Open your hearts wide!

Enthusiastic.

Passionate.

Those two words really do sum Paul up.

There’s one moment in the course of his correspondence with a troubled church in the very cosmopolitan Corinth when you can catch a glimpse of just how enthusiastic and passionate Paul was.

2 Corinthians 6:1-12

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted. 2 Hear what God says:

“When the time came for me to show you favour

I heard you;

when the day arrived for me to save you,

I helped you.”

Listen! This is the hour to receive God's favour; today is the day to be saved!

3 We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so we try not to put obstacles in anyone's way. 4 Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. 5 We have been beaten, imprisoned, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food.

6 By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God's servants — by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, 7 by our message of truth, and by the power of God. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. 8 We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; 9 as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; 10 although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.

11 Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide. 12 It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us. 13 I speak now as though you were my children: show us the same feelings that we have for you. Open your hearts wide!

Such enthusiasm, such passion is not for everyone. Some there are who are the enthusiasts, they are the ones who are enthusiastic. Some there are who are passionate about things. But it’s not for everyone.

Paul wasn’t so sure.

I love that expression he uses of himself in verse 11.

Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide!

That’s the phrase he uses – his heart is wide open as he has a massive heart for all he does. That’s the passion. That’s the enthusiasm.

And Paul is not willing to accept that he should be the only one with the enthusiasm and the passion.

Paul is critical of the lack of enthusiasm, the lack of passion of the Corinthians. “It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us.”

Then he goes on to speak in a kind and fatherly way …

I speak now as though you were my children:

Show us the same feelings that we have for you.

Then comes a wonderful invitation.

Open your hearts wide!

I love that invitation.

Open your hearts wide!

Let’s not leave it to the few to be enthusiastic, passionate. Open your hearts wide!

Let the enthusiasm rise up: don’t stifle it. Open your hearts wide!

My guess is that most of us, all of us have some things we feel strongly about. We may keep it to ourselves. One of the key things to releasing the energy that is latent in a church is to identify the things people are passionate about and then to harness that feeling of passion.

It’s good to identify what it is we feel passionate about … and then to release that into the life of the church. Open your hearts wide!

Most things we feel passionate about we can harness into the life of the church.

1. We need a standard – a measure by which to measure what we do feel enthusiastic and passionate about.

2. We need a focus - something in church that is an over-arching thing to arouse our enthusiasm and passion.

3. And we need a strength - to enable to sustain our enthusiasm and our passion.

It is fascinating to see how at each stage Paul has something to say to help us.

1. We need a standard - a measure by which to measure what we do feel enthusiastic and passionate about.

Paul gives us precisely the measure we need in 2 Corinthians 5:14.

We are ruled by the love of Christ.

Most of the things we are passionate about can be brought under the rule of Christ. Maybe we are passionate about our work – it is important to remember that the sphere of work, work practices, the things that you do, the values you adhere to are ‘ruled by the love of Christ’.

Maybe we are passionate about an interest – sport - how we play the game, how we express our support from the terraces … all are ruled by the love of Christ.

Maybe we are passionate about a cause – use this as a rule of thumb. Is the cause you are passionate about one that can be said to be ruled by the love of Christ. Are you passionate about moral issues … in your passion for those moral issues be ruled by the love of Christ. Are you passionate about political issues, be ruled by the love of Christ.

If you sense that a political cause is not ruled by the love of Christ, that the way in which a moral cause is being pursued is not ruled by the love of Christ … check what it is that you are passionate and enthusiastic about and think again.

As we are ruled by Christ the task in church is to harness those things we feel passionate about to shape the life of the church. Over the years we have had a passion for mission – support of the mission boxes, the CWM birthday scheme, but also doing mission, Alpha locally, serving in the community, use of premises, international justice and care – Christian Aid. A passion for being inclusive of people – in our access, a passion for the environment?

I have a passion for training – I want to share with others.

As we open our hearts wide, let what we are passionate about be ruled by the love of Christ.

2. We need a focus - something in church that is an over-arching thing to arouse our enthusiasm and passion.

In the lead up to this passage in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians Paul speaks of the one over-arching thing that is at the heart of all that makes him so passionate, all that fills him with such enthusiasm. He comes back to the same thing in various ways time and time again.

It is in verses 19 and 20.

We are to be ambassadors for Chrsit

Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.

The NRSV puts it in a way that arouses my passion and fills me with enthusiasm.

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself

This is the nub of the matter.

The world is out of joint. But in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. In Christ God is putting the world back together again. That’s something to be passionate about. That’s something to be enthusiastic about. Open your hearts wide!

That entails a wonderful sense of forgiveness – in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

That’s the liberating thing. Whatever has gone wrong, whoever has gone wrong, whatever is falling apart, whoever is fallen apart in Christ God is there to put it back together again, not counting all those wrongs, but wiping them away.

