Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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When I think about creating order...
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Thinking about this causes me to want to crawl into a corner and hide.
Bringing order is not something that people who love and know me would say I do well.
I chuckle when people say, “you must really be organized to do what you do.”
They mean well, I know that.
As a bi-vocational Pastor who has a high-pressure job, I often find myself struggling to order my world.
In the end, it is a skill that I never learned how to adopt into my life and clearly I missed the line for this “gift” when gifts were being handed out.
Maybe you are familiar with this
You might be that person that has figured out how to exist and have your affairs in order.
If you are that person, that I don’t dislike you.
I need you in my world.
You are an example of the friend that always had a plan for how they were going to play.
I so desperately want to be like that, to be that person that just knows what I need to do, that remembers everything I should and am never late.
God loves me in spite of my imperfection.
On the other hand, you might be just the opposite.
Maybe you are somewhere in between.
Here is what I know.
If you are on the super organized side, you should be aware that your rigidity can rub people the wrong way.
If you are on the no organization side, you should be aware that your cavalier ways can rub people the wrong way.
Here is something else you both share: When chaos comes, it really irritates you.
For the organized, it means you have no control in your schedule and your life.
For the disorganized, it means your fun has been interrupted.
And one thing that is true for all of us is...
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Chaos cannot be ordered out
Not ordered as in, “I command chaos to be gone.”
Rather, ordered as in, “organize your life so there is no chaos.”
What I have learned is that chaos will continue to hunt me down, regardless of how well my life is ordered.
We know biblical authors realized this and wrote about it.
Their message seems to conflict a bit with modern western Christianity though.
Modern western Christianity says, “God will make sure you have a happy life.”
Let’s see if that is what Paul, a New Testament author has to say about that.
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2 Corinthians 4:8-9
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles (distressed, harassed, troubled), but we are not crushed (no escape).
We are perplexed (confused, lost, directionless), but not driven to despair (exaporeo, overburdened, worried, anxious).
9 We are hunted down (cause suffering), but never abandoned (left behind, forsaken) by God.
We get knocked down (badly hurt, thrown down, intentional), but we are not destroyed (utterly kill, destroy, waste, ruin).
Did you catch the language there?
If you just read the negatives, how each sentence begins, it sounds quite a bit like chaos to me.
This is coming from all directions.
People on earth, his enemies and supernatural powers and principalities.
In all of that, Paul does not see himself trapped, worried, left behind or ruined.
The skeptic (or televangelist) might say, “I guess Paul just did not have it together.
This man of God that had a supernatural Jesus moment on a road could not remove this from his life.”
I think Paul would say, it is how you respond.
If we saw this in a friend, we might say, “God is trying to teach you a lesson.”
I think that is shortsighted.
Paul has meditated on this and arrived at a conclusion.
Chaos cannot be ordered out, but...
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Life can be ordered in
Again, not ordered as in, “I command life to appear” instead, you intentionally consider where you are and create an environment that can be filled with goodness.
Let’s see what Paul has to write about life in the context of suffering pressing troubles, perplexities, being hunted and being knocked down.
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2 Corinthians 4:10-12
10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.
Let that just sink in for a moment.
Through suffering…how many of you have experienced suffering in your life?
Everyone does.
Regardless of your faith or atheism.
Remember last week we talked about taming chaos, and the way to tame chaos is through our response?
You can grow chaos by responding with chaos, or you can tame it by responding in wisdom and goodness.
Let suffering be chaos for a moment and consider what Paul is saying:
Through: A sense of motion, that you are not remaining there
Suffering: A sense of trouble, perplexed, hunted and knocked down.
Going “through” suffering is how we share in the death Jesus experienced.
Imagine that for a moment.
You have heard it said that Jesus died so we don’t have to.
While that is technically true, the meaning of it seems lost today.
It is often preached as Jesus suffered so we don’t have to.
That does not seem to line up with what Paul is writing.
If Jesus suffered so we don’t have to then why do people seem to get stuck “in suffering.”
You should probably just make a note on that one and meditate.
I might be stomping on a few toes here.
Life, real life in Christ, is seen in us when we learn to live in constant trouble because of our commitment to Jesus.
If that life is seen in us, as Paul writes, “the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies”, then we are, in fact, imaging God.
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This constant danger is real, so the life of Jesus that comes out of us is genuine.
12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
This is like a line out of an Avengers movie!
It is the paradox of the Kingdom of God.
In these sentences, Paul has provided amazing insight into our purpose.
What is the purpose of humans on earth?
To image God.
If Jesus’ life is coming out of us, then God is pouring out of us for all to see.
The paradox is that it is through suffering, not through being powerful, lording it over people, or as the Old Testament would say, “raising a high hand.”
We image when we use our power for the poor.
When we defend the weak.
The very thing the Sons of God were charged with doing, but failed to do.
(Psalm 82)
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How, on Earth, do we establish order?
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I think using the illustration of a bookshelf is a good way to think about this.
It is not a perfect analogy, but creating order is similar to creating environments for information, thoughts, actions and things to live.
If we keep reading we can see how Paul approaches this paradox of being handed over to chaos, death, on a daily basis and yet is able to order himself so he can let the life of Christ show.
So, in spite of all that we have read, going through suffering, pressed by trouble, perplexed, hunted and knocked down, Paul continues to preach.
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