“Renewed in the Glory”

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

The trials that we experience in this life will, quite often, try our faith to the extreme. The death of loved ones, damage to our closest relationships, loss of financial security including our jobs, destruction of our homes and personal property, serious illness, and the list can go on and on. For many, the question that is asked is never “How will the Lord work his will within my struggle?”, but rather “Why, Lord, are you letting this happen to me?” Pain, hardships, a sense of loss and helplessness, struggles of every ilk seem to turn our focus inward toward ourselves, instead of outward toward faith in Jesus Christ.
Yes, I said “outward”. All too often, we talk about our faith as though it was something that we own, when it would be more accurate to refer to it as the “gift of faith that God has blessed me with”. When we turn inward, our center becomes “my life”, but when we look beyond ourselves - beyond our pain - our focus can then become “my life that comes from Christ”.

In Psalm 116, we read the words of one who knows that the power we need for this life is not in the life that we live – it is in and of and from the Lord who gives beyond all reason and expectation.

Read Psalm 116:8-12
And with that thought in our hearts and minds, we turn to our text for today.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:13-15

For the past 3 weeks, we have considered the task of allowing Christ to lift the veil off darkness from our sightless eyes. Today we consider those words of faith that come when the veil is finally lifted - “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?”

That incredible gift from God – the faith to believe in that which we have never seen, and to praise God for his goodness in the midst of our trials – can only be expressed by a believer. And Paul takes that thought to an even higher level – he says that it is faith that allows us to believe, and only then to proclaim God’s goodness. It all comes back to a new vision – the vision of both the ability to see in a new way, and the gift to see that which is new.

And why is this gift given to us? Paul tells us that the vision and vista isn’t for our benefit – it is for God’s! Isn’t that interesting? New sight brings grace into the lives of more and more people so that glory – thanksgiving and praise in the name of Jesus Christ – can overflow from our lives and into the Glory of God! The grace that comes in that first moment of new vision – John Wesley would call that moment Justifying Grace – will continue to grow within us and bring us closer and closer to God, which brings him more and more glory –Wesley sees this as Sanctifying Grace. Grace lived in our life is transformed into glory for God’s.
So if anyone ever asks you what can we ever give to the God who has everything, tells them to give him Glory! That should make them think for at least a few minutes!

But back to the Psalmist for a moment – verse 10 – “I believed; therefore I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” Because he believed, the writer could tell the Lord what he was going through. In faith, we are able to keep our lines of communication open with God regardless of what may be going on in our life. That doesn’t necessarily mean that God is going to immediately resolve the situation to our liking, but he will give us the strength and presence to continue this life in him until the trial finally comes to an end.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“Therefore, we do not lose heart.” In other words “Don’t let the veil drop back down!!!”

Jim Wallis, Editor of Sojourners, writes:
Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and [then] watching the evidence change.
--Theologian and Sojourners Editor, Jim Wallis

There will always be those times when all the evidence, all the rationale, all common sense, all of reality would have us believe that there is no hope. But Romans 5 tells us something different.

Read Romans 5:1-5

We don’t lose heart, because we have an undying, undefeatable hope in Christ – even in those “times that try men’s souls”, that hope is still at work! When Thomas Payne first penned those words in December 1776 in a piece titled “The Crisis”, he was describing the current situation in our country’s early struggle for independence. He wrote of efforts to take a stand against tyranny, and how a few courageous troops were fighting without fear, because they believed in the cause that had called them. Their situation was not in the best of shape, but he had faith that the days to come would shine brighter and fairer.
And Christians do not lose heart, either! Because we are so strong and able? Hardly! It’s because of our faith in the one who has called us to walk in his way! But there will always be those who will try to dis-hearten us. You may have heard the quotation:
We are living in an age, not of faith versus doubt, but of faith versus belief. People are believing anything and everything. But they have faith in very little.
- Homiletics On Line

If we are to remain faithful in spite of the trials that besiege us, if the Divine power is going to continue to sustain us in the face of outward attacks, we need to keep our life centered, in faith, on Jesus Christ. “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” Bishop Fulton Sheen writes:
A Christ-centered life does not mean a life in which one sings hymns, reads Scripture, and edifies his neighbors by hanging texts on the walls. One does not become a Christian by doing a good deed a day, nor by go-getting for religion, nor by engaging in economic and political reform movements, even though these things are done from the noblest of human motives. A Christian is one who, believing that Christ is the Son of God, has that Christ-life in his soul.
- Fulton J. Sheen, Lift Up Your Heart (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955), 214.

A life in faith is never about the tangible, the visible, the physical. It isn’t about the things we read or the things we say and do. It isn’t about our strength or our abilities or anything else that is ours. A life in faith is gained and exhibited by walking in the light of Christ and being renewed, day by day by day, in his glory and grace.

I would like to leave you with a story that probably speaks more eloquently to our passage for today than all of my words put together. It is from World War II, and from my point of view, it is one of the greatest examples of fixing our eyes on the unseen and not the seen, of speaking out, not because of personal ability, but because of faith.

On October 13, 1946, after his release from a Japanese prisoner- of-war camp, the Bishop of Singapore, Leonard Wilson broadcast these remarks:

I remember Archbishop Temple, in one of his books, writing that if you pray for any particular virtue, whether it be patience or courage or love, one of the answers that God gives to us is an opportunity for exercising that virtue. After my first beating [at the hands of the Japanese], I was almost afraid to pray for courage lest I should have another opportunity of exercising it; but my unspoken prayer was there, and without God's help I doubt whether I would have come through.
Long hours of ignoble pain were a severe test. In the middle of torture they asked me if I still believed in God. When, by God's help, I said, 'I do,' they asked me why God did not save me. By the help of his Holy Spirit, I said, 'God does save me. He does not save me by freeing me from pain or punishment, but he saves me by giving me the Spirit to bear it.'
And when they asked me why I did not curse them, I told them that it was because I was a follower of Jesus Christ, who taught us that we were all brethren. By the end of the war, Bishop Wilson had made several converts to Christianity, including some of his Japanese captors.

In 1953, Wilson became Bishop of Birmingham. One Sunday he found himself confirming some candidates in a church and laying his hands on someone he recognized from his past. It turned out to be his principal torturer to whom he had spoken the above words.
--As referenced by John Andrew, St. Thomas Church, New York City.

Had the “veil of darkness” been lifted from the Bishop eyes? You had better believe that it had!! In spite of the unimaginable abuse and pain and terror that he had to endure in faith, he continued to witness to the power of God that filled his life. Renewed in the Glory of Christ, over and over again!

“We rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” [Romans 5:3-5]

That is God’s promise to us. That is our life in him.