"To Him be glory forever": 1 Corinthians

Showing posts with label 1 Corinthians. Show all posts

Monday, August 29, 2016

Servants and Stewards

How do people look at you when they know that you are Christian? That answer would depend largely on what a person already knew or believed to be true about Christians in general. If they assumed Christians to be kind, or generous, or caring, then they would look to see how you measured up to those expectations. Or on the other hand, if the things that came to mind when they hear "Christian" include being judgmental, self-righteous or narrow-minded, then those would be the kinds of things they would expect to show in your words and actions.

In reality the truth for many of us who love, believe in, and follow Jesus, is a combination of both sides. We believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord and so our lives are basically a "work in progress," where God is continually at work within us. As we travel through life with faith in Jesus, one day we make two steps forward and the next a step back. One day we see ourselves growing in kindness and patience and the next day judgmental behavior shows up again. As Christians we know the truth that we are forgiven sinners, who still continue to struggle with sin.

In one of his letters to the Corinthians Paul writes this,

"This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."

While our identity may be as people who believe in and follow Jesus, Paul says that one of the primary ways we live out that identity is as servants of Christ. Not only should Christians be known as servants but they should be known as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been a pastor here in Dulce for three years and I have come to know many people in our congregation well, and time and time again I see them willing to serve others. I see them serving in their immediate and extended families. I see them serving to meet needs within the community. As individuals, many people in our church are willing servants, going wherever they see a need that they can help to meet.

But what of our congregation? It has been in Dulce for 102 years and while we are the oldest Christian congregation in town, we are not alone here as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a group, are we serving the Lord here in all of the ways that we could be? Are there opportunities in the community where we could join together as sisters and brothers in Christ to serve the Lord in this place?

I think that there may be opportunities for us and that we could live as a group of faithful servants, although I don’t know what those specific opportunities might be. And I believe that finding those needs and filling them will be an essential part of keeping the work of Christ within this congregation alive in Dulce for many years to come.

Paul says that we are "stewards of the mysteries of God," meaning that we know and understand that God saves sinners through the saving work of Jesus. And being servants of Christ is the means to creating opportunities to share that Good News in life-changing ways. May we, as a congregation, continue to grow as servants of Christ.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Without Beginning or End

I like to run. Over the past 37 years the past I have run many, many miles. And every one of them without the "benefit" of musical accompaniment. No radio, Walkman, ipod or MP3 player. Just myself, perhaps a companion and some conversation, and the sounds of the environment I'm running in, wherever that may be. And the thoughts moving in and out of my head.

Today I was running east of Dulce. It was about 40 and warm enough for shorts. I had reached my turn-around point, a bit more than six miles from home, and was just starting to make my way back. Twelve miles today seemed like a good idea when I left and I felt good on the out-bound leg. But with nearly the entire trip back ahead of me I was beginning to wonder a bit. Too late to do anything about it today, but maybe next time I should consider both my ambition and my energy level.

Without music my mind wanders pretty easily and the next thought was of a piece of scripture I'm trying to memorize. It is Hebrews 13:20-21. Truthfully, I memorized it a number of years ago but it has faded and I'm trying to bring it back. It says:

"Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

As I thought about those verses two words seemed to jump out at me.

Eternal covenant.

In 1 Corinthians 11:25 Paul is talking about the meaning of the Lord's Supper and he says that Jesus told him this:

"This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of me."

I happened to be reading something over the weekend that said we should understand what Paul wrote to the Corinthians as meaning not an entirely new covenant between God and His children, but a new way of looking at the same covenant. The blood of Christ is what has always brought salvation to sinners. It is anticipated in the Old Testament and revealed in the New Testament. This is also brought out in the Hebrews passage, "the blood of the eternal covenant."

But thinking as I ran this morning I had a new understanding of eternal in relation to the covenant. We often think of eternal as "having no ending." The Christian promise of eternal life is a promise that the person with faith in Jesus will one day go from this life into a never-ending life in the very presence of our Savior and Lord. That is a pretty good promise, one that really has no equal. There is not one thing compares to that promise.

And it is a promise that is based upon an eternal covenant, and eternal means so much more than merely everlasting. The promise that God makes is a promise without a beginning and an end. It is a promise that has always existed. It is a promise that precedes the very act of creation. It is not just an "everlasting" promise. At the same time it is both a "has always existed" promise and a "will never end" promise.

