God Isn't Finished with You Yet: 2 Corinthians 5:6-17 - Third Sunday after Pentecost

So we are always confident; even though 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. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (NRSV)

The hardest part of apartment living is sharing walls—because when your neighbor has a bad day, you’re going to hear about it. When they’re watching professional wrestling and following the action with full-throated enthusiasm, you’re going to hear it. And when they decide they are going to raise chickens indoors, you’re going to hear that too. 

It seems that the chickens and their owner were not good tenants—because, for the last seven weeks since they moved out, work crews have been gutting and rebuilding the entire apartment. It’s constantly felt like they’re one swing of the sledgehammer away from breaking through to our side. 

Unfortunately, home construction and remodeling are never as easy as HGTV makes them out to be. In the real world, the process is time-consuming, messy, noisy, and full of nasty surprises. 

But have you ever thought of yourself as a construction project?

I love the T-shirts and bumper stickers that say, “Please be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet.” “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; everything has become new.” God is never finished with you. You die and rise in Christ every single day—and no matter how old you get or how wise you become, God’s work in your life never ceases. 

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, because you reach a point in your life in which you no longer “young .” Countless people have warned me against getting old, but despite my best efforts, I keep having birthdays.

How can you become a new creation while you’re getting old? How can you become a new creation as life becomes more difficult? How can you become a new creation when you hit rock bottom?

Many people, if given the choice, would choose the good old days over the present or the future. In the past, life was simpler. In the past, people you love and lost were still with you. In the past, you were younger—and you could do things you may not be able to do now. In the past, today’s problems never even crossed your mind. 

But for some, the past is full of pain and regret. There are no “good old days” to be nostalgic about. The hope of better days is all that keeps you going. For others, these days are the good days—and you worry that tomorrow will be the day when it all goes down in flames.

What these mindsets have in common is the belief that God has stopped, or will stop doing great things, and that chaos and evil have completely taken over everything. I believe this is why so many Christians are so focused on the end-times—as if our only hope is for God to come down and take us away to heaven, before everything goes up in flames.

We’re all eager for God’s kingdom to be revealed in its fullness. Yet it is not bad news if today or tomorrow are not the last day. God’s creating and re-creating work never ceases. 

Every day, you die and then arise as a new creation. Yet you are not the master architect—or the master builder—of the new creation. That’s where this gets tricky. So much of the inspiration we get for construction and remodeling projects comes from what we see others doing, or what we see on television, in magazines, and on Pinterest. “I want mine to be just like that,” we say. Do we not do the same thing with ourselves and the lives we want to live? But a new creation is not a made-to-order life, or a made-to-order you. 

Furthermore, the new creation is a process that is messier, louder, and more time-consuming than any construction project. It’s like Western Pennsylvania road construction: it never ends. For the new to appear, the old must be torn out. That’s what repentance is—God tearing out what has been established in your life but is getting in God’s way. 

But sometimes, things fall apart. You become ill; a relationship ends; a job is lost; a loved one dies… And occasionally, you run your life over a cliff. Everything goes down in flames. But even then, God isn’t finished with you. You are dying and rising. You are becoming a new creation.

But one of the most amazing acts of the new creation is the peace and hopefulness I’ve witnessed God giving to the dying. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve seen God awakening the faithful to the new creation that waits on the other side of this life. Even in death, God is not finished with you yet!

As long as God is God, you are a new creation. You greet the new creation every morning when you rise; you take part in it during your day; you share it with the people you meet and receive it from those who love you along the way; you go to sleep a different person than who you were that morning. This 207-year-old church in a 118-year-old building is a new creation, serving on the frontlines of the new creation God is bringing to the Kiski Valley and beyond. 

But that is not to say that there will be no death. There will be, and it will be painful. But, it is an insult to God for us or anyone else to go about believing that the best days are the old days.

A new creation has nothing to do with recreating the past. 

A new creation has nothing to do with envying what others have or do, but envying the presence of God. A new creation means getting out of the way and trusting in God’s creative work. And whenever things fall apart, God is already creating something new and something greater. 

This is what hope is in a time such as this.