Basking in the "Yes"!

"For in [Christ] every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God."

- 2 Corinthians 1:20

          

We are reading here the first little bit of what our Bibles break down as 2 Corinthians.  This is Paul's letter to the church/community of faith in Corinth and both 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians are likely really just one letter, not two separate books like our Bibles tend to separate them.  Some of the correspondence from the Corinthian congregations are lost, we don't have those manuscripts, but we do have what is left of Paul's reply.  In this first chapter of the continuation of the letter, Paul and Timothy are writing to the community to tell them they are going to be delayed in coming to see them.  They did not plan for this to happen, and they could not have said, "Yes, we are coming" and then "No, we are not."  Thus, in Christ every promise that they have, or that the community of faith in Corinth has, or that we have in our own lives from God is always a "Yes."  And for that reason, we say "Amen" to the glory of God.

          

What does it mean to say "Yes"?  Maybe more importantly, what does it mean to hear "Yes"?  There are lots of ways that we hear "No", there are lots of times when we say "no", or that our culture says "no" to us.  But how do we bask in this promise of God, that in Christ every one of God's promises is a "yes"?  Today, I offer you the following words of a poem by Sarah Dunning Park entitled "Let There Be Yes."

I say no to them all the time:  No, you may not eat candy bars for breakfast, color pictures on the carpet, wear your tutu to the store again. And stop blowing bubbles in your milk, or abandoning your warm bed after I’ve tucked you in.Perhaps it’s the wisdom of age, or that this is not their full-time gig, but their grandmothers have another way:  Yes, let’s make projects with plenty of glitter and paint, matching costumes for you and your bear, hot chocolate for watching movies on a Saturday morning in June.I decide to try it myself, tentatively — Sure, I suppose we can bring out the modeling clay today.  So we spread an old vinyl cloth on the table, and dump the box that holds baggies of red and black, blue, green, and yellow. From my post in the kitchen, I watch them settle in to their work.It’s quiet; no one complains of boredom or hunger or cunningly- orchestrated breaches of room security carried out by little sisters. The only requests are for assistance rolling up an errant sleeve or for a toothpick to carve out fine details and at last, the artist’s signature.As she bends over her masterpiece to scratch the letters of her name, I understand what it is my mother must know when she says yes to these young creators:  we are wired to make, and we can make trouble, or we can make goodness and art and meaning and sustenance and play.

There are some wise words here.  We are wired to make and we are wired to make trouble or goodness and meaning.  At some point in time, we probably do both- make trouble, but also goodness.  Yet, we also make sustenance and play- we, people together in community; we, people who are Christians living out our daily lives in the world making known how we play.  We play, we work, and we rest in God through Jesus Christ.  God has created us to be with one another for the good of companionship, but also the good of the other person.  When I am with you, you bear God to me- you speak God's word and promises as my brother or sister in Christ into my very life when I need it the most.  In turn, I hope that I do the same for you- that's community, that's the practice of the Christian life.

          

How much more is true of God?  God is the one who creates us and sustains us.  God the Artist writes God's signature on us through Jesus Christ.  God molds us into a shape, God's breath breathes into us and fills us with spirit and soul, and God says that we are God's children forever and ever.  That's one of the chief promises of God- this is one of the chief "Yes-es" that we receive in our life.  In Christ, we are God's and no one can separate us or take that away from us.  God says "yes" to us even when the imperfections of the hardened clay (our sin) becomes apparent.  God says "yes" when we don't do what we should do and we say "no" to others.  Even, and especially perhaps, when we say "no" to God, God still says "yes" to us.  God's promises are for us and for the world and are for all time, and even in the culture of "no" the voice that resounds most in our heads should be "yes", and it should be God's "yes."  "For in [Christ] every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God."

Prayer:  Thank you, O God, for speaking a word of "yes" into our lives.  Thank you for claiming us, naming us, and saying "yes" we are yours forever.  Grant us trust to take that to heart, and may our lives be a deep resounding "amen", in Jesus' name we pray.  AMEN!

Basking in the "Yes" with you,

Pastor Travis