THE TRAMPLED TRIUMPHANT
Text: II Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (21) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. (2) For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! (3) We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, (4) but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions,hardships,calamities, (5) beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; (6) by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, (7) truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; (8) in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; (9) as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; (10) as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
“Every member of the family was puzzled over the mystery of a fern that would not grow. Sulking, seemingly, the plant refused to put out new stems. There seemed to be no injury from transplanting, it had been taken up carefully, and sheltered until it should have been well rooted. Everything in the way of plant food had been provided, but there it stood, no larger than when it had been brought into the house, an awkward, ugly, thing, in a mockingly large flower pot.
Then arrived a guest who was a horticulturalist. He forced wire down into the earth about the fern’s roots, and diagnosed the trouble at once. The plant had been set in stiff clay, and this had become packed hard. Reset in loose soil, the fern grew luxuriously. Even the flower of God’s planting cannot find root in a heart choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. (Practical Illustrations. Chattanooga: Ministries Worldwide, 2001, p. 100). What does this illustration have to do with this text? It’s about reconciliation.
AMABSSADORS OF RECONCILIATION
How well do we well handle obstacles to reconciliation?
Are we as believers not all called to be ambassadors of reconciliation as God’s peacemakers?
1) Current world conflicts: We cannot watch the news with the current events going on---the seeing conflict between Ukraine versus Russia or Israel versus Hammas and the Palestinian opposition.
2) Ambassadors: Every once in a while we hear about ambassadors who represent their countries on the meeting floor of the United Nations to discuss the pros and cons of world issues like those in all these countries. They are political ambassadors. We who are Christians are foreigners in a foreign land in that we are citizens of the kingdom of God who live on earth. We represent our Lord and His interests because we live in the world but we are not of the world. We are Christ's ambassadors.
3) Designated ambassadors: Listen to the latest news and you will hear people criticize Trump for using his expert negotiating skills to bring peace between Ukraine and Russia. How many of his critics complain and yet lack the position, the skills and the solutions he offers? Did God place him as the president of the United States for such a time as this? If God makes nations and their leaders to rise and fall and he does, then why should it seem strange that God has his designated ambassadors for certain times, places and people? Isn’t that what God chose Moses to be the designated ambassador to set His people free from Pharoah? Isn’t that why God chose David to face Goliath? Isn’t that why God chose Paul to be his missionary to the Gentiles?
Perhaps God has specifically chosen you and placed you where you are in your position with your negotiating skills and the potential rapport you might have between enemies.
As Christ's ambassadors, we are called to reconcile those who are estranged from God and each other.
"It's a story that is repeated on every elementary school playground, nearly every day in our country. Two fourth-graders get into it during recess; something about "he did this, so I did that" and it kind of goes south from there. When they get back to class, Billy trips Joey. After lunch, Joey breaks Billy's pencil on purpose. When nobody is looking, Billy writes on Joey's desk, and later, Joey steals Billy's folder. After school, Billy and his friends face Joey and his friends, and they call each other names. Somebody gets hurt. Somebody else gets hurt worse. And then there is no telling when or if these conflicts will ever end.
Sound familiar? We have all experienced this sort of escalating pettiness and we readily admit that it is silly. But I would suggest to you that we can remove the names "Billy" and "Joey" and insert the words "husband" and "wife" and the story is much the same. Or we could insert the names of two rival highschools, or two rival companies, or "The Hatfields" and "The McCoys." Or Republicans and Democrats, or "pro-life" and "pro-choice," or Israel and Palestine, or America and almost any Arab nation you care to name. Conflict at any level is conflict. And if not preventable, most conflict is at least resolvable…but not until one side refuses to retaliate and instead decides to reconcile. " https://sermons.com/search/keyword?type=Illustrations+%C2%B7+Quotes+%C2%B7+Humor&term=reconciliation
As Christ's ambassadors, what are we doing to help those who feel alienated from God and neighbors?
1) Thirsty horses: As an old saying says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink". How many “thirsty horses” do you know because of their stubbornness or their feelings of unworthiness?