This is something of a thrill in a world where we are conscious of so much that goes wrong. I want to be part of that. And that’s exactly what Paul wants of us.

Open your heart wide! He says to each one of us – you need to be part of this.

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ!

That’s the thing.

Open your hearts wide.

Catch the enthusiasm.

Be ambassadors for Christ

Exactly what was said by Marcus Borg at Mansfield yesterday at a service to mark 123 years of ministerial training … coming to an end. It was a bitter-sweet day.

In the afternoon Marcus Borg, a NT scholar who had studied at Mansfield under George Caird revieed 50 years of Jesus scholarship. Fascinating. He came to an end suggesting that the most recent scholarship feels that the Jesus of history is someone we can uncover and meet with.

He asked the question what would his message be?

What was Jesus’ passion – what was he pawssionate about?

And the answer he gave – God and the Kingdom of God.

His message to us?

• Be passionate about God: centre in God
• Participate in God’s passion for the world. Change the world.

It was wonderful – great stuff.

But one thing more is needed.

Something is lacking.

We not only need a standard and focus …

3. we need a strength

It is only possible to be enthusiastic to be passionate by drawing on a strength beyond ourselves. The words carry that meaning with them. My dictionary tells me that enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthousiasmos – a god-inspired zeal, from enthousiazein to be inspired by a god, from en meaning in and theos meaning a god.

Passion comes from the Lation passio passionis from pati passus – meaning to suffer. When you are passionate about something you are keen enough on it to be prepared to suffer for it.

Enthusiastic.

Passionate.

Those two words really do sum Paul up … they give the clue to what we need in order to sustain an enthusiasm and a passion that is ruled by the love of Christ and makes us Ambassadors for Christ.

Paul speaks of all the sufferings, troubles, hardships, difficulties he has endured – 6:5 being beaten, imprisoned, mobbed, overworked, deprived of sleep.

Then in verse 8 he says something very telling. It is something we need to draw on. We don’t just have something to be enthusiastic and passionate about, we have something to infuse our enthusiasm and passion with, something to give it the enduring strength it needs.

He speaks of showing himself to be God’s servants by the characteristics of his life – they are ones we would do well to nurture within ourselves – purity, knowledge, patience, kindness. These are the things that our enthusiasms and passions need to be infused with.

Then come four sources of strength – by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, by our message of truth, and by the power of God.

BUT EVEN THEN … we must be realistic. We must be down to earth. We must get real! It is not all plain sailing. There will be the storms. There will be the peaks and the troughs.

8 We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; 9 as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on.

The thing is that though there will be down times, the victory is God’s – he will be with us. The power we draw on is the strength of the Holy Spirit, the power of God – it is the power of the truth, it is the power of love.

Although punished, we are not killed; 10 although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.

Then it is that Paul appeals to each one of us

Catch the enthusiasm

Catch the passion.

Open your hearts wide!

Gifts to share ... with unexpected consequences!

It needed to be done!

God had just the right person to do it!

But he did not think so!

And so he ran in the opposite direction.

As fast and as far as he could go.

But then things happened..

For Jonah there was the storm at sea, the cry of man overboard and the proverbial whale.

His life fell apart and everything went wrong.

The wonderful thing about God in the story of Jonah is that Jonah has a second chance

I love chapter 3 verse 1

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time …

Second chance.

Same job.

Same person.

Same gifts.

And was Jonah the right person for the job.

He preached just as God had said.

And there is amazement in the story. The people of Nineveh listened.

Why tell that story now?

It goes back to our Deacons day.

We were thinking of gifts that we can share … and we felt as a diaconate it was timely to reflect on the gifts we share.

It is five years since we did a course that asked the Question Who are we?

We asked people to think about three things.

What are you passionate about?

What gifts do you have?

What kind of a person are you?

The course came to an end at Christmas and so we asked people to put a description of the person they are into a Treasure chest that was on the wall on the left.

We then sorted out those descriptions of people’s passion, people’s gifts and the kind of people we are.

And then we tried to shape the life of the church in the light of what people said.

It was encouraging in readiness for the Deacons day to re-visit some of the things we planned way back then and see how they have borne fruit.

But not we are five years on.

There are lots of people around now who weren’t around then.

Those of us who were around then have moved on.

Things have happened in our lives that make us different people.

I for one have gone up a generation!

Let’s revisit that thinking. Let’s think what are we passionate about, what gifts do we have, what kind of a person are we.

The wonderful thing is that God has given all of us gifts. Natural talents we are born with. Skills we acquire. And those gifts of God’s spirit that equip us to do the jobs God wants.

