On the Way to Wonder

1 Corinthians 3:21-23 (The Message)

21-23 I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.

Paul now summarizes this chapter by giving us a severe warning about bragging.  Whether we are the fastest worker with the best crop this season or whether we are the flashiest brick in a wall, we need to guard ourselves against bragging, boasting or being excessively proud about our role because it leads to pecking order thinking, jealousy and divisions in the body of Christ.  Bragging can hurt others and is not constructive.  

I cannot help but ponder the role to which bragging contributes to some of the tensions in our political arena and ponder the Olympics where the difference between gold and silver might be a thousandth of a second.  To compete and still be respectful is a challenge in any arena.

Paul tells us to always remember that it is a privilege to be in union with God who gifts us with our talents and accomplishments.  Let’s take a moment and list what accomplishments God has gifted us and our family with today.  Lord guard our mouths and hearts from harmful boasting.  Blessings.Br

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 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 3:16)

Paul has compared us to workers in a field.  We each have our talent but we must remember that God gives the growth of the plant.  Next he compares us to a building.  We work with different materials of varying values but we all build on the foundation of faith in Jesus.  Now he calls us God’s temple.  That is a mouth full!

I looked up temples on the Internet. The most famous temple in the world is Angkor Wat in Cambodia.The oldest temple in the world is Gobekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey. Angkor Wat in Cambodia is considered by some the largest temple in the world while others claim that Karnak in Egypt is larger.  None of these temples have I ever heard of!  Less famous are the Parthenon and the Roman edifices. The Temple built by Solomon is acknowledged as important to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  In pictures these are all large beautiful buildings that people flock to for worship of their gods.  I cannot envision myself as part of a “temple” as compared to these buildings!

Perhaps I am more like a “cathedral?”  I learned that a cathedral must have a bishop in residence.  A church, on another hand, is a building were people gather to pray and worship.  So what distinguishes us as a “temple” according to Paul?  Paul describes our bodies as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in our midst, not some Bishop.  We are designed for prayer and worship.  God is our protector and will revenge evil done to us.

One of the short prayers in the Old Testament is called the prayer of Jabez.  We know little except that Jabez was named because his mother gave birth in pain.  Jabez’s prayer was, “God keep me from harm. “  My name means “stranger” and since we moved a lot when I was a child, it seemed appropriate.  Looking for a name for my first child I found a book.  “Strangers” are people who come to us from afar bringing good news.  I liked that.

We are God’s temple.  He cares about us and protects us and his Spirit dwells in us.  Perhaps look for the meaning of your name on the Internet and form a prayer about your meaning in God’s temple.  Blessings.

11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11)

Corinth was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire at the time Paul planted a small fellowship of believers.  He wrote this letter to them to talk heart to heart about the disunity he had heard about in the group.  There were “cliques” based on followers of favorite evangelists.  We know about cliques and how divisive they can be.   Paul first uses an agricultural image saying we each have our assigned task in the harvest work, we each have a talent, but the credit goes to God who gives the growth.

Paul now switches to an image of building.  The foundation of our faith, of our lives, is Jesus and then we all build on that foundation.  The foundation is the same for all people.  Paul continues with a statement that I have heard used in many different ways, often manipulatively.  He says we all build our houses using many different types of materials but when Jesus returns, on that Day, the truth of our work will be revealed.  Let’s consider that how we build depends on our context.  When we lived in a famine relief camp in Africa, people begged our cardboard boxes to cover their houses.  It was a desert with no wood, no clay and little to build with. The context of our lives so deeply impacts how we are building.  As a grieving widow, I handle life so differently than I did as a newly wed headed to the mission field. My building materials now feel like straw rather than gold and silver.

 I think maybe our lives are like that.  My college education might be considered a solid building wall and a lost lover I am prone to see as a frivolous investment of energy in retrospect, like straw.  We didn’t know at the time.  We live trying our best given the circumstances we envision we are dealing with.  Only God knows the big picture.  Paul says that on the final day when Jesus returns, it will become obvious to us if we built with gold, silver or stones and also if we built with wood, hay or straw.  It reminds me of the three little pigs building their houses and the wolf came along and threatened to blow their houses down. 

