Treasure In Clay Jars

Good morning. Did anybody get to see the exhibit down at the Heinz Center called The Vatican Splendors? In case you were not able to see it, today is the last day and then it is going to move on. It was a traveling show across the United States that hit four or five cities where they took items from the Vatican, like paintings, sculptures, and mosaics, and put them together into this display called The Vatican Splendors. Because I was raised Catholic, I think I appreciated it a lot but you didn’t have to be Catholic to appreciate the artwork and history behind that. It was a really good show. As I went through there, I started paying attention to see what exhibits seemed to draw the most attention. Debbie liked the paintings the most. I looked at the sculptures and historical items. You can tell by this sign that the most popular items for the Catholics were these commemorative shot glasses you can get at the end of the tour. There was a lot of good stuff there. This may sound a little bit morbid to some of you, but the things I was really curious about were the relics. When we think of relics, we think of some sort of historical artifact. In a religious setting, a relic has a very specific meaning. They are basically objects left behind of the saints. It could be personal items, which could be bone fragments or strands of hair from their body. Some of these exhibits actually contain these items. They are believed to, in some cases, have this miraculous ability and quality behind them. They are revered in the church. Aside from the theology of that, it did impress me that I was standing about a foot away from what is believed to be the bones of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. I came to this display and it was an ornate-looking vessel made of silver and gold and really decked out. It was just this beautiful thing. I could not believe I was standing a foot away from the bones of someone like Saint Peter or Saint Paul, people that we speak of almost weekly here. Because it was so elaborate and ornate and the container was so beautiful, even though you wanted to look at the treasure inside, your eyes were naturally drawn to the vessel.

In today’s reading out of 2 Corinthians, Paul says don’t focus on the vessel. Don’t focus on the jar of clay. He says focus on the treasure inside. Looking at 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul writes “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all suppressing power is from God and not from us.” A little background on this passage because we are taking it out of context. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. It is one of the newer churches; a first-century church. We talked about several months ago that the Corinthian church had a lot of issues going on. It was also a church that, because it was new, was very persecuted. It was hard being a Christian in the first century. People left their homes, jobs, relationships, and other religions to become part of what was known at that time as a cult of Judaism. Christianity was brand new. It was considered an off-shoot of Judaism. So the people were under a lot of persecution. They were losing their lives. What I appreciated a lot about the artwork down at the Heinz Center was that it really did a good job depicting the suffering that the first-century Christians went through. They really went through a lot. They were placed in arenas. They were fed to dogs. They were executed. They were lit on fire. It is just unbelievable. It is almost embarrassing to try and compare our suffering to their suffering. Even yet, the people were just ordinary people like you and me. They had jobs and families. They were mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and teenagers. They were just common, ordinary people. That is why Paul uses this term clay pots. It is people who are common. One of the most common items around the marketplace or the homes were these clay pots. These jars of clay. They were used everywhere. There were very unimpressive and cheap. They were the common thing around in that day. In fact, if you were to go on an archaeological dig, you pretty much can guarantee that you are going to find a pot shard, which is just a chunk of pot. Those are very common. They are very inexpensive, and they are easily chipped and broken. Paul uses this idea of jars of clay to symbolize the persecuted Christians.