May this promise, this eternal promise of God, be the promise you find rest and comfort in, now and forever. Amen.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Facebook theology, part 2

This is the second of an irregular series, where I reflect on something seen online, usually through a post on Facebook. Yesterday I saw this:

"Jesus doesn't care how many Bible verses you have memorized. He cares how you treat other people."

Two statements, linked together. Of the first you could say that it is both true and false. And also of the second, it is both true and false.

Does Jesus care how many Bible verses I have memorized? Probably not, although I can't be certain of that. I have a number of verses marked in my Bible that I am trying to memorize, and I'll be honest and admit that I haven't been working at them with any diligence lately.

But here is the rub. If I don't take the word of God into my mind and let it dwell there, it won't take up residence in my heart. If I don't continually drink from the depth of God's word I won't be able to live any part of my life in a manner that is pleasing to him. I won't know how to care for other people in ways that please God unless I am standing on the firm foundation of God's word. That foundation is built on my continually dwelling in his word.

Which is where the second statement comes in. God may very well care how I treat other people, but it is not God's desire that I treat people merely in some sort of way that makes me feel good about myself. God wants me to treat people in ways that honor and praise him.

Like my efforts to memorize Bible verses, I fall short here too, but I have a good understanding of what my behavior towards others should look like, and I know that when I err, and I do so often, that God is gracious in granting forgiveness.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes these words about how Christians are to treat other people:

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Another response to the Facebook post are the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:36-39:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

In these verses Jesus points us to God's word to nourish us, and then to take that nourishment and live it out in the world. To His eternal glory. Amen.

Monday, February 3, 2014

A better question

Tomorrow there is going to be a debate of sorts. Bill Nye, of Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, are going to get together to publicly discuss this question: "Is Creation A Viable Model of Origins in Today's Modern Scientific Era?"

In the interest of public disclosure I'll say that before yesterday I had little awareness that this event was coming up and now that I have heard more about it my intention is not to pay much attention to it.

Yesterday I stumbled across this article in the Chicago Sun-Times, which brought the pending debate to my attention. What surprised me about the Sun-Times piece was the animosity of the authors towards Christianity in general, and Protestantism in particular. To my understanding of history they made some profound misstatements about the origins and intent of the reform of the church in the 15th/16th century and the descendants of that reform today.

Yesterday I preached from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. My sermon was titled "Wisdom: Not What You'd Expect." One thing I tried to bring out of the passage was that there is a difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the church. Paul says that various factions of the world seek proof of God through either signs or logic. The desire to prove, or as in the case of the debate and the Sun-Times article, to disprove, the methods chosen by God to reveal himself to the world through logic continue today.

In contrast to the wisdom of the world Paul holds out what he calls "the word of the cross." Verse 18 says:

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The "word of the cross" is a very brief way of saying this:

You and I are sinners. Our sin is not merely doing something wrong or making a mistake. Sin is rebellion against a holy God. And rebellion against God deserves punishment. Because God is holy, and you and I are not, we cannot possibly take the punishment that God's justice demands. So God, the Father, in his mercy, sent Jesus, his Son, to live a sinless life and take on his body the punishment you and I deserve. The Father found this work by the Son acceptable and raised the Son to eternal life. When, by faith, we believe what Jesus, the Son, has done, we receive the promise of eternal life. The punishment for our sin, all of it, has been paid by the Son, and our destiny beyond this world will be eternity with God.

What Paul calls "the word of the cross" is a message that no amount of logic will arrive at. There is no possible way to go from "A to B to C to etcetera" and arrive at "salvation in Jesus." It is a message that is only arrived at through faith in what God has done in Jesus.

Not faith in Jesus the good teacher. Not faith in Jesus the example of a better way. Only through faith in Jesus, the Savior.

I started writing this post with a somewhat negative opinion of tomorrow's pending debate. While I still don't have much interest in the central question that Nye and Ham will discuss, perhaps their discussion will touch some people in such a way that they begin to look more deeply into the central message of the Bible.

For me, a better question, or perhaps the only question that matters, is about Jesus, and it is this one, the one that he asked to his disciples:

"But who do you say that I am?"

Peter's response was this:

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Like Peter, I believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, and so I find great comfort in what Paul called the "word of the cross."

How does that word speak to you?

