Friday 29 March 2024

So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present. – 1 Corinthians 5:4

Today's Scripture Reading (March 29, 2024): 1 Corinthians 5

I read an Angus Reid Study a while back reporting that less than 20% said they attended Church regularly. The study defined regularly as at least once a month. The explanation for this lack of Church attendance was not that people have forgotten about God; they just don't feel compelled to worship in an established Church anymore. Even fewer believe that they should have an active role in the Church.

At the time, I listened to a pastor, Henry Schorr, try to explain the phenomenon. Schorr explained that we have stopped teaching about the importance of Biblical Community and Church Membership. Jesus never intended for any of us to live the Christian life alone. He meant us to be part of a connected body that would serve to encourage us and keep us strong. That body is called the Church. However, the Church has failed to do what it was designed to do, so it has been rejected. What that doesn't mean is that we no longer need Biblical Community. We need each other, and our churches should fulfill that need.

Before Jesus departed, he set up his Church under his authority and at his feet. The reason was that Jesus knew we can not be all He needs us to be alone. We need encouragement and accountability that can only be found in the company of Christian believers. Jesus became the head of the Church, calling the Church his body to an authentic biblical community.

Jesus uses the Church to strengthen his followers and to reach a dying world. The Church has made a difference in the world because people have submitted themselves to the authority of the Church, have gathered together to keep each other's faith alive and on fire, and have challenged each other in their walk with Jesus to go beyond the actions they could have accomplished on their own.

The scary fact revealed to us between the lines of the Angus Reid poll is that when Christians are not spending time in Christian Community, we are more likely to be influenced by our culture than we are to be influencers of our culture.

Paul makes this point clear: when we come together, the power of God is with us in a way that he cannot be when we are alone. And for that reason, we need to be in biblical community with each other.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 6

Thursday 28 March 2024

Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. – 1 Corinthians 4:2

Today's Scripture Reading (March 28, 2024): 1 Corinthians 4

I am saving for retirement. I believe that it is the responsible thing to do. Some people seem to think that I am good with money. The truth is that I have learned a few fundamental truths, and I both practice and teach certain financial concepts, but I am far from being any kind of economic expert. The concepts I practice aren't mysterious and aren't easy to practice, but they are worth learning and following.

One concept is that the path to getting rich begins not with making a lot of money but living within your means. The amount of money you bring in is not some abstract concept, and when you total it all up, your expenses need to be less than that amount of money you have raised over a specific period.

Another concept is that debt is terrible. Our society is built around the idea of borrowing money. But the truth that no one advertises is that by borrowing money, we make the lender rich and the borrower poor. I know too many people who are approaching their golden years, and their debt is strangling them. So, make every effort to pay down the debt. (An aside, our nations are way too far in debt. I shudder to think of all the good things our governments could do for their citizens if we did not have to service their out-of-control debt or if we could spend the money we use to pay the interest on our debt to support our society. But that is a different conversation.)

Running alongside the idea that debt is bad, you need a rainy day or an emergency fund if you want to stay out of debt. Most of us go into debt because an emergency arises, and we don't have the money we need to take care of the problem. The best way around that is to have an emergency fund equal to three to six months of expenses. Then, regardless of what might happen, you have the funds available to take care of the emergency.

All of this describes how I try to live, sometimes more successfully than at other times. But it also ends what I know about money. So, I trust a financial adviser to invest my money because they know more than I do about investing and other essential money practices. They are the ones who invest and suggest various economic strategies. As far as money goes, these people have earned my trust and have proven faithful.

Paul reminds the Corinthian Church, and by extension us, that they, and we, are not the owners of the Christian Church. We are the stewards of something that belongs to God. And we need to prove to be faithful with what God has entrusted to our care. We will never own the church, but our job is to manage it, enabling it to remain strong through the generations. So that one day, we will hand off a healthy church to those responsible for it after we are gone.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 5

Wednesday 27 March 2024

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. – 1 Corinthians 3:17

Today's Scripture Reading (March 27, 2024): 1 Corinthians 3

I have jokingly referred to this passage as the anti-smoking passage. The reason is that, as a kid, it was often this verse that my church tied to the dangers of smoking. Growing up, the idea was that real Christians don’t smoke because they understand that smoking hurts your body and your body is the Temple of God. God will destroy anyone who undertakes actions to hurt God’s Temple. The moral? Don’t smoke! Because, evidently, smoking is enough to send you to hell.

