More than Superman

By Jane Cornish

 

A man fell off a cliff. Luckily on the way down he managed to catch hold of a tough plant which stopped him falling. Hanging there, he called for help. “Is there anybody there?” he asked. Then a voice came out of the blue: Son, this is God. I can help you. Are you willing to do whatever I say? Yes, anything! He replied. Just get me out of here. Then let go of the plant, said God. There was silence for a moment or two. Then the man began calling again – Is there anybody ELSE there?

 

Films about superheroes are very popular. The sort of people who step in to the rescue when all seems lost. The sort of person you can rely on. I wonder, who is your hero? Who is the person that you trust, whose advice you are willing to take in any situation?

 

Superheroes often come in flashy clothing, don’t they? We can see straight away that they are somebody special, someone who inspires confidence. And usually we don’t know anything about them – where they come from, who they really are. Clark Kent, ordinary reporter on the Daily Planet, is not somebody you’d want to trust your life to, but superman……

 

In fact all too often we fail to see the help that is under our noses. In Matthew chapter 13 Jesus goes to his own town to preach and it does not go well. His problem is that he’s just too – well, ordinary. He’s the kid from down the road. They saw him grow up with his brothers and sisters, and take over his father’s job as the local carpenter. They were no doubt happy to trust him to make them a table or fix the door but – preaching and healing? When did he get good at that? Why should we listen to what he says? I might as well ask the local rabbi for help with my wobbly chair…..

 

Paul has a similar problem in Corinth. The church there had become a bit star-struck. A lot of people had gone to them with a lot of fancy talk and showy miracles and they’d had their head turned. They’d begun to wonder if down-to-earth, unimpressive Paul really did have God’s message after all. He was not a particularly impressive speaker, he didn’t bring lots of letters of recommendation – and God can’t be blessing him really because he keeps getting arrested, and beaten and put in prison. So Paul writes them a letter to defend both his ministry and the true gospel. This is the letter we know as 2 Corinthians. In it Paul explains how, yes, the gospel can look very ordinary and yes, he and Silas and Timothy have suffered for it, but God is indeed blessing them. Paul’s letter of recommendation is not written on a scroll but is the reality of changed lives through the gospel. The gospel is a wonderful treasure, but it is carried in the clay jars of ordinary human lives. People like unimpressive Paul and the carpenter from down the road. This is why Paul is talking about the spiritual experiences he has – not because he thinks they make him anything special, but because he wants to show that he, ordinary as he is, weak as he is in his own strength, can be and is being used by God. 

 

One of the amazing things about God’s rescue plan for the world is how he uses ordinary people to fulfil his plan. Jesus became one of us and dwelt among us. He was born into an ordinary household and for most of his adult life he was the local carpenter. He called twelve disciples to him and in today’s gospel we see that he sent them out to do God’s work. They weren’t just called to follow him in the sense of going with him and seeing what he did, perhaps being a supporting act, bring people to him for healing, clearing up the baskets of bread after the meal – they too were to share in his ministry. He gave them authority. They were to speak God’s word, heal the sick, cast out demons. 

 

Still today he calls people to speak for him. Some people he calls to leave their home and take the gospel to particular places; to lead a church, perhaps, or go overseas with a mission organisation. Others are called to serve in our own communities, carrying on with the day job, seeking to speak out God’s word and make his love known as the first disciples did. Just the local carpenters really. Ordinary people but with a special message. Not flashy super-preachers but by the grace of God having his word.

 

Of course refusing to listen to people because they are local, because you remember when they were still in short trousers, or because they don’t have a flashy spiritual CV to show is a very convenient excuse for not hearing an uncomfortable message from God. Mark Twain once said that the Christian faith has not so much been tried and found wanting as that it has been found hard and not tried. Hearing from God is often uncomfortable and if we can find a reason to NOT apply his word to our lives then like the man hanging on to the root it can save a difficult decision. 

 

But the fact is, to go back to the story we started with, there isn’t anyone else there. As Peter told the authorities who questioned him over a healing: “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10-12).

 

Not, of course, that we should listen to just anyone who claims to speak in God’s name. Paul is keen to convince the Corinthians of his credentials because he knows the message he preaches is the true gospel, whereas the others, the ‘super-apostles’ as he calls them, are trying to lead people astray. They are preaching ‘a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, a different gospel from the one (you) accepted’. 

 

There are plenty of false gospels around today. Plenty of easier spiritualities than letting go of the root. Plenty of easier ways to follow than the steep narrow way of Christ who calls us to take up our cross and follow him. But there is only one name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. There is only one way to know God, one way he calls us to walk. It won’t come in the flashy packaging of the false gospels; it will be shared with us by very ordinary people, and as a community of ordinary people we live it out together. It won’t have the glamour of the super-apostles and it will probably involve letting go of all our other securities including that last root we’re clinging onto desperately. 

 

The people of Nazareth could see that Jesus spoke with wisdom, and did miracles. If they were willing to open their ears and their eyes it was there plain for all to see that he spoke the words and did the deeds of the God they claimed to trust. But sometimes it is easier to find an excuse. Isn’t this the carpenter?

 

If any place will not welcome you, Jesus told his disciples as he sent them out, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them. Like I said, Jesus did not just call his disciples to be passive followers. Not only those who stand up at the front of church Sunday by Sunday but each one of God’s people is called to be a witness. The service at which we are commissioned to serve God is not ordination or licensing or any such thing, but baptism. You may be given a specific job to do in the church, it may be speaking or reading or children’s work or a healing ministry or pastoral care. Either way, as members of God’s family we have a job to do, making God known among our family members, our friends, our work colleagues, our neighbours. Probably not by preaching. Try too much of that and you may find yourselves having to brush the dust off your sandals quite a lot. 

 

For most of us, most of the time, it is about building up relationships, showing God’s love and his values in our life, living in a different way. And then there may be that opportunity – a question, perhaps, to be answered, an invitation to a special event that you can give because you have earned the right by building up those bridges of relationship and care.

 

There are always some who do not welcome good news because it is easier to stay as they are. It cannot have been easy for Jesus to shake off the dust of his hometown, leave behind an unbelieving family, and move on. But our part is to be faithful and do what God calls us to – the results are in his hands. In later years many of Jesus’ family did come to accept his message and his authority: his brother James became leader of the church in Jerusalem. God’s truth will prevail and by his grace many will come to know of it. We should not despair of those we love, those we have prayed for over many years, one day finding the truth for themselves. Our part is to carry on praying and witnessing faithfully, learning to hear God through other, very ordinary people, and being willing ourselves in our own ordinary lives to pass it on, in word and deed. Because for all of us, whatever our calling, the words God spoke to Paul remain true: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).