If You Done It It Ain't Braggin'

Sermon in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on Sunday, July 8, 2018, Proper 9B. The Rev. Tom Weller. Text: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows — was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

If you done it it ain’t braggin’! You may be seated.

Are you saved? When were you saved? Evangelical Christians hope to have a memorable religious conversion experience that may date their sense of salvation, at which point, as Jerry Falwell used to say, “You’re as sure for heaven as if you were already there.” That is not part of our Anglican ethos. In the Episcopal Church, we may be more concerned with walking the Way of the Cross to which Jesus calls us than with what happens after death. Or as my father used to say, “We have a religion to live by, not a religion to die by.” My father and I never got along all that well, but I remember a lot of what he said, and I mean wisdom, not that working in his fish house as a boy and growing up around commercial fisherman, I heard, learned and mastered swearwords, cussing that outshined not only the sun but any sailor I ever heard my twenty years in the U S Navy. 

Are you saved? When were you saved?

I’ve told you this many times before: 16th century English writer and Puritan preacher John Bunyan longed for a religious conversion experience: in his book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which I read in seminary and it’s held me all these years, Bunyan tells how he desperately sought a religious experience, but it never comes, and he feels like a defective Christian who is not saved at all, but destined for hell. 

When I was a parish priest, I used to tell my congregation, you are a born again and saved Christian: the Holy Spirit came to indwell your body, mind and soul at baptism. If anyone asks, “Are you saved? When were you saved?” remember that you were saved on Good Friday afternoon and Easter morning two thousand years ago, because Jesus loves you, Hallelujah! 

And anyway, I don’t know about you, but from the charismatic movement of The Episcopal Church at its height in the 1980s, I’ve had as many spiritual mountaintops as any Evangelical or Pentecostal under the sun, and I understand their longing for an overwhelming religious experience, because I’ve been there, done that, hallelujah! 

Certainly, Paul the Apostle can answer the question, “Are you saved? When were you saved?” with at least two salvation experiences: Paul on the Road to Damascus, Paul Caught up to the Third Heaven Fourteen Years Ago.

In my years as an Episcopal priest, I’ve preached about Paul on the Damascus Road many times, but I’ve never preached on Paul’s eccentric claim from Second Corinthians, our second lesson this morning, fourteen years ago caught up to the Third Heaven - - and even though Paul effects modesty, he’s alluding to himself and he brags that he’s not bragging. 

Robert Padgett, my walking buddy and lifelong friend, president of our Cove School class of 1949, was star athlete our Cove School years. Robert, who qualified, ran and completed the Boston Marathon after age 60 and received an award for his age group, quotes Yogi Berra, “If you done it, it ain’t braggin’.” Paul says he ain’t braggin’ ‘cause he done it, truly had these experiences. Paul is always up against adversaries who envy and hate him, people who want to outshine Paul’s preaching; enemies, scholars call them “Judaizers,” who come along after Paul to preach and teach that Paul was wrong about salvation by grace, that, counter to what Paul taught, gentiles do have to submit to the Law of Moses like Jews, that gentile men do have to be circumcised like Abraham and his seed forever in order to be saved. Paul says of his detractors (Philippians 3:2f) “Beware the dogs, beware the evil-doers, beware the cutters.” And Paul is speaking against all of them in this morning’s lesson, that’s the context. Context is important, Paul is not teaching that there’s a third heaven, he’s dealing, dueling, with braggarts - - early day holy-rollers who come in with their revival tents after Paul, trying to out-do Paul by boasting of being “slain in the spirit,” carried away in out of body experiences to the near presence of God or the throne room of God. And so Paul says, and this is what this eccentric little passage is all about, he’s had those experiences too, and it’s nothing to brag about, nothing to impress people with. He goes on to say, “I’ve even been visited by Satan, with a painful affliction that I can’t do anything about, and though I’ve prayed about it, God told me it’s nothing, forget about it and get on about my call to proclaim Jesus Christ.”

We’ve no idea what Paul’s affliction was, and you can spend the rest of your life conjecturing, but you’ll never know either, so you also are to forget it and get on with your life, living into your baptismal covenant, in which Jesus calls you to the Way of the Cross as your way of life. 

Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? and you say I believe, I believe, I believe, but what the hell, people, James 2:19, even Satan believes, and shudders. The pointy sharp stick of the baptismal covenant is not what you piously claim to believe, or your religious conversion experience that knocked you off your feet, but the commitment: will you, will you, will you, will you, will you. Christianity is not your time on the mountaintop, or being as sure for heaven as if you were already there, it’s not being lifted to the Third Heaven. Christianity is commitment and action: Will you? Will you? Will you? Will you? Will you?

Will you commit to Jesus again this morning, Will You? Will you stand right now and commit to Jesus? Right now, prayer book page 292 as we stand! Will you?