The problem is that, while that is the message I heard being preached growing up, that isn’t the intention with which the passage is concerned. I have told my friends that I don’t want them to smoke. But it is not always a spiritual issue. I don’t want you to smoke because it is terrible for you, and I want you around for a while. But, to say that smoking will send you to hell is a gross overstatement. Your health will suffer if you smoke. I think you could do many more pleasurable things with your money, like going someplace warm during the winter months, and, in a more spiritual vein, you could give more money to the economically displaced people of the world. But, as I often hear in the movies, “smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.”

What this passage is talking about is the Christian Church. The hint is in the phrase, “You together are that temple.” It is not me alone who Paul is arguing is the Temple. It is us together. When we get together to worship or gather to be the salt and light in the world, we are God’s Temple. And anything we do to destroy or weaken that Temple is sin. When we gossip about someone in the church, react to others inside the church with malice instead of love, and promote division within the church, we are caught in the clutches of sin. And if that behavior continues, we are in danger of arousing God's anger.

And all of this makes sense when we consider the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthian Church was divided. Arguments were raging within the church. Paul describes the situation at the beginning of his letter. Some argued that they were the followers of Paul, others of Apollos, and still others were the followers of Peter. Some others were super-spiritual, and so they said that they were followers of Christ. However, the division between these groups meant that none were following Christ's teaching. This division meant that the church did not exist. The authentic church of Jesus Christ cannot survive this kind of division. If there is division among the faith community, the best we can aspire to be is a social club. But you are not the church!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 4

Tuesday 26 March 2024

I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. – 1 Corinthians 2:3

Today's Scripture Reading (March 26, 2024): 1 Corinthians 2

I think we all understand fear. We have all experienced big and small fears, and even some big ones that should have been small. We all know the kind of fear that keeps us awake at night. So, if there is one thing that should bring immense comfort to us, it is Paul saying that he came to Corinth in fear and trembling.

Why wouldn't he come in fear and trembling? Paul is about to speak of the crucified Jesus, whom he has resolved to know. To speak of the Crucified Jesus is a lot like talking about an elephant in the sky holding the speck of dust on which we live. It doesn't make sense. Many years ago, I remember speaking to a lady who said that she could never believe in a God who would sacrifice his own son. It was something that she would never do, which is really the point. Christ crucified doesn't make sense. 

Fear is always present when we go beyond what we understand. I remember my Grade six summer vacation very clearly. I had resolved to do nothing all summer. I mean nothing. I believed that time passes more slowly when you are bored out of your mind and I wanted time to pass as slowly as possible. I did not want to go into Grade seven. Grade seven meant a new school. My elementary school was just down the block from my house. The Junior High School was a half-hour walk away.

And there was no recess in Junior High School. I mean, how do you survive without recess? There was this overpowering feeling of fear, and all I wanted to do was sit there in my room and allow time to pass as slowly as possible. Maybe time would pass so slowly that Grade Seven would never come.

Paul comes to the Corinthians in weakness. Nothing he is about to teach will make sense to the Greeks or the Jews. But Paul was willing to face his fear to deliver the message to the Corinthians. There will always be reasons for us not to tell people about Jesus and too few reasons for us to speak up, and yet, the world can only change because of the church's confession that Jesus Christ is the son of God, our Savior and Messiah. Paul might have come to Corinth in fear and trembling, but he refused to let his fear stop him from declaring his convictions to the people of the Greek city.

Back in Junior High, the following September, I showed up at my new school on schedule, still filled with fear and trembling. The reality was that I loved my new school once I got there. My friends were there, along with some new ones. And I felt somehow older in my new school, more mature like I could take on anything the world might want to throw at me. New experiences awaited, all of which were very exciting for my younger self. Oh, and I was in grade seven for a couple of months before I realized there was no recess.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 3

Monday 25 March 2024

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom … - 1 Corinthians 1:20

Today's Scripture Reading (March 25, 2024): 1 Corinthians 1

I don’t like medical specialists. I have a number of chronic medical conditions which include extreme allergies, eczema, and lung problems. As a result, I have seen a lot of specialists over the years. But they never seem to work, or maybe more precisely, it sometimes seems like an improvement in one area results in a worsening in other areas. I don’t want you to think that I don’t value them because I really do. But there is a part of me that really believes in the wholistic concept that the body is a unit, including your mind. Suffering is not just contained somehow in the physical realm and it is not just what happens to your body. Everything inside of you is connected.  And there I fall out of favor with dualistic idea of Greek wisdom.

