Sunday Worship Service January 19, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Deuteronomy 31:8
Hymn JBC # 16 To God be the glory
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC #261 Dear Spirit, lead me to the Saviour’s side
Offering
Scripture 2 Corinthians 4: 7～15
Prayer
Sermon “This treasure in jars of clay”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 550 Dying with Jesus
Doxology JBC #671
Benediction
Postlude


In chapter 4:7 which is the initial verse of today’s scripture that is [2 Corinthians], Paul who wrote this letter writes [we have this treasure in jars of clay]
　This [we] refers to each one of us. And the [jars of clay] that Paul describes is our human body.
Jars of clay as an analogy for the human body, in its broader sense, does not merely refer to the physical body, but we can say it’s the whole person that also includes our inner being, such as our spirit and mind.
　As we hear [jars of clay], what comes to our mind is “fragility” and “transience”, isn’t it? It is extremely fragile if not handled with care.

　In the past, I was given an earthenware rice bowl by a friend.
　As I held that rice bowl, it felt good in the hand. I think it was just an imagination, but I felt that the rice I ate in that rice bowl was so tasty more than when I ate from an ordinary rice bowl.
There was the feeling of hand- made. When I ate rice daily with it on my hand, I also took time gazing at it and the rice served in that bowl.
But one day, I think it was about few months have passed since I received that bowl, when I was standing with that bowl in my hand and carelessly dropped it.
　That bowl was broken in two on the floor. To my mind, if it’s a ready-made inexpensive bowl and it drops, broken on the floor, it is common that it usually breaks into several pieces along with a loud cracking sound.

However, that earthen bowl that I’ve broken split perfectly in two, with a certain dull sound unshattered on the floor.
It was a bowl that I liked and having dropped and broken it was so disappointing.
　　And looking at the bowl broken in two made me reflect on “the weakness and vulnerability of the creation”.
Isn’t it that even our body and mind as well are so fragile that even with just a slight matter, it is hurt or shattered?
However, even that weakness of ours signifies that God created us as such a delicate creation.

If then we are the earthenware, the One (Potter) that created it is God. He made each of us with love and truly a special feeling.
I believe that even the human potter makes each of his works with spirit and love. Much more, shouldn’t have our Heavenly Father God created us with truly a great love and exceptional plan?
God lovingly created us as “earthen vessel”.
An earthen vessel is weak and easily broken. However, if we truly understand that all people are such weak, I believe that we are given the feeling of value such a weak self and people other than ourselves.
Keeping in mind that we who are weak were created to live not by relying on ourselves but by relying on the power of the Lord God, I hope that we can live each day sustained by such faith.

However, today’s passage does not merely say that we human beings are just “earthen vessel”, weak, fragile and short-lived.
　In today’s passage, it says that we have a “treasure” in these “jars of clay” which is us.
This treasure is written as follows in verse 6 which is the verse prior to today’s passage.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

It says that what we have within us as jars of clay is “light”, it’s the “light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Jesus Christ”.
In my opinion, “The light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Jesus Christ” may be well to paraphrase it in various ways as “the light of joy to know God through Jesus Christ” or “the light of hope to be made to live by the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.
　We have within us that are jars of clay such a treasure from God.
　During Jesus’ lifetime as human being, He told the people “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14)
We ourselves don’t shine. We come to know Jesus Christ through God’s Word of the bible and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and when we believe Him, Christ will live within us, and He becomes the shining Light in us.

In the latter half of verse 7 is written,
[to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us]
　I believe that Paul who wrote the letter to the Corinthians truly felt by himself that this “all-surpassing power” was at work through him.
The power that it is God’s Word of the bible that makes people live. And it’s the power of hope which the name of Jesus Christ gives to man.

Paul writes in chap. 2:4～5 of [1 Corinthians] as follows.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Paul must have realized “thinking of it, even my words were not skillful, and I couldn’t deliver even my sermons with words full of wisdom and refined speech. And yet many people believed the gospel of Jesus Christ through my sermon. That is because the power of God was at work through me (It was not of my own strength.)
Even Paul himself must have had his own various weaknesses. It is said that Paul had some kind of chronic illness or handicap.
Paul may be supposed to be like an extremely strong-willed person as well, but although he was as such, he must have had a very weak and vulnerable heart as a person.
Paul had various weak points as well as his past of having severely persecuted the believers of Christ.
But still, the power of God in Jesus Christ was at work through him, thus it was evident to the people that “it’s the God of Christ who is at work through Paul and not himself”.
Knowing our own weakness and admitting our own shortcomings, let us also realize however, that despite our weaknesses and shortcomings, God works through us and the great power of the God of Christ is given in us.

And let us hope that that power of Christ may be made known also to the people through us.

Today’s verses 8～9 is written as follows.
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

“Hard pressed on every side”, “perplexed”, “persecuted” and “struck down”. As Christ’s missionary Paul himself had experienced all of these.
I believe there are times when even we have each one’s painful feelings, feeling devastated or trying experience that leave us seemingly unable to stand up.
There may be someone exactly amidst such hardship now.
However, Paul says “no matter we are hard pressed, perplexed or struck down, the God of Jesus Christ is with us”. He says, “that God sustains me”.
Paul was confident “no matter how much I suffer or defeated, I never become completely discouraged. I will neither be abandoned nor destroyed. For Christ will never forsake me”.

That confidence is also given to us as a gift by faith in believing God.
　Even believers experience times of suffering, sorrow, and pain. And because we are all made of clay, we easily get hurt, and sometimes we feel like we are going to break, or even actually break.
There are times when we are sad, when we don’t know what to do or when we feel defeated.
However, Jesus Christ is with us. He cries with us that are hurting.
　And Jesus comforts us by God’s Word, even if we fall, He gently takes our hand and helps us to stand that we can rise again someday.

In today’s verse 14 is written [The One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus]
　This “raise” refers to the spiritual resurrection after we die.
Simultaneously, this resurrection also refers to, when we go through exhausting hard times in life, amid daily living, God provides us strength and makes us rise once again.
No matter how struck down we are, God will never leave nor destroy us.
In [Deuteronomy] chap. 31:8 of the Old Testament, Moses told Joshua his successor as follows.

Deuteronomy 31:8
8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

This utterance is an everlasting truth. Let us cling to God’s truth and His Word that He will never forsake us.
　Even though we fall, God’s great power that resurrected Jesus who died will surely make us rise once again and fill us with the strength and hope of resurrection.
In that way, with Christ’s great power that works more and more powerfully within us that are weak and fragile, Christ’s light and strength will also be conveyed to other people through us.
As we rely on God who uses us as a vessel for such a noble work, moreover, who always encourages and comforts us, let us live each day as Christ’s believers and as messengers that proclaim Christ.