Focus Scripture: 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
January 21 – 3rd Sunday After Epiphany
Perspective Matters
What does it feel like when someone discounts your feelings?
What might you say when someone responds to your excitement or concern with
some negative or dismissive comment? It does not feel good, right?
Oh, you just got married? Well, that’s not going to last
long.
You are excited about that promotion at work? Curb your
enthusiasm.
You are mourning the death of a loved one? Get over it.
Just considering this might be getting you a little angry or stressed, right? Maybe you are recalling a time when that happened. After all, most of us have experienced encounters in our lives when people just were not getting where we were coming from. Their empathy was lacking, they were insensitive or worse, and it made us feel bad.
It would be easy to take this as Paul’s meaning in the letter
to the church at Corinth. The time is short! Don’t get too involved in your
life. The present form of the world is passing away. Really? You’re
getting married?
But there are two small words we need to consider: as if.
If we make the mistake of taking this message without context, we could miss
out on the joys of life and the opportunities to help and be helped through our
struggles, disappointment, and grief. That is not what God has in mind for us.
This is where perspective matters. As Paul was writing this
letter, and in this chapter in particular, we clearly feel that something was
not right. When we look back at the history of the time, we can understand how
that was true. The Roman Empire was about to go through convulsions, including
the fire that burned Rome and was blamed on Christians, so it is likely that
the people living at the time sensed something was wrong. As we have seen
throughout history, there are often warning signs and years, if not decades,
that pass before the violence and upheaval begin. Combined with the challenges
in the church at Corinth, it is fair to speculate that Paul and other leaders
were feeling the tension.
We can look at this in our current time and still learn from
it. Again, perspective matters.
When Paul told the Corinthians that time was short, he was
right. Jerusalem was soon to fall. Everything was changing. Be ready.
In our current time, we can also say that time is short,
especially when we adopt an eternal perspective, both for ourselves and others.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed. As the Psalmist wrote, we are but a breath (Psalm 62:9).
We must be ready to come face-to-face with our creator. When we have been
called to follow Christ, we must respond. The grace of God requires a reaction.
This is where perspective matters. We must engage in
all parts of our lives, those that bring us joy and those that bring us pain.
That is part of living. But ahead of all that, we must place our relationship
with our creator on a higher plane. Life is usually not about binary choices. Two
things can happen concurrently; two things can be true. We can be serving God
and living our lives at the same time. God does not expect or require us to
disregard our life concerns, not at all. We can engage in life while also living
as if we are children of God, because we are.
Consider this: When the Pharisees approached Jesus and asked
him about the greatest commandments, Jesus replied, in Matthew 22:37-40,
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first
commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Had the concerns of others been unimportant, if our own
concerns were inconsequential, Jesus would have told us to ignore others,
disregard ourselves, and just focus on God. But that was not the message.
We are told to love our neighbors as ourselves, not instead
of ourselves. Caring and concern is not a pie: If you get more, that does
not mean that I get less. If I love and serve God, that does not take away from
the caring I have for myself and others. The pie just gets bigger.
God lived among us as the incarnated Christ and fully
understands what we need. God knows what we need to be fulfilled. And God has
placed us in a position just a little lower than angels. What are people, we
read in Psalm chapter 8? We, all of us, are just a little lower than angels. We
are not disregarded by our creator.
Perspective matters. Follow me here. If we have been made
just a little lower than angels and in God’s image, and if all the law hangs on
loving God and loving neighbors as ourselves – as ourselves – it follows
that our feelings, our activities, our joys, and our sorrows all matter. They
are not to be disregarded or discounted. God does not ignore our feelings, nor
should we.
Let’s look at just one statement. Paul wrote that if we are
mourning, we should live as if we are not. But Jesus said, in Matthew chapter
5, that those who mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted.
Circling back to the point that God knows what we feel, we
need to look no further than Jesus’s reaction when his friend, Lazarus, died.
“Jesus wept.” Yes, Jesus mourned.
Jesus is not a hypocrite. Jesus would not model a behavior
that is alright for him but not acceptable for us. On the contrary, Jesus was
the perfect human and is God. So if Jesus wept, we should weep. We are
humans made in God’s image, and that includes all the emotions, all the feels,
that go with it.
Finally, let’s understand what this means relative to our
lives in Christian community and the wider community beyond the church. As we
are the hands and feet of Christ, the living stones of the Church, we also
become the answer to prayer when we love our neighbors as ourselves.
We love each other and show sympathy during times of loss.
When others experience success, we share in their joy. We are happy for them
and celebrate with them. We are not envious.
In the end, perspective matters. We are saved children of
God, people for whom time is short, and people who are called to make disciples
for Jesus Christ, a task also for which time is short. So let’s not disregard
that point.
With that in mind, though, we are also fully human, as was
Christ. We cannot and should not disregard our feelings, from pain to joy. Far
from it. Let us be productive and purposeful while also enjoying all the good
things God has given us. Keep your thoughts on God, with an eternal perspective,
while being in full community with others and loving yourself and caring for
yourself enough so you can do all these other things. We cannot pour our caring
into others when we ourselves are empty.
Even Jesus went off to have quiet time alone in prayer. He
slept. He ate. God knows what we need, and God loves you and me as God’s children.
Keep that balance, that perspective, as God’s created, beloved children made
just a little lower than angels. Amen.
###
You are welcome to join the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Shelton (CT) in person or online at 10 AM Eastern Time any and every Sunday. Services are streamed live, and past services are recorded. The church's web address is www.UMCShelton.org.
###
Questions? Comments? Feel free to post your thoughts. Please keep it civil. Peace to you, and thanks for reading. - Bill Florin
###
Photo Credit: Nathan Dumlao. https://unsplash.com/photos/man-holding-eyeglasses-VJHb4QPBgV4
Comments
Post a Comment