walking confidently
June 17, 2018
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
There are some weeks where everywhere I turn the scripture I’m studying comes to life right before my eyes. I find these weeks to be pretty special because in my mind it is as though the Bible is talking to me. I must confess, I love those weeks, and wish more than anything those weeks would be, could be, replicated each and every week. The reality, though, is that there are other weeks where try as I may, I struggle to find anything about the biblical story I’m studying coming to life. No matter where I turn, no matter where I look, my eyes fail me during those weeks and as I get closer and closer to that particular Sunday I wonder more and more what I’m going to say as I stand before you and do the best I can to preach.
Luckily for me, and maybe for you, this past week happen to be one of those weeks where everywhere I turned, everywhere I found myself, everything I listened to, appeared in my mind to personify part of our scripture for today. It all started when I came across a video on Facebook, which I ended up passing along by sharing it on my own Facebook page which I believe some of you saw. Like anything I share, no matter if I’m sharing through social media or sharing through public speaking, this video connected with me in significant ways. Why don’t we take a look at it now:
https://www.facebook.com/ESPN/videos/2125335624179849/?t=10
Now this video, or really what I saw reminded me of a lesson my Pop (Walter “Tee-Pot” Frye) etched into my memory from a very early age. It is something I have referred to over and over again throughout my life, and I believe it has served me well. This particular lesson had to do with how you handle yourself on the field of competition. You see, as most of you can recall my Pop was a professional baseball player and later a basketball and baseball coach and athletic director so every lesson I can recall him teaching me was firmly rooted in the world of sport.
There were many lessons Pop taught me as he sat in his reclining chair and I stood in front of him shadow pitching, and I believe I shared one with you before. That one had to do with never making anyone look like a fool when you were doing your job the best way you knew how. Some might say you should never gloat, especially at the expense of another person. And while that video certainly had me thinking about that lesson, I also thought about another one, a lesson I think many people never quite understood because of the language Pop chose in teaching this lesson. His chosen words never seemed to bother me though and I believe I knew exactly what he meant no matter what words came out of his mouth. You see, I always knew my Pop believed in his abilities, but I also knew him as a man who loved people and would never choose to do anything that would intentionally hurt someone else. In my mind, he would never boast about his own accomplishments, especially if doing so meant he had to undermine another human being.
So what was this lesson, you may be wondering, well it goes a little something like this, Pop would say, “you know Jason you always have to be a little bit cocky if you ever really want to succeed.” And I know, the word cocky is was throws most people off because they hear that and immediately think of some negative type egomaniac who is always full of themselves. The thing is I can understand why some people get stuck on that word, and as a result lose sight of the bigger lesson being taught. Cockiness isn’t that attractive, and sometimes it is down right ugly. But remember, I am certain that is not what my Pop meant. Such a negative character trait is not who he was, nor is it who he is remembered as being. I believe a better word, one that might help those who struggle with the word cocky get unstuck would be confident. Its funny, really, how one word can have such significant impact on any lesson, yet the reality is it does.
So, if Pop had instead said to me, “you know Jason, you always have to be a little bit confident if you ever really want to succeed” I would hope everyone here would nod their head in agreement. Don’t we all hear the truth in a statement like that? Or better yet, who in your own life do you know ever accomplished any task, significant or not, without first having confidence in themselves. Ironically, having confidence in oneself is something I’ve talked more about as an adult than I ever dreamed I would growing up. I guess I always assumed others were confident, but the reality is a lot of people lack confidence. Even worse than lacking confidence, it seems our current cultural mindset is actually to disapprove of any appearance of confidence that we feel manifests itself through boasting and when you add those two together feeling free to walk confidently is alarmingly difficult which leads me to ask, are we so narrowly focused on the negative connotations of words like boast that the object of someone’s boasting isn’t even considered? If so, then what are we to do with Paul’s advice in our scripture today?
