2 Corinthians 1:3-11
September 29, 2022
Americans are funny when it comes to personal comfort right? We tend to not want to look for it, we want it handed to us. When we’re hot, we want someone to adjust the AC. When we’re cold, we want someone to throw a down comforter over us and fix us a cup of tea and turn on the gas-powered fireplace that, let’s face it, doesn’t really generate any heat at all.
This past weekend we lost power in our home for about 17, maybe 18 hours thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Ian and I learned an important lesson about myself.
I can be such a baby.
The lights went out and stayed out which meant that for dinner a PB&J was about as good as it was going to get. Then, outrage upon outrage, no TV of course so I had to read. Using a flashlight. On my iPhone! Are you kidding me? Not only did holding my phone for light make turning the pages difficult but I had to be mindful not to let the battery on my phone run down because if it did, oh boy. Then the headaches really start. Then I would have to go out to the garage, disconnect the electric garage door opener, manually lift the garage door, back my car out and let my phone charge in my car for a bit. Outrageous.
When we woke up Saturday morning, there was still no electricity, so I had to get in my car and drive nearly 3 miles to Bojangles for biscuits and coffee. It was just too much work for too little comfort. I needed my lights on and I needed them on now.
Then, at some point, I saw a picture of Fort Myers Beach. And I saw the destruction from the hurricane that experts were predicting may take years to restore. And then I had to get ready to come to church and preside over the funeral of a 45-year-old woman – a friend – whose husband and two teenage sons were trying to cope with that loss. And today I’m working with folks in my church to try and help a family who is here in town, displaced by that same hurricane. I lost electricity. They’ve lost a home.
By midday Sunday, I was feeling more than a little ashamed because as a follower of Jesus Christ and as a pastor I was forgetting one of the scriptures’ most beautiful, reassuring, and steadfast promises. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.” Not some comfort, all comfort. Not some days, every day. Not for some people but for all who know the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he’s kind of in “fence-mending” mode. His first letter to the Corinthians was not a love letter. Paul is very direct with the church over their tolerance of sin and the church doesn’t receive his criticisms well and for a time they turn on Paul.
Paul sends a protégé to Corinth, a young pastor named Titus to smooth things over and after a time Titus meets Paul in Ephesus and tells him that things are much better in Corinth. Hearts have changed, and confession and repentance are taking place. So, Paul writes this letter not to deliver an “attaboy”, but to guide the church back to the right track. And one of the very first ways he does it is to remind the church that in times of trouble, their first instinct should be to turn to Jesus first. Why? Look at 2 Corinthians 1:4-5…
“He (God) comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ.”
And before you get wigged out wondering what suffering for Christ entails, let me keep it simple for you. All it means is that when given the opportunity to share the gospel, you do it. Even if people say mean things to you when you do. Share the comfort of Jesus lovingly and humbly and, as Paul puts it himself, gently and you’ll be comforted. And prayerfully, so will the person you’re sharing with.
A little further on in the chapter Paul talks about some of the horrifying challenges he’s faced preaching God’s Word. From angry mobs to beatings to imprisonment, shipwrecks, and snakebites Paul says that at times he expected to die. Then, he adds this and I’m going to close with this, 2 Corinthians 1:9.
“…we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”
Why do we insist on relying on ourselves when we know full well the trainwreck that can cause when instead we can rely on God, creator of the universe, raiser of the dead, and Father to your personal Savior? I don’t get it. But we do. Realizing that about ourselves, this week as we face whatever we may be facing, problems great and small, let’s remember…
God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
Turn to Him first and He will get you where you need to be.