records that he just got up and walked.
Now in my mind’s eye it didn’t go quite that easily. I think I see it like Steven Spielberg might. He stood up and his legs wouldn’t quite hold him, so he fell back down and then he stood up again. Then he fell back down. He stood up again and fell back down. Finally was able to get his balance, and you could see the joy on his face as he realized that he indeed could walk again. I think sometimes the miracle stories in Scripture make it look too easy.
Some years ago Sid Davis, our Director of Fine Arts, gave me a book called The War of Art. Many of you might have read it. It’s not the Art of War but the War of Art. It’s by a guy named Steven Pressfield and he writes to authors and artists and entrepreneurs to explain how hard it is to actually do what you dream of doing, that art is not something that just sort of feels good all the time. If you’re going to be a writer you’ve got to get up in the morning and write when you feel like it. You also have to write when you don’t feel like it. There’s always what Pressfield calls “resistance” that holds you back.
He has another book that’s come out more recently that’s called Do the Work. It’s one of those books – you know the kind – where they just restate what they said in their first book, but they can sell it again and make some more money. That’s what he does in this one.
But I want to read to you a piece of what he says: “We were doing so great. Our project was in high gear. We were almost finished. Then inevitably everything crashes. If our project is a movie, the star checks into rehab. If it’s a business venture, the bank pulls our financing. If it’s a rodeo, our star bull runs away with the heifer. The big crash is so predictable across all fields of enterprise that we can practically set our watches by it. Bank on it – it’s going to happen.”
We’ve invited you to establish a sense of calling. “What has God called me to try and accomplish and achieve?” We’ve asked you to think about what your North Star might be, not what you’re called to achieve but who you’re called to become. What are the values that underlie the work that you do? But what I would tell you is that even with all those it’s not easy. The work is hard and we have to persevere.
So as Paul writes to the Corinthians he gives them these words about perseverance, and I think they’re the most powerful in Scripture. And what I’d like for us to do is look at them. A number of things that can speak to us about how we accomplish this perseverance, this “keepin’ on, keepin’ on.”
The first really is kind of interesting and it’s in the pronouns that are here. You note that all the pronouns are plural. They’re not I, they’re we. They’re not me, they’re us. There is power in we.
The Super Bowl is coming to town next week. Did you know that? It’s been kind of under the radar, and people haven’t really noticed it. They’re coming to town and that means a few things. One thing is that we’re still having church next week – just want you to know that. We’re still going to be here. Traffic isn’t going to be bad at 11, you don’t need to hide out at home. You can still make it to the game if you have tickets. We’re still having church.
Second, it means it’s Super Bowl of Caring which means that after church you can pick up a bag over in the walkway out here and take it home and fill it with canned goods. And when you come back next week – we are having church next week – you can bring that back with you, and it goes to the Christian Community Service Center Food Pantry. So that’s important.
But it also means that they’re going to play football and I love football. I wish I didn’t love football. It’s a barbaric game, I know that. But I love football. Part of what I love about it is the way the players treat each other. They pat each other on the butt, and they bump each other in the chest. And they hit their helmets together and shout encouragement. I’ve tried to get our staff to do that and they won’t do it.
But other than that they also hold each other accountable. So you’ll see them out on the field, especially as we get to the playoffs where it gets intense. The leaders on the team -you’ll see them helmet to helmet in one another’s face and the words are not nice. They’re coming out. “You turned right and you were supposed to turn left. What were you thinking?” Because here’s what they’re saying, “There are people counting on you. This isn’t about you, this is about us. This isn’t about you.”
One of the reasons the choir is so powerful is because each one of them realizes it’s not about them and they hold one another accountable. They encourage one another and there is a power to we.
In Hebrews the author writes, “Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every sin and the weight which clings so closely and run with perseverance the race set before us.” Now the “cloud of witnesses” are those who have gone before.
What he’s saying is that you don’t have the luxury of giving up. Too many people have given too much; have given their very lives for the Kingdom of God. You can’t quit. This isn’t about you. There is a power in we. And when we begin to understand that, that our calling, our individual calling is part of our global calling as a church, as followers of Jesus. Then we begin to have a sense of the power to persevere.
That’s the first thing. Here’s the second thing that’s here. Verse seven says, “We have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”
When he talks about clay jars he’s probably talking about these little lamps, cheap clay lamps, and they were available all over Corinth. In all the streets the vendors would have them. Interestingly enough, when you go to Israel today you’ll see them there – very similar. They’re made of crummy clay. That’s the best thing I can say. You can break them easily. I bring dozens of them home every time I go to Israel so I can give them away to kids. But they’re crummy.
