“A Letter In the Spirit”

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:1-11

One of the problems in society is that we have forgotten how to communicate in a personal way. We text and IM in a language that only other “texters” understand. We use “social” networks that totally un-define what the word “social” really means. Personal contact only occurs when we have no other option, and verbal communication is something that only news commentators use. Even writing letters has become a thing of the past.
Now we email everything from Christmas greetings to our annual family letter, and we don’t even have to touch a greeting card anymore – we can obtain them on line for nearly any occasion and can transmit them electronically. No muss, no fuss! I even post my sermons on line so you and others can review them at your leisure! Hard copies are almost a thing of the past, although I still carry a few with me each week in case someone would like a copy to read over later!
Language has become a series of abbreviations, verbal communications has become an awkward and last resort process, and personal, handwritten notes are a thing of the past. Letters used to mean “I care.” Mother Teresa once said, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.”
- Mother Teresa, quoted in News Summaries, September 1, 1982.
A pencil being used to write a love letter. Now that is the personification of a personal letter! A letter that will always be carried within me was one that my learning disabled son Chris gave me once. In his own way, he simply wrote “Dad I love you”, and he signed it. In that very moment, he was that “little pencil” for me at just the time I needed it. And I still have that letter today.

While Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison, he and his fiancé Maria von Wedemeyer continued to write to each other. In a May 1944 letter from his prison cell in Tegel, Bonhoeffer wrote:

“A blessing is the visible, perceptible, effective proximity of God. A blessing demands to be passed on -- it communicates itself to other people. That someone should be a blessing is the greatest thing of all, isn't it? Not just a helpmate, or a companion or a friend, but a blessing. May that be how it is in our marriage.”

Dietrich and Maria would never marry, but these words continue to challenge us, even today. That is the kind of heart that a deep and personal relationship can grow from.

Read 2 Corinthians 3:1-3

Paul is asking whether they need an introduction or not. Should he and his friends introduce themselves? Should they offer letters from people they have lived with? Should they take letters from these people to show to others? How will the next town know that they are worth listening to?
The answer that he gives is a version of the age old saying “Actions speak louder than words!” The introduction that they need isn’t that they should blow their own horn, or that others should offer their take on what had been given. What they need is the evidence of a personal relationship between the evangelists and the people. “Seeing is believing!”

What if Paul and Timothy and Silas had sat at home, and had sent their witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Greece through some electronic means. How effective do you think that would have been? The truth is that it probably would have little, if any, impact on these lives, and the name of Jesus would have died in the air waves. The impersonal contact has never worked as well as a face to face connection.
When the “letter of introduction” is the very lives that have been changed, when the means of conveying the authority are the very hearts and lives that have been touched, when the author of that proof is the Holy Spirit’s work and not some poor human attempt at expression, then others can believe that the message is genuine and not just some new gimmick.
Think about the moment when you finally came to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Was it because of something that you read, or was it because of something that you saw in another person? Was it an impersonal written plea, or was it the heart and soul of a friend that helped you to see the truth of Jesus? Chances are that it was the personal, and not the impersonal. That is what Paul is telling the church in Corinth – be the proof of Christ for the world, and not just a “stay-at-home” messenger who no one ever gets to know.

Read 2 Corinthians 3:4-6

The apostle readily admits that he, as well as others, are unable to proclaim the message themselves and that they are simply the channel through which God is working. Again, the messenger and the message-giver need that personal relationship if others are ever going to hear and respond to the truth.

And then he tells the people that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (v.6) I think he is saying that letters are unreliable and open to misinterpretation, that they are nothing more than one person’s opinion. The saying “The proof is in the tasting” has a lot of truth in it. You can have the finest recipe, developed by the finest chef, but until you see the final product, and smell its aroma, and taste its flavor, you will never know just how good it really is. I’ve discovered that with some of my very amateur efforts at cooking. It might look good on paper, but unless I am able to translate it into something relatively appetizing and nourishing, it is useless to me and anyone else who might join me for dinner.

It all comes back to a personal experience, doesn’t it? From my own perspective, I have read about Israel in scripture and in books and have had classes on early church history, but until Diane and I went to Israel a week ago, I didn’t have a clue as to what the land and the history and the people were all about. I had to see it up close, to smell the smells, to hear the sounds, to feel the earth, to walk the steps. Reading about it seemed to be adequate at the time, but it wasn’t even close to being the real thing!

Read 2 Corinthians 3:7-11

Paul is now talking about the letter of the law versus the Spirit of the law. It’s interesting that the law itself is never condemned by Jesus or Paul or any other writer. Jesus followed the law of God, but was always at odds with the interpretations that were offered by the people. Condemnation came against the law as a means to righteousness and salvation, but not the intent.
Paul writes that the law is a ministry of death, for it can never save. Only the Spirit of God can do that. But even in that, he claims that the law came to us, from God, in glory. We have to understand, though, that this is referring to the giving of God’s law, and not in the living out of the law in human terms and in human ways.
The law, even though important, condemns us to the point that we can never immerge from it, but the glory of the Spirit is so much greater than the law that there is simply no comparison. It’s the same as reading about Israel versus actually being there. Reading about it gives us the facts, but being there is living it. The law gives us the facts, but that’s all – it’s the Spirit that brings us the life. The law can be misinterpreted, revised, and perverted, and it is all the time, but the Spirit is directly from God, with no intermediaries and no chance for corruption. It is either accepted or it is rejected, it is either the truth, or it isn’t.

There is an old story about the man who wrote a letter to the IRS and enclosed five $100 bills. In the letter he admitted having cheated the IRS [some 20 years before] and that he had not slept well since. He closed the letter as follows: “If I don't sleep better now, having enclosed the five $100 bills, I will send the rest later.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for what is right, is it? It was his interpretation of what he should do, but is there any doubt that the IRS didn’t agree with his stance?

The bottom line is this. The ways of the world are complicated and limiting and messy, but the way of the Spirit is simple and freeing and cleansing. In Deuteronomy 6:4 we read the Shema – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.” The passage then goes on to call the faithful to wear this on their hands and on their foreheads – the little boxes (phylacteries) that you see on the orthodox contain this commandment. But Jesus took it one step further – he quotes Leviticus 19:18 which tells us to “love our neighbor as yourself”, and he says that this is like the Shema. You can’t do one without the other.
The Spirit is simple – as simple as “Dad I love you.” But the world, with all of its laws and demands and requirements and expectations is so restricting that we can never live up to the letter. But if we come to Christ and allow him to write his love on our hearts, all will come from it.
Come to him today and make it a personal and simple love for God and for those around you.