The letter writer Paul wants the church in Corinth to know what it means to live a life by faith. I’d like to know what it means to live a life by faith and I bet you do, too. For us Jesus following types, it can be hard to know how to live in this world. It can be hard to know what living a life by faith looks like and feels like and is. We’ve got choices to make every day and the choices we make ought to be informed by our faith. Everything we do and say and think, even, should be informed by our faith. How does a follower of Jesus respond to x, y, or z? How does a follower of Jesus handle the day to day? How does a follower of Jesus read or listen to the news? How does a follower of Jesus raise children or behave on social media or interact with creation? How does a follower of Jesus Christ interact with people who look, think, and live differently or with those with whom we disagree? How does a follower of Jesus Christ live in today’s world…busy, overwhelming, heartbreaking, broken, screen filled, noisy, get your own world? Though the issues facing the world and the church in Corinth may have been a bit different than ours, I’d bet there is more commonality to be found than we may think. So, let’s see what Paul writes to that particular congregation and see if there’s a word for us, too.

[Read 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1]

This text is one of the Book of Common Worship’s suggested texts for a funeral. I’ve read it at several including the funeral for my own beloved Granddaddy. It makes sense to read this at a funeral as it speaks of that which is seen and unseen, of earthly tents and heavenly homes. And there’s something I noticed during our recent season of services in witness to the resurrection, when loved ones are speaking at a funeral there are certain things they touch on and other things they do not. I noticed that a person’s work history or academic achievements were not focused on too much though they were featured sometimes. I noticed that after a few of the services I couldn’t necessarily tell you what the deceased did for a living. There was a tendency to focus on the less tangible things such as family time, vacations, holidays, relationships built and sustained. Goodness, kindness, and service. The lovely intangibles that make up our days. These are what we focus on when someone has gone on to God’s eternal kingdom. The grace present in someone’s life is exactly what we want to talk about.

We’re not at a service in witness to the resurrection today though we are gathered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there is something to be said about grace in these words from Paul. Grace, it would seem, is the thing we must take into consideration when living a life by faith. Grace is the thing we must take into consideration in our decision making and our daily living. Grace is the thing we must speak into the world through our words and actions. Grace is the thing we must give and receive whenever and wherever we are able. God has given us grace in and through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We haven’t earned it. It is pure gift. We cannot earn it though we try. It’s already there, though, this circle of grace surrounding our lives. And it’s our call, as people of faith, to widen that circle, to include more people in it, to make room where there doesn’t seem to be any and to continue pressing on the edges of the circle until all experience the grace we’ve experienced, until all receive the grace which we have received.

Eugene Peterson translates 2 Corinthians 4:13-15 this way: We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!” We who believe have something to say. We have something to share with the world. When everything seems as though its falling apart and right now things sure seem that way, we have something to say, we have grace and hope and love to offer. These are the things the world seems to be short of and these are the things we have to speak about. Our goal in all that we say and do should be more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise…to God’s glory.

The grace of God is not ours to hoard and keep to ourselves. It’s not something that we dole out to the worthy whomever we deem the worthy to be. There is plenty of that kind of living going on in our world. It is fear based and built on the idea that the grace of God is only for some so that those who have it best hold on to it lest someone less worthy take it away. It is fear that motivates this kind of living. The fear that keeps us from loving our neighbors. The fear that decides who can be in and who can be out. The fear that separates families and fills the pockets of the wealthy. The fear that walks by those in need and stays silent in the face of injustice. The fear that prevents us from learning about one another and loving one another. Here’s the thing, though, as followers of Christ, we are not driven by fear. We don’t buy into it. We don’t despair and we don’t believe the notion that the love and grace of God are scarce. When it comes to living a life by faith, all that we say, do, and think are in service of expanding the circle of grace. Confident in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we speak up in the face of injustice, we reach out to those in need, we learn from people different from ourselves, we love our neighbors (all of them), we build bigger tables, and the circle gets wider and wider.

It is not an easy task. I appreciate Paul’s encouragement to not lose heart. It’s easy to lose heart. It’s easy to be discouraged and to feel hopeless. The news this week alone has been devastating. Heartbreaking headline after heartbreaking headline. The amount of cruelty and indifference in our world is astounding. The depths of pain in which people suffer is astounding. The greed that seems to be the motivating factor for every policy is astounding. The gap between rich and poor grows wider every day. The fear and grief that is ever present in our world is enough to cause anyone to lose whatever faith they claim. So, Paul reminds us that, as people of faith, we do not lose heart, though everything around us seems to be wasting away and falling apart, though all that we can see with our eyes can be overwhelmingly bad. We do not lose heart. Because God it work. Because Christ was raised from the dead. Because we believe…in the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Because we believe, we speak and stand and love and share. We spend our days expanding the circle of grace not pulling it tighter so that others are left out. And we won’t always see the fruits of our efforts but that which we cannot see is eternal, everlasting, of God. The circle of grace expands further and further out embracing more and more of God’s children. That’s the goal. That’s what drives the choices we make each day.   All are driven by grace: the choice to reach out, the choice to lift up, the choice to speak up, the choice to love and care and include, the choice to give and receive, the choice to listen and learn, to be a peacemaker and a bridge builder and a reconciler. This is a life lived by faith. It’s a way of life lived outside of ourselves. It’s a way of life that always considers the other. It’s a way of life that wonders who is left out and then invites them in. That’s living by faith: trusting in God, sharing what we’ve been given, widening the circle of grace. All to the glory of God 

You’ll receive a benediction later but for now I want to share this blessing written by Jan Richardson. It’s not a short blessing, her blessings are never short. So, I’ll invite you to breathe deeply, perhaps close your eyes and receive these words:

This Grace That Scorches Us
(Jan Richardson, from “Circle of Grace”)

Here’s one thing
you must understand
about this blessing:
it is not for you alone.
It is stubborn about this.
Do not even try 
to lay hold of it
if you are by yourself,
thinking you can carry it
on your own.
To bear this blessing,
you must first take yourself
to a place where everyone
does not look like you
or think like you,
a place where they do not
believe precisely as you believe
where their thoughts
and ideas and gestures
are not exact echoes
of your own.
Bring your sorrow.
Bring your grief.
Bring your weariness,
your pain,
your disgust at how broken
the world is,
how fractured,
how fragmented
by its fighting,
its wars,
its hungers,
its penchant for power,
its ceaseless repetition
of the history
it refuses
to rise above.
I will not tell you 
this blessing will fix all that.
But in the place
where you have gathered,

wait.

Watch.

Listen.

Lay aside your inability
to be surprised,
your resistance to what you
do not understand.
See then whether this blessing
turns to flame on your tongue,
sets you to speaking
what you cannot fathom
or opens your ear
to a language
beyond your imagining
that comes as a knowing
in your bones,
a clarity 
in your heart
that tells you
this is the reason 
we were made:
for this ache
that finally opens us,
for this struggle,
this grace
that scorches us
toward one another
and into
the blazing day.

Rev. Alex Rodgers
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, GA
June 10, 2019