What Paul’s saying is that our own bodies, our own selves are broken, fragile. But this isn’t about our power, this is about what God can do through us. And if we can begin to get focused not on what we can’t do - I’ll tell you that the hardest obstacles we face are internal obstacles. They’re the voices that come at me. I know they come at you, too. “You can’t do that! What are you doing? That’s way too big. Do something reasonable!” All these voices and voices, “Who do you think you are?” And at some point we have to say, “This isn’t about me. God can do this and I need to keep focused on what can be done.”
Paula D’Arcy has spoken here at St. Luke’s a number of times. She’s written books – a neat lady, kind of part of our family from afar. Noralyn Carpenter sent me just a segment from her newest book called Stars at Night: When Darkness Unfolds as Light. I want you to listen to what she says, “A deeply agitated woman on a small airplane begins to address the man seated across the aisle. I am seated in the row behind them. ‘I’m an alcoholic,’ she offers in a loud frightened voice. ‘My family is sending me to rehab, I have destroyed all their lives, but I don’t know if I can do this. It’s never worked before. What if I can’t do it, what if I can’t?’ She can hardly remain in her seat she is in such great distress.”
“The man across the aisle, a stranger, watches her intensely. She is fortunate, I think to myself. She has not spoken her words to just anyone. She’s speaking to someone who will not feel obliged to offer her advice. She repeats her plea, ‘What if I can’t?’ And finally he leans toward her and says so softly. ‘But what if you can? What if you can?’”
Look, what if God can through you, that’s the most important picture to keep in your mind. God can do what God calls you to accomplish through you. So we have to face those internal obstacles that we just can’t seem to shake.
Then the third thing that’s clear here is that there are external obstacles. This is interesting, because the language Paul uses about external obstacles he uses in a number of different Scriptures – in Philippians, Colossians, a number of places he uses this image. It’s about persecution. You would have missed it perhaps. He says, “We are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus.” Later he says, “For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake.”
What he’s saying is, he’s kind of coined this phrase. We as the Body of Christ suffer the same persecutions that Jesus suffered. That if indeed we’re living the Christian life we carry a cross, too. Sometimes you will hear a theology that says, “Because Jesus carried the cross, we don’t have to.” No, because Jesus carried a cross we carry one too. Because God brought Jesus to life again on Easter, we too experience life. But you can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. We too will suffer, we too will struggle. That’s always there. Then this beautiful verse, and to me it’s the most inspiring in all of Scripture. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken. We are struck down but not destroyed.” These obstacles will come but we will persevere.
Now there are three words I’d like for you to remember, three sort of concepts. Actually it’s four concepts, three words, that I think help us figure out how to deal with the obstacles.
The first one is the word perseverance. This means one foot, another foot, another foot, another foot…left, right, left, right… don’t stop! Don’t stop! Don’t worry about speed, just don’t stop.
I seldom, maybe never, try to speak into the public discourse about politics and such - public policy here at St. Luke’s. You’re kind of a captive audience, you’re stuck here as I talk. And part of the reason I don’t, for a variety of reasons, is that I think it’s important that we be a church where people of all ideologies can come together, all political strains, where we can actually listen to each other, that we remain a church that is not tribal where we all just think alike and think we can go listen to each other echo what we all believe. I just don’t want us to be that.
But I have to tell you that this week while all the rhetoric was flying around about refugees, I wasn’t thinking so much about policy. What was in my mind were the people that I know on our Gethsemane campus and what they went through. Their stories of perseverance just blow me away.
If you go into our Gethsemane campus, I can’t remember what morning it is each week, but Sam and Phoebe Catli are members there. They’ve been members for four decades, I think. They will receive the Distinguished Life Award this year, by the way. Phoebe decided to start a sewing ministry, so if you go in, there are a whole host of women from the Sudan and Somalia and all over Africa. They’re sewing, and she’s helped them procure sewing machines, and she’s helped them put together businesses where they can sew.
It’s always fun, because I don’t know if it was just because the preacher was coming, but they’re all in their garb, these big red headdresses and lots of cloth all around them. In the room there’s all these lilting voices, mostly in English, some in Swahili. But it’s just amazing, and they tell their stories about how they walked for over 100 miles to get to a border where they could go to the first refugee camp, where they stayed in the first refugee camp for a year and a half. Then they were moved to another refugee camp where they waited and waited to find out where they would be sent. Then they discovered they would be sent to the United States, and they waited longer to find out what city they were going to. They didn’t even know they were going to Houston until they showed up at the airport.
