Light Up The Darkness
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 8, 2020
2 Corinthians 4:13-18 (MSG)
13-15 We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!
16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Last week, we talked about our personal prisons and finding a way to celebrate and rejoice in the midst of the struggle. This week, I have chosen another rather interesting text from Paul. This time to the people of Corinth. Paul is rather excited. I wanted to emphasize this a bit, by having it read from The Message Version. Paul says,
“We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life.”
When life is this exciting, we simply cannot contain ourselves. But what was Paul specifically not able to “keep quiet” about? To understand the background of Paul’s excitement, we need to go back a couple of verses where he wrote this,
“All we are is messengers, errand runners from Jesus for you. It started when God said, “LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.”
Paul is describing something that as Quakers we may have some insight on.
A light has been lit within Paul’s heart.
A healing has taken place.
Paul is no longer the same.
Immediately when I read this experience of Paul, I could not help but think of George Fox. He too had a similar experience. He described it this way…
“Christ it was who had enlightened me, that gave me his light to believe in, and gave me hope, which is himself, revealed himself in me, and gave me the Spirit and his grace, which I found in the depths and in weakness.”
But like all moments of clarity and enlightenment, such as Paul’s or George Fox’s or even our own for that matter, they carry with them a back story. Last week we heard a bit of Paul’s struggles and in his letters to the early churches he gives us glimpses every so often of the back story. George Fox’s testimony has an interesting back story as well. If you every have read Fox’s journal, it paints a picture of struggle – development – and slow painstaking growth. Take for instance this from his journal,
“But my troubles continued, and I was often under great temptations; and I fasted much, and walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came in; and frequently in the night I walked mournfully about by myself, for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me.”
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to this Quaker hero of the faith. His backstory is real – it’s genuine. He admits temptation, loneliness, mourning, even trouble and struggle.
Paul describes for himself a similar path leading up to our scripture for today.
In verses 7-12 he states,
7-12 If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!
Paul uses much stronger descriptors than even George Fox.
· Surrounded and Battered
· Demoralized
· Not sure what to do
· Spiritually terrorized
· Trial and torture
· Mockery and murder
This reminds me of our female Quaker ancestors who were beaten, jailed, and even executed for their witness.
Elisabeth Fry
Lucretia Mott
Susan B. Anthony
Mary Dyer
Margaret Fell
Sarah and Angelina Grimke
Jane Addams…
And the list could go on…
They fought for women’s rights, jail reform, peace, and equality and so much more through adversity and suffering. Especially, in their day and age. Many of you have heard or read their back stories.
And I think the back stories of each of these people clearly show – in this life there is going to be suffering. Let’s be honest the same is true of our backstories.
· For some of us it is going to be physical suffering.
· For some of us it is mental and spiritual anguish (the sorrowful life)
· For some of us it is going to be persecution for what we believe to be true.
Yet, we must not miss the hope which is evident in each of these and our stories! The hope is the NEW LIFE God is working to bring to fruition inside each of us.
· Paul found freedom, healing, and renewed power and he said his life was “filled up from within!”
· George Fox also was enlightened – finding grace and the revelation of God’s own spirit speaking to his condition from within.
· Quaker women were strengthened to stand amidst great adversary and let their inner Light guide them into all Truth.
· Even the people of Corinth realized God had not left them, they were not broken completely, struggling beyond hope, because the ways of Jesus were coming alive in them and in their gathering.
And folks, if we are able to see it, the good news is coming alive in each of us! Our suffering in this world is being transformed into NEW LIFE!
When God breaks through…
When the Light comes on in our hearts…
When brokenness, suffering, demoralizing, ridicule, failure, (you fill in the blank) begin to be healed…
Then we become like Paul, George Fox, or our Quaker women…WE CAN’T KEEP QUIET!
I know for me when my faith is bolstered, my life has meaning, when the Light begins to burn brightly…I cannot contain it. I have to tell other people. As the scripture read:
“Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!” (vs. 14-15)
When we recognize what is going on inside of us, when we make that heart connection with God, it simply cannot be contained!
Yet as we have seen through the brief glimpses of Paul’s, George Fox’s, and our female Quaker ancestor’s lives – what we are talking about is a PROCESS and it takes time. It is not something one simply achieves – it takes personal discipline, awareness, and an acknowledgment that sometimes the struggles, the troubles, the brokenness, the sorrow, the pain, etc. is difficult. Living the Christ Life is not an easy path. Jesus even said we would have to “count the cost” of living this way.
Yet like the people we have discusses and many others before us, they refused to give up. Oh, I am sure they at times wanted to give up. I know I have wanted to give up.
But look at what Paul says to the Corinthians in verse 16…
16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we!
And then he continues…
Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
You and I may be at this very moment…
· physically falling apart
· emotionally or spiritually struggling.
· Feeling older or inadequate
· worn out or without life
· maybe things aren’t working out,
· or you can’t seem to keep it together,
· or you are failing at work or needing to seek a new job.
No matter what, God is still at work inside you.
Here is he good news for us this morning.
“…on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.”
God is still at work in our hearts.
God is preparing us right now (in the present moment) for all she has in store for us.
God is birthing LIFE inside you and me at all times.
The query for this morning is…
Will we recognize God making that new life in us? Or will we ignore it? Or not believe it? Or stifle it?
What I believe God is saying to each of us gathered here (or listening online)…
First Friends, these hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for you!
We may not be able to see all that God is up to – or has been doing. But we have hope that what God is doing will be longstanding – or what we may call eternal.
Thus Paul gives us one last thought…
There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Of has he wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians…
“We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all clearly as God sees us. Knowing him directly just as he knows us!”
That “sun shining bright” is you and me! Embrace your inner light and let it shine this week.