Open Wide Your Hearts

A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

24 June 2018

I. Paul’s Résumé

• Today’s text picks up right where last week’s text ended – please recall that the apostle has been writing about a new creation – he says that if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation – not only is the one in Christ a new creation, but the entire creation is new – everything old has passed away – everything has become new
• In this new creation, we who are in Christ may no longer view anyone or anything from a human point of view – the new point of view is God’s point of view, the Holy Spirit’s point of view
• With this point of view in our lives, we recognize that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Messiah, God has reconciled the world to God’s self – in Christ, God has healed the brokenness that has separated humankind from God – not only that, but God has also given to Jesus’ People the ministry of reconciliation – God has made us all ambassadors for Christ – in this new creation, we who are in Christ have the ministry of bringing people together, of overcoming the divisions that separate us from one another – we do have to reconcile anyone to God – we could not if we wanted to – besides that, God has already done that part of it in Jesus Messiah
• So here we are, Christ’s ambassadors, ministers of reconciliation – but Paul warns the Corinthians, and us, that we must not accept the grace of God in vain
• Again, as you may recall, Paul has a difficult, tension-filled relationship with the Corinthian Jesus People – they challenge Paul’s authority as an apostle – they challenge Paul’s ministry – they challenge Paul’s message – and they think he looks funny – after working with the Corinthians perhaps for more than a year, they still do not fully accept Paul or anything about him
• When he encourages them not to accept God’s grace in vain, he essentially refers to the idea of the new creation – to accept God’s grace in fact, in deed, and in truth, means that they have to stop looking at the world as though it were not a new creation – if everything old has passed away and everything has become new, then all of those things of which the Corinthians are so proud, all of those things that they have used to judge and divide themselves from one another, also have to pass away – they have to begin to try to see the world as God sees it, as a new creation
• That is not something that they can wait to do – using a reference from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 49.8), Paul tells the Corinthians that the time is now – now is the acceptable time in which God listens to the people – now is the day of healing, the day of salvation
• Paul assures his readers that he does not place any obstacles in the way of reconciliation – his catalogue of difficulties demonstrates his identification with the difficulties of Jesus’ life and ministry – great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger – these are the apostle’s résumé, his curriculum vitae, the course of his life as an apostle – but that is not all
• He also lists some of the things that have gotten him those difficulties – purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God – these things have also been a part of the course of Paul’s life as an ambassador for Christ
• People in his life, including the Corinthian Jesus People, I would assume, have continued to regard him from a human point of view – he is treated as an imposter, even though he is truly an apostle – he is treated as if he were unknown, but God knows who he is – he is treated as if he were, dying, but he is alive – he is treated with punishment, but God gives him life – he is regarded as sorrowful, and yet he always rejoices – he is thought of as being poor, but he enriches the lives of many – he is regarded as having nothing, but God gives him everything he needs
• He once again asserts that he places no restriction on his affections for the Corinthians – the only restrictions are theirs – and at last, simply and directly, as if speaking to children, he asks them to open wide their hearts, both to God and to him, as God’s heart and his heart are open wide to the Corinthians

II. Open Wide Your Hearts

• There is something very tender, very emotional, about Paul’s request – for once, he does not use flowery or even overtly theological language – he merely asks the Corinthians to reciprocate his love for them
• There are echoes of Jesus’ teaching in that request – there are echoes of Jesus’ Golden Rule, which tells us to treat others the way we want them to treat us – there are echoes of the teaching to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves – there are echoes of the teaching to love even our enemies – Paul’s request is touching – it is affectionate – it is warm – it is kindhearted
• And responding to it as he asks is hard to do – we do not always do this naturally, do we? – we really are more like the Corinthians than we would like – we are impatient – we are demanding – we would rather create divisions between us, division of race, divisions of sexual orientation and gender identity, division of social class and standing, divisions of politics, division of ethnicity and nationality – we are comfortable with the divisions – they allow us to delude ourselves into believing that we are in some way safe
• Divisions do not make us safe – they do not remove our fear – they make our fear stronger – and, to borrow Paul’s language, the demonstrate that we accept God’s grace in vain because they demonstrate that we are not actually striving to live in God’s new creation
• Now is the acceptable time, sister, brothers, and friends – now is the day of healing – now is the time to open wide our hearts, especially to the ones we fear the most – now is the time to open wide our hearts to anyone and everyone from whom we would rather divide ourselves
• We live in God’s new creation – we live in eternal life, here and now – which is to say that we live in the life of God’s new age right in this moment
• There are no restrictions on God’s love for us – we need not, we must not, put restrictions on our love for anyone, either

III. Conclusion

• Let us open wide our hearts – let us live fully in God’s new creation – let us love everyone as God has loved us
• Let us regard no one from a human point of view – instead, let us regard everyone from God’s point of view
• Then we will see that the only thing to do is for us to open wide our hearts to all of God’s new creation