Love… ‘Nuff Said!

1 Corinthians 13

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

… love.  But the love most of you are thinking about and the love Paul is talking about here are two very different kinds of love.  More than likely, you are thinking about the people you already love.  You’re thinking about your children, family and friends.  While not excluded, they’re not the people Paul was thinking about when he wrote this little ditty.   He was thinking about the people in our lives and environments who are hard to love; strangers, the poor, people from the other side of the tracks, even enemies.

Second, most people think about how they feel when talking about love, conjuring up images in their minds of good and happy events.  How we feel is just a tiny, tiny part of what love is.  The bulk of what love actually is, is action.  It is what we do and has very little to do with what we feel.  What’s more, feelings are constantly changing from minute to minute.  If we base our love on our feelings, our love wouldn’t be much to talk about.  But what is done lasts forever in our memories and in the impact that it leaves in the lives of people.  For example, you can go up to a homeless man in the streets and say, “I love you.”  You may feel good while you say it, but as soon as you get in your car and pull away you would have forgotten all about it.  And if someone cut in front of you too close for comfort without signaling fuhgettaboudit!  But if you gave the man a coat to keep warm, some food and encouragement not only will he remember what you did but you will also remember what you did and it will change you.

It’s easy to talk about love in reference to our friends and family.  It’s easy to talk about romantic love and feelings of love.  But maybe for some of you, it’s time to put away childish things and childish thinking to see with clarity what love truly is: the force of truly positive change in our lives and the world.

God’s love, as Paul talks about here, is not like our loves.  If you really want to know how transformative love can be, it begins with God’s unconditional, never-ending love, not human love.  We can’t rely on human love to sustain us because it is constantly changing according to how we feel.  God’s love is not infatuated, here today and gone tomorrow.  It is constant and unchanging, dependable therefore hopeful.  And I’m not talking just about God’s love FOR us here.  Mostly I’m talking about God’s love THROUGH us.  Go love.

One Body, Many Parts

1 Corinthians 12:12-26
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

Well, this makes my job easy today!  This text practically writes today’s devotion all by itself.  So let me focus on just two parts of the text and send you on your merry way.

The first part is in vs. 18 where Paul says, ‘God has put each part just where he wants it.’  Can I get an Amen??  No?  You don’t think you’re where you should be?  Or is it more like, you’re not where you WANT to be?  Where you should be and where you want to be are different no?  Yes, methinks they are.

I know it’s very difficult to be effective and productive in our station when our hearts are not in it; if we believe that we’re meant for something different.  There are two ways of thinking about this predicament.  One, you may actually be in the wrong place and God actually wants you someplace else.  You must be diligent then, in trying to discern where it is you must be.  No sense in staying put and complaining about your station.  Two, maybe you are exactly where you need to be but haven’t realized it just yet.  Either way, you must be diligent to find a new station or a reason for your present station.

The second part is in vs. 26 where Paul says, ‘If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.’  This so true…  Ever stub a toe?  Or hammer a finger?  Or you try to play a prank on someone with that old ‘pail full of water on the top of a door’ trick but afterwards they chase you all over the campgrounds screaming profanities at you and as you’re running you trip and fall and it your head on a tree stump?  Don’t you hate when that happens?  You get the point.  Even injuring a little part of our finger sends alert messages all over our body.  Think of the damage we cause in the Body of Christ and not feel a thing afterwards.  Either we’re not a body, just a collection of body parts, or as a body we’ve become desensitized to the pain of others because it happens too much.

We’re good at celebrations and honors, but need some work of compassion and mercy for when one suffers, we all suffer.  Discontent and dis-ease are not things that are suffered in isolation but eventually they will affect us all.  And maybe we are where we are, ie., where God wants us to be so we can do something about it.  So look at your station with discerning eyes today to determine whether you are where you should be, not only where you want to be.  Ask not “what am I doing here?” but “what am I doing while I’m here?”

Truth About Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

There are a lot of different thoughts out there regarding spiritual gifts.  Some believe that spiritual gifts are evidences of God’s grace and presence in a person’s life while others say that spiritual gifts don’t exist.  Most of us lie somewhere in between. Personally, I believe that it’s very easy to get carried away with and as such many people do.  I’ve had conversations with people who flaunt their ‘gifts’ proudly as though they were talking about their child who just made honor roll.  In my skepticism, I find that I cannot embrace their enthusiasm with equal passion and joy. It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that spiritual gifts exist.  I just understand it differently than they do.

I find the whole enterprise of spiritual gifts perplexing. There is no standard of measurement, identification or governance.  And because it was written about two thousand years ago, as I always point out, what was written then was for people living at that time and may or may not relate to us today, if it does relate to us, it must be reinterpreted for our context.  I know there are people who believe that spiritual gifts are absolutely real who would say that my seeming lack of conviction about spiritual gifts is due to a lack of experience and witness.  I believe, but just not in that way.

For the record, in loud bold face: A SPIRITUAL GIFT IS GIVEN TO EACH OF US SO WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER.  What good is speaking in tongues if it doesn’t help someone in need?  So what if you go to church every Sunday and spend an hour praising God and speaking in tongues or jumping up and down and ‘exercising’ your spiritual gift of ‘prophesying’ but it hasn’t helped anyone at all?  It’s all hype and sensationalism and I usually find such exuberant expressions to be more about the exuberant one than anyone else.  According to Paul, a spiritual gift is supposed to be practical, not hokey.  If you helped someone carry a burden you’ve just exercised your gift. If you gave a shoulder and lent an ear, you’ve exercised your gift.  If you forgive someone and eased her troubled soul, you’ve just exercised your spiritual gift.  The great thing about this is, at the end of the day, you may find that you exercised a multitude of spiritual gifts you didn’t even know you had.

