Purpose in our Brokenness – Sunday 2nd June

Six years ago, soon after this Sunday in the church year, one of our number at St Petri came into my office and gave me this clay pot. He did so after hearing the sermon I had preached on this text (2 Corinthians 4:5-12). He thought it was pretty funny in the sermon for he, a Christian, to be named a ‘cracked pot’ (jar of clay)! He did not mind being identified as a ‘cracked pot’ because he knew he was one!

This little pot has been in full view on my shelf in my office ever since. I look at and find myself remembering my ‘cracked pot’ brother in Christ with a smile. It brings me back to the truth that I am cracked pot too – that we all are ‘cracked pots’. We are a little chipped, weak and worse for wear, but still carrying precious cargo according to today’s Word. We are in fact carrying treasure.

The treasure we carry?

We clay pots carry a knowledge; a knowing in our very heart; a knowing of the open bright face of Jesus of Nazareth who brings light into darkness and transforms us and anyone who catches his rays.

But how do they best catch his face in our face, his Word of life in our words, his grace in our activity. How do they best see his brightness in me, hear his calling through us?

Not in the usual places, it seems. This little clay pot is not actually cracked. But this one is: (show broken pot)

This is more how Paul is saying we are. Pots that are cracked. We are cracked, imperfect, not all together, sometimes falling apart, usually leaky, not pristine and shiny and perfectly shaped.

But Paul is saying the cracks have a purpose in Jesus’ mission to his world.

I think Jon Foreman from the band Switchfoot puts it well:

By God’s miraculous working, the way this precious cargo of light and glorious love gets seen by others in through the cracks – in my weakness not only my strengths, in how I lose things, not only in how I gain things, in how I cope with being abandoned by a friend, struck down with an illness, staying my course in all the pressure to go another way or give up going at all even more than I am warm and safe and dry and on top of things.

This light of just how grand and good our God is shines brightest in how I carry my impending death, live out my human limits in this mortal body. Jesus’ shining grace beams out of my broken words, actions, attitudes, prayers for help from Jesus …

And why? Why does the face of the light of Jesus shine even more brightly through the cracks I have in my life and in myself even more than the worlds way of perfect performance, personal power and control, positive thought, very good behaviour and high virtuous living and the like?

When we look weak, his strength is more easily seen. When we relinquish perfection, his shines through. When we leave hand over control and give over power, his power to save and restore, and his control of life and living are more clearly seen by others.

Truth be told. I don’t want to be seen as a cracked pot. I would prefer to be a un-cracked pot – no cracks, no weaknesses, no mistakes, no flaws in my shape or my colour or my function, no wrongs, no repenting, no asking, no relying on another.

In fact, I would rather do some work for God rather than be worked through by God. If I do some work for God then I at least get some glory; some thanks, some affirmation, some credit for my performance. I look better when I take control, do the right thing, My cracks are covered up a bit. I feel a lot better. I am back in the centre of my day.

But, ‘crack-less’ pots cover up the light; the treasure, the knowledge of the grace of God in the face of Jesus. All my efforts to loom good, feel good, do good and keep up appearances hides his appearance.

But as I know my weaknesses, share my shortcomings, hand over the steering wheel of my life to Jesus and seek him, his forgiveness, rely on his loving of me, then Jesus’ love becomes so much clearer for others. He gets all the glory for any of the good not because I am much good but because he is very, very good.

And this is exactly how Paul is showing Jesus to these demanding Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is a letter that seems to show Paul at his lowest. The Corinthian leadership are basically asking Paul to give them his credentials again. They have dismissed him and questioned his character.

Paul is saying I believe;

So, what is your life proclaiming to those around you?

Who are you to your family, your friends and this community?

How is the precious cargo you carry get seen by others at work, at home, in all those other places?

Maybe it is a bit too much about you at the moment. Maybe you are quite timid in showing and telling of the hope you have in Jesus, or you are a little unsure or out of touch with that knowledge of the face of Jesus shining.

Well, when I look at the face of Jesus in this Word God has given us to see him, I see an all-powerful God of all the stars in space being nailed to a wooden cross for me in all human shame in full public view. It is even written down so that everyone for the next twenty centuries knows what happened – how bad it was, how shameful it looked, how dark it became, how deathly it took life.

And then I see a risen man, speaking and eating and breathing with them and giving them the knowledge of God’s power, truth and grace as they looked at his face speaking with them laughing with them again, teaching them, seeing them.

And then I think about a weeping and embarrassed fisherman set free to proclaim this Jesus. I see a troubled and grieving Mary or two now worshipping God with joy. I see an angry and malicious man blinded and then give new sight to see and hear this resurrected Jesus now being patient and gracious enough to give this defence of his calling by Jesus to this self-righteous group of leaders in the church in Corinth. And here, even here, this transformed man does not proclaim himself.

The face of the risen Jesus is open to you now. He ‘lifts up his countenance’ upon you today. Your baptism into his light still counts. Even a mustard seed sized knowledge of Jesus still shines in you – mostly in your weaknesses, troubles, need, sharing of those things.

And so, you are free again, friend. You carry the cargo and he shines in you again.

You are not here to proclaim yourself Lord of your life without cracks, but Jesus as Lord with a cross.

You are not here to proclaim yourself as Lord, but as a servant of all these clay vessels of light and anywhere else you find them.

And your true value to me and to us and to this community the valuable cargo you carry all by God’s grace – the knowledge of His greatness displayed in the human face of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, crucified and resurrected for the life of this world.

Your cracks are where the light shines through.

With a freedom to own up to the cracks, to speak about weaknesses without judgement, to acknowledge difference, admit and deal with conflict, forgive him when he does not deserve it, love her when it may not be returned, give it away because it will help them, age with grace, suffer all things with that quiet joy of what you know is coming to you from this Man of love, you are now:

We as a community of cracked pots in this region;

Yes, we know our weaknesses our suffering, out illnesses, our troubles – but they go somewhere good, they are known and understood and transformed …

With faltering words, old hands, balding head, one leg, no money or plenty, lots of options or not many, the wrong ‘religion’ these days or ‘the wrong beliefs’ about lots of things, proclaim him.

You are where his light shines through because we are those cracked pots of his.

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