Second Sunday after Epiphany

Mon Jan 12 10:06:29 EST 2009

Second Sunday after Epiphany 

1 Samuel 3:1-10 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1Samuel+3> 
Psalm 139:1-6 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Psalm+139> 
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1Corinthians+6> 
John 1:43-51 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=John+1> 

I got grounded a couple of times in high school. Once: 2:00 am; "flying" at
80 mph and passed the Plymouth Valiant I came up on; turned out to be the
deputy sheriff in the family car.  Grounding even happens in actual flight.
NWA pilots once got grounded because they had climbed onto the barstool
before climbing into the cockpit.   If you're not properly grounded,
electricity produces shocking results.  Grounding - being brought down to
earth - is often a salutary thing.

In the Gospel text (actually beginning at verse 35) I think John starts
"grounding" his story about Jesus.  The language has been flying pretty
high.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Here is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.  After me comes a man who ranks ahead
of me because he was before me."

Pretty lofty language.  Now the story (vs.14 notwithstanding) gets down to
earth.  "Rabbi, where are you staying?  Come and see!  Can anything good
come out of Nazareth?  Come and see!"  Down to earth; real people, real
places, and real questions.  It's not about, "What's up with God?"  The
Gospel is always about, "What's God doing down here?"  The implications of
the Gospel are always about, "What in God's name are we doing down here?"

I think that's also what Paul is "up to" - or getting "down to" - in his
first letter to the Corinthian church.  The congregation was an amazingly
gifted group of people, but arrogantly fractioned.  Some people thought they
were better because of who had baptized them.  When they gathered for
worship, some were "super-sizing" it while others had nothing to eat.  Some
were chowing down on meat offered to idols while others were vegetarian.
Some thought the married were better - and better off - than those that were
single.  And then there was the debate about who had the better - or higher
- spiritual gifts.

There was a lot of spiritual snobbery aloft.  One guy was so "spiritual" -
so out of touch with earthly reality - that he thought it didn't make any
difference that he was living with his father's wife.  Paul called the idea
that as a Christian you were free from the law, free supposedly to do
whatever you pleased "spiritual arrogance" - boasting in something other
than the cross of Christ.

That's where he "lands" at the end of the 6th chapter.  "Yes", he says.
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial" for life
together.  In chapter 10 he reiterates, "All things are lawful, but not all
things are beneficial.  All things are lawful, but not all things build up."
Not everything builds up the body of Christ, the community of faith.  Not
everything builds up the world either - and God's love for "the world" gets
mentioned a lot in John!

"Down here" where life is lived, the Christian life - and any life - ought
not be caught up in spiritual idealism or political ideology.  There must be
concern for the community - even the world community.  Christian freedom
must be grounded in a love (agape) for others.  As Paul says is chapter 9,
"For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to
all, so that I might win more of them."  He proclaims (lives) a Christian
freedom that boasts only in the cross; a freedom that doesn't look to its
own interests, but instead follows the Christ who came not to be served but
to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many.

Of course, "What is beneficial?  What does build up? What does make for the
good?" can be difficult questions to answer.  Down to earth questions are
almost always the most difficult to deal with because they involve the
complexities of life in real human terms.

One contemporary theologian has observed that congregations - communities of
faith - have become places of "civility".  He did not mean it as a
compliment.  He was saying that "niceness" had become more important than
"newness"; that down to earth questions about how God's people are to do
justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God get too quickly dismissed
as "social gospel" or "civil matters"; that somehow people think that the
church should be involved in "loftier spiritual" pursuits.

But John and Paul won't let that fly.  They knew that the "highest" pursuit
we have is to stay down here; to remain grounded and work out the
implications of our faith in Jesus Christ in real life.  That is a crucial
conversation always worth having - although not always easy or comfortable -
as I'm sure our Bishops are discovering in their visit to Israel and
Palestine.

Controversy for the sake of controversy is sadistic and masochistic.  I have
known and worked with people who just want to play "uproar".  They were
sick!   Divergence about things that make no real difference is childish.
But struggle over what makes for hope in the lives of people as we strive to
live out the implications of the Gospel - as we strive together to workout
our salvation with fear and trembling - that is a good and gracious thing in
the life of the church and the world.

It is good because it keeps our head out of the clouds (and out of the sand)
and keeps us tending to this world - this garden - that we were left to
nurture and grow; and, paradoxically, keeps us tending to Christ.

Continue to pray for our Bishops, for peace in the Middle East, and for our
mutual ministry in our communities.

Grace and peace,

Pr. Don Carlson
Assistant to the Bishop
don at gulfcoastsynod.org

Next Week: Third Sunday after Epiphany

Jonah <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Jonah+3>  3:1-5,10
Psalm 62:5-12 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Psalm+62> 
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=1Corinthians+7> 
Mark 1:14-20 <http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Mark+1> 

(Sorry, I was never much on the "Lesser Festivals.")

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