“Out camping”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Saturday, June 3, 2023

2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:10 (Forward, p. 36) CEV p. 1208

Over the years, especially in my younger years, I have done a fair bit of camping, of staying either in a tent-trailer or a tent itself. In neither case, was this seen as permanent or even long term. For one thing, even with the tent-trailer it was far than secure from animal attacks—say, from a bear, especially considering that we often cooked inside, and had food inside as well, at least at times. And then there was the problem of mosquitos and rainfall and inclement weather—the place leaked like a sieve. I cannot even imagine how our First Nations people here on the Prairies could manage to live in tents year-round.

The apostle Paul likens our earthly bodies to tents, in that they only last a while and are in no way permanent. He asserts that these earthly bodies, these ‘tents’, will one day be destroyed, but that God will provide us something more lasting, more permanent, that will endure forever. What is more, is that these more permanent ‘dwelling places’ will be in heaven and we will finally be at home. There we will be with God forever.

Paul suggests that these earthly dwellings, these ‘tents’ that we call our bodies, are something of a burden that can weigh us down. Here I cannot but think of the heavy travois that our First Nations used to transport their belongings from place to place—using dog or horse assistance, of course. I suspect that this was quite an onerous task, one that often fell to the womenfolk to manage and undertake. And then, there is something that Paul mentions elsewhere (see Romans 8:18-22), namely that our physical bodies—along with all of creation--are subject to corruption and decay. (As I approach my mid-70s, I, for one, cannot help but be all the more aware of the insistent and continual aches and pains that come with my increasing years. Indeed, I often think along the lines of Revelation 21:4 that it would be great to be free from these!)

Paul, however, doesn’t choose to dwell on all these things, except to say that we now live by faith, trusting in God and in the ‘things that cannot be seen’. And, that our present woes make us all the more eager to discard them once and for all and be with Him forever. So, in the meantime, and buoyed up, reassured by the presence of God’s Spirit in our lives, we press on, continuing in our trust in God and continuing to do our best to please Him. After all, all of this that we experience and suffer through just now is only temporary. God has something much better awaiting us and so we just hang on and continue faithful. We won’t be off camping, living in tents, forever. Amen.

Forward notes: “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” (chapter 4, verse 17).

“In the second grade, my parents gave me a scooter. It was big and red, with inflated rubber tires that could fly down the steep hill in our neighbourhood. It was a challenge to get back up the hill, but I hardly noticed because I was so enamored with my special gift.

“I’ve always been mesmerized by the phrase ‘eternal weight of glory.’ How does one weigh glory? How can glory be heavy? Isn’t a heavy load a bad thing? Isn’t the eschaton about having our burdens removed?

“The weight of glory could be like my scooter. Perhaps the joy of the gift raises us up to the task of carrying its weight. Maybe our resurrected bodies enjoy the feeling of the weight, like a powerlifter hitting a sweet spot. Maybe the new earth will be less about the removal of loads and more about the transformation of what we carry into wonderful things, and the transformation of us into people who are capable of bearing them—and delight in doing so.”

Moving Forward: “What does the phrase ‘weight of glory’ mean to you?”