By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 16, 2024
Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship
2 Corinthians 5:6–17 (ESV)
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
“We are always of good courage.” There are days I wish this was true. There are days that I pray for this to be true. There are days I plea to God that this was true. Have you been there?
This one word struck me as I first read through this passage. It struck me first because it is used twice within a few verses. When I first began studying scripture, or when I first learned methods to study scripture, I was encouraged to look for words like this. Words that are repeated within a passage.
I remember those days fondly. I remember sitting on the top of a cliff overlooking the Black Sea in Odessa, Ukraine looking at the pages of scripture, underlining words with different colored highlighters. I remember later near the end of two months immersed in ministry among the students of Ukraine when I first prepared a lesson to share with others.
Some have told me that my emotional response to the conflict, the war, in Ukraine is ill placed. But when I watch the news, when I see the places that Russian gliding bombs have hit. I remember walking on those streets. I remember the people I spoke to. I remember watching faces of the students I spoke to light up as they began to understand something inspiring, even if they had already professed faith. I remember, that it was on a boat in the Black Sea with the wind blowing in my face, I stood praying to God telling him that I was willing to do whatever he called me to do. And as I stood there with the wind blowing and rain coming down on me I reached into my pocket and I threw a coin into the churning, chaotic waters. I do not know why I threw that coin in the water but I think it was my way of saying that I give what I have placed my hope in back to God.
It was in Ukraine where I first heard the whispers. It was on those cobblestone streets where God first showed me what could be possible, if I was willing to trust him. It was on those streets in a city twice this size, in a country on the other side of the world, where God visited with a shy farm kid and called him to preach his Gospel.
Courage. That was the one thing a shy guy from the farm being called to a city needs, and something I do not feel as if I have. Courage. This word is not used often in scripture. This word we translate as courage, is used six times in scripture. You might gasp as I say this but it is true. Five of the uses of this particular word is used in 2 Corinthians, and the final time it is used is in the letter to the Hebrews. This word is used to tell us to dare, to be bold, to be cheerful, confident and unafraid. About now you are probably wondering how it can only be used six times when that theme is used throughout scripture. They use a different word that has a similar meaning. Jesus uses a word that has a similar root to this throughout the Gospels but in those accounts instead of it being translated as courage, it is often translated as take heart.
He says this to the woman that had been bleeding for eleven years. In that story Jesus is met by a ruler of the synagogue and this man pleas with Jesus to come to his home because his daughter is sick. The crowds are surrounding Jesus, pressing in on him. As this crowd is crushing in on him, this woman thinks to herself, “if I could only touch the hem of his garment I could be healed.” She works her way through the crowd, she reaches out her hand, and her figures just graze the fringe of Jesus’s robe.
I love this story because there is so much going on in it. There is the father, a religious leader within the community that looks to Jesus for help. He looks to Jesus even though that very act could cause him to lose his position within the community because the teachings of Jesus were increasingly causing division within the religious establishment. Yet this man was willing to give up everything for his child. He was willing to give up everything, not for his first born son in a patriarchal society, but his daughter. I do not often think we fully recognize or appreciate the weight of that story.
As this is going on there is this woman. This woman that society has deemed unclean. She is unable to worship with the community because of her physical health. Even though the state of being unclean has nothing to do with sin, she being in a constant state of uncleanness was shunned by her community. Everything she touched according to Torah was unclean, every cushion she sat on could not be touched another without transferring her corruption to them. For eleven years she could not even hug a child or spouse because if she did they would be required to spend a week quarantined from the community.
We are still cross about COVID quarantines that lasted a couple of weeks, this woman had potentially spent eleven years without physical human contact. Yet she pushed her way through a crowd. Each person she bumped into, each person she brushed up against as she reached out toward Jesus, was ritualistically unclean. She moved forward with the hope that Jesus could deliver her from that life of bound isolation. And a moment after her finger connected with the fringe of Jesus’s robe, something happened and she stood still as the crowd pressed on.
She stood there in hope filled shock, as Jesus began to cry out, “Who touched me?”