The Christian Church has battled wisdom for much of its existence. A lot of what we believe about spirituality is actually Greek wisdom dressed in Christian clothes. And at several points of our history, well-meaning eccentrics have stood up and said so. Most of them were written off, but a few were heard. For Christians, the argument often comes with regard to our body and our soul. The question is, are the body and soul one, or are they separate parts that combine to make us, us. For the Greeks, that was part of wisdom. And well-meaning Christians down through the ages have argued that we have fallen into Platonic (meaning from Plato) dualism; we have come to believe that the body and soul are separate and different. It was one of the early church’s heresies. Gnostic Christian believers believed that only knowledge (which was in the possession of the soul) could be permanent and in connection with God. It was your soul that could be saved. Your body belonged to the other realm; it was evil and could not be redeemed.  It also meant that uniting yourself with a prostitute was okay because it only involved the body. The belief was eventually rejected by the early church but many have argued for the separation of body and soul ever since while others have despaired at the influence of Greek wisdom on Christianity.

Greek Wisdom is the “Don’t Leave Your Brain at the Door” theology. It is the idea that God can be reached through reason alone. In the beginning of this age of reason, Blaise Pascal came up with his challenge. He said that there are two types of people in this world, those who believe and those that don’t believe. He also argued that there were only two ultimate eternal realities in the world, either God exists or he doesn’t. If you don’t believe and God exists, then the result is hell. If you don’t believe and God doesn’t exist, then the result is nothing. On the other hand, if you believe in God and God exists, you get heaven. And if you believe in God and God doesn’t exist, then you spent your life living in a positive moral condition and probably made the world a little better, but there is no eternal impact. Therefore, it makes more sense to believe in God than not to believe.

But here is the problem. Paul says that God has made man’s wisdom foolishness. The reality of experience is that God can’t be reached by reason alone. We have tried in the West and belief has declined. There has to be something more.

As Paul wrote these words, he was just a few years away from an unfortunate event at the Jordan River. it was about fifteen years after Jesus’s death and resurrection that a man named Theudas had claimed that he was the Messiah. Theudas taught that God was on his way to deliver his people. There was nothing the people had to do to receive God’s salvation but to walk out to the River Jordan and watch a miracle of God.  We don’t have a clear idea of how many people Theudas led to the Jordan, but if it is the same Theudas who is mentioned in the Book of Acts, there was 400 men plus women and children who followed Theudas into the River Jordan to meet with God in a miraculous event. But apparently, God didn’t show up. The Roman Army did, and they marched out, met them, and killed them.

So, Paul says the Greeks look for wisdom and the Jews for miraculous signs, but you need to know that the truth lies elsewhere. Reason alone won’t get us there, and miraculous signs takes away the need for faith. Neither wisdom nor signs will save us. As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 2

Sunday 24 March 2024

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." – Acts 19:13

Today's Scripture Reading (March 24, 2024): Acts 19

In the days of the early church, every kind of mental illness or instability was blamed on demons. And there were charlatans who went around healing these people by casting out these demons. And sometimes, it worked. We know now that the mind is powerful, and sometimes, if you can convince it that healing is possible, the mind can heal itself. Psychologists and psychiatrists have made their livings on that fact. But sometimes, they run into the real thing. That is what happened in Ephesus; they ran into the real thing, and knowing the name of Jesus as part of the act was not enough.

The correct answers to the questions are not what life is all about. Neil Anderson says he thinks his theology is probably about 90% right. He argues that he has always told his churches that, and it shocked them. But he's right. It would be wrong to think otherwise. But guess what? It doesn't matter. There is no test you have to write to get into heaven. The only thing that matters on Judgement Day is your relationship with Jesus Christ. In Christianese, we call that our salvation moment.

Going to church won't save you. It is not that going to church isn't necessary. It is! In worshipping together, we get to encourage each other, but going to church will not get you into heaven. Taking communion won't save you either. It is likely surprising to some that Baptism won't do it either, nor does going to a mid-week prayer meeting. Not that any of these things aren't important, because they are, but if you depend on them to save you, then you are doing no better than the Sons of Sceva, invoking Jesus as a talisman or a magic wand to be used to get you out of a tight spot. 