 When Christ returns justice will be given for all the victims of terrible evil and we will see clearly through the eyes of a God who loves us and walked with us through the good times and through the rough times.  I do not see that this verse is threatening us to give more to the financial campaign so we will have invested in eternity nor that somehow God is keeping a record of our good deeds for rewards in heaven.  Most importantly I see a consistent theme in the Bible that God is watching, is walking with us, and will make all things right in the end.  Paul is pleading that we not make a pecking order in this world based on which preacher we like or based on which person does deeds we value.

It is easy for me to reflect on the times in my life when I feel like I was building with straw.  Nehemiah of the Old Testament was about the fourth generation of Jews carried into exile when he heard a report that Jerusalem still laying in ruins while he served the king.  It tore his heart apart and he grieved about his past.  Nehemiah 2 tells how Nehemiah served wine to the King who noticed his downcast face and asked for an explanation.  He realized Nehemiah was suffering from sadness of heart, not from late night movies.  He asked Nehemiah for an explanation.  Nehemiah had no time to write out a flowery explanation.  The Bible says, “Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it. (Nehemiah 2:5)”

Sometimes we only have time to shoot a “stubby”, short prayer to heaven.  Help! Thanks! Hallelujah! What! Whew!  When we find ourselves overwhelmed with grief, anger, jealousy or even joy and happiness we need not find a quiet place or go on a big retreat, we can shoot a prayer up to God.  When the Evil One brings up those bad memories that seem like straw, we can pray, “forgive.”  We need not linger in the past for Jesus has our back and walks with us into our future.  Our foundation is Jesus, not our works.  Blessings as you face this week.

First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.”

  9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” 10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12 “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

  13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Psalm: Psalm 78:23-29

God rained down manna from heaven; so mortals ate the bread of angels. (Ps. 78:24, 25)

 23 So God commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven,

 24 raining down manna upon them to eat and giving them grain from heaven. 

 25 So mortals ate the bread of angels; God provided for them food enough.

 26 The Lord caused the east wind to blow in the heavens and powerfully led out the south wind,

 27 raining down flesh upon them like dust and flying birds like the sand of the seas,

 28 letting them fall in the midst of the camp and round about the dwellings.

 29 So the people ate and were well filled, for God gave them what they craved. 

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16

1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

  7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said,

 “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”

9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Gospel: John 6:24-35

24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

  25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

  35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

CHILDRENS SERMON.  The classic secular childrens’ story about making bread tells of a little red hen.  She found some wheat and decided to plant it so she could make bread.  She asked her friends, the duck, the dog and the pig to help her.  They all refused to help.  We remember the question, “Who will help me plant, who will help me harvest, and who will help me cook?”  All her friends refused.  “Not I” said each in turn.  When it was time to eat the bread, all were ready to enjoy!  Jesus calls himself “the bread of life” and yet the crowds resist him.  Let’s look a bit closer at their reservations.

Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

      For several weeks we have been following Jesus as he traveled near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.  The hungry crowds have followed Jesus from one side to the other of the sea. They want to make him their king.  Today the crowds climb into boats to go to Capernaum to find Jesus. Our text shares three questions they still have when they are confronted by Jesus about their motives for looking for him.  He tells them that they want to make him king so they can eat the bread but actually they do not want to do the work of being a follower.  They want the reward without the relationship.

So why do we come to Jesus?  The crowds wanted to make Jesus king after he fed them bread in last Sunday’s text but then Jesus  melted out of sight and in today’s text they are looking for him.  The crowds return to Capernaum, possibly his command central, to try to find him. It would seem that they are still baffled about who he is and how their relationship with him works.  So what are their questions?

1.    Rabbi, when did you come here?

2.    What must we do to perform the works of God?

3.    What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?  What work are you performing?

It seems to me these three questions are not that different from questions we ask today? Today we might ask where God is in our political war zone, if he has an opinion, and when he came to be involved.  Is there really a right answer for who is to be President or isGod  up in the clouds watching us fight it out?  Then again we might wonder what we have to do to gain God’s favor and the good life – here or here after.  Thirdly, many of us just want God to “show up” and prove that he cares.  We want to believe but like Thomas we want to touch and feel.   Most of us come today with some version of these three basic questions.  Are you here, do you care what I do, and please be real in my life.