A true spiritual gift doesn’t need to be flashy, dramatic or earth shattering.  Rather, it is often subtle, quiet and humble, like the Spirit from which it originates.  A spiritual gift that functions only to bring attention to the one exercising it is not spiritual nor is it a gift.  It’s nothing short of self indulgent and self aggrandizing.  The key to understanding spiritual gifts is simple, it’s about others, not ourselves.  It is a gift you give, not receive or possess.  It is a gift that brings hope, healing and wholeness to people in need and distress.  Go exercise some of these gifts already!

The Meaning of Sacrament

1 Corinthians 11:23-34

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.

31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

33 So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. 34 If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.

Continuing our theme from last Friday, we are reminded that we are ONE body in Christ.  The sacrament of communion is a symbol of that unity.  It’s a good thing and a reminder of God’s love and grace for all of us.  As such, it should never be used to cause division in the body.

Paul’s teaching of self-examination before we take communion is significant.  We need to realize that when we take communion, we are in effect saying that we are the body of Christ for the world.  Obviously, we are taking communion unworthily if we do so without the intention of ever becoming the body of Christ in the world.  Paul’s point to the Corinthians is; how can you be the Body of Christ for the world if there is division among you in the church, if you can’t even wait for each other to break bread and share the cup?  The same message is extended to us today.

One verse in this text really irks me though.  Verse 30 states that some have grown sick or even died because they have not honored the sacrament and brought God’s judgment upon themselves.  Hmmm.  What does this mean?  I didn’t think Paul meant to say that God physically punished people for failing to honor the rituals and ceremonies of the Church.  But upon further reading, by golly, that’s exactly what he meant.  Double hmmmmm, and REALLY??  I can think of a hundred, a thousand things more grievous deserving of a gruesome, slow, and painful death (by being forced to watch reruns of ‘Keeping up With The Kardashians.’  Although that would be straddling the border of cruel and unusual punishment).

We need to understand this again in the context of when it was written.  In Paul’s time, tragedy was usually but not exclusively associated with divine judgment.  Today, while we know better, we can’t help our superstitious ways and thoughts.  Even today, superstitions are very much alive and affective (and effective too).  When something bad happens we say it’s ‘karma,’ or ‘what goes around comes around, that sort of thing.’  We know it’s not true, but can’t help ourselves from thinking that way.

Let’s be clear about this, God will not punish us physically for failing to honor the sacrament in our lives.  But I’m not suggesting that the sacrament doesn’t matter or lack meaning.  Au contraire. The sacrament is FULL of meaning, and if we choose to honor it in our lives, we can and most probably will make a difference in someone’s life and the community eventually saving us all.  Conversely, the only harm that will come as a result of not honoring the sacrament is that the hungry will not be fed, the naked will not be clothed, the blind will not see, lost will not be found.  And that, ie., the death of the community through our failure to take care of one another, in the long run, may be a lot worse than a single death for failure to honor the body and blood of Christ.

Hate Paul, Not Me!!

1 Corinthians 11:2-16
2 I am so glad that you always keep me in your thoughts, and that you are following the teachings I passed on to you. 3 But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. 5 But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. 6 Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering.
7 A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is made in God’s image and reflects God’s glory. And woman reflects man’s glory. 8 For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man. 9 And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. 10 For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under authority.
11 But among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. 12 For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from God.
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? 14 Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? 15 And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering. 16 But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this, and neither do God’s other churches.

Ladies, ladies!!  Remember, I’m just a messenger!!  Before you go and get twisted up sending me all kinds of hate mail about this women’s head covering and men are better than women business, just know that times have changed so therefore our understanding of this text and its application must also change.  You should also be aware that there are women today who take to heart what Paul is saying here and practice it in their relationships with men.  While many of you reading this may not agree with that perspective, let’s accept that no position is better or worse, just different.

What needs to be said in response to this text is that women today need not follow Paul’s culturally specific advice.  I repeat, need not.  Paul even points out at the end of this text, that this is just their custom. The roles and stations of men and women were very different then.  Today, obviously the roles and stations of both men and women have changed considerably.  However, what hasn’t changed is how God values and prizes all of us.

What we need to understand clearly here is that a simple head covering or lack thereof, does not define our relationships.  It doesn’t matter if a woman has a whole mess of head coverings if her heart is not in the relationship.  There is no honor or respect in a relationship unless they are first found in the heart, for both men and women.  Yes, the creation account in Genesis tells the story of how God created Adam first then Eve.  But if you believe that story literally, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you.  Obviously it is a story.  Stories have a point or a moral, at least the good ones do.  The point of Adam and Eve’s story is to teach us that God created us, not to say that men are better or greater than women. Please… If a woman chooses to cover her head, it should be done to honor and worship God.  It’s is a symbol of humility before God, and her husband, if she so chooses.  Men must also honor, respect and love their women as partners not subordinates.

I hope this will settle the ladies down a bit. Remember, I’m only the messenger. Don’t hate me.  Hate Paul.  Haha!