B, Lent 1 Midweek - 2 Corinthians 6:8 "Genuine, yet regarded as Impostors"

Text The title phrase in the context of 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Sermon

Have you ever been afraid of being found out for who you really are? Totally exposed after having your whole thought process laid out before every one else to see! It’s a scary thing to ponder. No secrets, everything exposed! I mean the lot; nothing left hidden, every little thing you have ever thought about everyone else exposed; in church, male, female, your parents, your kids, work colleagues, everyone has revealed to them everything you have ever thought or said about them. Maybe the person that you project onto others is far different from the person you really are inside?

Imagine that all is revealed, what might people say about you? A hypocrite, a deceiver, a fraud, a complete con artist, an impostor perhaps? This is something that nobody ever wants, it‘s human nature to hide the reality of who we really are!

Yet last week at the Ash Wednesday service we all were exposed to each other’s reality. People came forward and had the ash cross imposed on their foreheads. We left the service advertising exactly what and who we are: hypocrites, deceivers, fraudulent, con artists, and impostors.

But we didn’t just leave this place exposed as impostors we also left as truthful witnesses of God.

We left after having our sinful natures put to death in the death of Jesus on the cross. We were reconciled to God having had our sins forgiven in Holy Absolution, a return to the waters of baptism one might say. And we ate and drank forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, as we ate and drank Christ’s body and blood in bread and wine.

We received God’s grace and I implored you earnestly and with God’s word spoken through St Paul (2 Cor 5:20 – 6:10), not to receive this grace in vain. We left this place as sinners but forgiven. God calls us to believe this! To hear, trust, and uphold, that God made Christ who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. God calls us to believe that his grace is sufficient for our salvation.

So we left church last time revealed as 100% sinners and 100% saints; we may have come feeling like we were impostors but we were truthful witnesses carrying the ash of death and the cross of life out on our foreheads. And we left with the knowledge and truth of knowing that in the cross, Christ took our place as the impostor, and we took his place – reconciled to God. We left after being built up in the knowledge that God has made a joyful and great exchange with us.

So it’s been a week since Ash Wednesday, you may or may not have been in church last Sunday, but you are here tonight. Whenever you left church last (it doesn’t matter when) you left with God’s call to trust his grace, and now you have returned. Have you felt like a bit of an impostor in the last week, or do you feel like one now? How has your week been?

Have you been truthful and genuine in God’s call for you to endure in troubles, in hardship, distresses, hard work, and other trials? Have you commended yourselves in every way, in purity, in understanding, patience, and kindness? Have you walked in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love? Have you upheld God and his word in truthful speech? Have you been genuine with the weapons of righteousness in your right hand and your left? Have you conducted yourself as if you still had the ash cross on your head; revealing your weakness to sin and dependency on God for integrity?

Tough questions aren’t they? I suspect if you sought to carry Christ into the world, people would have called you an impostor, hypocrite, or deceiver. And I also suspect that every one of us is here weary from the battle to be truthful in the sight of God and people. And perhaps to receive God’s grace of forgiveness once again makes you feel like a bit of an impostor or hypocrite back here in God’s house.

However the truth is this: Since we have been led here again asking for God’s mercy, we acknowledge that God’s grace is effective, not taking it in vain, and have returned to the spring of life, which is God’s word to us. In fact we are enduring in the face of hardship when everyone else in the world, together with our sinful selves, would expect us to give up. And being here labels us as impostors or hypocrites by most people, but in fact we are genuine truthful witnesses, acknowledging our weakness to sin and God’s power over it. We’re allowing ourselves to be led by Jesus, walking on the tiring road to death, but also to the never-ending joy, rest, and peace of eternal life.

It’s not surprising that when we commend ourselves as God’s servants the world becomes hostile and we’re given the title of deceiver, hypocrite, or impostor. Jesus himself bore such a title when he walked the lonely road to the cross. However, it is surprising who might give us this name as we walk the lonely road with him!

Two days before the Passover when Jesus reclined at the table of Simon the Leper at Bethany, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest and kill Jesus. (Mark 14: 1-21) These men were the church of the day, but they were in a process of rejecting and taking in vain the grace which was being unfolded before them. In fact their insistence in the law as being the way to live was there death sentence, as they thought they could do what was required of them by the law. But Jesus coming, with no sin to be sin for all, set their stony hearts against him. Their sin and ours too was his death sentence. The Pharisees and teachers of the law actually called him an impostor or deceiver when they approached Pilate after his death and said, “We remember that while he [Jesus] was still alive, that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.” (Matt 27:63-64) But who were really the impostors or deceivers?

Jesus himself bore our title as deceiver and impostor so that we might bear his title as the righteousness of God. He calls us to walk with him and not take his grace in vain. He calls us to be like the woman who broke the jar of perfume over him, trusting in Jesus as the one true and genuine Son of God who died for her sins and ours too. He also calls us to receive the bread and wine he instituted as his body and blood at the Last Supper as genuine. He calls us to trust this as his grace given for us for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation; that this is his body and blood given to us, for us to remember and trust that he is physically with us. When we accept this and trustingly receive his grace, we certify that God is truthful (John 3:33), and Jesus says, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real [genuine and true] food and my blood is real [genuine and true] drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6:54-56)

Which is better – To be called an impostor or hypocrite because we uphold the truth of God’s word; or, to be called an impostor because we have treated Christ, his means, and the Holy Spirit in vain?

Give your sin to God; trust and receive the grace for which Christ paid such a high price and gives to you for free. Christ has revealed us for who we really are but he has removed this stumbling block from our path; walk with him in truth to eternal life. Amen.

Next time (Wednesday 15/3/06) we look at the phrase in 2 Corinthians 6:9, to be known yet regarded as unknown, in the face of Christ’s great exchange with us.