“Rabbi, when did you come here?”   

      This question reminds me of the many people today who want to argue where the Little Red Hen’s wheat came from.  Was it her wheat?  We put probes on comets hoping to find answers to the creation of the universe.  We hypothesize with this theory and that.  So, actually the first word, “rabbi”, is significant and makes me realize there are two parts to this question that challenge us today.  

The crowd addresses Jesus as “rabbi”, teacher.  For many of us Jesus is a great teacher, one of the prophets like Mohammed, as good as Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, on the level of Confucius or Buddha but not the only God.  Perhaps Christianity is one of many ways to reach some sort of God being or force.  We don’t want to be radical and judgmental or exclusive.  We come to church today hoping for a great sermon that will engage our minds but we are not necessarily expecting an encounter with the almighty God.  The better the preacher, the better the choir, the better the programs for the youth, we think means the better the church. Are we seeking answers for our questions from a great teacher or from God?  Why are we here today?  Do we believe the Little Red Hen is going to make bread as she says or are we listening but not ready to commit to help?

      Jesus reflects back to the crowds that they have come looking for him because their stomachs were filled with bread.  We might call it “health, wealth, and prosperity” messages.  Touch the TV for healing.  The size of your faith determines the answers to your prayers.  We only need to believe. We come to Jesus with our list of needs and wants.  That is not necessarily wrong except that when we approach Jesus like a bank, then prayer might become the check that draws from the deposits of tithes, good deeds, or faithful life we have lived or deposited in our account.  We come with an agenda for God, not to meet and ponder together. Our thinking is somehow off center.  We are focused on us and not God and are a bit surprised that he is already ahead of us.  Jesus accuses the crowd of selfishness or self-centeredness.  Unlike the Little Red Hen, Jesus is waiting to engage with us even before we are willing to be involved with him.

      Jesus was a rabbi for sure but he was more.  He was a great teacher, he was the Messiah, but he was also the Son of God.  To put it a bit crudely, having children is not the same as building a marriage. When we doubt that wheat can truly be turned into bread when we address someone with our list of wants and needs or to direct them as to where they should focus their attention, our understanding of our relationship is off balance.  We come to church to meet with God, not just to tick off our spiritual task list for the week or to give him a todo list. We find Jesus waiting for us because we are in his space.  Jesus is the wheat that will become the bread of our life.  So perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves today is if we came to worship just with our shopping list, or out of habit, or with hungry souls to meet with Jesus, the bread of life?

      “When did you come here?”  God’s presence is in our situations before we realize or acknowledge it.  We sometimes seem to be as surprised as the crowds that Jesus has entered a situation before us.  How did Jesus get there?  Perhaps we think our prayers wake God up and help him focus! Hmmm? We can fall into the trap of thinking that God is organizing everything to go according to our plans or conversely that he will organize to meet his agenda.  We are not open to hear the question, “Who will help me?”  

 Sometimes we look back on events and rationalize that “God knew” such-and-such needed to happen so that such-and-such would happen and so we would learn the lesson God wanted us to learn.  I didn’t get that job because God knew this better job was coming.  Even though I did not want to move, it worked out for the best because…fill in the blank.  That makes God very manipulative and diminishes our free will.  King David prayed in Psalm 139:7, “Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence? ”  God is everywhere and we often forget to factor in his presence.  God goes before us, walks with us, and God has our back but we are not drones being programmed by him.  We need not be surprised to find him already working in the events of our lives, not just for our good but for all concerned.  Jesus admonishes the crowd “27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”  Jesus is the bread, is present, but we must walk with him step by step – first we plant, then harvest, then grind, then cook and the final product smells good, tastes good, and satisfies as we walk the journey of faith.

