Do we focus on the treasure or vessel?

A SPIRITUAL “HOSPITAL” OF COURSE THIS STILL leaves room for some pretty weak and needy people and some distressing events in the process, but no room for doubt concerning where it all is to come out. The local groups of disciples, in the usual case, will certainly have people at all stages of the journey. They can be compared to hospitals, with people at various stages of recovery and progress toward health. Some will be undergoing radical surgery or other strong treatment. Some will be in ICU. Others will be taking their first wobbly steps after a lengthy time bed-ridden. And others will be showing the flush of health and steady strength as they get ready to resume their ordinary life.

Parallels to these stages should be found in every church, and explicitly recognized and treated as such. And in addition, there would be those who are stepping out strongly in a strength of life that far exceeds just not being “sick” (sin-ridden), and there would be old warriors with many battle scars and many victories, with the steady gleam of “a better country” (Hebrews 11:16) in their eyes.

THE VESSEL AND THE TREASURE OF COURSE WE DO NOT THINK WE ARE DISTRACTED. The things we are investing our efforts in seem absolutely primary. These are usually things that make up being a good and proper . . . whatever—Protestant, Catholic, Anglican, Baptist . . . or just a “good Christian” as understood in the particular place. But the people on location have actually mistaken the vessel for the treasure. Paul gives us a crucial distinction: “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). The primary application of this distinction between treasure and vessel in the context was to Paul’s own body and the visible events of his life in the world. Of this he said, “Our outer man is decaying” (verse 16). He was not troubled by this, for he looked to his spiritual side in the spiritual world. And he wanted the faith of his hearers to stand on the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that [their] faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). The weakness of the vessel, Paul’s physical reality, was accepted and recognized by him as the occasion for the triumph of the treasure. But the same principles of “vessel” and “treasure” apply to our local congregations, their traditions, and their higher-level groupings called “denominations.” Now, it is worth noting that nearly everything that defines any given denomination is negative—that is, something “we” do not do that “they” do. By far most of our groups were born in negation. Just think of the mass of people of many denominations who are called Protest-ants. Our identity is that we protest? Against what? And then within both Protestant and Catholic traditions there are the multitudes of groupings that have been defined by what they don’t do that others do. Our various groups become over time nearly 100-percent vessel. That is, what they seem to regard as essential and what they devote almost all their attention and effort to, has to do with human, historical contingencies that have attached themselves to individuals brought up in a certain way. They of course love those contingencies, and they love the dear ones who have shared life with them within the contingent forms. And because the contingencies are dear to us—often there is much good associated with their past—we mistake them for the treasure of the real presence of Christ in our midst, and we spend most of our time concerned with the historical accidents or contingencies of our group, even trying to urge them upon others as essential to salvation, or at least as what is best for us and for them. No wonder we are distracted from the path of spiritual formation in Christ. So, what kind of clothes should people wear to meetings, etc.   pp. 234-238, SOURCE