The crowd stopped as Jesus stopped. They stood in confusion because each of them had touched him, but Jesus made his way back to this woman. And she stood there likely with tears rolling down her face as she confessed that she had indeed touched him. She confessed that she without his permission seemingly stole his holy power. The gasps that likely came from the crowd as they realized who it was, the scandal that began to take hold within the community as each began to realize that they had come into contact with that unclean woman. But that is not Jesus’s response. He looks at her, he sees her, and he tells her “take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well.”
Eight times Jesus uses a form of this word, to be confident, be unashamed, and accepted. Usually it surrounds a story similar to this, it occurred on the boat when the disciples cried out in fear as Jesus approached them walking on water, and it occurred when Jesus appeared to Paul in Acts as he was told to preach the gospel in Rome.
Take heart, be confident, be bold, and unafraid.
Some might look at these words and how they are used and come to the conclusion that this is a call or command to go out into the world to boldly proclaim healing over the sick and the injured. Be courageous. We might think that, but grammatically that is not what is being said. The word translated as courage is a verb, but in this case, and in the case of Jesus’s usage it is not imperative, which is a commandment. In this case it is a participle which is where a verb is used as an adjective. So both Jesus and Paul are not commanding us to be courageous, but they like Jesus in the story with the woman that had been bleeding for eleven years. They are looking us in the eyes, they are seeing into our very hearts and they see the fear, the sorrow. They can hear the echos of our psyche telling us, “I can’t, I’m not good enough, I’m unclean.” They hear and see those feeling and they are countering them, “Take heart, be confident, be brave.” They are seeing our fear, our weakness and instead of telling us, commanding us to get a move on, they are saying yes I am here with you.
He is with us. I want each of us to just let that soak into our very soul. He is with us.
We do not have to be strong. You do not have to have everything together. It is alright if you have made a mistake. He is with us. You are accepted and loved by God. Not because you are good enough. Not because you are smart enough. Not because you are powerful, beautiful, healthy, or wise. You are loved because you were created in His image. We were created to live in community with God.
The paralyzed man brought to Jesus on the mat. The first thing Jesus said was take heart, your sins are forgiven. This man lived his life thinking he was cursed by God. He believed that was why he had the debilitating disorder, and his community allowed those thoughts to take root. They did not see him as God saw him. Jesus looked at the man. Before anything else: before he healed him, before he restored him into the community, Jesus looked him in the eyes and said “Take heart, the things everyone says about you is not who you are, you are forgiven, accepted, and loved.”
The blind man on the side of the road crying out, “Son of David have mercy on me!” Jesus stops and tell those around him to bring the man to him. And the crowd tell him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”
And as Jesus closed out his teaching that night of the last supper he looked at his disciples and he said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Take heart. Be confident because He is with us.
“We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Paul says. “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
Over the past few weeks I mentioned how Paul is using the various teachings within this unique area within Greece to illustrate the gospel. Corinth is this unique place half way between Athens and Sparta. On an thin span of land between two large bodies of water that people would carry boats across as they make their way to Delphi to receive some oracle of inspiration from the vaping prophetesses. This place which was one of the sites within ancient Greece that the cities would come to compete in athletic games to prevent warring among them. Paul does not condemn their current understanding of the world, but he uses what they currently know and builds on it.
He knows that they believe that the spirit will live on in some afterlife, but their understanding of the spirit and body are not full. He reminds them that we are always of good courage. We have hope he is saying because we know that while we do not see Jesus in bodily form he is with us. And though we walk in our bodies and are not with our lord, we still have hope because there is more.
To the Greeks this life in our bodies was of little or no value because the body is corrupt and only the spirit mattered. Paul is saying, yes it is true that we want to be with our Lord, but we have hope even now as we walk this earth, because our lives here right now have meaning and are just as important. “Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” Our lives matter.
This past week I spent time thinking about life with God. As many of you know we have talking Tuesdays every Tuesday. During these talks we discuss Friends history and theology, we practice silence together, and I hope to allow space to ask questions and to find answers together. This past Tuesday we discussed the various Friends beliefs surrounding salvation. I confess, I did not come close to answering the question, and probably raised a few more questions in my attempt. But that is good because I firmly believe that God wants us to ask questions and to find answers together. I think that is part of our human nature to seek out knowledge. Unfortunately we often seek answers in places that can cause harm.
