God-honouring Ministry

2 Corinthians 1

With the need to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury, the qualities required for a senior church leader are much in the news.

So if you were on the 16-man Crown Nominations Committee, what qualities would you be looking for?

Some recent suggestions have included:

• A great manager of people
• An effective communicator, a powerful speaker
• A presidential figure
• A skilful politician & negotiator
• Someone with charisma, wit & common sense.

At a more mundane level, some rural parishes in Surrey are looking for a new vicar who must be

• Is a strong and inspiring spiritual leader able to share his or her faith in God.
• Is a good communicator, compassionate and with a sense of humour.

You may – or may not – be pleased or surprised to hear that I won’t be considered for Archbishop and, much as I love Surrey, I won’t be applying for that job!

The question of the qualities needed for a church leader was very much on the agenda when Paul wrote to the church in Corinth back in AD55.

If they’d written a job description for a church leader, they’d have wanted someone who had the characteristics which showed they were blessed by God:
For them, this would have included:

·         being a powerful communicator (preferably with an international ministry)

·         being physically strong & healthy

·         having charisma & charm

·         visions from God

And…

·         the wit and cunning to avoid persecution by the Romans or the Jews.

And some men who fitted that profile had turned up in Corinth. Each had his own group of followers, and church members liked to boast about the prowess of their preferred leader.

But Paul was not like that.

He wasn’t a powerful speaker, he wasn’t particularly fit or healthy. Yes, he had visions from God, but he kept them to himself. He hadn’t managed to avoid the Romans or the Jews. He’d been in prison many times, he’d received 39 lashes from the Jews on 5 separate occasions, he’d been beaten up, stoned, & shipwrecked 3 times.  Humanly speaking, Paul was a walking disaster!  Not only that, but he upset church members by challenging their belief and behaviour – in person when he visited and by letter.

 So, as far as many of the Corinthians were concerned, Paul was a bit of a second-rate church leader, and they’d rather follow these more impressive leaders, who said what they wanted to hear in the way they wanted to hear it. And as he begins his 4^th letter to the Corinthian churches, Paul shows what a genuine, God-authorised, Christ-honouring, Xn life & ministry looks like.

And he begins with his usual greeting: he writes as a God-appointed apostle of Jesus – he was one of the few who met Jesus – and so he writes with the authority of God himself.   2 Corinthians 1:1-2

So the letter is addressed to a number of fellowships which met in the courtyards of large houses. And many of them had serious problems and issues. Perhaps this explains why the letter seems a little disjointed at times – Paul seems to turn his attention from one fellowship to another – and of course they all knew exactly what he was talking about and who he was talking to – even if we don’t.

 And so Paul begins by tackling this issue of his weakness – do his problems and sufferings mean that God has abandoned him? Does he really have the authority of God to lead the church?

In the face of that criticism, Paul writes, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.

You only have to turn on one of the Christian TV channels to see the belief that only suave, sophisticated, healthy, wealthy people are truly blessed by God. These people would never admit they had any problems at all. But Paul admits it – he’s had all sorts of troubles. But God has not abandoned him. In fact it’s in the midst of trouble and suffering that God has drawn near and poured out his compassion and comfort into Paul’s life. It’s only because Paul suffered these troubles that he’s received this compassion and comfort of God.

Not only that, but this has happened so that, v4, we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. Suffering means receiving special grace. Receiving special grace means having a special ministry – the ability to pass that grace on to others.

Now, on one level, we might simply see this as a great example of the difference between sympathy and empathy:

Sympathy is expressing compassion and giving comfort to someone who is suffering.

Empathy is showing a deeper level of understanding, entering into their experience with them.

So perhaps Paul’s simply saying, ‘Look, I’ve suffered. We all suffer. And because I’ve received compassion and comfort from the Lord, when you suffer, I can empathise with you.’

But in fact, Paul’s saying something much, much more profound than that. He hints at this in v5, for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. This is no mere human empathy, no mere human comfort and compassion that Paul’s experienced. It’s not even that Jesus is able to empathise with him because he also suffered (though that is certainly true). What Paul’s experiencing here are the benefits Christ won for him on the cross – reconciliation with God, friendship with God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s relationship with God has been healed through the sufferings of Jesus, and now he can know & receive the comfort of God. Comfort in our sufferings is only available through the sufferings of Jesus because it’s the cross that heals our broken relationship with God, and opens the floodgates of his mercy. And this is what Paul’s talking about in v7 when he says, Our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. The suffering of the cross is shared by Paul, and through Paul’s ministry, it’s shared by the Corinthians.

When your football team wins, it’s the players & the manager who have actually won the game. The crowd who were there shared first hand in the win. But then, when you hear the classified results read out by James Alexander Gordon at 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, you share in their joy & comfort because you’re not going down! So here, Paul is saying, ‘we who witnessed the resurrected Jesus were overjoyed when we saw him. And we passed on to you the news of Jesus’ death & resurrection. When you accepted Christ, you shared in his sufferings, but you also share in the joy & comfort of the cross & resurrection.’

But being a Christian isn’t only about sharing in Christ’s sufferings spiritually – there will also be real emotional & physical hardships and pain. Of course some preachers claim that Christians won’t suffer if they are faithful and blessed by God. These preachers want the crown of blessings without the cross of shame. But Paul says they’re wrong. He knows that even the most faithful, obedient and blessed Christian – will include sufferings. After all, if Jesus suffered, why do we think we won’t suffer? As he himself said, -‘No servant is greater than his master’ if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

So Paul says… 2 Corinthians 1:8-10.

 It has always been true that when life is easy, even the most mature Xn can begin to rely on themselves. When life’s easy, we become more independent of God, we forget that we need him, we forget that all we have is from him. And so hardships serve a vitally important role in our lives – they drive us back to trust in Christ. Hardships and sufferings should not, therefore, be seen as a sign that God has left us or that we’ve upset him or that he’s not blessing us. Quite the opposite, suffering can be God’s blessing on us, forcing us to discover new depths of faith and trust in him. As Paul says, his sufferings happened so that he & Timothy would rely not on themselves but on God. And Paul knows that, ultimately, God could call him to martyrdom – he might be called upon to lay down his life for Christ. And if that happens, so be it. Paul knows that God raises the dead and will deliver him even through death. And yet, Paul is confident that, for the time being, God will deliver him from physical dangers and enable him to continue with his ministry.

But it’s not guaranteed, and Paul urges the Corinthians to help him by praying for him, and then, v11, many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted to us in answer to the prayers of many.

As Paul continues in ministry, many will thank and praise God that he has been granted more time to teach and minister to God’s people – more time to share the hope of the death and resurrection of Christ – more time for the comfort and compassion of God to overflow into the lives of others.

Christian ministry is not hampered by suffering. Because God is the Father of all compassion and the God of all comfort, he brings life and joy from the depths of human troubles.