Take Heart!
II Corinthians 4:1, 8-9, 13-5:1
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
June 7, 2009

Any of you ball fans, baseball, football, basketball?  As the season progress, players become hurt and weary, but play with enthusiasm even when the team is behind.  Then the broadcasters reach into their train load  of superlatives to exclaim, “He plays with heart!”  Some days we need heart, don’t we?

The Apostle cheers: People of the church, take heart!

The Apostle Paul’s pep talk to the church people in Corinth is not an essay that he researched in the library.  He wrote out of his daily struggle.  Paul had suffered dreadfully!  Later in this letter, he summarized what he had survived.
Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was [pelted with] stone[s].  I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water.  In my travels I have been in danger... [and more].  II. Cor. 11:24ff.

Yet, he wrote:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed... .

How?  How could he keep going?  Where did he get such heart?  He tells us.

From his belief that through Jesus Christ he was promised eternal life!

God raised Jesus from death.  God would raise Paul from death.  This was an immensely freeing truth for Paul.  The Apostle felt free and hopeful, because he believed that “the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence.”  “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed... .”  How many of you have camped under canvas?  Tents protect you against rain.  But, they will not protect you against lighting.  When our children were young and we were struggling on a young pastor’s income, we borrowed a tent from a neighboring pastor and went camping.  In the middle of the second night, a severe storm came up.  Lying a few inches from the ground with two pre-schoolers while the night lit up like a rock concert, scared us.  Then, lightning struck a tree nearby, its jolt could be felt through the ground.   We scooted into the car as fast as lighting!   Our bodies are like tents, incredibly tough in many situations (think of football players bouncing like rubber balls), and incredibly fragile in others.  I remember when I became aware of how vulnerable our bodies are.  It happened when I was about 15.  My maternal grandfather was a large, fun-loving guy.  We grandsons rough-housed with him.  He teased us unmercifully, and we loved it.  I could not wait to see him, even after I became a teenager when most grandparents are about as appealing as anthrax.  One morning, mother, face strained, blurted, “Granddad has had a stroke!”   We rushed to see him.  A large fraction of his vibrant body was paralyzed!  He only spoke guttural sounds, and spent most of the next eleven years in bed.  His stroke struck me a severe emotional blow, and forced me to reflect upon what it means to be mortal.  I asked, “If our destiny is a failed body, from where do we get motivation, courage, hope?” You have your stories, too.  Because we know that we live in tents, we need heart!

“We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  What a spirit-lifting gift God gave the Apostle!  I love the quote that Dr. Jeff McCrory, a fellow pastor, gave in a sermon.  Jeff quoted a mentor who said: “My home address is heaven.  This is my business address.”  He understood the theology of the Apostle Paul. 

People of the church, take heart!  Take heart from the promise of eternal life!

People of the church, take heart from looking at the permanent!  “...what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

Situations and relationships are temporary.  Let me ask you a couple of questions.  How many of you are or were in the military or foreign service, or spent many years in the family of a military person or foreign service officer?  (Show hands, please.) 

The pastor-church relationship and church membership are temporary, like being a member of the U.S. military or Foreign Service.  You are a United States citizen, but you are deployed to Japan or Germany or Afghanistan.  You still are a U.S. citizen, just deployed to different places of service.

How many of you belonged to another church before you joined Gettysburg Presbyterian?  My father spent his entire eighty-eight years in Bethel Presbyterian Church.  He was baptized in it and buried from it.  But, his membership was temporary.  Your membership in this church is temporary, just as is your time on this earth.

Aware of this, the Apostle urges us to look at the permanent.  I belong to the holy catholic church, as we say in the Apostles’ Creed.  The holy catholic church is not visible, except as manifested in particular churches.  I belonged to the holy catholic church when I was a child in Bethel Church, when I pastored Shelocta U.P., Calvary U.P., Hamilton Presbyterian, Orchard Park Presbyterian, and National Presbyterian. Wherever two or three are gathered in the name of Christ is the holy catholic church.  We do not belong only to Gettysburg Presbyterian; we belong to Christ who makes us members of his worldwide church.

And when we die, we will continue with my father in the great “communion of saints” that includes all believers in Christ living and dead!   That is permanent!

I whine.  I fret.  I worry.  I fear.  Thankfully when I read this text, I take a different view.  About what I whine, fret, worry and fear is not very important in the grand spectrum of eternal life.  When we get disheartened, it is helpful to ask, “Is this a slight momentary affliction or is this really important and permanent?  Will I remember this next week?” 

Only our relationship with God is permanent; therefore, only our relationship with God is ultimately significant!

(Third advice) People of the church, give attention to the inner person!  Let God bolster the inner person.

Let’s reflect upon our congregational situation.  When Dan Hans left, the congregation grieved the loss, and went into a period of uncertainty.  Then you had to adjust to me.  In two weeks Dave Wright will stand here and you will begin the adjustment to his personality and ways.  Change!  Many changes in fifteen months! What carries a congregation through change?  The Holy Spirit and Heart!  If our heart is strong, well nurtured, filled with God’s graces, then we will handle the transition positively.  We will serve the Lord, because that is who we are called to be and what we are called to do.  This disappointment is an example of what the Apostle calls “death at work in us”, freely translated by Phillips with the idiom of “wear and tear”.  We are disappointed.  We have to adapt when we don’t want to change.  We have to get used to new people when the familiar felt good.  However, the means of grace continue.  The Holy Spirit is with us!  Let the Holy Spirit build us up from the inside. Then, many of life’s changes will be handled as part of the flow of life.  Our heart will be sufficient.

People of the church, let God strengthen your heart.

(Fourth advice) What else strengthened his heart?  Purpose.  Mission.  Work worth doing!

“Everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”  Let’s unpack that sentence.  (v. 15)   Good News Bible translates it more smoothly: “All this is for your sake; and as God’s grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.”

Mission strengthens heart.  We even could say that mission creates heart.  Paul had a God-given job.  In his soul, he knew that he had a role in the divine plan.  He was part of a mission larger than his personal interests.  He was God’s messenger to the gentiles!  The whole northern Mediterranean population was his potential client.  He wanted everyone to know God through Jesus Christ and to offer prayers of thanksgiving for their new life with God.  Evangelism gave him reason to live.  Purpose strengthened his heart.  It vitalized him. 

A few years ago one of my church members, Helen, fell and broke her arm near the shoulder.  The break was in a bad location for healing.  She later often told this story.  After the fall, she had to give up her apartment in which she had lived for decades and moved into an adult residence.  Complications ensued.  She was hospitalized, and eventually went to a health care center for therapy on her arm and shoulder.  After all the stress and numerous changes in a few weeks, she found herself with nothing to do, except for her therapy sessions.  Not a good time!  Living there was a woman who had not spoken.  Since being admitted, she had said nothing!  Helen realized that they had known each other many years ago.  Helen began talking to her about the days of their youth, and the woman spoke!  They relived memories together.  Helen was tickled; she was needed and could help someone, even as a temporary resident in a nursing home.  Who was helped more?

People on a mission have heart!  It just happens that way.  It is a gift of the Spirit!

People of the church, take heart!  Remember the Apostle’s experience as a person of faith: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed... .”  “We do not lose heart.  ...our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure...!”

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