1 Corinthians 1:3-9: The Best Dishes are the Ones Used Every Day

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. - 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

This is it. The new beginning to the story. Not the new end of the story.

Paul is clearly telling that God has enriched with resources for a new kind of life: grace, speech, knowledge, spiritual gifts, strength, fellowship with Jesus. It would really be a shame if we received all of these resources and put them in the closet, bringing them out only once a week to admire before carefully folding and returning them to the dark. 

The best dishes are not the ones we put on display, but rather the ones we use every day because we get to enjoy their blessings often. If you calculate true usefulness as beauty times the number of days used, most museum pieces would lose to the common dish towel.

Likewise, we have received the bounty of God's blessing and true usefulness is calculated by how it is used, not in how great our meager gifts might be because time is the great multiplier.

So we should rejoice at the new beginning that God has given us, because each day exploring the resources that God has given us and live thankfully in them multiplies our praises before God the Father. 

Isaiah 64:1-9: The Gospel-Not of an Instant-But of a Lifetime

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. - Isaiah 64:1-9

Do you know the most unexpected thing? That God might solve the problems with me, not by replacing me but by reshaping me. "For when you did awesome things that we did not expect" God does things that we don't expect, either because he delights in it, because he is smarter than we are or because he finds justice in humbling the proud. 

One act of God I have trouble wrapping my head around: he continues to offer redemption opportunities to even the hardest of hearts and, somehow, he asks us to do the same thing. There are people we know will never change. They have always been like this or that. We continue to live through them being exactly like they have always been. We have to erect barriers in our hearts because they have disappointed us again and again. 

And yet, what is the gospel-the good news-if not expecting that people will change. We know that somehow that person can change and we shouldn't be surprised. Why, after so many failed promises and repeated failures? That's what God asks us to believe...because that's what God did with us. We were changed, however slowly, under the hand of God. We are the disappointment. The lost cause. The subject of rolled eyes and disgusted looks. Yet something new is forming. That is the gospel-not of an instant-but of a lifetime.

"Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." It requires the undoing-the unmaking-then the shaping. Why are we surprised? It is the lifetime.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: Sent On Ahead, Not Left Behind

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

One of the most common questions that Christians ask is: "But what about them?"

"What about the pagans in Africa?"

"How much sin and they can still be forgiven?"

"Is there another way to God?"

These Christians aren't asking for themselves. They aren't the pagan. They aren't the ultra-sinful. They aren't seeking an alternate route to God. So why do they ask? I think that these are a round-about way for Christians to ask questions about the goodness of God without sounding like doubting heretics. 

In this passage, Paul answers another one of this type of question: "Are  those who died going to miss out on Jesus?" Obviously, none of the people reading this letter will have this happen because they are believers and they are still reading.

But even then, Paul takes a moment to reassure the people in the church: no one gets left behind. Some get sent on ahead but none get left behind. "And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." Sometimes we don't need the answer, but it is comforting to know that God has the answer.

Psalm 78:1-7: Ergonomic Faith Is Livable But Not Challenging

My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old—things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.

He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.

Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. - Psalm 78:1-7

All the important secrets are not secret now. What is important is that they should not be forgotten once revealed. But so much of what God has spoken is conveniently forgotten in our haste for an ergonomic faith-a faith that is designed to be comfortable in the usage rather than the faith that challenges us to look deeper. 

God hasn't hidden what we need to know.  God speaks long term. Many of his messages take generations for him to speak it clearly. The same way that many times we can't see the truth of what has happened until afterwards, God speaks in a way designed to be understood upon reflection. The reflections are so long that they require one generation to pass it to the next. So I will cup my ears to hear what God has said and repeat it faithfully, with full emphasis, to those who come after me. Hope its not like a game of telephone or submarine. 

 

Joshua 24:1-3, 14-24: Can't Hedge Our Bets

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”

Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.” - Joshua 24:1-3, 13-24

There are a world of options that we can choose when we look for someone we can follow. There were those chosen by those who came before us. There were those we have seen others around us take. And I guess we could tally all the pros and cons of following the Lord. Frankly, he isn't terribly visible and easy to follow. And he doesn't trade favors or take advice from me. So maybe he isn't the best choice.

My grandparents and parents did pretty good with their options. I am here and fairly healthy. So they must have done something right. 

My neighbors seem to be doing pretty good with their options, too. They have nice houses, nice cars, good jobs, beautiful families. So if I chose like they chose, I should get at least what they got and, if I'm focused, I might even do a little bit better.

The Lord tells Joshua that he is holy, he is different and really doesn't appreciate it when we flirt with other options. They can't be special at the same time when he is special. If we try to hedge our bets, he tells us to stay in the hedges.

 

Philippians 3:4-8: When Your Diploma Doesn't Fit The Job

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. - Philippians 3:4b-6

I spent a week in downtown San Jose recently, right next to San Jose State and a few blocks from where I received my college diploma. What is strange to me now is I have never worked in a job related to either one of my diplomas. None of the skills, none of the rights and privileges pertaining thereto has ever been listed in more than a footnote on my resumés.

So, if I was to go around and wave my credentials, it would do no good. Not applicable. I better not rely on them for a job interview.

Yet that is exactly what we do with all of our accomplishments. We wave them around to other people. We wave them around to God. Hoping to establish credibility. Look, we say. Look at what I've done. I must be valuable because of X. 

But God says, its not your accomplishments that makes you ready to take on his kingdom. It is Jesus. Just like a piece of paper--a diploma--never got me a job, neither do a LinkedIn catalog of all we have done establish our credibility in the kingdom of heaven. Instead it is the experience we have with the king that makes us ready to appreciate the kingdom and gears us to be ready to serve him. 

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. - Philippians 3:7-9

Matthew 22:34-46: Choosing Not To Choose

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. - Matthew 22:34-46

 "No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions"

Certain questions are dangerous to ask because to bring a point of tension to resolution would mean that we would have to change. Some questions, we suppose, are better left unanswered.  If the Messiah were really Yahweh, it would mean that God was really the human standing before them and they should be calling him Lord. Or else he was the most sophisticated Bible heretic that Jerusalem had ever seen.  Neither solution seemed good to the Pharisees, so they chose not to choose.

If we spend the time to think about the truth God has given us, it leads to inescapable conclusions. But rather than accept one of them--rather than trusting our life and soul to a conclusion--we choose not to choose-to rather live in mediocre, slow stupidity. Making a choice that might be right or might be wrong and possibly choosing wrong may seem safer, but actually it is guaranteed failure and cowardly. I have been scared enough already. It doesn't work. But if I will choose, I will choose boldly.