CORINTH

-Sermon Notes-

June 29, 2025

 

 “How Odd of God!”

 (Genesis 12:1-5, 2 Corinthians 4:6-15, Matthew 16:13-19)

 

      Have the words “how odd of God!” ever crossed your mind?  How about when you look at a giraffe? How odd of God to create such a silly looking animal!

     There are plenty of circumstances we may think of that may prompt the words “How odd of God!”  Our scripture readings remind us of such circumstances and people.  For example, how odd of God to select Abram and Sarai to be parents of many nations.  After all, both were old (and Sarai was barren.) Surely there must have been others with more impressive credentials.  Why would God choose these two? How odd of God!

     From the 2 Corinthians passage we read part of a letter Paul wrote to a young, persecuted church dealing with plenty of problems.  In this reading are the words (v. 7) “But we have this treasure in jars of clay....” which relates to we humans serving as conduits for God’s presence, grace and love.  God’s presence is the treasure; we humans are the imperfect, breakable jars of clay.  How odd of God to choose to use us as vessels of God’s presence!

     The reading from Matthew reminds us of Jesus choosing Peter as “The rock upon which I will build my church!” Considering Peter’s weaknesses, this seems to be an odd choice.  Not too long after declaring these words, Peter would deny even knowing Jesus after his arrest.  How odd of God!

     It is quite apparent that this is how God chooses to work.  For some (odd) reason, God chooses to work through us imperfect, flawed, seemingly weak and unimpressive people.  We have many examples from scripture; Abram, Moses, David, Mary and Joseph, and the disciples, just to name of few. Outside of scripture we find many appropriate examples, including Corrie Ten Boom (a Jewish girl imprisoned in a Nazi death camp), Harriet Tubman (an old slave woman responsible for delivering at least 300 slaves to freedom), Jose Acevedo (who struggled with drug addiction as a teen, but now leads thousands of people in worship and learning each Sunday morning as a United Methodist pastor.) How odd of God!

     You know who else God chooses to work through? Go look in the mirror.  No way, you might respond.  How odd of God to work through me! But it’s true.  God desires to use each one of us in unique, special ways as conduits of God’s love, grace and presence.  Same is true of our church. “How odd of God,” we might think, “that God would want to use our church to bear God’s presence and be part of changing lives.” Yet it is true. How wonderfully odd of God!