It is no secret that there are differences of belief within Friends. As I looked through the writings of various Quakers, I found it interesting. We may have various understandings and views, but across all there is some similarity. We all recognize that there is wickedness within this world. Knowledge and actions that help others and those that can cause harm. And we recognize that often we in our best intentions can contribute to harm. Although the various branches of Friends may have different views as to how we overcome the wickedness most do recognize that the source or the hope is found outside of ourselves, or with God however we understand God to be.
This gives me hope, as I look out at the world surrounding us. Many are scared. Many wonder if we are in the last days. Many feel as if everything we have lived for is coming to an abrupt end. But I do not see it that way. We live in a time where cultures are clashing, yes, but that does not necessarily mean the end is upon us. It might just as much mean that God is about to do something amazing that we can participate in. Some of us might look out in fear and beg Jesus come today. Paul is telling us, “be of good courage.” Although we might want to be present with the lord there is still something to do here and now.
He says, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” Since we know that there is hope in the life beyond just as the Greeks believed, just as most every religion that has ever existed on the face of the earth. Many believe in some sort of life after what we currently experience. Since we know that there is something to look forward to, we also know that God put us here at this time, in this place. We are here not because our bodies are corrupt vessels carrying our spirits but we are Adam, men and women created in the Image of God, placed in this world for a reason. That mission has not changed. Even though our first parents sought forbidden knowledge, God did not give up on humanity.
He created us, we fell. He showed us a better life, we fell. He redeemed us on a boat, and we fell again. We tried to make a name for ourselves and he scattered the nations, but chose one nation as his inheritance through whom he would redeem the whole world. They followed God, and they fell into bondage as they put their hope in themselves instead of God. God redeemed them from bondage and restored them to the land promised. And again they fell.
We continue this process over and over again. But God never stops loving humanity and he never stops drawing us back. Then in the fullness of time, God so loved the world that he sent his one unique son to live among us. To live with us. That whoever believes in him should not perish but will have life with him.
Jesus come not to condemn the world, but to save it. We can condemn the world just fine ourselves. But can we save it? This is what Paul is speaking about when he says, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the lord, we persuade others.”
When he speaks of fear it is not being afraid, but reverence or respect. We understand that we as humanity do not know everything and often in our greatest attempts at saving things we push things into deeper condemnation. How do we stop it? How do find redemption?
It is interesting that the word Paul uses for courage is used six times in scripture. Five times in 2 Corinthians, and the sixth time it is used by the author of Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews is one that I have often wrestled with. It quotes strange Psalms that I never quite understood like, “What is man, that you are mindful of him. Or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” And then it says, “So we can confidently say (or courageously say), “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Humanity in our vain attempt of gaining knowledge on our own, we turned away from God. We separated ourselves from the source and creator of life. We fall and we continue to fall. We continue to turn away from God seeking our own truth using our own source of strength and hope. Humanity was not created to be alone. We need community with others and we need communion with God. When we turn and continue to turn away from God, we are left with only ourselves, our weaknesses, our anxieties. “I am not enough, I am unclean, unfit.”
Or we dwell in our own empty arrogance and pride. “I made this company. I became president. I won the championship.” When the reality is that we would not have a company if we did not have customers, we would not be president without the votes of others, and we would not have won the championship without our team and fans. We are not created to be alone. But we are created to be in community. We are created to bear the image of God in the world, and as we bear that image we are to create Eden around us.
“What we are is known to God, and I hope it is know also to your conscience.” We are God’s creation, loved by our maker. Loved so much that he came to live among us, to show us true life with God, and to provide a way to that life through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this; that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Have courage, be bold, be confident, or assured. Take heart because you are seen and known, you are loved. The things the world might see is not the whole story of who you are. You are more. You are an image bearer of God, you carry his name into a world caught in bondage and distraction. Let us not bear his name in vain. Let us not corrupt his image by praising ourselves, nature, or governments made by human hands. And let us be courageous, unafraid to share the hope that we have in Christ. Because the same power that raised Christ from the grave is here with us at this moment in our lives. And we are renewed in him. Let us men and women, fathers and mothers and friend, take this hope and let us become people, “Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the love of Christ with others.”
Previous Messages:
Living Stones
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church May 03, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 2:2–10 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have…
Endure
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 26, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61) Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and…
Ransomed to Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…
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