Their sense of perseverance just overwhelms me. And lots of folks can talk, and I hope you are as involved in whatever you believe about that. If you believe it with all your heart I hope you don’t hold back. But I would tell you that rather than us just being in the business of joining the cacophony of voices, I think it’s important we do something. So we try and help people. We care about them, whoever they are, wherever they’re from. We listen and learn from their stories about perseverance. Because I will tell you that whatever struggles I have, I’ve got nothing to worry about, that these people have taught me so much. So we persevere. One foot in front of the other.
You know the story of Dick Hoyt where his son wanted to be a triathlete. So Dick Hoyt said, “I’m going to do the Iron Man with my son who’s disabled.” So he puts him in a little boat, and he pulls him as he swims. Then he puts him in a little buggy, and he runs the full Marathon. Then he puts him in a cart by the bicycle, and he pulls him on the full bike run one step in front of another. It’s not about speed, it’s about not quitting. Just keep on keeping on. Perseverance.
The second word is resilience. I didn’t know the weeble wobble – that’s perfect. I wish I’d had that at the other services. A weeble wobbles but doesn’t fall down. Except our deal is that it falls down and it bounces. What if we all got up and did weeble imitations today? We all did that. That’s a good mental picture of resilience.
We’re keeping my grandson this weekend and he’s so fun. He’s almost 1½ and his name is Pace. Good name. So we went on a walk yesterday, him and me and my dog. I had the wagon, because I wanted to pull him in the wagon, but he didn’t want to ride in the wagon, he wanted to walk, and he wanted to put pecans in the wagon.
So here’s why I think he’s a good illustration: About every six steps he falls down, maybe ten. He falls down and then he does that part where he sticks his bottom up in the air and then puts his hands flat on the ground, then somehow he magically… I don’t know what the deal with the center of gravity is, but he can manage to stand up if he can just get it up in the air high enough. Then he walks another six feet and he falls down. It’s like “I quit, man, I’d give it up if I were you. You just stay down. Ride in the wagon, whatever.” No, you try again.
I went to a training workshop on meditation. I didn’t really mean to go to the workshop. It was a conference for pastors, and I wanted to go hang out with my pastor friends, but it was on meditation but oh, well! So I went anyway.
The guy that was teaching us about meditation he said, “Pick a Scripture verse and keep that in your minds, just keep it in your minds. Let that Scripture just push everything else out of your mind.”
Then he said this, and this is what really got me: “You will fail miserably at this. When your mind wanders don’t chastise yourself. Just come gently back. Just come gently back.”
Now I don’t practice meditation. That part I haven’t used a lot, but I’ll tell you that I’ve used this image of come gently back over and over and over again, that when I wander from the path, when I fall, when I fail, when I quit, I come gently back. I get back up, let’s keep going.
Now resilience also means to try another way. Resilience has to do with flexibility. In my office upstairs I have a book When Empty Arms Become a Heavy Burden, and it’s about people who are trying to have children and can’t. The first part of it talks but their experience and how difficult it is. The last part is full of alternatives, everything from fertility treatments to IVF to surrogacy to gestational carriers to adoption. Sometimes you have to try another way. There has to be a Plan B… or C… or D. Whatever plans you made to achieve your goals, to follow through on your mission, those plans won’t work. I’m just telling you, they won’t. And you’ll have to end up doing something else to get there. But you try another way.
The last word is tenacity. This says, “I’m going to take that goal which is so important to me. That goal matters so much, that thing I’m straining for and striving for matters so much that I won’t quit. I’m going to be tenacious.” Perseverance focuses on keeping on going, tenacity focuses on the goal – that goal is all that matters.
William Wilberforce who was one of the great campaigners against slavery, was very discouraged when he was young in his life. He had been working at it for ten years and had suffered many setbacks and defeats. He picked up his Bible and opened it and out fell a letter that he had received a number of years before. It was from John Wesley, and it was written just before Wesley died. Their lives overlapped for just a short time. Here’s what Wesley wrote to Wilberforce: “Unless the divine power has raised you up, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that abominable practice of slavery, which is the scandal of religion, of England and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing, go on in the name of God and in the power of his might.”
If God has given you a calling, raised you up for something that matters, small or large, be tenacious. You will suffer the slings and arrows of many difficulties. But be tenacious and don’t give up.
Gracious God, you never promised us it would be easy. In fact, you were so clear with your disciples that they would be persecuted just as you were. We pray, God that we might be a people who are knocked down but not destroyed, that we would get back up and be tenacious together and you would use us for your Kingdom. In Christ’s name, Amen.