      Next the people ask, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 

When the Little Red Hen goes to her friends, she does not speak to them about the final outcome of the process.  She invites them to join her in the work she is doing.  She is making bread but that is yet to appear.  Jesus is inviting the crowds to build the kingdom of God and trusting him and believing him is the bread that will sustain them to do it.  When asked what the crowds must do, Jesus responds, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” Jesus is not feeding them for their pleasure but to give them strength for the journey of partnering with him.  Faith is an ongoing decision to believe in Jesus

      Each Sunday we recite the Apostle’s Creed and remind ourselves what that means.  Our creeds and our prayers like the Lord’s Prayer are beacons pointing us to the ground zero of our faith.  We build on these foundation stones with the works of our heart, when we believe what God is asking us to do.

      Let us review the second article of the creed that unites our confession of what we believe about Jesus. 

• We believe Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, our Lord,
•  we believe he was conceived by the Holy Spirit—true God
• we believe he was born of the Virgin Mary—true man
• we believe he  suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried—he understands all aspects of our human existence
• We believe he descended to the dead and on the third day he rose again—he defeated death or death had no power to hold him or you
• We believe he resurrected and ascended into heaven—there is life after death
• We believe he is alive, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, 
• and we believe he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I love the explanation of this article in Luther’s Small Catechism.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, (pause and reflect)

who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, and precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death, (pause and reflect)

that I may be his own and  live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.  

THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE!  

We believe Jesus is my Lord, my redeemer, and we are his.

I should hear a loud AMEN now!  What is doing the work of God?  What does he want from us?  He wants us to believe these truths.  Full stop.  Period.  To believe he is here now and goes before us, goes with us, and has our back.  He is actually asking, “Who will help me?” 

      Third question:  “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?  

Sounds to me that the crowds are asking Jesus to prove that he cares and then they’ll believe.  When the Israelites traveled from Egypt and slavery to the Promised Land, they encountered problems, lack of food and water.  Moses, as their leader, met with God and told the people that God would give food the next day.  The Old Testament or First Reading tells the story.  God reigns down what the people call “manna”, meaning “what is it.”  For forty years God provides, not Moses.  The crowds are crediting Moses with the work of God that proved God cared.

      Just as we get all tangled up about the identity of Jesus as a member of the Trinity and don’t recognize his presence, we also get all tangled up about our role in our relationship with God, and so we seek proof that this relationship with the unseen is really there.  We often have trouble with silence.  Admit it.  We look for those flowers on anniversaries and all the little “works” that affirm that the other cares. I suspect the Little Red Hen’s friends were not convinced that what she was asking them to do would benefit them.  Perhaps they could not envision what bread was any more than we can envision what heaven is like or what a relationship with Jesus might look like.  He might ask me to go to Africa as a missionary or he might ask me to share my money or sit next to that odd person in church.  We want assurance that the step of. faith will not be too dangerous and will truly benefit us.

      The cross has become that symbol of what we call The Covenant between God and humans. I love the picture of a handshake.  In that mysterious handshake between God and humans, God holds on to us when we have little strength, when our faith is smaller than a mustard seed, and when our eyes are clouded with tears.  God holds on to us.  The empty cross shows how far God will go for us.  Jesus points the crowd to God and not to bread.  We cry like our children, “If you love me, you’ll let me do what I want to do,” and yet we know relationship is not built on giving us what we want, not giving us just bread but faith that is built on the cross.

1.    Crowd:  Rabbi, when did you come here?  Jesus:  God fills our past, present, and future, leading and loving us into his kingdom

2.    Crowd:  What must we do to perform the works of God?  Jesus:  Believe in Christ.

3.    Crowd:  What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?  What work are you performing?  Jesus:  The cross is the reminder that God sees, cares, and has your back.

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

What a wonderful promise.  May we cling to that promise as we help Jesus grow the Kingdom of Heaven this week.

Let the people of God say, “Amen.”

Tomorrow’s Gospel text ends with Jesus telling the crowds, “I am the bread of life.”  The crowds have sought him out to make him king after he fed the 5000 people on the mountain.  They are coming to him, not because he is God and they want to be part of his kingdom, but because they want God to make their life happy ever after.  As we prepare our hearts for church tomorrow let us listen and pray that we are not going for what we can get from God but listening for how we can partner with him to make this a better world.

I am the Bread of Life – Jaime Thietten

I am the Bread of Life

You who come to Me shall not hunger;

And who believe in Me shall not thirst,

No one can come to Me

Unless the Father beckons.

