Title: We are Astraddle People
Text: II Corinthians 4:5-7; 4:16-18; and 5:1-5
Thesis: As astraddle people we live with one foot planted in this life and the other in the next.
Introduction: I like the word “astraddle.”
I like the word “astraddle.” It sounds kind of cool and it even sounds like its meaning. In one sense astraddle suggests being on the fence, so to speak. It suggests being wishy-washy or hemming and hawing and undecided. But astraddle also means extending on both sides. To stand astraddle is to span a distance.
One spring we vacationed on the gulf near Pensacola, FL. Just down the road from our condo there was a night spot called the FloraBama. It was built astraddle the state-line between Florida and Alabama.
We are always stepping over things like curbs, barriers, toys, snow drifts and puddles and stuff. We know what it is to have one foot planted in one place and the other on the other side.
Winter is coming. I have a little walkway behind the church that leads to the back door near my study. The man who plows our parking lot after a snow storm always manages to plow up a nice ridge of snow between the lot and the sidewalk leading to my study. In order to get from the lot to the sidewalk I straddle the snow drift. For a brief moment one foot is firmly planted in the parking lot and the other on the sidewalk
In that sense we are astraddle people. One foot is firmly planted in this life and the other in the next.
For now, we are people who are very much anchored in this life. In our text we are described as:
I. Fragile clay jars that contain the life of Christ, II Corinthians 4:5-7
Genesis teaches us that we are formed from the ground. Psalm 103 refers to us as “dust” people. Our text today says we are fragile clay jars or earthen vessels. By all appearances we are fragile and inconstant danger. We pressed on every side but not broken and knocked down but not out because these clay jars contain the light and life of Christ.
We are human beings living out the human experience. Though we work hard at controlling the human experience as much as we possibly can, the fact remains, we have little or no control.
While Jonathan Goldsmith plays the debonair part of “the most interesting man in the world” in the Dos Equis commercial, I think the Book of Ecclesiastes is “the most interesting book in the bible.” Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of just how little we really have control over: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to cry and a time to laugh; a time to grieve and a time to dance; and a time for war and a time for peace.
The Ecclesiastes passage goes on to speak of how though God has placed eternity in the human heart… we humans cannot see the scope of God’s work from beginning to end. We simply occupy our place in the continuum of time and eternity.
Yet it is into our humanness that God makes himself evident in the world.
In my devotional reading just yesterday I read this from James Fenhagen’s Invitation to Holiness, “Sharing in the ministry of Jesus Christ involves living in the world as an expression of the holiness we see in Christ… a holiness expressed through his compassion, his concern for justice and through his healing and reconciling presence in the world. When we are in relationship with Christ those qualities we see in him are being expressed through us.”
In this life Ann was a clay jar person, Ann was such a gracious and loving person. Over the years we witnessed her quietly living out her life as an expression of the light and life of Christ.
“In Christ, we have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power comes from God, not from ourselves.” I Corinthians 4:7
We’ve just spoken of how in this life we are clay jars filled with the life and light of Christ. Now the text refers to how in this life we as dying bodies… but with renewed spirits.
II. Dying bodies with renewed spirits, II Corinthians 4:16-18
Verses 16-18 are masterfully written… each verse is vivid with imagery.
In verse 16 we read that though our bodies are dying our spirits are being renewed every day.
For Ann and all who are in Christ, that means that all the while our bodies are going to pot on us… God is renewing our spirits each and every day. We are getting old on the outside so to speak but inside we are forever young. On the outside we look like geezers and geezerettes but inside there is an energetic little boy or girl running around. The spirit in Christ is alive and well forever.
In verse 17 we read of how our present struggles in life are far outweighed by the glory before us in the next life.
It would be easy to place considerable weight on challenges Gene and Ann have experienced the past 57 years.
A couple of years ago Gene and Ann had a conversation in which Gene was reassuring Ann. He reminded her of how the Lord was faithful to them when their infant son, Michael died and of how they made it through that. And he reminded her of how God was faithful when their daughter, Linda was killed in a tragic accident and of how they had made it through that. And then there was the faithfulness of God when she had melanoma and of how they made it through that. Then came a neck surgery and God was again faithful and Gene said, “With God’s help we made it through that and just as God was faithful in all those times God would be faithful through the current challenge.
Gene said, “Ann looked at me and said, “You’re a jinx!” But that is how Gene and Ann lived their lives together up to and through Ann’s latest illness and death.
