One Body

Reports of some getting drunk and others going away hungry at the Lord’s Supper have reached Paul. What a great reading for World Communion Sunday from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. Check out the reflection from Enter the Bible:

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You are the Scum of the Earh and this World’s Garbage

Most people have Jesus’ saying memorized that Your are Salt of the Earth and Light of the World.
What Paul says is equally true though: We are no more than this world’s garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!
How does that make you feel?

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Spiritual Growth

One’s spiritual life is often compared to a plant. Paul describes a three-step: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow.”
Who was your Paul?
Who was your Apollos?
Who is the God who makes you grow?
Whose Paul are you?
Whose Apollos are you?
Who is the God who makes you plant and water?

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Homiletics 101

How does the art of preaching work?
Here is a lesson from Paul (1 Corinthians 2:1-16):
- Do not use big words.
- Forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.
- Do not deliver your teaching and message with skillful words of human wisdom.
- Allow room for convincing proof of the power of God’s Spirit.
- Yet DO proclaim a message of wisdom to those who are spiritually mature.
- Accept that it is only our own spirit within us that knows all about us; in the same way, only God’s Spirit knows all about God.

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Fides quaerens intellectum

Paul knows: “God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.”
Faith cannot be argued for or achieved through a thought process. But faith seeks understanding and rational expression once found, as Anselm of Canterbury put it.

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What makes a Christian?

There is totally no reason for being proud of being a Christian. As a matter of fact the term started out as a swear word that was first applied to this particular Jewish sect in Antioch (Acts 11:26).
Paul struggles with the congregation in Corinth because one says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Peter”; and another, “I follow Christ.”
“Christian” is a very limited term that only refers to the second person of the Holy Trinity, omitting the Father and the Holy Spirit, yet rightfully focusing on the center. What do you think makes a Christian?

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1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Today’s Reading is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
Since today happens to be Valentine’s Day it is tempting to read “love” as “eros” as in the Song of Songs. Here the Greek word is ἀγάπη (agápē). King James even tried to moralize it but translating it as charity.

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1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Today’s Reading is 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.
Two brief observations: “Christ Has No Hands But Ours”.
And: “In the church God has put all in place.”
Oh, and then there is the Cartman Song Lyrics as well.

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Acts 26:19-27:12

Today’s Reading is Acts 26:19-27:12.
The end is near: That is the end of the book of Acts and Paul’s career.

After Paul basically preaching to the authorities he invokes his rights as a Roman citizen. And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to the Emperor.”

So with this man we have an example of someone bridging cultural gaps: Pharisee and Roman at the same time. Paul is totally embedded in 1st century Judaism. Paul is able to preach at the Areopagus in Athens so that people of Greek upbringing can relate to it.

Paul describes it beautifully in his own words: “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized — whoever …”

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