**********************************
You see, unlike our current cultural disdain for boasting, “in Paul’s world, boasting was assumed; but what mattered most was what you boasted about.”[1] Like so much of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, in today’s scripture we find him again having to somewhat defend himself and his authority. Apparently, Paul encountered a number of critics. And while this self-defense might suggest he had been accused of being self-serving, Paul’s command to be confident should not be seen as a command for baseless self-confidence as much as it is a command for confidence in the message and belief in the God of Love - Something, not everyone Paul encountered, had experienced. Paul’s command for confidence is a command to have confidence in the unseen. Confidence that comes from God and whose object is God. “Confidence here means not simply self-confidence in an individually focused way but faithfulness and security in believing.”[2] It is this kind of confidence that leads to trust in the unseen, or as some might say faith.
The question is really focused on the object of one’s confidence… Is your confidence placed in yourself, or is it placed in the unseen God? Do you only have faith in yourself and what you can see, or has your life been transformed so that you now have faith in the unseen God? These questions, I believe, are as big for us today as they were for Paul and Paul’s original audience. Those who are confident only in themselves and what they can see are the ones who tend to boast in outward appearance. Sadly, those who boast in such a way actually tend to isolate themselves from their community because those focused only on themselves and what they can see are really only serving themselves.
When you and your accomplishments have to be talked about in every conversation, you are serving you. When you feel like you have to prove to others just how knowledgeable you are, you are serving you. When you always find a way to turn the groups attention to yourself, you are serving you. Such a self-serving, outwardly boastful life is a life of faith – faith in yourself. What God seems to desire, and what Paul is doing his best to teach those in Corinth, is that life is most fully lived when your confidence and your boasting is always oriented toward others.
************************************
Anyone here heard the name Anthony Ray Hinton? Well he has just written his memoir, The Sun Does Shine, and it may be the next book I read. This memoir tells the story about Anthony Ray’s 1985 wrongful conviction of capital murder. As a result of that conviction Anthony Ray spent thirty years on the state of Alabama’s death row. One night, years into his living on death row, he heard another man crying and from his cell Anthony Ray called out to the crying man, and he discovered that the man had just learned that his mother died. That small conversation actually created a new life for Anthony Ray and the other men on death row. You see even though they couldn’t see each other, after Anthony Ray called out that night, these men began talking to each other and the result was nothing short of spectacular. Anthony Ray became friends with one man, Henry, and this friendship was a friendship that no one would have ever predicted.
Anthony Ray was arrested by two white men, prosecuted by a white man, convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to die by a white judge. Henry, on the other hand, was a proud long-standing member of Alabama’s KKK. In fact, Henry’s Dad was a Grand Wizard in the Klan. This unlikely friendship began when Henry’s father became upset that a black man was found not guilty in a murder trial and he ordered Henry to go out and kill the first black man he came across. So Henry and some other Klansmen went out and befriended a young 19 year old black man. They tricked him into getting into their car and ultimately hung him. Henry became the first white man in the state of Alabama to be convicted of lynching a black man and that is why he ended up on death row.
Living on death row meant that no inmate could see any other inmate, but they could talk. Maybe this is one reason Anthony Ray and Henry became friends, but no matter what they did become friends. This friendship became so powerful, so transformational that Henry reached a point in his life where he proclaimed that his Ma & Pa were wrong. More than that though, throughout the unlikely friendship Anthony Ray and other black men on death row taught Henry about love and respect. And just in case there is any doubt that these lessons about love and respect took root, consider this:
On the night of his execution, right before Henry received that lethal injection, this man who had been taught to hate by his own parents. This man who thought it was his right to take the life of a 19 year old black man just because of the color of his skin, proved that death row saved his soul. You see, on the night of his execution when asked if he had anything he wanted to say, Henry said “all my life, my father, my mother, and my community taught me to hate. The thing is the very people they taught me to hate are the very people that taught me how to love. And tonight as I leave this world, I leave this world knowing what love feels like.”
****************************************
For all his life until his transformation on death row, Henry’s confidence was misplaced, but quite remarkably the relationships built with people he could not initially see transformed that confidence. A beauty of Paul’s teaching here is that whether high school aged on an athletic field, or middle aged on death row, boasting from the heart about love is possible. Boasting from the heart about love is how we are able to walk confidently, and above all else its videos like the one we saw today and stories like the transformation of Henry that proves Love Wins.
Amen!
