Preached January 31, 2010     
from 1 Corinthians 12:27 - 13:13      

At the time Paul wrote this, the church in Corinth was a very vibrant church.  It was also very blessed.  They were in good financial shape. They were growing.   The Holy Spirit had blessed the members with an amazing array of spiritual gifts.  Although the Christian faith was out of the mainstream, the people were not being overtly persecuted, or even openly opposed.  Yet, the church of Corinth was in trouble.  Members were quarreling. Factions were forming.  Services were sometimes disruptive with so many people wanting to share their spiritual insights and discoveries that people interrupted others. 

The imagery of a body with people as individual members of it would have been something that the Corinthians were familiar with.  In the Greek and Roman culture of the day, the image was often used to keep various social classes in their place.  People believed that the highest social class represented the head, the ones in charge; the lower classes needed to maintain their assigned roles and positions in order for the body to function.  Some members of the congregation in Corinth were applying this same kind of hierarchy to the roles in the church.  They believed that the possession of certain gifts made them more important than other church members.  Others then were, perhaps jealous and tried to "develop" the various gifts, or at least prayed constantly for them, not for the good of the church, but for the honor they felt others were receiving.  In our reading last week, we saw how Paul took this culture based image of the social body, and turned it around, explaining how there was no hierarchy in Christ's body.  He told the people that some of the "less honorable" members were actually the most vital for the life of the church.  Christ's body gave equal honor to all.

In today's reading, Paul tells us that, if there is any hierarchy at all, it is not in the honor that possessors of particular gifts should receive, but in the usefulness of the gift for the health of the church.   And, in fact, Paul tells them (and us) that NONE of the gifts matter without love.  Paul says, "You want the better gifts?" I'll show you the most excellent way."

The term "prophet" meant someone who spoke forth the word of God.  The message from God could be about the future, or it could be an interpretation of scripture.  The term prophet often meant the same as "preacher." If a preacher lacks love, if a person speaking in an unknown language lacks love, the person is just making annoying noise, like a gong without the ability to hear its own sound.

Someone working miracles or someone who was given the ability to heal others, if that person does it for fame, admiration, the glory, but is not doing it in love, it is ultimately useless. 

We see this same idea in Matthew 7:22-23 where Jesus says:

Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

No amount of giving or service to others, even martyrdom is useless if these things are done in an effort to impress others, rather than out of true love.

Even faith, even true trust in God without love is useless.  How can that be? Isn't faith the thing that brings salvation?  Yes, but true faith has love as a result.  True faith causes love.  Just believing that God exists; just believing about Christ, without trusting in Christ and following the way of love, just believing in our heads is not true faith.  We are not called to believe about, but to trust in Christ.

Let's read what Paul says about love again.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,

always perseveres.

Love lasts forever.

Faith, hope and love are what we need most in this life.  Spiritual gifts are important for building the church, for building God's kingdom, so, yes, we should rejoice in them, but when we see Christ face to face, we won't need them anymore. Now, spiritually, we are like small children, and we do things like small children.  But when we have completed this life of spiritual growth, we will do things differently.  Now we can only see God and the things of God as a reflection, like in a fuzzy darkened mirror.  We need help understanding God's word.  But when we are completely with God, and God's kingdom is finally all in all, we will understand, and our understanding will continue forever.

When God's kingdom comes, we will no longer need to hope, our hopes will be fulfilled.  And we won't even need faith anymore, because we will actually see and comprehend what we have been trusting in. 

But love will last throughout all eternity. AMEN

Preached January 10, 2010 
from Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 

So, here is John, living in the desert and calling people to change their ways and get ready for the coming of someone so special that he wasn't even worthy to be a lowly servant to him. John was careful to make it clear to the people that he was not the Messiah they were waiting for. He called the people to be baptized in the river as a symbol of their death to their old way of being, as a symbol of cleansing and renewal. And then Jesus shows up on the banks of the Jordan River. 

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and, although Luke's gospel doesn't mention it, Matthew's gospel tells us that John was a little freaked when Jesus came to be baptized.  John said, "You should be baptizing me" but Jesus said that it should be done "to fulfill all righteousness."  We aren't sure what that meant.

Over the last 2000 years or so, many people have speculated on why Jesus did this.

•     This was a major turning point in the life of Jesus.
•      He was identifying with the brokenness of humanity as a symbol of solidarity.
•      The act models humility and submission for us.
•      Water is a symbol of newness and power; Jesus was beginning a new ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.
•      Baptism is a symbol of death and resurrection to new life.

Perhaps it is some of all of this.

But part of why John was reluctant to baptize Jesus is because he realized that there was a greater baptism than what he offered, and that Jesus, the Messiah would bring that baptism to the people, a baptism "with the Holy Spirit and with fire." 

So, what was the difference?  John's baptism focused on the individual decision to change one's life.  The baptism of Jesus focuses on what God does for us.  Yes, even the best of people have ways they need to change, things they need to repent of, but even more than this, we all need the salvation that only the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit can give us.  The baptism that Jesus brings burns away our pretenses, and fills us with spiritual power. The baptism that Jesus brings is not a one-time event.  It is a rebirth into lifelong role as a beloved child of God.  As John the Baptist did, we use the symbolism of water baptism, but because of Jesus, our baptism is much more.  The water ceremony is just a symbol of something that seems almost too good to be true.  Through Jesus, we become the chosen ones of God.  The reading from Isaiah 43 tells us what it means to be chosen. 

God tells us: "I created you. I formed you. I have redeemed you.  I summon you by name.  You are mine.  I will be with you.  I am your God."

This is not some kind of exclusive superiority of Christians.  God wants everyone to share in this.  But too few people do. It is though our identity with Christ that we discover God's claim on us. 

Let's read it again. "And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Heaven opened up. This was the inauguration of a new working of God. The Hebrew people had understood that they were God's chosen, but far too few others understood this.  Jesus shows us that if we will just die to self, our true identity in God can be born. 

Baptism is not about our repentance, our changing direction, although that is part of it.  But it is primarily about God.  God has claimed us as God's own.  We are God's beloved.  We are God's much loved children.

Throughout the New Testament, we see the term "beloved" or "those loved" used as the term for the followers of Christ.  In the English Standard Version Jude 1:1 says, "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ"

And the title "beloved" also appears in Romans, Hebrews, Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and Timothy. WE ARE GOD's beloved! 

Sometime try saying it out loud.  It is truly amazing.  "God LOVES me." Or maybe "GOD loves ME."  "I am God's beloved."  The psalmist found this amazing too when he wrote "When I consider the heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, what is humanity that you think about us, that you care for us.  You made us a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned us with glory and honor"

Let us LIVE as God's beloved. Let us share the good news of our place in Christ.  AMEN.