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Treasure in Clay Jars or a Cold Night
Dec. 14, 2002
sermon by
Manfred Schreyer
2 Cor 4:5 [NIV] For we do
not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your
servants for Jesus' sake. :6 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. :7 But we have this
treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God
and not from us. :8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; :9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed. :10 We always carry around in our body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. :11 For
we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so
that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. :12 So then, death is at
work in us, but life is at work in you. :13 It is written: "I believed;
therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and
therefore speak, :14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his
presence. :15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is
reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the
glory of God. :16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. :17 For our
light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all. :18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what
is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
There you have it. The verses
tell us about that nothing matters, but the salvation through Jesus
Christ.
We as the churches often act as
if we hold the salvation in our church. We act as if we are the church
that deserves the blessings of God and that those who find our church
receive salvation through us.
But the story is quite
different. Yes, salvation is received through the church. It is received
through the people who have committed to a life of faith.
And without the church . . .
-God’s church- there would be no salvation message.
Everything taught by the world
speaks of inner strength, of reliance on one’s gifts, on power and might
over others and of survival.
Many of us have gone away of
understanding that we once were one church. For more than 1500 years the
Holy Catholic church was the one who told us what salvation meant.
And then M. Luther in the 16th
century explained to us that parts of the previous faith was incorrectly
interpreted and then of course you have us . . . those who believed that
there is even a different understanding then the Protestant
understanding . . . and the list goes on.
To know God is not reached by
wisdom of humankind, but through the Spirit:
1 Cor 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness
of what was preached
1 Cor 2:13 This is what we speak,
not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit,
expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
In our seminaries we grade not
by the Spirit, but by our eccentric ideas . . . in the difference of our
churches we are afraid that the other church might grow more and so we
avoid deep spiritual contact with the neighboring church.
Unity of churches means an
understanding of the mission of being one. An understanding that we can
make a difference for the God’s church as a whole.
As I was driving home very late
at night on Dec. 14, 2002 it started snowing heavier and heavier. I
drove a road that was hardly traveled at all during this time of the
night and any time you travel like this your mind wanders off in
different directions. I was frustrated that the weather would slow me
down and other things went through my mind. The weather was so bad that
I could hardly see in front of my car and within a few minutes I drove
through 6 inches of snow and I could barely see in front of my hood.
Then suddenly I saw a movement to
the right of the road, almost right beside my car. Within a split second I
recognized that I had passed a person who was standing on the side of the
road waving.
I stopped my car and drove
backwards . . . the person opened the passengers’ door and I saw a crying
woman who I could hardly understand. "My car is over the bank and I have
been standing here for more than 45 min." I could hardly understand her
words since she was crying that developed into a hysteric cry. I got out of
the car got her belong out of the van that had slid down a at least 10 ft
embankment. As I returned into the car, I had a chance to look into her
face. She was crying . . . helpless and her crying kept progressing. " I
lost control, I do not know what to do" I tried to calm her down. Comforted
her by telling her she should be thankful that everything worked out and
that she was not hurt . . . but her crying progressed. Everything is just so
terrible. My kid is locked out a t home. "What do you do so late on the
road?" I asked "I work at a truck stop and then at night I work at a bar"
she relied. "Well, I let you off at the gas station (if there is any on this
road) and then you can call someone. "I don’t know if I can reach anyone . .
. , could you please take me home?" (Great, that is all I needed a possible
detour. I had to go home to get some sleep, I had a sermon to deliver the
next morning . . . ) She gave me directions . . . a shortcut through some
real country roads where there were no tire tracks and finally we made it. A
trailer in a trailer park. I told her to have a great weekend and to be
thankful. And then I gave her my business card.
I left and saw that she could care
less about my card. She asked "Do I owe you anything? (I thought: "Yeah my
sanity" . . . as I saw the snow came down heavier and heavier) She took it
went to the door of her trailer and she did not even waive.
"Thanks", I thought. Thanks for me
possibly getting stuck on my way back.
The next day I told the story to
the friend I had visited and I explained to the friend that I will probably
never hear from that person again and that I could not believe how people
act.
And that is the way some of us
think as a church. Yeah we stop on the roadside and we pick someone up,
but we do not deliver them to the door. We expect them to find
salvation, we expect them to come to us not to the other church that is
growing fast anyway . . . and God knows why?
About one month later she wrote
me a long letter in which she explained that she had found Christ in her
heart and that the very night I had picked her up she felt as if she was
called to give her life to Christ and she thanked God for me to be there
that night. She said that god had sent me into her life that night to
touch her heart one more time.
Unity means just that . . . to
give the same message just as Paul describes it:
:18 So we fix our eyes
not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
BECAUSE we must have
the same goal . . . to bring kindness, love and hope . . . because God
is working among us . . . in a very special way . . .
When I received the letter, I
was the one who felt bad, because my thought that night were focused on
me not on her or on our God. I prayed and thanked God that he had used
me.
Unity means that we allow God
to use us . . . beyond our comprehension.
More
Sermons by Pastor
Manfred Schreyer
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