2) Hellbent stubbornness: Some will be like Voltaire: "Voltaire once stood watching a funeral procession. As a high crucifix, carried by four men, passed by, Voltaire was seen to raise his hat and hold it aloft in the air until the crucifix had passed. A friend of his noticing this, said, "Well are you at last a believer in God?" "No," replied the atheist. "We salute, but we do not speak". (Hyman J. Appleman. Pointed Sermon Outlines And Illustrations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953,p. 82). How many are there like Voltaire who salute God, but do not speak to Him?
2) The receptive unworthy: As Christ's ambassadors, all we can do is try to help those who are estranged from God to find their way back. "There was a man who had lost his way. He asked his preacher to pray for him. At one time he had been a church leader. He had befriended alcohol only to find that he had become a slave to its vice. When he asked the preacher to pray with him he was sobbing as he said, “I know I’m in the gutter. I know it. But Oh! … I don’t belong there, do I?” Tell me I don’t belong there …” The preacher put his arm around him and said, “No, you don’t belong there; you belong to God. At the last heaven is your home!” (W. E. Sangster. Can I Know God?. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1960, pp. 60-61). As Christ's ambassadors, we try to help those who are estranged from God out of the gutter.
SOME SEE US AS IMPOSTORS
How many people today see Christians and their mission as God’s ambassadors with suspicion?
1) The alienated: One of the reasons that people are cynical is because they feel alienated. They feel as if no one cares and that we are "putting them on".
2)The suspicious: They cannot believe that anyone cares or would care about them. That is the nature of people who are cynical unbelievers. They are skeptical when anyone tries to be nice to them because they have no concept of unconditional love. The cynical do not trust anyone because they think that anyone who shows them kindness is up to something.
They are a lot like that fern plant we spoke of in the beginning of this sermon. They need to be replanted in productive soil because the soil of that hearts is much like clay!
3) Burden: There was a lady who once worked with a man who was vile. “God gave her a burden for him and she witnessed to him faithfully. He laughed at her and would speak rudely of his sins without shame. In spite of his efforts to trample and rend her (Matthew 7:6), this lady loved him to the end. He committed suicide.” (Billie Friel. Citizens Of The Kingdom. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1992, p. 188).
WE ARE THE TRAMPLED TRIUMPHANT
How often do we get trampled through reaction of those who oppose us?
1) The hard- hearted with excuses: “A prison chaplain writes of a study in which he talked with twelve inmates in the penitentiary. He asked each “Why are you here?” The answers were instructive: “I was framed.” “They ganged up on me.” “It was a case of mistaken identity.” “The police had it in for me.” Not one said he was guilty of something. They were all innocent. An insurance adjuster said that he would estimate 90 percent of the people involved in automobile accidents see themselves as blameless”. (Emerson Colaw. Beliefs Of A United Methodist Christian. Nashville: Tidings, 1972, pp. 44 - 45). While they see themselves as blameless, they often see Christians as foolish and mock us.
2) Reactions to our witness: As someone (Christopher Grundy) has said, our witness “… can seem foolish to speak of God’s reconciling love or engage in ministries of reconciliation when the rewards are mostly are ingratitude and unpopularity.” (David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. eds. Feasting On The Word. Year A. Volume 2. Christopher Grundy. “Homiletical Perspective”. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 19). Our witness is not about us; we do not witness to earn a place in popularity polls! We are called to witness the way we do because we are God’s ambassadors. What is the one thing that we have in common with those to whom we witness? Only Jesus Christ can make us blameless!
We are triumphant because Jesus takes away our sin!
1) we are all sinners: The truth is that there is no one who is without sin because we have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). There is only one who is without sin because He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and His name is Jesus Christ (John 1:29)! Jesus conquered sin, death and the fear of death because the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23)! But, "… the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23 NKJV)!
2) Our impact: Someone has wisely said that "Christians are to be in the world as galvanized nails in a building, holding it together but not corroded by its acids". (R. Benjamin Garrison. Creeds In Collision. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1967, p. 15). That is how we as Christians are in the world but not of the world!
We come to an Ash Wednesday service like we are doing tonight, we come with a spirit of reverence.
1) Our victory: When we come together for an Ash Wednesday service, we are reminding ourselves of our sinful past and the price that Jesus paid for our redemption giving us victory over sin's power and our freedom as forgiven sinners.
2) A sign of our repentance: We come and receive the mark of the ashes in the sign of a cross on our foreheads as a symbol of our penitence and mourning.
3) Replanted: Jesus has removed us from our past and given us a new beginning.
