2 Corinthians

2 Cor 6v1-3 The Price of Ministry

I know we don’t have a full time church worker at Crabtree at the moment, but when considering today’s passage it is perhaps interesting to consider what the clergy do all week as viewed by different people:

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A friend of mine regularly sends me jokes via email. I recently had this question: Why do Christian Ministers never look out of the window during the morning? Answer: Because then they would have nothing to do in the afternoons.

It is a common fiction, isn’t it – Working on Sunday and having the rest of the week off - But what is Christian ministry really like? Some reports put full time Christian ministry as among the most stressful jobs that there are. Apparently 45-70 hour weeks end up being common and many people consider the church leaders to be available at all hours of every day, whether that is reasonable or not. Recent research in America shows 1,500 people leaving ministry every month.

Christian work is tough. And as we return to our series on 2 Corinthians, Paul is explaining dome of the realities of Christian ministry to the Corinthians who may have forgotten what it is about. The passage divides fairly well into four sections, and I’d like to borrow some titles from David Turner of All Souls, Langham Place.

Paul doesn’t want to put a stumbling block in anybody’s way, he doesn’t want his ministry to become discredited. A very real problem – if you cast your mind back I’m sure that you can think of any number of occasions where a relatively high profile Christian has fallen under pressure or temptation, and in doing so has damaged their ministry and caused some to fall away. So how does Paul characterise his ministry? He talks about:

The Pressure of Ministry. The Pattern of Ministry. The Paradox of Ministry. The Pain of Ministry.

The Pressure of Ministry (v3-5)

Look at the expressions that Paul is using in these verses. Great endurance. Troubles. Hardships. Distresses. Beatings. Imprisonments. Riots. Hard work. Sleepless nights. Hunger.

Paul speaks of the pressures that he has been under earlier in chapter 4, and will come back to them in greater detail later in chapter 11; you can read about many of them from Luke’s account in the book of Acts too.
In his ministry, Paul was caused much distress and pain. There was both psychological pressure and physical pressure. I know a little about hard work and sleepless nights, and those can gradually grind you down enough – but what about all those other things layered on top?

Some of the things that Paul suffered from are arguably common to all kinds of people. But the beatings, imprisonments and riots came about directly as a result of his Christian work – as is experienced by Christians in so many places today

The Pattern of Ministry (v6-7)

Somebody once quipped that ‘pressure makes diamonds’. Well, all too often pressure just leads to desperation. Yet all the pressures just described notwithstanding, we have to marvel at Pauls response to the situations he found himself in.

How did he respond? In purity. With understanding, patience and kindness. I’m sorry to say that just earlier this week somebody at work was rather rude to me in public and my reaction to them wasn’t really demonstrating any of those virtues – although we did manage to get things sorted out properly by lunchtime and we are back on good terms again now.

It is not enough for Christians just to proclaim Christ. It is our job to embody him, to display the fruit of Spirit-changed lives before the people around us... but it is hard, there is no denying that. Still, as Paul says, the Holy Spirit and sincere love can enable us to act and think the right way.

Ministry really requires patterning one’s life after Jesus. Thinking WWJD.

The Paradox of Ministry (v8-10)

That brings us to the paradox of ministry. We don’t live in a neat world, where good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Thugs still win the lottery, Christians still suffer and die from cancer. If this were a story things would work out much more predictably, but it isn’t a story – its history, and we’re living it right now.

Paul expresses in these verses some of the paradoxical nature of ministry. One moment there can be glory, the next moment there can be dishonour. There can be a good report from some people and at the same time a bad report from others. No matter how genuine we are, there are some who will always consider us imposters. Jo’s father was a URC ministry for many years, and he said that in his experience you will never please everyone in a congregation. There will always be some people who think you’ve done the wrong thing.
To be honest, there are some things that we are never going to get the answer to down here (and we might not even get the answer to them in heaven. Consider Job, who had all those questions and never got answers for them – although he did get an incredible revelation of God, and everything worked out OK. I’m just trusting that God knows what he is doing.

The Pain of Ministry (v11-13)

Paul seems to get nothing but grief from the Corinthians. As he says, he is opening wide his heart to them, and he longs for them to open their hearts in return. He has always held them in great affection and still does – will they not return that affection to him? Having your love spurned is a terribly hurtful thing. Feeling that you give and give and give and yet nobody appreciates it, nobody seems to care... that can really hurt.

And that leads me to my final point:

The Price of Ministry

We’ve already considered this morning some of the people who have gone out from our church to work in full time Christian service. The Van de Ruits. The Etters. Julian Beale. In each case they can probably look forward to being overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and overlooked – because that is the experience for the vast majority of Christian workers in this country and abroad.

With a price like that on a lifetime of ministry, is it surprising that so few seem to be interested in taking up the call?

But then again... Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matt 16v24)”

If Christianity had small print, and you read the small print and it said “must be prepared to endure troubles hardships and distresses. Must be prepared for beatings imprisonment and riots. Must be prepared to be considered dishonourable imposters, dishonoured, beaten, sorrowful and poor, having nothing”. Would you sign up for it?

You might be tempted to say ‘don’t be stupid, Alex. It isn’t like that’. But the thing is, it is like that in some places around the world. I just had a prayer letter from Linda and Pete Lugtigheid, friends of mine working as missionaries in Uruguay where they are facing civil unrest. Paul who works in Nepal was captured by Maoist terrorists a couple of years ago, but by Gods grace was able to escape with his life. I’ve already read from this month’s Open Doors magazine.

That is the Christian ‘life expectancy’ which is normal across the world and throughout history. We are living in a strange bubble nowadays, and there is the possibility that we can be lulled by comfort and not manage to step up to the crease and take our turn at bat.

May I remind you of the Great Commission from Matt 28v19-20? “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Ministry isn’t just something that clergy and paid ministers and missionaries do. It is something that we all do. As Paul explains in 1 Cor 12 we are all parts of one body – we are different parts, and do different things, but the body needs all of us.

If you teach in Sunday school, you are involved in ministry. If you lead or preach or play music here, you are involved in ministry. If you serve coffee you are involved in ministry. If you arrange the flowers, help with Crusaders/Urban Saints you are involved in ministry. Two by Two, Little Fishes, Ladies meeting? You’re involved in ministry. Pray for the church and its members? You’re involved in ministry.

Christian life is ministry. There will be external Pressure that might make us think of giving up. There is Jesus for us to Pattern our life upon. There are the Paradoxes which we are going to have to live with and there is the inevitable Pain that comes from making yourself vulnerable to other people. Is that a Price worth paying?

In closing – you may be familiar with a rather charming children’s story about little nut brown hare and big nut brown hare. ‘How much do you love me? Asks little nut brown hare. “I love you as high as I can hop” says big nut brown hare. And so the conversation grows, each trying to think of more superlative examples as little nut brown hare gets more and more tired, eventually falling asleep as he says “I love you as high as the moon” and big nut brown hare whispers “I love you up to the moon... and back”.

I asked Jesus how much He loved me
He answered "this much"
Then He stretched out His arms and died for me.

Alex White

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