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The wave

We have been in Dulce for five months and I would imagine that by now just about everyone in the congregation knows I run. I would imagine that most people in town know I run, either from seeing me running on the side of the road or hearing about it from someone who saw me and told them. I haven't seen very many runners since moving to Dulce and only once did I see a person who was clearly an Anglo, like me.

I run every day. Sometimes a few miles. Sometimes quite a few miles. I have run marathons and I found one in Shiprock in May that I'm training for. But even if there wasn't the marathon on my schedule I would be running, outdoors, year-round. It is just one of those things I do.

If you have seen me out running, did you notice that I wave? I wave at nearly every car that goes by. I toss in a "Hi!" at every cyclist or person walking along the road. On occasion I also greet the dogs. Waving at cars is something I started to do 5 or 6 years ago.

When we lived in Minnesota I ran along a particular section of road 5 to 7 days a week. One lane in each direction, with a decent shoulder. The speed limit was 45 and there was 'no passing' allowed. I know, from driving that road myself, that the speed limit was easily exceeded. 'No passing' was for a good reason, although I saw people do that too.

Because of my work schedule I ran that section of road in the dark roughly nine months of the year. I started waving at drivers during the daytime as a protective mechanism. I figured if I waved during the daytime those drivers might be more mindful of my presence on the road if they were out during the dark. Before long I was waving at everyone, day and night.

Now waving at drivers is a habit, but the purpose has changed a bit. Waving has become a way of people noticing me. Sometimes they wave back. I don't often make eye contact, partly because at my age my eyes take a bit longer to focus on a face in a vehicle, and by then I am drifting, usually towards traffic. Waving while mostly looking ahead is safer.

Being noticed is not for the purpose of fueling my ego, but just for the purpose of opening a conversation later. I am an outsider, an Anglo pastor, serving a church in a Native American community. It is likely that there are some people in the community I have waved at many times over the past five months. I don't know who they are but they know who I am. And if I run into them at the grocery store, or gas station, or wherever, it is my hope that my wave opens a conversation, one which, in time, may lead to our talking about things of greater importance than running or basketball, or whatever.

I want God to use my wave to serve His purposes. I want that wave to open a door and point another person to the joy and peace that is only known in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes,

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, to all to the glory of God."

"Whatever"…running, waving, witnessing….may all that I do, and all that you do, serve God, to His eternal glory.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Sandwich ministry

We live in Dulce, New Mexico on the reservation of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, in the parsonage next to the church where I am the pastor. In the 3½ months we have been here we have seen a lot of people passing through this piece of property, as our home is on a walking route between a residential area and the more central parts of town.

In the first few months we saw lots of people pass through. We spent a fair amount of time outside and always said "Hi." Every once in a while we had an opportunity to talk with someone. And there have been a few times when people have stopped at the back door, asking for help, which Robin has written about here.

Tonight was one of those times.

I was washing dishes after supper and the door bell rang. I went out and opened the door but no one was there. As I glanced around a man called out to me, standing in the dark a short ways from the house.

He asked for a sandwich. I said sure. Would peanut butter and jelly be okay? It would. What's your name? He told me something I couldn't quite understand. I invited him inside. He wanted to wait outside.

So I went in and made a sandwich and got him an apple from the refrigerator.

When I returned with the sandwich he was standing off in the dark. I walked out to meet him and gave him the food. We made brief small talk about the weather. Today started well below zero and is headed back there again tonight, although he didn't think it was that cold. He was on his way to a relative's house somewhere in the neighborhood on the hill behind the parsonage, and he quickly went on his way.

It is my privilege to lead God's people in worship each week. It is my privilege to dig into the Bible and bring a message from it to those who gather in church each Sunday. It is my privilege to meet with people in their homes and at the hospital and to pray with them there. And it was my privilege tonight to provide a neighbor with a small meal.

Some of these things I do with more skill than others. I hope that in each of these things, and any other way I serve God here in Dulce, that I am pointing not towards myself but to God, who has called our family to serve Him here among the Jicarilla Apache.

In the closing section of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes:

"Let all that you do be done in love."

In his use of the word "love" Paul means something much deeper and richer than what we might ordinarily think of. He means a love that is distinctly flavored by the love he has received from God through Jesus Christ. He means something like this: "Let all that you do be done in love, the love that God has lavished on you and me through His Son, our Lord and Savior."

May this be the love that comes out in the big and little things of my ministry. And may it be the love that permeates the details of your life too, even something as simple as making a sandwich for someone at your back door.