Claims to Fame

II Corinthians 11:16-33

My folks came to the Navajo Reservation in 1961. After starting several churches on the Reservation, the need for a Bible college to train Navajos was recognized, and a college started in Kirtland, New Mexico because land was obtainable, and jobs were available in the nearby Farmington for students.

When visiting one of their supporting churches, they were told of wonderful missionary living in Farmington and what struggles he was having on the Navajo field. Reading the letter he had written, they were amazed to learn that the Navajo culture was so wild in Farmington that it was not safe for their daughter to attend the public school, and when his wife went shopping, he had to carry a gun to accompany her. They also had a church going on the reservation, and so many lives were being so drastically changed. In 20 years of shopping in Farmington, and my brothers and sisters working there, we’d never had such experiences, and it takes a minimum of one year to get approval to build a church on the reservation.

As it turned out Mom and Dad knew the man, since he’d once asked them to get some one to go with him on visitation in a particular area. Larry. A member of their church had gone with him twice, and refused to go again because the man was so rude. As Larry said, I have to live with these people and can’t afford to offend them that way. Eight years later, the mission board fired the man because, so far as they could determine, he’d never even visited the reservation except for those two trips with Larry.

The church which received the letter had been greatly impressed by a couple of lies, never realizing that some of the things the real missionaries experienced were even more spectacular than the lies, but the missionaries seldom mentioned them because they were just a part of the job. They were not really important in themselves. As we were told about getting pictures, “You need to get as many as possible when you first go, because after a while, what is exciting to others is just normal to you.”

The church at Corinth had had people come in telling such wonderful stories and were convincing people that what Paul had done was not enough. The Corinthians did not realize how meaningless these things actually were, so Paul describes some of the things he had gone through to demonstrate that these were not the only ones who had experienced things. Nevertheless, Paul recognizes that dwelling on these things is foolish, because they really aren’t important. It only emphasizes the lack of spirituality.

“I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.” (II Corinthians 11:16-20)

I visited one of the churches my Dad had started when they had a missionary speaker. The man showed slides of his field and of a vast congregation of over a thousand, explaining that he was needing money to build a new building, since
The one thy had wouldn’t seat the crowd. Several of the Navajos spoke, really concerned as to why they couldn’t get such a large crowd since he’d only been there four years. The Navajos were discouraged at their inability to reach as many.

Later my wife asked the missionary how they got so many. He told her that they’d had a special day, and the other churches in the area had come to help out. Barb then pressed the issue, asking how many were actually his own people. He finally admitted that only about twenty actually attended his church. The story was a lie, and had hurt some dedicated Christians by convincing them that they were not doing as much as they should, when, in fact they were doing more than the one who told the lie. It also resulted in money being given to him that should probably have been given elsewhere.

The Corinthians were being hurt in a similar way by those who were making such claims, taking money, and seizing power over them, setting themselves as so much greater Christians. Paul describes the things he has gone through, that can be checked for accuracy, and compares them to the claims of the others.

“I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. ” (II Corinthians 11:21-31)

Paul had been through as much or more than any of those who were making these claims, and he had done it while simultaneously taking responsibility for the various churches that these guys were trying to take over. The only things that really mattered were when Paul was weak and God produced results anyway.