November 7, 2010
The Mothball Fleet - 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadMy first duty assignment in the Army was at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Fort Eustis is a small post in Newport News, tucked in between Norfolk and Williamsburg, on the James River. There was a park on that post, right on the James River. The Mothball Fleet sat right outside that park. It was a fleet of a about fifty or so ships, huge ships of all kinds, tied up and rusting away in the middle of the James River. It was a very strange sight. Actually, it was a little spooky out there. Some of those ships dated back to World War II, and they were just sitting out there rusting away. They were just up river from the Norfolk Naval base and I guess if the Navy ever needed them, they could just dust them off and use them in a war effort. The vast majority of those ships, though, had seen their heyday, if they ever had a heyday at all. In fact, most of them were just waiting to be scrapped.
We are all, according to Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian Church, very much like those ships: just old, earthen vessels, either past our heyday (if we ever had one) or waiting for our heyday (if we ever will have one). We are essentially in the Mothball Fleet. It may be depressing to think of us like that, and it certainly is not how we’re supposed to think these days. Yet, it’s true, isn’t it? Whether we’re a year old, or a century old, we are growing older by the day. Some of us have had our heydays. We hit it big in our prime, but our prime is gone and the world is passing us by. Or maybe we’re waiting for our heyday. We’re waiting to be noticed, to play in the big leagues, to make the big dance. But if the truth be told, very few if any of us will ever achieve greatness or any high level of success. Newsweek just came out with its list of the top fifty commentators in America. Rush Limbaugh made the first choice, followed by Glenn Beck and John Stewart. There were other names on that list, but dad gum it, I never saw my name on it, and I don’t think I saw yours either. If you just look at us from an objective, casual perspective, we’re all a bunch of fragile earthen vessels. We’re all rusting ships in the Mothball Fleet.
Don’t get too depressed, though, because Paul says that he’s in that Mothball Fleet, too. That was one of Paul’s challenges in the early Church. From a worldly perspective, Paul had not hit it big. He did not have any fame or fortune. He was not a powerbroker in Roman society. He may have been an important figure in the early Church, but the early Church was small, made up mostly of slaves and women, not of the powerbrokers. Why then would you want to be Christian? Anybody that was anybody was definitely not Christian. Paul had a bit of a marketing problem, you see.
And that was only half the marketing problem. Christians were not only unsuccessful (if you want to describe it that way) in spite of their faith, they were unsuccessful because of their faith. Paul was instrumental in early Christianity. And yet, this instrumental leader in the Church spent more time in prison than in Church. Go gnaw on that for a little while. The Book of Acts doesn’t even tell us what happened to Paul, partly because Paul was probably executed in Rome. It was a marketing disaster for the early Church. If you are comfortable in Roman society, if you have a nice house and a good income with a job you like, if you’re educated and well informed, if you’ve found your niche…, why in the world would you convert to a religion whose main leader spent most of his time in jail? And not only that, the Christian God died on a cross. Crucifixion was designated for the worst of the worst. Deities did not die that way. In fact, deities weren’t supposed to die at all. Yet the Christian God, Jesus, even if he was raised, did die and he was crucified. And not only that, Jesus even said often that if we follow him, we’ll end up at the same place. Sure there’s a resurrection, but there’s this painful, shameful crucifixion before that resurrection. So why would you possibly convert to that?
The funny thing, though, is that Christianity thrives in old earthen vessels. Christianity thrives in the Mothball Fleet. That’s the astonishing thing about the Christian faith. It often manifests itself in weakness and not in strength. God often does the most with what is the least. God doesn’t throw a self-help book down here, you know, to straighten us all out. No, God enters into our weakness, and creates in us out of our weakness something that did not exist before. God has this persistent habit since the beginning of time of making really, really big trees out of mustard seeds.
So what is God doing here, in this earthen vessel that we call Central Steele Creek? Is it with Ashley? She’s our new cracker-jack DCE and she’s working hard on children and youth stuff, especially. Is it with worship? Is it with our missions stuff? We’re planning, possibly, activities for Wednesday nights starting in January. We’re thinking about a supper and Bible studies and children & youth activities. Maybe it’s that. What is God doing in this earthen
vessel at 9401 South Tryon Street? What’s God doing with this mothball fleet?
Maybe there’s another way to look at it. Leah and I are celebrating our eleventh year of marriage next Saturday, the 13th. We got engaged on the star of Texas, on the steps of the state capital building in Austin, Texas. I’ll never forget that night. I had just moved to Texas and Leah lived in Greenville. I had already bought the ring in Greenville and they shipped it out to me. I had never even been to Austin, and I had no idea how I was going to propose, but I knew that it would be somewhere in Austin sometime on this particular night. So I put that little, bitty ring that had cost me an arm and a leg, all by its lonesome self in my frightening pocket. Sometimes things make their way in my dark and deep pockets and never see the light of day again. And that valuable ring, that I would give to Leah Robertson, that she would wear for the rest of her life, was stuck in that nasty old pocket, until I just happened to see the beautiful capital of Texas, where I went up and put that ring on her finger, where it still is to this very day.
I tell you that to say this: We have this grace that God has given us, this priceless treasure in this old earthly vessel, in this old mothball fleet, in this old dark pocket. I get the magazine Runners World. At least one article in every edition of that magazine tries convince us that we’re all world class runners. We may be a hundred pounds over-weight and smoke a pack a cigarette a day and eat fifteen slices of pizza , but we’re really a running beast just waiting to get unleashed. That’s not what Paul says at all. And, by the way, that’s not what experience says either. No, we’re old earthen vessels sitting in a Mothball Fleet. But, we have this priceless, eternal treasure.
Once you know that, you can’t go back. You may not have much from the outset. You may not have much money, or too many talents. You might not think you have all that much to offer. And to be brutally honest, from the outset, you may not. But it’s not about what you have. It’s about who has you. God has you, and God has put something in you that is priceless. God has put something in you, in old worn-out you, that’s priceless.
I know that you’re tired. Ya’ll have worked yourselves to death around here. You’re up here all the time. And you’re also at work all the time. You’re taking care of your kids all or time, or you’re taking care of your parents. I’m right in the thick of the daddy business. I’ve had all three children for the past twenty four hours by myself and I’m worn completely out. I’m doing pretty good now to keep up with bottles and diapers. I sometimes wonder how I can give more, or how what I give – as worn out as it is – will make any difference. You’re in the same boat. In may not be with children, but it’s something else. You’re tired. You’re worn out. You’re fragile. You’re worried about the economy. You’re worried about your retirement. You’re worried about your health. Who isn’t?
I’m not going to tell you to just start thinking positive thoughts, or to act like the threats that you’re facing are not real. I’m not going to try to convince you that you’ve got all this energy stored up somewhere, but you just don’t know it, so go read Runners World and unleash the beast. We’re kind of worn-out. From the looks of things, we have not hit it big, and we probably won’t. We’re clay jars, earthen vessels. We’re the Mothball Fleet. But, we’ve got something valuable in our rusty little ships. It’s priceless. What we have in us is nothing less than what has saved the entire world. In fact, we’re about to ingest it. “This is the body of Christ, broken for you. This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.” That’s priceless. That’s eternal. That’s what I’m telling you to turn your eyes to and gaze upon for awhile. And then, even in your weakness, God does something invaluable. So go, and give, and live, and love accordingly.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
