God’s priorities – Presbydestrian

“Now and Forever”
2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1
June 7, 2015, First Presbyterian Church of Holt

Listen to the sermon here
(audio picks up on the second paragraph)

Anyone who’s stopped by the office the past month or so has seen Myra, Kirk, and I looking something like this. The irony was not lost on any of us as we were working frantically so that we could plan a church wide season of rest. In any given day my calendar was open to four months at a time, planning for the life of the church all the way into October.

And you know what? We’ve got a tremendous summer ahead of us, with great guest preachers, musicians, and opportunities to connect through prayer and mission. It really is going to be a memorable sabbatical season, and hopefully one that will allow each of us to refuel and connect on a deeper level with God’s plans for us as individuals and as a church.

For me personally though, the tricky thing with all of this intensive planning of several months at the same time is when I would slow down, step back and try to answer a question about what day it was or even what month it was, it took me a minute. My mind was in October’s logistics, my heart was pondering our Wednesday night worship services, and my soul was in prayer for our Diving into Dreamin’ retreat. Needless to say, that all left me feeling a bit discombobulated.

Our text today the Apostle Paul gives us a similarly exciting and disorienting timeline: the excitement of the growing community of Christ in Paul’s midst, an ongoing feeling of his body wasting away, and an eternal hope in the heavens. It seems Paul also has his calendar open on many pages at a time. Perhaps that’s why Paul often looks stressed out in so many depictions of him.

As Christians we are by definitions followers of Christ, a lived out example of what living in this sort of scheduling tension looks like: Christ was both fully God, everlasting and eternal, and fully human, living on a linear timeline, interacting with individual people in individual ways. Christ was embodied, living in a body that way not made to last forever. Christ was also a soul, an eternal and inseparable aspect of God. As Christians we are called then to live into this tension of the world to come and the world that is becoming.

Following Christ means living excitedly for the world that is to come, the kingdom of God and all of the joy and glory that will bring. But that doesn’t mean we disregard that which God has put before us today. God’s eternal Kingdom comes together from what happens in our immediacy just as the forest is both a forest all together and a collection of trees individually.

There’s an old story about a disciple and his teacher. “Where shall I find God?” a disciple once asked. “Here,” the teacher said. “Then why can’t I see God?” ”Because you do not look.” “But what should I look for?” the disciple continued.“ Nothing. Just look,” the teacher said. “But at what?” “At anything your eyes alight upon,” the teacher said. “But must I look in a special kind of way?” “No, the ordinary way will do.” “But don’t I always look the ordinary way?” “No, you don’t,” the teacher said. “But why not?” the disciple pressed. “Because to look, you must be here. You’re mostly somewhere else,” the teacher said. [1]

In order to do the work of God we must be present to God’s movement in, through, and among us. We must live firmly in the tension of the big picture of God’s kingdom, and God’s kingdom work close-up, which can look a lot like… nothing in particular.

A frequent prayer of mine when thinking about all the day to day work that we do as a session, as deacons, and as a church all together, is that our right-here-right-now to-do lists may reflect God’s eternal purposes. What we do in the here and now can contribute towards that which is eternal, which is God’s heavenly kingdom.

The reason I pray this so often is because wrapping my own mind around the tension of working towards both now and forever is really challenging. I’d love to know in this instant all the goodness that will come out of the work that we do this summer: the inspiration drawn from the Divin’ into Dreaming Retreat, the lives impacted by our youth in Chicago, the connections we make to our community through our Vacation Bible School. It’d be great to know the sweeping impact that this congregation will have over the next 5 years or 50 or 150. But in the meantime, I’ll be here, to experience life with you, to walk beside you, and to do all that I can to make God’s priorities my priorities.

As Paul exhorts us to follow him in believing in Jesus Christ, he also appeals to us to speak from that belief. Paul affirms that our bodies are not built to live forever, but our souls are. And as long as these are temporary bodies of ours hold out, we are called to work in our immediacy, pointing others towards the Kingdom of God which is eternal. May we be bold enough to do as Paul did: first believing and then speaking the good news of the Gospel. Amen.

[1] Bartlett, David Lyon, and Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting On the Word. 12 vols. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008-2011.

