Tag: Corinthians

…Opening To…

Therefore, we pray you, Lord, forgive; so when our wanderings here shall cease, we may with you for ever live, in love and unity and peace. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

I received a tradition from the Lord, which I also handed on to you: on the night on which he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread. After giving thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this to remember me.” He did the same thing with the cup, after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Every time you drink it, do this to remember me.” Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you broadcast the death of the Lord until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “O” is for ordo. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that now I’m just making up words or that “Ordo” sounds like an alien from Star Wars. Rather, ordo roughly translates structure or a pattern. Think of the words “order” and “ordinary.” Something that is “extraordinary” is outside the normal structure or pattern.

Ordo helps us make sense of our lives. Each and every one of us uses the concept of ordo whether we realize it or not. Our personal ordo tells us that it’s time to watch the news or go to bed. It tells us that answering the phone call from mom is more important than finishing the YouTube video. It tells us that looking both ways before crossing the street is a good idea.

Following Jesus Christ adds another layer to our personal ordo, but it isn’t a layer that goes on top of the ones we already had. It goes beneath them. Being disciples of Jesus Christ means structuring and patterning our lives with his path for us as our foundation. In the worship services of the church, we practice a certain kind of ordo, a pattern of worship that goes from greeting to reading to listening to praying to confessing to thanking to sharing to feasting to serving. By sticking with this basic structure, our participation in the worship of God in the church helps us build our own personal ordo in light of our worship.

How does following Jesus Christ influence your ordo? Is being a disciple part of your daily pattern? If not, how could you invite Christ to help you restructure your life with him as a foundation?

…Praying For…

Dear God, you move through every moment of my life. Help me to pattern my life so that I expect your movement and begin to move with you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, counting myself blessed that you would choose to make me the person I am and love me into the person I am becoming.

…Opening To…

So daily dying to the way of self, so daily living to your way of love, we walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod, knowing ourselves baptized into your death: so we are dead and live with you in God. (Thomas H. Cain, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing. If I give away everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “L” is for love. Love is such a hard word to define. Is it an emotion? Is it an ability? Is it a state of being? Is it all of these and more?

First and foremost we get into trouble when we think of “loving” as a more intense version of “liking.” We all fall victim to this line of thought sooner or later, usually at first in high school. “Well, I like her but I don’t love her.” Or perhaps, “I like this top but I love those shoes.” When we mistake “love” for “liking a lot” we remove nearly all of the weight of the word. The Gospel according to John tells us that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son. John doesn’t tell us that God liked the world a whole lot.

When we move past this high school version of love, we can find the deeper territory that love exists in. Far from being a simple emotion, love opens the door to the whole universe of emotion. When we love, we invest ourselves, we become vulnerable, we may become hurt. On the other hand, we may become filled with joy. The ability to love is the ability to look past yourself, to see the heart of God burning in the chest of another and to have that burning move you to trust, to connect, to sacrifice.

Each of us is connected to the other through the love of God, this love that is vulnerable yet full of joy. Because God loves each of us, we each have the ability to love in turn. Shutting the door to love means shutting the door to all emotion and replacing them with indifference and isolation. God does not desire this for us. God desires us to open the door, and, even though it comes attached with the possibility of both pain and joy, embrace God’s love.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you loved your whole universe so much that you sent your Son to bring us into closer relationship with you. Help me to discover your love burning in my chest so I can connect myself even deeper to you and those I meet. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, thankful that you continue to shine your light in my heart and mind, that I may continue to know you better through every way that you choose to reveal yourself.

…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6^th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; context)

…Filling Up…

As we did last Lent on devotiONEighty, this Lent we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “A” is for atonement.

Atonement can be a scary word. It is often used in phrases such as “penal substitutionary atonement theory.” Atonement theory covers all the different descriptions of how Jesus Christ’s death on the cross affected creation. They run the gamut, as you might expect. The one I mentioned a few sentences ago says that Jesus suffered the penalty that God put on us for our sins, thereby making it so we didn’t have to suffer it ourselves.

Atonement theories can really color our worldviews because they describe how we view the most important event in history. If someone subscribes to “penal substitutionary atonement theory” then that person is more likely to have an image of God as judge, who has pronounced a guilty verdict over the human race.

The problem with atonement theories is that they are really just simple descriptions or metaphors for what is, at its core, an unexplainable and grace-filled act. By subscribing to one theory, we can miss the fullness of the beauty of the act itself. Christ’s act becomes part of a math equation.

Rather, at its heart, atonement is not about paying for sins. It is about renewing relationship. Whatever description we subscribe to about what happened on that cross and after, the relationship between God and God’s creation was changed in Christ’s act, was made closer somehow. For, in the end, “atonement” is a made up word. It’s a stitched together word. Look at it: “At One”-ment. That’s what atonement is really about.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son died on the cross and rose again and somehow changed the course of this world in the act. Help me to live my life as one who is at one with you, through Christ’s love. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

…Opening To…

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that. (Harper Lee)

…Listening In…

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I didn’t come preaching God’s secrets to you like I was an expert in speech or wisdom. I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

Last week we talked about the Hebrew Scriptures (also known as the “Old” Testament”). This week, we are going to talk about the other part of the Christian Bible – the New Testament. I tend to refer to the first testament as the Hebrew Scriptures and the second as the New Testament. I know that’s not very parallel of me, but that’s what I’ve got, so there we are. If you have a more parallel name for the New Testament, let me know! I don’t think the name falls into the same traps as the “Old” Testament does, so it works much better.

Anyway, this week we are going to talk about five things in the New Testament. First, the people who laid out the New Testament did not put the texts in the order they were written. They put the Gospel first because without the Gospel, the rest doesn’t really make sense. But the four accounts of the Gospel were written after Paul wrote his letters (well, most of them – Mark might have overlapped Paul a bit).

Why is this important? Well, for starters, when I read Paul’s letters I like to imagine myself never having read the Gospel. Perhaps, I’ve heard about Jesus. Perhaps, some of his sayings have floated around or people have told stories. But I’ve never heard anyone read or perform the Gospel according to Matthew. Maybe I live in Corinth, Greece, and Paul comes to my town and talks about Jesus. I wonder who this fellow is that Paul’s talking about. Well, I can’t go read about him in the Gospel because the texts don’t exist yet.

Paul helped till the earth that became hungry for the Gospel. As he and other first century missionaries spread out, they took the story of the Gospel – not in the texts we have, but in their personal witness – with them. Several decades, maybe even a century later, an account of the Gospel may have followed, depending on how far away you lived from Jerusalem.

Taking my mind back into this place helps me read Paul with a fresh set of eyes. Perhaps, you will try this exercise the next time you pick up Corinthians.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you sent your son to make yourself known in a new way to your people. Help me to make him known in my life, to be a living member of his body that preaches his good news to all people. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, having faith that you have touched my life with your Word, knowing that I can read it in my heart and speak it on my lips.