Chorus

And I will raise you up,

And I will raise you up,

And I will raise you up

On the last day!

The bread that I will give

Is My flesh for the life of the world,

And if you eat of this Bread,

You shall live forever,

You shall live forever!

Chorus

Unless you eat

The Flesh of the Son of Man

And drink of His Blood,

And drink of His Blood,

You shall not have life within you.

Chorus

I am the Resurrection,

I am the Life

If you believe in Me,

Even though you die,

You shall live forever.

Chorus

Jesus, we Trust in You!

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

5-9 Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working.

Paul compares the various preachers that the people of Corinth follow as being like servants working in a field, each with his own task and perhaps talent.  The team gets the task done but it is God who gives the growth, who does the “magic.”  So let us think about the story of Jonah we are following.  Jonah hears  the message from God to go to Nineveh.  He runs the wrong direction but even in his rebellion he must testify to the sailors on the ship that his rebellion has brought about the storm.  There is a God who has not let go of him.  They all pray to that God, throw Jonah overboard,  God saves Jonah and the sailors and God gets the glory. Jonah repents and goes to Nineveh.  For three days he walks across the city crying, “Repent, in 40 days God will destroy you!” Contrary to Jonah’s desire the people of  Nineveh “listen” and “repent.”  God again gets the glory.  Jonah did his part.  The sailors did their part.  The king and people do their part but who gets the glory – God.  We are the fields in which God is working and he deserves the glory.

Paul asks a good question.  What makes’s the jobs we do worth doing?   Let’s make it personal.  What makes the jobs you do worth doing?  His answer is the privilege of serving God.  What is your answer?  Turn that truth into a prayer.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

 3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? (The Message)

Paul now returns to the topic he wants to deal with, divisions and quarreling in the body of believers.  Paul presents the idea that when we quarrel, we immediately slow down spiritual growth.  The people could only be fed milk, baby food, and not meat.  Perhaps it is because quarreling takes all our energy and attention and we so not have the time to sit and listen to the Spirit and emotion slows down our ability to process.

Let’s continue along with Jonah.  God sent him to Nineveh but Jonah climbed a boat and went the opposite direction.  He was arguing with God!  He could not grow because he was running and refusing to listen.  A storm came and he realized it was his fault and so he confesses and has the sailors throw him overboard.  Chapter 2 of Jonah tells of his mental turmoil and struggles as he sunk to the bottom of the sea and realized he was facing death,  In verse 2 he shared that he called for help from God and somehow hoped God was listening.  By verse 4 he was realizing that if he died he wouls be banished from God’s presence and so as his life was ebbing away he remembered God and prayed.  It was then he started rejoicing.  The relationship was more important than the difference of ideas about life.

We laugh at Jonah and smirk to think of the size of the fish and diminish the message.  I think what Paul was saying and what Jonah teaches is that winning arguments that loose friends or relationships is milk wisdom, not meat wisdom.  So perhaps we must ask today if there is a division with someone that is blocking relationship and blocking our walk with the Lord.  Be honest!  Blesssings.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (The Message)

 10-13 The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.

14-16 The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 is talking about God’s wisdom that he differentiates from the wisdom of education or the wisdom of leaders.  God’s wisdom is different.  I switched to The Message to give a more down to earth translation.  Paul seems to be reasoning that only we know what we are thinking and therefore only God knows what God is thinking.  We may try to anticipate God’s response to situations but in fact we do not know what the future holds and what the wise way to act might be.  It seems to feel to me like Robert Frost’s poem, Two Roads Diverged in a Woods.  We come to forks in the roads of our life and we are just not sure which way to go.  In our youth we pondered who to marry, which job to take, or with whom to live.  Life was so dramatic.  Now as an elder  walking into widowhood, my choices are again foggy.  I like to try to convince myself that it is because I don’t have my husband to talk things over with but that is a leaky-bucket argument.  Many never marry.  Others live in war torn countries.  Wisdom to face tomorrow does not come from another person, as comforting as it is to talk with that person, but wisdom comes from God.  Perhaps reading Scripture helps but often it is a challenge to spend some time praying.  The Holy Spirit is the one who knows the heart of God and who speaks to our spirit.  

