Do Not Loose Heart

In the south rose window of the Chartres Cathedral in France about 60 miles from Paris, there is a particularly unique depiction of the writers of the four Gospels from the early 13^th Century. Below the giant circle rose window are five lancet style-stained glass windows, with Christ being in the center, and flanking him are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But they are not just standing in their traditional style, rather, they are sitting upon the shoulders of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, respectively, gazing toward Christ. It looks rather odd, maybe even comical, if you aren’t expecting it. It is the illustration of a phrase believed to be coined by Bernard of Chartres[1], that when it comes to our faith, we are but tiny people on the shoulders of giants who can see far, but only because of those who lift us up, because Bernard is believed to be one of the people who coined the phrase we stand on the shoulders of giants.

The phrase we stand on the shoulders of giants has come to me often this week as I have read and prayed through our text for today. Perhaps because over the past few weeks there have been many deaths, and I’ve just been very mindful of how people I love stand upon the shoulders of giants I never got to meet. Or maybe it’s because coming back from walking the Camino with the college students, and we have barely begun to process how we might share our experience beyond a surface level story and thinking about all the feet of the Christians that have stepped over the same stones that we walked. Or maybe I’ve been thinking about how when it comes to our faith, we stand on the shoulders of giants because it’s sort of Paul’s whole deal in our passage from 2nd Corinthians.

Corinth is, to put it mildly, a rough place for Paul. In Paul’s missionary journey, the church had been established in Corinth, things were going great, then things went off the rails, and that’s what Paul’s 1^st letter to the church at Corinth was about. The congregation gathered there has struggled to value Jesus’ teachings of radical inclusion, particularly when it came to the varieties of social and economic classes in the congregation. Paul visited the church and had a parish meetin’ and then he kept on his journey and then he wrote this second letter in response to a letter of apology he had received from some folks back in Corinth. This 2^nd letter has three big sections, but today’s passage finds us squarely in the section where Saint Paul wants to remind these new Christians what it is all about. He wants to remind them of the crucified and resurrected Christ and the unrelenting hope found in the way in which Christ turned the world upside-down.

In many ways, I think this short passage from 2^nd Corinthians, is a little bit like a reminder about where we are on the map. It’s Paul’s invitation to the people at the church in Corinth, and thus to us all these years later, because there is literally nothing new under the sun, to return to the basics of our faith. Paul reminds us that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and to not loose heart.

Do not loose heart, Paul says. Which to me, means that some of the things that seem to be vitally important, don’t really matter at all. When our priorities are out of order, it is so easy to lose hope and to begin to despise the long road ahead. When it comes to the work we have to do in this life of faith, it is vital that we remember what matters most.

Do not loose heart to me means that we are far less alone in this world than we often think we are. It is heartbreakingly easy to believe that our gifts or skills or presence are not valued by others around us. We are created for connection and community and when we believe the false notion that we have to go at it alone, the only option might be for us to lose heart. When it comes to living a faithful life in our current world, it is essential to stay connected to a community that supports, cares, and convicts you to be your best self.

Do not loose heart to me means that there will likely be times in this Christian life when the only thing we know how to do is to live into our faith, even when all else feels like it’s failing. I’ve had times in my life when all I wanted was some sense of certainty or control, but all that I had was a conviction of hope and belief in prayer, and I had to choose whether or not that was enough to get me through even when everything in my body wanted to control a situation. When Saint Paul’s words, “do not loose heart” fall upon my ears, I hear an invitation to live into my faith even if it feels like it’s the only thing I know how to do in the moment, and it’s encouragement to know that it won’t always feel like the only thing I know how to do.

Friends, there is really nothing new under the sun. We face impossible challenges in our world today, there is no denying this, but the truth is, God’s people have faced impossible challenges throughout human history. Paul’s invitation in this passage and in this section of this letter to the Corinth church is that we do not loose heart. That we remember that each day, we get choose this life of faith. That being a Christian is a choice we make when we put our feet on the floor, and it comes with a lot of requirements to see the world in way in which those around us might not, but it does come with a deep well of hope.

Do not loose heart, dear ones, for we stand on the shoulders of giants. Do not loose heart, my friends, for God is with us and is at work in this world. Do not loose heart, for we get to live this life of faith together as God’s people here at Christ Church, Bowling Green. And for this, I give thanks be to God.

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A sermon delivered to the people of Christ Episcopal Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky on 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 for Proper 5B, Sunday, June 9, 2024.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants

[2] The full featured photo can be found here: Photo by PtrQs, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons