Category Archives: Biblical Reflection

What Was Going On?

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But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

I Corinthians 12:31, NRSV

It didn’t take long for the gathering of believers in Corinth to receive gifts from the Holy Spirit – wisdom, knowledge, care of souls, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, etc. It wasn’t long after that the measuring began: Who had the best, flashiest gifts? Who had the worthiest ones? About a second later, the comparisons set in: People with the better gifts were elevated above those whose gifts weren’t quite so shiny or noticeable. Pride and shame were handed out with the gift evaluations and comparisons. When Paul got wind of it, he did what he could: he wrote a letter.

Before he waxed poetic on love (the part we all know from weddings and anniversary cards), he offered a few choice words about this comparison game in play. He made short work of those who thought flashy and obvious meant greater value of gift and person”

  1. Gifts were given to individuals to enrich the group, not as markers of individual holiness or worth.
  2. The flashier ones aren’t worth much unless they do more than create a scene – they have to deepen the faith of the community, just like every other gift.
  3. Just like a body has many parts, and the parts have different functions, a church has many gifts. All are needed, none are useless.
  4. If you think this is all about gifts, you have really missed the point.

I’d like to think I’ve never whipped out a measuring stick, or compared my gifts with the gifts of others as a way to judge some as superior and some as inferior. Sadly, I’m pretty sure I’ve played the comparison game.

I need Paul’s words as much as any Corinthian…

Love Letters, Old Style

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Origami heart, last steps…

Valentine’s Day decorations are still up in windows, on shelves, and in the 75% off aisles of Target and Market Basket. Yet, less than a week beyond the day, it all seems a bit half-hearted and tattered. If love is strong, such things are a nice extra, but not necessary; if love is not strong, even extravagant trimmings can’t fill the void.

It’s a truth we all know but don’t often say aloud: love has to be more than a fleeting feeling and a paper doily heart. It’s time for something constant and substantial, something strong enough to steady our feet and grow us up.

It’s a letter that was never meant to be reduced to romantic love, no matter how often it is read at weddings. It’s Paul’s letter to an entire community that was playing the Whose gift is best? game. As we view Valentine’s Day in the rearview mirror and move forward into Lent, let’s take another look at this old, old-fashioned love letter from Paul…

 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophesies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully even as I have been fully known.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

I Corinthians 13, NRSV

Tending

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It’s been a bookmark of mine for a few years, this card sent by friends. I love the John quote and the image of a candle in a hurricane glass shining its light on the world beyond the window.

Beautiful as they are, candles require attention or they can create quite a waxen mess. If left unattended, they can burn the house down. There’s a power to their warmth and light that can be destructive, even deadly, if neglected or used with ill intent.

Candlelight is a good image for the faith I share with the world. If I don’t tend to this faith in love, if I proclaim things to be good, true, and holy without love for the life outside the window, I’m as apt to burn things down as I am to shed illumination. If I keep the light to myself, well away from view, it does no one any good but me. I have to tend to it, or it won’t shine for very long.

Another thing: I have to remember that I’m not the only one who was given such a light. When I’m walking in the dark, it just may be someone else’s candle in the window that illuminates my path forward.

Parting Words

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Readings: Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:8-20

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told about this child; and all who heard it were amazed what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. Luke 2:8-20, NRSV

May we never be afraid of holy messengers.

May we treasure these words in our hearts.

May we ponder their meaning in our lives.

May we return to home and work singing the praises of God.

Welcome, Jesus.

Angel by Margaret Hill

Fear Not

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Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

by Thom Nordquist

Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

In grateful thanks for the life of Thom Nordquist, and the art he shared with his Christ Church family.

Yes

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Readings: Luke 1:46b-55; Micah 4:6-8; 2 Peter 1:16-21

Ages reaching down to present.

All knowing seeking innocence.

Awaiting fulfillment of the Word,

generations to come and kingdoms

teeter on the brink of the response.

The complex mystery of the Alpha and the Omega

bending to purity and simplicity.

Combined breath of universe

and totality of holiness,

in stillness and silent reverence

listen for her answer……

and in a moment for all time,

in complete surrender to love,

She replies, “Yes……

Offered by Debbie Hill to light the path to Bethlehem

Walls

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Readings: Luke 1:46b-55; Micah 4:1-5; Ephesians 2:11-22

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – remember the you were at one time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For 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. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, the he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; In whole you are also built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. NRSV

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
Ephesians 2:14 (NIV)

The Gentiles, who were at one time welcomed into the temple (I Kings 8: 41-43), are no longer allowed into the temple under penalty of death; the wall of hostility divides the Jews from the non-Jews. The writer of Ephesians proclaims peace and unity are now here through the broken body of Jesus.  

Last Sunday we lit the 4th candle, the candle symbolizing peace—the culmination of our journey to Bethlehem. Peace on earth, goodwill to all. And yet there remains so many walls of hostility.  The Body of Christ introduces a fundamental perspective of community as organic, not structural, organizational or doctrinal—forms of community against which Jesus struggled. These artificial communities, with their rigid systems, were exactly what Jesus sought to replace. He welcomed people into  relationships that allowed for differences, tolerated uncertainties, and respected the dignity of every human being. May we do the same as we pray a prayer for unity from the Book of Common Prayer:

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Offered by Bill Albritton, a light on our path to Bethlehem.

As We Ought

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Readings: Psalm 113; Genesis 30:1-24; Romans 8:18-30

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27, NRSV

Lord, it’s just a few days until I arrive at the manger, and I’m lost. I can’t find the words to pray, and I’m losing my way in the darkness of night. It’s all I can do to put one foot in front of the other. All I can do is trust the you will be with me, guiding my feet, guarding my spirit, giving me words.

Until I kneel beside you in Bethlehem, I will say Amen and Amen.

All Things Hold Together

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Readings: Psalm 113; Genesis 30:1-24; Colossians 1:39-45

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:39-45, NRSV

It’s tempting to divide up the various parts of reality, but it’s a false division; the God of Abraham and Sarah created the world and called people to act with justice and compassion. God is intimately concerned with all of creation, and God-with-us isn’t limited to the years Jesus walked on the earth. There isn’t a single atom that exists in separation from God, nor a single person.

When my own limitations and lack of love move me to place anything outside God’s loving reach, I am reminded of the truth: all things hold together, not just some.

When I feel outside God’s loving reach, I’ll remember it as well.

Why Me?

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Readings: Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:46b-55; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Luke 1:39-45, NRSV

“Why has this happened to me?” It’s a rare thing when these words are said with joy. Even rarer the recognition of God’s chosen in the form of a young woman. But Elizabeth was a rare one.

Perhaps being pregnant in her later years brought together two spiritual gifts: wisdom’s clarity of vision and a youthful trust in the newness of life.