Jonah may be one of the books of the Bible with the most prayers in its four short chapters.  Jonah is a good example of a prophet grappling with God’s will.  You might want to read Jonah 1:4-13.  God tells Jonah to go to a foreign city of Nineveh and preach the truth.  So Jonah hops a boat in the opposite direction.  The boat encounters a violent storm and the first prayer we read is by the sailors.  The storm is so violent that each sailor prays to his own god. They throw the cargo overboard to lighten their load.  Jonah even goes below deck and goes to sleep.  The captain of the ship then orders them to call on their own gods for help. They cast lots and realize the storm is because of Jonah and so they go to Jonah and ask what’s up and what should be done.  He confesses that he is the problem and should be thrown overboard.  They throw Jonah overboard as they pray for forgiveness. “Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.”

We might all see ourselves in this little story.  My New Year’s resolution for how many years has been to…loose weight.  The dessert is offered and I run away from the voice in my heart.  I indulge. Tomorrow is another day, right!  Or perhaps I listen to the “gods” of the world that say if I eat this or that pill, I will loose weight.  Hmmm.  I might even throw away temptations in the cupboard.  I may even cry tears realizing my own guilt.  I may just plain go to asleep and avoid exercising.  I have even looked in the mirror and questioned why God put me in a family prone to overweight.  I’m just like…. Yep, all the aspects of the Jonah story ring true in my life too.

Paul is saying to us today that spiritual wisdom does not come from universities or governments but comes from the Holy Spirit as our spirit spends time communicating with God’s Spirit.  Lord, help me not to be reluctant, resistant, and fight with the wisdom you give me to face the challenges of today.

1 Corinthians 2:9

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

Paul claims in 1 Corinthians that he is presenting wisdom that is different from the wisdom that the world respects or that governments argue for.  There is a wisdom that comes from God and which only God can give.  Paul claims he is preaching a whole different type of wisdom that can only be given by the Holy Spirit. We might say it is counter-intuitive but works. 

What Paul makes me think of is the political banter going on now and all the name calling as each candidate thinks they know the way forward for our country.  Those speeches are very different from the sermons on Sunday that call us to live each day loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.  Forgiveness is preached and given but forgiveness is hard to live when we are really hurt.  Turning our other cheek is not the way of politics.  

So where do we look for wisdom?  Paul in verse 8 says “8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”  Wisdom does not end in hatred, murder, and protecting our tails as Pilot did when he washed his hands of Jesus to please the Jews.  Wisdom trusts that God has our backs and works for the good of all people concerned.  Lord, as we face our trials today, let us turn to you for help and help us trust your ways.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

2 And  so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Paul opens his first letter to the Corinthians by introducing himself as an authoritative messenger.  He complements them by acknowledging how he has seen them growing.  They are saints in-process growing into their identities as children of God even as our children grow and become more and more the person we experience them to be with their gifts. Paul then pleads with them to be united and not to splinter or argue over who their favorite guru is in the faith.  He reasons that none of us can brag for God chooses those who are weak to make strong thus we become models of God’s ability not super stars.  We do not need to go to university nor be like Moses or David.  God uses ordinary people like us.

Today he points to himself as an application or example of what he has said.  He does not experience himself as a great orator like the Greeks were looking for in Athens.  He was with the Corinthians simply sharing his experience of the power of the cross and the reality of Christ in his life.  He did not do great deeds like Moses.  But to his surprise, the Corinthians listened and were touched by his sermon.  He credits their faith to the power of the Holy Spirit working in their hearts.

Sometimes we have the experience of saying the right thing at the right time and at the right place.  I admit that often I feel like I have foot in mouth problems but every now and then someone will respond – I really needed to hear that.  Or sometimes a person’s name keeps running through my mind and I call only to discover they needed a friend to talk with. Once or twice I have found a check in the mail just when I needed it.  In those random times when we feel like life is more than coincidental, we need to thank God for using us.  May we be open to listening to God speaking to us to reach out, may we obey, and may we give God the credit.  Blessings as you respond to the nudging of the Holy Spirit today.