Suffering and loss are not pretty. We may find spiritual insight in being able to identify with the suffering of Christ. We may find solace, as has Gene in the rich theological truth and the beauty of hymnody, God Will Take Care of You. We may find strength in the words of Scripture. And we may find comfort in the love of those around us… but there is no pretty face to be painted on suffering and loss. I am reminded of the adages, “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” or, “it’s hard to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.” Suffering and loss are neither pretty nor pleasant.
But this is the imagery the text poses before us this afternoon. We take all the suffering and loss and all the struggles and sadness of life and all that is discouraging and hurtful and we weight it over against the glory that God has in mind for us and we see that the coming glory vastly outweighs all that is suffering, sadness and loss of this life.
In verse 18 we read of how we look beyond the temporal things of this life and fix our eyes on those things yet to be seen. William Barclay aptly put it, “The things we see have their day and will cease to be; the things that are unseen, the things of heaven, last forever.”
I am certain that in all of life Gene and Sue have been able to see through eyes of faith and envision those things that are beyond our temporal experience. I like to think that in those moments when Ann lay on her bed and felt the way her strength was ebbing away and her life was changing… she saw all the beauty of both this life and the next.
Heaven is every bit as real as the temporal things we can see. The fact that we cannot see something does not diminish it. All that is seen will one day be gone but the yet unseen reality will last forever.
So it is we live as fragile clay jar people and dying body people astraddle this life and the next, the day will come when we step away from all this into being wholly with the Lord and we will be eternal body people.
III. Eternal Bodies… Away and with the Lord, II Corinthians 5:6-9
The text says, “When we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself.” II Corinthians 5:1
Our hope of future glory, i.e., our hope of heaven and eternity is a very real and present hope for us. We read about it. We talk about it. We sing about it. We preach about it. We fervently believe it. We tenaciously hold to it. For us, our bodies are here on earth but our hearts are in heaven.
Paul argued that if Christ has not been raised from the dead then we are all in big trouble. If Christ has not been raised we are as delusional as delusional gets. Our faith is useless. Our sins are not forgiven. All who have died in Christ are lost! And we are a people to be pitied. But then this: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead and all who hope in him have eternal life.
Last summer our daughter, son-in-law and their 5 children visited us from Wheaton, IL. They stayed with us and made day trips along the Front Range and into the mountains. One day they went south to Colorado Springs… they visited the Air Force Academy. They did the Chapel and our son-in-law being the consummate football coach and fan took the family to Falcon Stadium and snapped several photos of his kiddos lined up in various football formations on the field. From there they visited the Garden of the Gods. Of course they found the challenging and highest places to climb and leap about… Alby was holding the hand of Benji, their youngest. As they climbed and jumped from rock to rock Benji repeatedly said, “I don’t want to die and have eternal life!” “I don’t want to die and have eternal life!”
I may be terribly mistaken but I suspect Benji expressed the sentiments of many of us. We are so very grateful for our hope but we are also very grateful for this life and wish to enjoy our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren for as long as possible. So we are in no big hurry to get there, so to speak.
However, in the course of 44 years of pastoral ministry I have come to appreciate the fact that there is a point at which we become ready to be free of this life and long to go be with the Lord. In Christ death is swallowed up in victory… death does not win! Sin is the sting that results in death but thanks be to God who gives us victory over our sin and over death through Jesus Christ.
We really wanted to keep Ann among us as long as possible but we all, along with Ann, came to embrace and welcome her hope. So it is we affirm our hope through the words of Scripture as penned by the Apostle Paul:
“We are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. Yes, we are fully confident and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.” II Corinthians 5:6-9
This afternoon we celebrate the home going of our loved one knowing that her absence among us means she is in the presence of the Lord.
Conclusion
I often conclude memorial meditations with this well-worn poem. I love the vivid imagery. If you close your eyes you can see it and you can hear the voices… It is a poem that speaks to how in death we are no longer anchored to this world and are set free to journey into the fullness of eternal life in Christ.
Sailing Home
I stand on the shore.
A sailing ship drifts from its moorings.
They hoist her white sails and the morning breeze carries her out to sea.
She is beauty. She is life.
I watch and just as she disappears on the horizon, someone at my side says, “Look, she’s gone.”
Gone from my sight that is all…
She is still just as deep in hull and high in mast as when I last saw her.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment when someone at my side says, “Look, she’s gone!”
There are others who are watching, and seeing her appear on the horizon,
Take up the glad shout, “Look, she’s coming home.”
