“Eternal Things” Colchester Federated Church, June 9, 2024, Third Sunday after Pentecost (2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1)

Over the next five Sundays, we are going to be hearing and reflecting upon Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.  It’s helpful to set the stage before we begin.  New Testament Studies Professor David J. Downs (who contributed the essay to begin 2 Corinthians in The CEB Study Bible) can help us on our way.  2 Corinthians is often considered one of Paul’s most personal and heartfelt letters.  After all, Paul founded the Christian community in Corinth—theirs was a special relationship.  Though Paul and the Corinthian congregation also had their fair share of conflicts.  Conflicts bubbling up helped rival missionaries come onto the scene and question Paul’s ministry and even begin to lead the Corinthian community in ways that were contrary to Paul’s vision for the congregation.  Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to defend his ministry as an apostle of Jesus and to direct the congregation as to what they should be up to (in Paul’s own humble opinion, of course). 

Now some of the conflicts revolved around changes in Paul’s travel plans.  Basically, plans that were laid out in the letter that we in the Christian community call 1 Corinthians seemed to have changed.  This upset the community in Corinth.  Paul wrote a letter to them, “I wrote to you in tears, with a very troubled and anxious heart.  I didn’t write to make you sad but so you would know the overwhelming love that I have for you.”[1]  Can we hear how this language is quite personal and heartfelt?  Though to be clear, we don’t have this letter.  Our Bibles have 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians (both authentically written by Paul).  But there were more letters that went back and forth between Paul and the Corinthians.  We do our best to fill in the gaps of our knowledge in Christianity.  However, we can know going in that some of the story has been lost.  Anyway, the “lost letter” seems to have done the trick and the fences were mended.  Then Paul wrote this letter (the letter we call 2 Corinthians) to defend his ministry among the Corinthians (and his ministry in general)—for seven of the thirteen chapters. 

Why did I choose to follow this part of the Lectionary and preach about 2 Corinthians through the rest of June and into July—what was I thinking!?  Well, Paul wrote a great deal of the New Testament, so it’s good to hear and reflect upon what Paul was teaching and preaching.  2 Corinthians focuses on Paul explaining his ministry, appealing to the congregation to help the poor in Jerusalem by taking up a collection for them, and defending himself against the rival missionaries attacking him and questioning his apostolic authority.  By the end of this letter, Paul expands his focus by inviting his readers then and now to (in the words of Professor Downs) “understand the close connection between the Christlike suffering of those who work for the gospel, the enabling grace of God, and the transformed lives of those who have received God’s grace.”[2] 

What’s striking about Paul’s words in Chapters 4 and 5 of 2 Corinthians is this focus on faith and grace.  Paul writes, “We also have faith, and so we also speak . . . As grace increases to benefit more and more people, it will cause gratitude to increase, which results in God’s glory.”[3]  There are aspects of 2 Corinthians (and Paul’s theology in general) that are hard to understand.  There are aspects of Paul’s theology that we may not necessarily agree with.  Paul can be quite dualistic in his thinking—it’s us versus them, me versus the missionaries who talk trash about me, the spirit is good and the body is bad. 

For instance, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “So we aren’t depressed.  But even if our bodies are breaking down on the outside, the person that we are on the inside is being renewed every day.”[4]  This can seem to be an either/or scenario—our bodies are breaking down and bad, but our spirits are being renewed and good!  We will get into Paul’s health struggles as revealed in 2 Corinthians as we continue exploring this letter.  Perhaps it was especially heartening for Paul to think about who he was on the inside being renewed.  It can remind us that it’s not what’s on the outside but what’s on the inside that counts.

Listen, Paul is a complicated figure in Christianity.  However, Paul’s focus on the grace of God throughout his letters is beautiful to behold.  Hear the progression again—grace increases to benefit more and more people and this will cause gratitude to increase, which results in the glory of God.  It can remind us of the famous quote from Irenaeus, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”  We come fully alive when we can focus on what actually matters.  Paul might label those things “eternal things.”  As opposed to being derailed by “temporary minor problems” as Paul labels them, what if we—you and me—focused on the things that are eternal?

Here’s partly what I mean, as I have shared in Thursday Thoughts and in various ways around here, I am in the midst of a four-month training program to become a trained and certified Forest Therapy Guide.  Forest therapy is a form of ecotherapy that focuses on the therapeutic benefits of being among trees and this practice is quite literally backed by 40 years of scientific research!  So, what have I been doing for months?  Learning forest therapy as a mindfulness practice of being with nature and learning how to teach this practice by leading people on forest therapy walks.  The class is taught by Regan and Julie of the Forest Therapy School, and it’s been fabulous.  We are now entering the practicum portion of our training where we know enough information to start taking individuals and groups on actual forest walks as we continue the journey to graduation and certification.

One of the aspects of Forest Therapy that has been life-giving for me spiritually is Sit Spot.  We’ve learned that when we walk into the forest or even just sit down somewhere in nature, the birds and animals become immediately alert to our presence.  Of course they do, as this can probably feel like—intruder alert at first!  Though if we can sit (and just be) quietly for 10-15 minutes, the forest returns to its “business.”  And we receive the gift of simply observing the world that we belong to, the world that we are blessed to be part of.  The invitation of Sit Spot is simple—find a spot in nature and sit there for 20 minutes.  Just be!

It was amazing to remember this week that one of my favorite Christian writers (and an Episcopal priest and professor) Barbara Brown Taylor wrote about a version of Sit Spot in her book An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith.  Taylor wrote about how important reverence is in our lives—having a recognition that there is something greater than ourselves and there are things beyond our human creation and control, even things that transcend our human ability to understand.  Here’s the advice Barbara Brown Taylor gave to cultivate reverence in our lives, “The easiest practice of reverence I know is simply to sit down somewhere outside, preferably near a body of water, and pay attention for at least twenty minutes.  It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first.  Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate . . . with any luck, you will soon begin to see the souls in pebbles, ants, small mounds of moss, and the acorn on its way to becoming an oak tree.  You may feel some tenderness for the struggling mayfly the ants are carrying away.  If you see the water, you may take time to wonder where it comes from and where it is going.  You may even feel the beating of your own heart, that miracle of ingenuity that does its work with no thought or instruction from you.  You did not make your heart, any more than you made a tree.  You are a guest here.”[5]

In the end, Paul wrote to the Corinthians about “eternal things” that should be their focus.  Sometimes I fear that Christians have gone off the deep-end by saying that taking care of the Earth or occupying a humble place on this Earth as guests doesn’t matter because we are bound for heaven.  We should focus on heaven and those “eternal things” and not Earth anyway (any more than we should focus on our horrible bodies when we have our beautiful spirits bound for heaven).  That is another sermon for another Sunday.  All I know for certain is that encountering the world with reverence can help people be grateful.  And gratitude helps us glorify God—the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of us all.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] 2 Corinthians 2:4, CEB.
[2] David J. Downs, “2 Corinthians Introduction,” The CEB Study Bible, pg. 337 NT.
[3] 2 Corinthians 4:13, 15, CEB.
[4] 2 Corinthians 4:16, CEB.
[5] Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, pgs. 22-23.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.