Thoughts on 1:8-11
The literal meaning of the words thlipsis (affliction) is "pressure." We are pushed and shoved and buffeted by the pressures of affliction. It is highly likely that the false teachers who are leading the Corinthians astray and prodding them to question Paul and his credentials are teaching that Christians are individuals who are free from affliction and suffering. This is a heresy that pops up again and again through church history, and is very prevalent among Christians today. I have had several ministry disappointments in the past as people have walked away because I cannot promise them ease and prosperity.
What Paul does in this short paragraph is to tell us just how painful his own thlipsis is. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Paul in 8b-9a as "It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us." Peterson is being pretty colorful there, but which of us when under ministry stress has not felt this way? How may of you dread that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach which refuses to go away, or that intense sense of nausea that accompanies the anxieties that go with being a leader in Christ's church?
Paul could well have been dealing with all sorts of other things that were burdening him besides his concern for the churches, and what seems to be amiss in all of them, but his responses to stress were very similar to ours. I recall not long ago our bishop, Bert Herlong, saying that for several months after General Convention he would wake up at 2.42 a.m. worrying about what had happened and what was going on. Sleeplessness and feeling like death warmed over are very much part of the ministerial life and lifestyle -- and I wonder why no one told me about that in seminary. Or, did they tell me and I conveniently overlooked their words?
Yet for Paul this affliction is not "unto death," because he goes on to say that we are dependent on the God who raises the dead (9), and he delivered Paul from this excrutiation (10a). It is, therefore, upon him that we set our hope. I fear that too many Episcopalians in the last 18 months have set their hope on something that will fail them -- church politics and intrigue, walking away from the field of conflict and hoping being out of ECUSA will reduce the stress, denial, and so forth. Our hope is the Lord who raises the dead, and he will deliver us, although we walk in darkness now because we do not know how this can be.
This week, while preparing my sermon on Abraham for Sunday I was reading John Goldingay's book, After Eating the Apricot. In that he talks about the way that Abraham and Sarah are guided by God to live by his promise. However, Goldingay goes on, Living by God's promise regularly means living by a word that seems more than somewhat unlikely to be fulfilled. Think about that for a moment. We live in hope, therefore are dependent upon God's promises to us, but how often does it seem that those promises are unlikely to be fulfilled. Yet, and here is an element of discipleship that gets forgotten, we just plod on. Plodding is something 21st Century people are not good at -- so pastors should model it.
In the light of all this, Paul calls upon us to pray (11). During the last few months I feel as if affliction has stripped me of reliance on my own gifts and abilities, they were clearly doing no good to our little congregation. It was only when I was afflicted to the point of feeling I was under sentence of death and that this mission congregation could not survive, and I threw myself on God's mercy and grabbed at any mite of help and comfort that I could get, that God said, "OK, now I am ready to work..."
There is a long way to do, but I am staggered what the Lord has done so far. Now I understand the dynamics of some of what has been going on, but behind those dynamics is the hand of the Comforter, the one who draws near, and who says out of affliction I am able to bring hope, from the blood shed on a Cross I am able to bring life.
What Paul does in this short paragraph is to tell us just how painful his own thlipsis is. Eugene Peterson paraphrases Paul in 8b-9a as "It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us." Peterson is being pretty colorful there, but which of us when under ministry stress has not felt this way? How may of you dread that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach which refuses to go away, or that intense sense of nausea that accompanies the anxieties that go with being a leader in Christ's church?
Paul could well have been dealing with all sorts of other things that were burdening him besides his concern for the churches, and what seems to be amiss in all of them, but his responses to stress were very similar to ours. I recall not long ago our bishop, Bert Herlong, saying that for several months after General Convention he would wake up at 2.42 a.m. worrying about what had happened and what was going on. Sleeplessness and feeling like death warmed over are very much part of the ministerial life and lifestyle -- and I wonder why no one told me about that in seminary. Or, did they tell me and I conveniently overlooked their words?
Yet for Paul this affliction is not "unto death," because he goes on to say that we are dependent on the God who raises the dead (9), and he delivered Paul from this excrutiation (10a). It is, therefore, upon him that we set our hope. I fear that too many Episcopalians in the last 18 months have set their hope on something that will fail them -- church politics and intrigue, walking away from the field of conflict and hoping being out of ECUSA will reduce the stress, denial, and so forth. Our hope is the Lord who raises the dead, and he will deliver us, although we walk in darkness now because we do not know how this can be.
This week, while preparing my sermon on Abraham for Sunday I was reading John Goldingay's book, After Eating the Apricot. In that he talks about the way that Abraham and Sarah are guided by God to live by his promise. However, Goldingay goes on, Living by God's promise regularly means living by a word that seems more than somewhat unlikely to be fulfilled. Think about that for a moment. We live in hope, therefore are dependent upon God's promises to us, but how often does it seem that those promises are unlikely to be fulfilled. Yet, and here is an element of discipleship that gets forgotten, we just plod on. Plodding is something 21st Century people are not good at -- so pastors should model it.
In the light of all this, Paul calls upon us to pray (11). During the last few months I feel as if affliction has stripped me of reliance on my own gifts and abilities, they were clearly doing no good to our little congregation. It was only when I was afflicted to the point of feeling I was under sentence of death and that this mission congregation could not survive, and I threw myself on God's mercy and grabbed at any mite of help and comfort that I could get, that God said, "OK, now I am ready to work..."
There is a long way to do, but I am staggered what the Lord has done so far. Now I understand the dynamics of some of what has been going on, but behind those dynamics is the hand of the Comforter, the one who draws near, and who says out of affliction I am able to bring hope, from the blood shed on a Cross I am able to bring life.
posted by Richard Kew at 5:24 AM
1 Comments:
I've been pretty much caught up with Richard's first sentence: "the literal meaning of the word thlipsis (affliction)is 'pressure'". I've been thinking about how the conversation would change if we reworded phrases like "high pressure job" to "highly afflicted job". Of course, it is not pressure as pressure that causes affliction, but unrelieved pressure. Directional pressure is thrust, and thrust provides movement. So, the pressure in ministry can be like a rocket launch, where the vehicle either soars to the stars - or blows up on the launch pad. It is this unrelieved - undirected - pressure that causes affliction. Or maybe I've just been hanging out with the retired GE jet engine engineers in my congregation too much! David Bailey
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