[1] Stendahl, John K., Feasting on the Word Commentary, Pastoral Perspective
[2] Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs, Feasting on the Word Commentary, Exegetical Perspective
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
There are some weeks where everywhere I turn the scripture I’m studying comes to life right before my eyes. I find these weeks to be pretty special because in my mind it is as though the Bible is talking to me. I must confess, I love those weeks, and wish more than anything those weeks would be, could be, replicated each and every week. The reality, though, is that there are other weeks where try as I may, I struggle to find anything about the biblical story I’m studying coming to life. No matter where I turn, no matter where I look, my eyes fail me during those weeks and as I get closer and closer to that particular Sunday I wonder more and more what I’m going to say as I stand before you and do the best I can to preach.
Luckily for me, and maybe for you, this past week happen to be one of those weeks where everywhere I turned, everywhere I found myself, everything I listened to, appeared in my mind to personify part of our scripture for today. It all started when I came across a video on Facebook, which I ended up passing along by sharing it on my own Facebook page which I believe some of you saw. Like anything I share, no matter if I’m sharing through social media or sharing through public speaking, this video connected with me in significant ways. Why don’t we take a look at it now:
https://www.facebook.com/ESPN/videos/2125335624179849/?t=10
Now this video, or really what I saw reminded me of a lesson my Pop (Walter “Tee-Pot” Frye) etched into my memory from a very early age. It is something I have referred to over and over again throughout my life, and I believe it has served me well. This particular lesson had to do with how you handle yourself on the field of competition. You see, as most of you can recall my Pop was a professional baseball player and later a basketball and baseball coach and athletic director so every lesson I can recall him teaching me was firmly rooted in the world of sport.
There were many lessons Pop taught me as he sat in his reclining chair and I stood in front of him shadow pitching, and I believe I shared one with you before. That one had to do with never making anyone look like a fool when you were doing your job the best way you knew how. Some might say you should never gloat, especially at the expense of another person. And while that video certainly had me thinking about that lesson, I also thought about another one, a lesson I think many people never quite understood because of the language Pop chose in teaching this lesson. His chosen words never seemed to bother me though and I believe I knew exactly what he meant no matter what words came out of his mouth. You see, I always knew my Pop believed in his abilities, but I also knew him as a man who loved people and would never choose to do anything that would intentionally hurt someone else. In my mind, he would never boast about his own accomplishments, especially if doing so meant he had to undermine another human being.
So what was this lesson, you may be wondering, well it goes a little something like this, Pop would say, “you know Jason you always have to be a little bit cocky if you ever really want to succeed.” And I know, the word cocky is was throws most people off because they hear that and immediately think of some negative type egomaniac who is always full of themselves. The thing is I can understand why some people get stuck on that word, and as a result lose sight of the bigger lesson being taught. Cockiness isn’t that attractive, and sometimes it is down right ugly. But remember, I am certain that is not what my Pop meant. Such a negative character trait is not who he was, nor is it who he is remembered as being. I believe a better word, one that might help those who struggle with the word cocky get unstuck would be confident. Its funny, really, how one word can have such significant impact on any lesson, yet the reality is it does.
So, if Pop had instead said to me, “you know Jason, you always have to be a little bit confident if you ever really want to succeed” I would hope everyone here would nod their head in agreement. Don’t we all hear the truth in a statement like that? Or better yet, who in your own life do you know ever accomplished any task, significant or not, without first having confidence in themselves. Ironically, having confidence in oneself is something I’ve talked more about as an adult than I ever dreamed I would growing up. I guess I always assumed others were confident, but the reality is a lot of people lack confidence. Even worse than lacking confidence, it seems our current cultural mindset is actually to disapprove of any appearance of confidence that we feel manifests itself through boasting and when you add those two together feeling free to walk confidently is alarmingly difficult which leads me to ask, are we so narrowly focused on the negative connotations of words like boast that the object of someone’s boasting isn’t even considered? If so, then what are we to do with Paul’s advice in our scripture today?