There are blurry lines between all three.

Look through the books of the NT and it is fascinating to see the range of gifts that are mentioned in quite a number of letters. Bring all of them together and there is the kind of mix that put it all together and you make a really good team.

Network summary of gifts.

Many of the gifts that God gives to his people are

listed in a number of key passages in the Bible.

The list is far-ranging and all-encompassing as it

enables us to find out what it is that God wants us

to do. The key passages are I Corinthians 12:8-

10, 28; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:1; I Peter

4:9-10; Exodus 31:3; I Timothy 2:1-2; Psalm 150.

Answer Yes, Somewhat, No or ? To each of the

following statements and it may help you to find

out your own gifts ... or if you did the exercise for

someone else, you might be able to help them

identify their strengths:

I have, or my friend has, strengths in ...

... Developing strategies, organising people, tasks,

and events; creating order out of organisational

chaos - Administration.

... Pioneering new undertakings (such as a new

church or ministry); serving in another country or

community; - Apostleship

... working creatively with wood, cloth, metal,

paints, glass etc; making or building things, working

with your hands – Craftsmanship

... Communicating creatively with art, drama,

music, photography, design and communicating in

new ways to others - Creative Communication

... Distinguishing between truth and error, good

and evil, good judge of character – Discernment

... Strengthening and reassuring troubled people;

encouraging, challenging or motivating people,

supporting others to take action Encouragement

... Sharing faith with others, talking about your

faith with people who don’t believe – Evangelism

... Trusting God to answer prayer and encouraging

others to do so; having confidence in God eve in

difficult times and helping others – Faith

... Giving generously and joyfully to people or

projects in financial need – Giving

... Working behind the scenes to support the work

of others; finding small things that need to be done

and doing them without being asked – Helps

... Meeting new people and helping to make them

feel welcome; entertaining guests – Hospitality

... Continually offering to pray for others, trusting

in God’s provision, - Intercession

... Carefully studying and researching subjects you

want to understand better, sharing knowledge and

insights with others – Knowledge

... Taking responsibility for directing groups;

others to reach important goals - Leadership

... Empathizing with hurting people; patiently and

lovingly supporting people through painful experiences

- Mercy

... Speaking with conviction in order to bring change in

the lives of others; exposing cultural trends, teachings,

or events that are morally wrong; speaking out for

justice in society - Prophecy

... Faithfully providing long-term support and nurture

for individuals and groups of people; providing guidance

for the whole person - Pastoral Care

... Studying, understanding, and communicating God’s

word, making connections with the world around us,

and communicating that effectively - Teaching

... Seeing simple, practical solutions in the midst of

conflict or confusion; giving helpful advice to others

facing complicated life situations - Wisdom

Reflecting on this range of gifts may help you identify

what it is that you are best able to do as you serve

God in the fellowship of the church. The wonderful

thing is that God gives each of us gifts that are different

and wants us to be the people we are as we use

the gifts he has given us in serving one another.

That’s the way that the love of God will flow through

us into the lives of other people too.

Jonah had his second chance: he excelled in the gifts God knew he had.

The people listened.

And there were unexpected consequences.

The people of Nineveh changed their ways.

Jonah had declared destruction would come upon them.

It didn’t.

God’s love was so much greater than Jonah had ever imagined.

And Jonah could not understand it!!

The climax to the story of Jonah contains within it a lesson for us all …

Jonah 4

1 Jonah was very unhappy about this and became angry. 2 So he prayed, “Lord, didn't I say before I left home that this is just what you would do? That's why I did my best to run away to Spain! I knew that you are a loving and merciful God, always patient, always kind, and always ready to change your mind and not punish.

3 Now, Lord, let me die. I am better off dead than alive.”

4 The Lord answered, “What right have you to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out east of the city and sat down. He made a shelter for himself and sat in its shade, waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh. 6 Then the Lord God made a plant grow up over Jonah to give him some shade, so that he would be more comfortable. Jonah was extremely pleased with the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day, at God's command, a worm attacked the plant, and it died. 8 After the sun had risen, God sent a hot east wind, and Jonah was about to faint from the heat of the sun beating down on his head. So he wished he were dead.

“I am better off dead than alive,” he said.

9 But God said to him, “What right have you to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah replied, “I have every right to be angry — angry enough to die!”

10 The Lord said to him, “This plant grew up in one night and disappeared the next; you didn't do anything for it, and you didn't make it grow — yet you feel sorry for it! 11 How much more, then, should I have pity on Nineveh, that great city. After all, it has more than 120,000 innocent children in it, as well as many animals!” The Good News Bible

At the end of the day it is the wonder of God’s love that counts. Put the gifts God has given to good use and be surprised by God’s love and all that it can do!