I Corinthians 16-II Corinthians 9
It was bound to happen! Maybe it was the early morning bike ride; or the time spent finishing up my sermon, but by the time I got to this section, I was completely brain dead! I have absolutely no idea what Paul is talking about.
Oh, there were verses here and there. Paul obviously didn't get to Corinth like he had hoped, had caught wind that some of the brothers (and that is an intentional sexism) were bothered by his first letter. So he had to write a "make up" letter to remind them that he really does care about them. In many ways it sounds like a parent saying, "this is going to hurt me more than you."
But other than a verse or two, I am lost in the language, the philosophy, and the gorgeous day. Paul says that grace may abound, so I hope that God's grace will abound towards me, and maybe Monday I will have a better idea of what is going on.
Actually, I hope I have some idea of what is going on tomorrow! If my language ever gets this obtuse in a sermon, please just raise your hand or shout out, "What in the world are you talking about?!"
Hold on, let me give that some thought!
2 comments:
Almost three quarters into Lent and I just now accidentally discover that if I push the center button on my iPod a few times, I can see the text of what I'm listening to! That was really helpful to me, especially in this passage that was kind of all over the place. I love the poetic language, though. The opening verses, where the word "comfort" is repeated over and over, where God is identified as "the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort" were read at my ordination. They were some of my "calling" verses, ones that affirmed in me that chaplaincy was my path, that comforting God's people because I had been comforted by God was what I was supposed to do. I was also very moved by Paul's claim that in Jesus, all the promises of God find their yes. What a poetic and comforting image. Is this really the same Paul?
I don't know for sure if he's talking about 1 Cor. in ch. 2 when he references another letter that brought them pain. But I can easily see how that would have been the case! There were definitely some things in there that have caused me, and generations of women in the church, a lot of pain, just as an example. He's still very poetic in ch. 2, calling us "the fragrance of Christ to God." So . . . what do we smell like to God, I wonder?
We are able, in Christ, to look upon God with unveiled faces, Paul says. And we "are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." Wow.
There were some verses here that I remember reading at tough times in my life (or at least what passed for tough times when I was 19 and self-absorbed) and still knew so well I could pretty much repeat them along with the reader. "We have this treasure in jars of clay . . ." "We are persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed . . ." Great stuff. I like Paul better in this letter.
That God gave us the ministry of reconciliation and "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" seems to fly in the face of all the earlier predestination talk, in my opinion. It definitely sits better with me.
I've heard a lot of interpretations of the "do not be unequally yoked" passage. What exactly is he talking about? He doesn't specifically say it's marriage, and actually elsewhere he talks about a believing wife possibly "saving" her unbelieving husband and vice versa. And from the rest of what he says, it's clear that he doesn't want the church not to associate with unbelievers. After all, this is Paul, the one who became all things to all people so that he might by all means save some! I wish he'd been more clear about what he was cautioning them against here.
Then, what happens in ch. 8 and 9? We suddenly have Paul passing the offering plate, with a pretty heavy-handed guilt trip to go with it! If I had read this addressed to me and my church, I would've felt I was being manipulated. Granted, that's my 21st century American perspective that says my money is all mine and anybody trying to get me to part with it is automatically suspect. Still, he lays it on pretty thick to try and get them to make this donation for the church in Jerusalem. And for what? I think it's kind of as a peace offering, a way to say to the Jewish church there, "See, these Gentiles aren't so bad. Look what they gave you guys! Let's let them in to the church and not force the law and circumcision on them, what do you say?" It seems like this part has been tacked on to a different letter. The purpose, language, style, everything seems so different from the rest of today's passage.
After this section, I'm left thinking "wow, Paul really did feel passionate about the churches he started - but he tries too hard... to keep them in line, to convince the home church that they matter, to prove that he cares about them." Here I started to wonder if churches are a creation of man, and maybe not exactly what Jesus had in mind... does the Kingdom of God even involve churches and doctrine and beliefs? Seems when we try to agree, we stop just taking care of each other. What if the Kingdom of God involves the opposite - taking care of each other without worrying about whether or not we can agree? Wow! This listening to the New Testament at the same time I'm being prodded to imagine what the Kingdom of God may be... hard stuff!
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