Bishop Brian Cole offered this sermon at Church of the Ascension, Knoxville, on Sunday, June 9, during his annual visitation to the parish.
The Third Sunday after Pentecost 2024
The Church of the Ascension
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
The Right Rev. Brian L. Cole
St. Paul has a word for us. That is no surprise. Paul often has a word. In the New Testament, Paul has many things to say to us.
Though, a few weeks ago, we did read where Paul admitted the limits of words, when we reach that moment where our prayer simply becomes a sigh too deep for words.
But this morning, Paul is not sighing. He is speaking with words. And he is speaking with words, he says, because of what he believes. Paul believes in Jesus.
For Paul, belief in Jesus is not based on mild assent. The Spirit of Jesus came to Paul, uninvited. The Spirit of Jesus came to Paul, uninvited, and turned Paul’s whole being upside down.
After the encounter on the road to Damascus, Paul ceased to be a persecutor of Jesus’ followers, and became a chief follower, a first theologian of the Way of Jesus, helping the early Church figure out what it means to follow the Incarnate One, to be a body of believers, to share in the body at communion.
For Paul, believing in Jesus cost him greatly. For that belief, there was persecution and imprisonment. In proclaiming that belief with words, there was conflict, there was great healing and great pain. In proclaiming that belief with words, Paul’s own body was broken just as the body of Jesus was broken on the cross, just as the body of Jesus is broken at communion.
This morning, Paul is proclaiming belief in the Resurrection. He is saying that Jesus, who was dead, has been raised. More than that, we will be raised, the Body of believers will be raised and be with Spirit of God always.
Paul believes that. Paul believes the Resurrection has occurred, that Jesus is no longer dead. He believes the Resurrection continues to resound in the world, when those who were once with us, who have died, are now with Jesus, now fully known to the God we mostly know by unknowing.
In the center of this lesson from Paul this morning are these words, “So we do not lose heart.”
In the New Testament, we often hear the refrain, “Do not be afraid.” I used to believe the call not to be afraid was situated in the New Testament to remind us that there is nothing to be afraid of.
Yet, the refrain, do not be afraid, keeps showing up in the New Testament again and again.
Now, I believe it is there, not because there is nothing to be afraid of, but because before we can hear anything else, before we can go on and do the work of the gospel, before we can say our prayers, we must first be reminded do not be afraid.
Turn off the voices of fear. Turn off the voices of division. Turn off the voices of anything that is not God. Do not be afraid. Do not be distracted.
So, it is with the call not to lose heart. In asking us not to lose heart, Paul is indirectly admitting that losing heart is an option. Giving up, walking away, turning from each other, losing sight of that first innocence in following Jesus when all your deals were working out, are also always on the table for us. What will we choose?
For Paul, there is no choice. There is only Jesus, and Jesus Crucified. There is only the One who came to us in a body, a body that was broken, given to us as food, given to the world as medicine, given back to God, the wounded God.
So, despite daily defeats and setbacks, Paul remains all in. Paul has offered himself fully to God, as a living sacrifice. So, his heart is already with God, even as it continues to beat in Paul’s body.
Paul’s body, his physical body, well, Paul admits it is a mess. As Paul continues to reflect and theologize on the body of Jesus, as Paul speaks of the community of believers in Jesus as a body, as the Body of Christ, his own body is wasting away, growing weaker, even as the Spirit of God grows stronger in him.
Dear people of Ascension, you are made up of bodies and the Body. You share in feeding, both at communion with the Body of Christ, and as you feed the hungry bodies in Knoxville.
In the course of your history as a parish church, this body has flourished, and this body has stumbled. That is what bodies do, particularly bodies of Christian believers.
There is no perfect Church. That is not the goal. The goal is, however, to grow up together, to keep our hearts open to each other, hearts not yet lost to us or to God.
Like all Christian bodies, you bear wounds, you bear places that are weak and places that are strong. Like any Christian body, you need help.
Needing help does not have to come with shame. Needing help can come with the joy of remembering you are not God and are not expected to do what is impossible for us, if we do those things on our own. That is why Paul reminded us that we can never say we have no need of each other. We do need each other. And we need to remind each other not to lose heart. And we need to remind each other that our imperfect bodies are places where God’s Spirit can show true strength.
Before I was even your bishop, I have found this nave to be a place where true prayer takes place. Upon becoming your bishop, here, in this nave, I have known you to be a people who pray for me, a people who pray for this city, this state, this world. I know you to be a people who pray for each other.
Now, going forth from here today, my prayer is that you all will redouble your efforts as a people of prayer, a people who do not lose heart, who are not afraid, who share one body in Christ, even as your bodies, your imperfect bodies, my imperfect body, bear more miles and trials.
This past week, the Church remembered Pope John the XXIII, who died on June 3rd, 1963. You may recall that Pope John the XXIII was 76 years old when he was elected pope in 1958, only elected after 11 ballots. You might say the brother did not have a mandate. He was, they thought, only elected to be caretaker Pope, to hold the space until what’s next could show up. At 76, his body was already failing him. What could a failing body accomplish?
By the time Pope John the XXIII died in 1963, he had kind of accomplished everything. He opened the doors of the Roman Catholic Church to the world. He called a Council of the Church together which ended up renewing, not just the face of Roman Catholicism, but the face of belief in God held by people of goodwill everywhere.
And he did all this, while his body was wasting away. While Pope John’s body was wasting away, the Body of Christ was being renewed.
Each one of you, no matter your age, can play a part now here at Ascension in what God will do next here.
So, do not lose heart.
Listen with your heart. Speak from your heart. Care for each other, for the hearts of each other.
Do not disregard them, your hearts. For God created them, and God’s Spirit abides in them, still.