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| A Crown of Thorns |
2 Corinthians can play a unique role in spiritual and vocational formation.
In 2 Corinthians, Paul describes the formal components of the Christian message, teachings, and lifestyle in very personal ways and in application to his own life.
Reconciliation:
Spiritual and incarnational: Christ makes us a new creation, and agents/servants of the new creation, and the righteousness of God: 5:16-21.
1. 1:3-10, God becomes our Comforter (advocate, encourager, reinforcement) in the face of our fear, depression, and failure. My first call provoked what really was a clique that controlled the congregation to get the presbytery to remove me from the church, which seriously hampered my ability to seek further calls. I seemed doomed, and this haunted my ministry for years. How has God reinforced our efforts to face and challenge our fear, depression, and failure?
2. 4:7-18, God grace enables our own reconciliation with our flawed, sinful selves.
3. 1:17-22, God becomes our Hope of victory; all of God’s promises will say “Yes” to us. (Has God made us able to face challenges in hope that your efforts will bear fruit?)
4. 3:12-18; 4:6, God becomes our friend: love and grace and covenant in Christ initiates communion, communication, spiritual perception, friendship. How do we enjoy God’s friendship?
5. 7:2-16, God becomes our reconciliation with others. (The presence of God in Christ enabled me to relate to others without fear.) Has God enabled this in our lives?
Motivation:
Empowerment and Discipline
and Humor
1. Empowerment: 5:1-10, God motivates a faith-based courage, knowing that defeat and loss and the end of important endeavors will not have the last word. (I believed that God was calling me to ministry in the Presbyterian Church and the Church seemed predisposed to rejecting my calling, But God told me I should seek this anyway.) How has God called us to seek what seems guaranteed not to work?
2. Discipline: 1:11, God motivates prayer: Asking others to pray for us; 12:7-8, maintaining our own repeated prayer for our own growth; 1:15-16, 1:23-2:4 God motivates learning through one’s mistakes and experience. What might these disciplines require of us?
3. Humor: 11:30-33, God motivates a sense of humor: boasting about being lowered over the city wall in a basket, so laughing at his own troubles and hardships, instead of boasting; 12:8-10, God says “My strength is made perfect in weakness” so I will boast about my weaknesses. (When I first came under care of presbytery in an attempt to be a candidate for the ministry; the loudest voices doubted my stamina for facing adversity or criticism. At my ordination, one of those presented me with a band aide to keep in my wallet for when I might get hurt.) --- How does God assist our motivation to serve by assisting our sense of humor? It’s true that Paul was very capable of making a sarcastic apology, and he does this a lot in 2 Corinthians, especially in 12:11-13. Does sarcasm have a place in Christian life and service? Did Paul have a purpose in this sarcasm?
Incarnation:
How do we embody this work of God in our lives?
1. Embodiment of the message of the victory of God in Christ through endurance and positive, constructive, and affirming relationships with others: 6:1-11. I never stopped doing this, even with those who don’t accept me. How do we try to do this?
2. We embody God’s truth through honesty and confession: again see 1:23-2:4.