“Belonging to God”
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
February 23, 2014, First Presbyterian Church of Jesup

If you’ve turned your radio to a Top 40 station in the last year or two you’ve likely heard the One Direction Song, “What Makes You Beautiful.” If not, I’ll fill you in, the premise of the song is summarized in the lyrics at the end of the chorus: “You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.”[1]

David and I joke about this song when it comes on because I think it sounds so silly in its circular logic: someone not knowing that they’re beautiful makes them beautiful…but what if they figure out they’re beautiful, does that make them no longer beautiful?

It turns out insisting on linear logic from a boy band’s pop song is as silly as insisting on linear logic from our God who scripture tells us is without beginning and end.[2]

In 1 Corinthians 3:18-20, we read, “Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.””

So, if it were scripture according to One Direction it would be something like, “You think you’re wise, so that’s what makes you foolish.”

What a strange thought.

The important thing to realize is the context of our knowledge. The “wisdom of the world,” is what God considers foolish. Earthly wisdom, perhaps what we would call “street smarts” are often counter to God’s desire for us, shrewdness in business, guarding ourselves from people who might misuse our generosity, using our time and efforts to get ahead at the expense of others, these aren’t God’s priorities. And our scripture tells us not to “boast about human leaders,” for the kingdom of God does not belong to them, but to the people of God, who allow Jesus to be the foundation for how “we live and move and have our being.”[3]

Earlier in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians Paul writes of the danger about the cult of personality that happens in following human leaders, and how it can lead to divisions over things that do not matter to God and to salvation. In 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 and 17-18 we read:

“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Paul references these allegiances again saying in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, “For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

We are called to follow the gospel of Christ, be driven by the power of Christ’s death at the cross. All other divisions of the Church are not God’s design have no bearing on salvation.

This building of the kingdom of God brings together all who follow God, which includes a lot of people you and I might not pick out to be among us. In Ephesians 2:13-18 we hear of how this new kingdom will be built:

“13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

This passage speaks so of the different people who Christ has come to reconcile, the Jews and the Gentiles. Both groups were “far off” in their own ways. Though the Jews were God’s chosen people from the very beginning, their desire to follow God through adherence to the law had gradually become more about legalism than relationship with God. When they were unable to fulfill all that the law required they felt far off from God. Those who were not Jewish, the Gentiles, were unaccustomed Jewish religious tradition. Though the disciples, particularly Paul, were working to welcome Gentiles into the Kingdom of God, they were still unsure of their place in this new community, feeling far off from God. Through Christ, both are reconciled into the household of God. All are brought near.

In our passage in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 we read, “10According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”

Christ’s life, death, and resurrection pieced together apostles, prophets, Jews, and Gentiles into a temple with Christ as the cornerstone. We are tasked with the building of this temple and this kingdom. We are God’s dwelling place. God dwells in and among us.

When I read the last line of our scripture passage “all things are yours…all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” A scene from the Lion King popped into my head. Simba and his dad, Mufasa the king of the animals are sitting high atop pride rock. Mufasa says to his son, “Everything the light touches is the kingdom.” When Simba questions about the shadowy places Mufasa says that those parts are beyond the borders of the kingdom and that Simba must never go there.[4]

“All things are yours…all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” In our passage there is not the same exclusionary markings of Mufasa and Simba’s kingdom. The ruler of our Kingdom is God of all, even the shadowy places. And God promises to be present in all of those places.

At the end of our service today we will be singing the song “When we are Living.” I’d like you to really listen to the words of this song, as it speaks to the all-inclusionary scope of our belonging to God. In the third verse it says, “’Mid times of sorrow and in times of pain, when sensing beauty or in love’s embrace, whether we suffer, or sing rejoicing, we belong to God; we belong to God.

It’s not enough to simple belong to God by ourselves, since the kingdom of God is not an exclusive club. In the final verse of our song we will sing of how we live into our call of belonging to God. “Across this wide world, we shall always find/those who are crying with no peace of mind,/but when we help them, or when we feed them,/we belong to God; we belong to God.” Belonging to God is more than just resting in God’s embrace for our own well being, it’s about expanding God’s kingdom to those who are experiencing shadowy places in life. It is about being the hands and feet of Jesus to a world.