This is not about superstition. The only thing that will save you is a relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that all of those things we do in obedience to our relationship with Jesus but they cannot save us. Those who use Jesus and the traditions of the Christian Church as nothing more than a talisman always pay a price. Jesus is the real thing, not just a magic wand or word to get what we want. Only he has the power to shape our lives. And that is good because we already know that superstition is not enough.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1

Saturday 23 March 2024

Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. – 2 Thessalonians 3:12

Today's Scripture Reading (March 23, 2024): 2 Thessalonians 3

I recently had a conversation with a First Nations man from the Dene tribe (he is emphatic that you know he is not Cree). He lives in the north country, which is where his tribe originates, and his name is Stan. Stan and I have had conversations before. He is usually looking for gas money to get home. Usually, I tell him that we don't keep cash at the Church, and often, I do not carry any either. But, deep down, I kind of like Stan. Our ritual is frequently the same: he comes in and asks for the Pastor. I greet him and tell him that we have already met; he smiles and tells me when we last talked, happy, I think, that I remember him. He tells me about his battle with drugs and alcohol. It has been many years since he took his last drink. He remembers clearly the last drink he had on January 31, 1996, at about 10:45 in the evening. February 1 is his sobriety anniversary. He tells me what is going on in his life, starting with how his children are doing. His mother passed away last fall at the age of 86. She fell and broke her left hip, and then, as the hip was healing, she fell and broke her right one. She never recovered from the second broken hip.

Conversations with Stan are never short. And usually, that is all Stan gets, but this time I happened to be working on this verse for a teaching assignment, and I gave Stan all the money I had, twenty dollars, to help him get gas to go back up north to the reservation. I hope that is the purpose for which he spends the money.

But the reality is that I don't and can't do that for everyone. I have a hard time with these moments in my life because I hate turning people down, but I also know I don't have the resources to give money to whoever asks. I used to have a secret compartment in my wallet that contained "compassion money" for whoever needed it. The money was given to me for that purpose by people in the Church, but even then, I couldn't give it to everyone. On this day, Stan lucked out.

Stan stood up, I hugged him, and he said, "Musee Cho." He tells me that "Musee Cho" means "Thank You very much" in the Dene language. Musee means "Thank you," and adding Cho to anything means "very much." I smile and say it back to him, and he says, "See, I taught you something."

I don't know if Stan is Idle. I don't understand why he always arrives in the city without enough gas to get home. But he is not disruptive or demanding. If I can give him something, great. If I can't, we sit and talk for a while.

In 45-46 C.E., there was a famine in Jerusalem. The famine caused problems, and for much of Paul's ministry, he seems to be making a collection to help those living in the Holy City. It is an offering that he plans to give to the Church in Jerusalem.

But there is a problem with the story, a paradox. I have spoken about the difference between descriptive texts and prescriptive texts. Descriptive texts describe what happened. The people of Israel walked around the walls of Jericho and then blew their horns, and the walls fell down. And while I sometimes use that illustration as I like to walk around the Church before important events, it is just a descriptive text. There is no command to walk around things anywhere in the Bible, although it was commanded in Jericho. The passage that says Judas hung himself describes what happened; there is no argument that whenever you fall into sin, you should hang yourself in the Bible; it is not there. Prescriptive texts contain commands that we should do. The Ten Commandments are prescriptive, and so is "love your neighbor as yourself."

So, the discussion arises around the idea of the Jerusalem Church and the famines through which they suffered. Paul collecting an offering for the people of Jerusalem can seem to be a prescriptive text. I have admitted that I had people leave this Church just because I read the text saying that the early Church sold everything that they had and pooled their money so that they could take care of the poor. So, is it prescriptive or descriptive? Should we go and sell everything and give it to people experiencing poverty, or does this simply describe what happened at this point in time?

Some argue that there is a problem with the Jerusalem Church's way of handling things, and I wonder if it might be this problem that Paul was worried about as he wrote this letter to the Thessalonian Church. The idea is that the Jerusalem Church's experience is actually a cautionary tale. The Church became generous, sharing what it had with people in need.  But people took advantage of their generosity. These people were idle, disruptive, and drained the wealth of the Church so that when hard times came, they could not respond.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians. Work for your food; do not become a drain on the Church. At the same time, the Church should continue to be generous, don't neglect the Stans in your midst. Work Christ's love out with them.

It is a hard line for me sometimes to find. But Paul's intention, to me, is clear. Jesus is coming. But right now, you have to live life on earth. Do your best to allow the love message of Jesus to run wild in your midst and to care for those in need without letting those who only want to take advantage of you drain your resources. This is your task. This is the Church. This is why we exist. And as long as we can do these things, we won't have to worry about the Second coming of Christ. Tomorrow will arrive on schedule. But until then, life on Earth beckons.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Acts 19