Today I went to the Churches Together Service for Unity held at my church. There were about 50 people there, I was one of the youngest by about 20 years. We sang some nice songs, and heard some news of what was going on in the area. One man shared about the symbol of the churches together, which shows an arch of little people all different colours. He said they were a rainbow, and that our different colours (gifts, talents etc) come together to make the pure white of Jesus. Everybody nodded sagely at this lovely illustration, what a nice idea. The whole thing was nice: we laughed politely at the jokes; we talked politely over tea and biscuits; we sang "We are an Army of ordinary people" politely. It was all very christian.
We are the Church - Christ's bride, The Body that operates in this world to bring the gospel to all nations. God's Plan A. That is a concept that is far from polite, or nice. It is mindblowing, shocking, overwhelming, incredible and terrifyingly exciting. I don't know about you, but I am not sure I would choose myself for Plan A anything. And certainly not for something as important as eternity. Because that's what we are talking about here: eternity, creation, Creator, death, Love, life - the biggies.
But there it is. God has sent us, called us to tell all the nations of his love for them, his incredible overwhelming love for all people. In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul considers this responsibility and the importance of "setting forth the truth plainly" when we speak of God's love.
This truth that we are speaking of, showing through our actions and through our smiling faces is the most important truth that has ever been: God, who made the world, loves YOU.
And God's communication plan is the church. Us lot. The man who sings loudly and out of tune at the back; the ladies in wheelchairs; the teenagers who wear hoodies and grunt; the exhausted mothers on the school run; the teachers, the nurses, the hardworking office bods sitting at their desks for 8 hours a day. This is the hope for the nations - us lot. I don't know about you, but I'm not sure this is the best plan...
But there is good, no great news! 2 Corinthians 4 reminds us that "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.
This good news we have within us to share has "all surpassing power" that is God's power not ours - so we might only be normal humans, with issues, problems, flaws and faults but God knows that, and has given us all we need to do this task. Through us God speaks to people, he helps people, he moves into people's lives and changes them.
The news that we shared today at the churches together was about just that: the Broomfields Youth Project where hundreds of young people come along every friday night to play football, watch movies, pray and be prayed for and talk to people about God. It's made a radical impact on the ASBO statistics in the local area, and young people are hearing - for the first time in some cases - that there is a God who LOVES THEM! Hallelujah! The work of God, through the agent of His Church is changing our community and changing people's lives forever. How is that nice and polite? It isn't it's amazing, it's wonderful, it's newsworthy!
Our job, as jars of clay, is to reflect out to our community the "all-surpassing glory" that is within us - this incredible news of God's love. How can you do that? What does that look like in your life?
What did it look like for Jesus? For Jesus, showing the world how much God loves it required death. On a cross, in agony and alone. What might God be asking us to do to show people how much God loves them? How can this Jar of Clay serve you God? How can I show your glory to the world? How can you? How can we all? And when we do, it might not be polite, or nice, or low-key. It will be life changing, scarey, different, and fantastic because God is in it, right at the heart of it, shaking things up through His Church.
Amen.
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