St. Paul
St. Paul Writing His Epistles, Valentin de Boulogne, 17th Century
Feb 10, 2019 Isaiah. 6:1-8, 9-13; Psalm. 138; Luke 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
What to preach in this cold miserable season? Where to scratch around to find a bit of good news? If we go with the Gospel, Luke 5:1-11, we can speak of an amazing catch of fish. Have you noticed that those fisher folk really never catch fish without the help of Jesus? Or, we could go with Isaiah 6:1-8, 9-13, the calling of the young prophet, and in these days coals of fire applied to the tongue seem not so bad.
Psalm 138, “a feel-good Psalm” of happiness and well being, may offer some possibilities. But I would go with Paul’s Easter Sermon in 1Corinthians:15ff.
There are moments when I catch a glimmer of truth—I call them kairos moments, or pregnant moments, where truth cannot be avoided or dodged. In such moments, one sees clearly and everything is changed. Such a moment Paul will describe in perhaps the oldest recorded Easter Sermon.
To preach in Corinth, a seafront town, where the best and worst of humanity passed through, must have been some challenge. Faith and religion certainly were not first priorities.
But Paul holds forth, speaking of this one who was dead but is alive again. He then adds, if you have trouble accepting my word, check it out: there are at least 500 witnesses who support this new happening; many are still alive. But then with a pause, he speaks of himself as one untimely born—who also experienced the vision of the risen Christ.
I like those words, because each of us who claims the Christ is untimely born. That is just the way it is for us, the Johnnie/Susie come-lately crowd. We didn’t get to hear the call by the sea, or walk the dusty paths with Jesus. Nor were we there when they crucified our Lord.
Being untimely born also puts us on level ground with all who claim Jesus as the Christ. And, it is never too late to one day hear those words, “William, William, why do you persecute me?” Or, “Church, Church, why do you claim open doors but build a threshold too high for some to climb over? Why are you practicing selective brotherhood/sisterhood? Who set you up as judge of the people, as to who gets in and who is left out?”
To be untimely born offers each of us the opportunity to not repeat the past. It is to know that some teachings of the past must not rule our future.
Jaroslav Pelikan taught that traditioni s the living faith of the dead, revealing the way those first witnesses who knew Jesus still speak to us. He warns that traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. That would be to take some time-bound word or doctrine and make it law for all times and places.
Nikos Kazantzakis in his work Saint Francis tells of Francis’ fear of the lepers. Francis had read his Leviticus, which instructed what to do regarding treatment of those shunned folks. But one day he decided to embrace the leper and discovered that he was embracing the risen Christ.
In my prayers for General Conference, I have hoped that delegates would see before it is too late what it would mean to embrace our fears of each other with loving hearts, rather than creating a new doctrine of fear. There is great power in knowing that we are untimely born. We have the freedom to create new traditions—new ways for the resurrected one to guide our thinking and our actions.
Being untimely born means that we have the advantage to see and know and overcome the past. To practice selective sisterhood or brotherhood is to join with those who persecute Jesus. Christian doctrine is the “business” of the church, created by humans. Doctrine is what is believed, taught, and confessed. Delegates to General Conference have the high privilege to not allow traditionalism, the dead faith of the living, to rule the day. Instead, a new era of living faith can begin, which includes all people in God’s love, a reminder that “Love one another” is not an empty slogan, but the Word of Life!
Prayer
Dear God, Creator and Redeemer, help us to dispel the fear of change from our hearts, to see clearly our path of love for one another, and to have the courage to act from that love, that all people will know a new life in the beloved community of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Note: A word of thanks for the witness of Martha Ward and Bill Steward. I am home from a week spent in the hospital—fighting off a bout of pneumonia. – Bill Cotton.
The Rev. Bill Cotton of Des Moines is a retired clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference. Along with his colleagues, the Revs. Bill Steward and Martha Ward, he produces MEMO for Those Who Preach, a sermon guide distributed by email. Click here to subscribe.