October 18, 2009
Tremblin’ & Triflin - 1 Corinthians 16:1-13
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadI had my yard aerated two Saturdays ago. I told the guy then about where my invisible fence was (for my dogs), and he was pretty sure that he knew anyway, so he stayed away as best he could. Unfortunately for me, the best he could was not good enough. He knew that day that he had cut the line in half. Even though I had no clue as to what I was doing, I spliced the wire and put it back together. Aren’t you impressed? So then I plugged the system back up, and it was still not working. So then I called my yard man back and told him to come out with this little instrument to detect where other breaks in my wire were. And so he did, except from his analysis, there was no other break. So then I called the Invisible Fence man. And sure enough, he showed up with an even fancier instrument and determined that, even though I put the wire back together perfectly, the wire was probably nicked a few places which prevented it from working. Furthermore there was no way to detect where it was nicked. So the only viable option, he said, was just to replace the wire altogether, which is very painful and expensive. So then I had the bright idea last Sunday afternoon that I could do that myself, so I went to Home Depot, then to PetSmart, then to Lowes, and then to City Electric, none of which had the right kind of wire. So then, I went to the Invisible Fence place myself, and after getting lost, I finally found it. I replaced the wire in the dark on Monday night and Tuesday morning and afternoon after work, and it still isn’t working right.
Now I can tell just from looking at the expression on your faces that you do not care about that sad little story. It is trivial at best and you have better things to do. But I will bet that everyone of you has a similarly trivial yet painful story to tell. Life comes at you fast sometimes, and those trivial things add up. And even if they are not trivial, many of the problems we face are very practical. We often think, therefore, that because they are practical, then they somehow fall outside of Christian concern.
I love this passage out of 1 Corinthians. We sometimes forget that we are reading Paul’s mail here, his first letter to the Church at Corinth. Like any church, like Central Steele Creek for that matter, the Church at Corinth had some specific issues. And even though Paul deals exhaustively with weighty, theological matters in his letters, he also deals with very practical matters, too. For example, what should Paul do with the widows in his community? Widows were powerless in that day and were completely at the mercy of the church. But how can you care for all these widows and at the same time present this new religion to a world that had never heard of it? And, by the way, there were lots and lots of widows, especially in Jerusalem because they were poor there, which raised another practical question. How should the more affluent churches, like Corinth, deal with the poorer churches, like Jerusalem? All those are practical matters, you see, that did not require a theological term paper to address. But Paul goes even beyond the practical issues to what we might would even consider trivial issues. Paul goes in great detail about his travel schedule, and how he would like for Timothy to go to Corinth, but Timothy’s not sure. He would also like for Apollos to go, but Appollos is sure that he’s staying away from Corinth. And, by the way, Paul will be at Ephesus, he said, at least through Pentecost, and then he might make it to Corinth, but it depends on the weather. And when and if he comes to Corinth, he plans on staying a while. Why are we supposed to care about any of that? If Paul had known that people in a continent that he didn’t even know existed would be reading his mail two thousand years later, I wonder if he still would have included all that practical, even trivial stuff.
And, one more thing, Paul talks about fear in this passage. He wants Timothy, his protégé, to come out to Corinth, but he wants the Corinthians to be nice to Timothy. “Send him on his way in peace,” he tells the Corinthians, “so that he may come back for me.” Paul obviously had great things in mind for Timothy, and he didn’t want any Corinthian scaring him away. Paul was afraid for Timothy and for himself. Paul was about the only Apostle there was then. What would happen if there was no one to take Paul’s place? That was a very legitimate fear, and it’s not all that different from the fear that we face today. These are very fearful times for the Church. What’s going to happen to us in the future? All the statistics clearly show that Christianity is dying in North America.
So what do we do? What do I do about my invisible fence? The pew covers on which you are currently sitting are old. They need to be replaced, but, like my invisible fence, they are expensive. So do we take money from mission? Do we not pay the light bill for a couple of years to get new pew cushions? Do we just let them sit for a few more years and hope they magically get better? Or should we replace them at all? Maybe we’ll be fine just sitting on plain old wood. That’s easy for me say. And, if we do replace them — now this is the real question — what color should they be and who gets to decide?
Life is full of practical, even trivial little pains in the neck, and more significant pains in the neck. And sometimes life is full of things that scare us to death. So what do we do? Well, we address those things. We continue to discuss what we believe about God and how that belief addresses all of life, even all of that practical stuff like invisible fences and pew cushions, even those things that scare us to death like bad doctor’s reports and pink slips. Just because it’s practical, or just because it doesn’t come in the form of some divine, transcendent, mountain-top experience does not mean that God doesn’t care about it. We somehow or other have the idea that God is too big to care about our practical, day to day grind. One of those grinds is money. God cares about our money, about our financial worries. Our Church’s proposed budget for next year is around $370,000. My first hunch is not to even mention money, especially in the pulpit. I’m supposed to talk about God here, and not money. But God cares deeply about our money. In fact, Jesus had more to say about money, of all things, than just about anything else. So how can we not talk about the very practical issue of money?
And what about all our fears? If you are anything like me, one of your fears is money, and that is that you won’t have enough of it. What happens if you outlive your money? I haven’t even gotten to that question yet. The estimated tuition for a private college in 2024, which will be when the first of my three children starts college, is $80,000. How can I possibly do that three times over? Unfortunately, the Christian Faith does not affect inflation. Our faith does not dissolve our problems or our fears, just like it doesn’t dissolve the little trivial pains in the neck like seat cushions and invisible fences. Paul’s problems here did not go away because of his faith. And, for the record, I will also debunk the myth that by giving to the church, you’re going to hit the financial jackpot. You know the story. You give your last dime to the Church just to go home and find a million dollar check in your mailbox. Nothing in the Bible supports that nonsense.
So what do we do? What did Paul do about all those practical issues? I think ultimately that Paul believed. Belief puts those things in a new perspective. One of my last full conversations with my aunt who died recently was about her death. We had a small glimmer of hope at that time that she would get better, but she and I both knew that even if she did get better, it would not last long, and that her illness would lead to death. So I asked her what she thought about that, and this is what she said. “You know all that stuff that you learned in Sunday school and that we say about God? There comes a point when you either believe all that stuff or not.” She was at that point. And I think we’re at that point. In fact, I think that we hit that point every day. Even in the all the practical, even in the trivial things that we have to do all the time, we believe that God is there working somehow. And even in all our greatest fears, God is in that, too, and God will do what God has said he will do. Meanwhile, if you know anything at all about invisible fences, I could sure use your help. And, we have a lunch right after this service where we will talk about money in the church. We do not apologize for talking about money and asking you for it. It is a very practical need that we all have, including this Church. And, furthermore, God has provided for it. It’s practical, and we need it, but it’s also theological, and God cares deeply about it, maybe even more than you do. And, we all have fears, and in some cases, very big fears. That’s okay, too. The fear is still there, and so are the seat cushions, and so are all those other issues that you’ve got to deal with this week, but so is God. That, friends, is very good news. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