**********************************
You see, unlike our current cultural disdain for boasting, “in Paul’s world, boasting was assumed; but what mattered most was what you boasted about.”[1] Like so much of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, in today’s scripture we find him again having to somewhat defend himself and his authority. Apparently, Paul encountered a number of critics. And while this self-defense might suggest he had been accused of being self-serving, Paul’s command to be confident should not be seen as a command for baseless self-confidence as much as it is a command for confidence in the message and belief in the God of Love - Something, not everyone Paul encountered, had experienced. Paul’s command for confidence is a command to have confidence in the unseen. Confidence that comes from God and whose object is God. “Confidence here means not simply self-confidence in an individually focused way but faithfulness and security in believing.”[2] It is this kind of confidence that leads to trust in the unseen, or as some might say faith.
The question is really focused on the object of one’s confidence… Is your confidence placed in yourself, or is it placed in the unseen God? Do you only have faith in yourself and what you can see, or has your life been transformed so that you now have faith in the unseen God? These questions, I believe, are as big for us today as they were for Paul and Paul’s original audience. Those who are confident only in themselves and what they can see are the ones who tend to boast in outward appearance. Sadly, those who boast in such a way actually tend to isolate themselves from their community because those focused only on themselves and what they can see are really only serving themselves.
When you and your accomplishments have to be talked about in every conversation, you are serving you. When you feel like you have to prove to others just how knowledgeable you are, you are serving you. When you always find a way to turn the groups attention to yourself, you are serving you. Such a self-serving, outwardly boastful life is a life of faith – faith in yourself. What God seems to desire, and what Paul is doing his best to teach those in Corinth, is that life is most fully lived when your confidence and your boasting is always oriented toward others.
************************************
Anyone here heard the name Anthony Ray Hinton? Well he has just written his memoir, The Sun Does Shine, and it may be the next book I read. This memoir tells the story about Anthony Ray’s 1985 wrongful conviction of capital murder. As a result of that conviction Anthony Ray spent thirty years on the state of Alabama’s death row. One night, years into his living on death row, he heard another man crying and from his cell Anthony Ray called out to the crying man, and he discovered that the man had just learned that his mother died. That small conversation actually created a new life for Anthony Ray and the other men on death row. You see even though they couldn’t see each other, after Anthony Ray called out that night, these men began talking to each other and the result was nothing short of spectacular. Anthony Ray became friends with one man, Henry, and this friendship was a friendship that no one would have ever predicted.
Anthony Ray was arrested by two white men, prosecuted by a white man, convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to die by a white judge. Henry, on the other hand, was a proud long-standing member of Alabama’s KKK. In fact, Henry’s Dad was a Grand Wizard in the Klan. This unlikely friendship began when Henry’s father became upset that a black man was found not guilty in a murder trial and he ordered Henry to go out and kill the first black man he came across. So Henry and some other Klansmen went out and befriended a young 19 year old black man. They tricked him into getting into their car and ultimately hung him. Henry became the first white man in the state of Alabama to be convicted of lynching a black man and that is why he ended up on death row.
Living on death row meant that no inmate could see any other inmate, but they could talk. Maybe this is one reason Anthony Ray and Henry became friends, but no matter what they did become friends. This friendship became so powerful, so transformational that Henry reached a point in his life where he proclaimed that his Ma & Pa were wrong. More than that though, throughout the unlikely friendship Anthony Ray and other black men on death row taught Henry about love and respect. And just in case there is any doubt that these lessons about love and respect took root, consider this:
On the night of his execution, right before Henry received that lethal injection, this man who had been taught to hate by his own parents. This man who thought it was his right to take the life of a 19 year old black man just because of the color of his skin, proved that death row saved his soul. You see, on the night of his execution when asked if he had anything he wanted to say, Henry said “all my life, my father, my mother, and my community taught me to hate. The thing is the very people they taught me to hate are the very people that taught me how to love. And tonight as I leave this world, I leave this world knowing what love feels like.”
****************************************
For all his life until his transformation on death row, Henry’s confidence was misplaced, but quite remarkably the relationships built with people he could not initially see transformed that confidence. A beauty of Paul’s teaching here is that whether high school aged on an athletic field, or middle aged on death row, boasting from the heart about love is possible. Boasting from the heart about love is how we are able to walk confidently, and above all else its videos like the one we saw today and stories like the transformation of Henry that proves Love Wins.
Amen!
[1] Stendahl, John K., Feasting on the Word Commentary, Pastoral Perspective
[2] Kittredge, Cynthia Briggs, Feasting on the Word Commentary, Exegetical Perspective