Building the Beloved Community
Now we are on the last chapter of 1
Corinthians. In his first letter to Corinthians Paul focuses on what it means to be part of a gospel-shaped
beloved community, the Church. Throughout these chapters Paul has dealt
with many challenging and controversial questions and issues, such as
divisions, sexual immorality, lawsuits among believers, marriage and divorce,
food offered to idols, spiritual gifts, orderly worship, death and
resurrection. We have seen that the gospel has the power to shape our faith
community in personal, practical, and powerful ways. And Paul is now in
conclusion mode. In this last chapter Paul is talking about future plans and is
sending his own greetings along with greetings from other believers. So what
can we learn from this portion of the letter? What does 1 Corinthians 16 mean
for Christian lives?
In today’s passage Paul reinforces his central message of building the gospel-centered beloved community. Although Paul is talking about many different issues in his letter, his overarching theme is always building community characterized by agape love. Today’s scripture is no exception. “Let all that you do be done in love… My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus” (vv. 14, 24).
What is then a gospel-shaped beloved community? Probably, a better word for “beloved” would be “holy” – holy community. In the Bible, “holy” means “peculiar” or “different.” God wants his church to be different, counter-cultural, alternative. God wants his people to be a pioneer, an example, of what it means to live in love, unity, justice, inclusiveness, servanthood, forgiveness. “The world you live in,” Paul says, “is a works-based community. People do not love others unless they show themselves worthy or qualified. People do not recognize others unless they do something outstanding. But as for you, you belong to alternative community of God’s grace. By grace you have been saved. You should treat others in a loving way although they deserve the opposite. You should forgive and confess your own need for forgiveness rather than finger-pointing. Being loving is more important than being right. You should do everything with love.”
Be Holy… in the Wilderness
After God called and saved Israel
out of Egypt, he said to them, “Be holy
because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Lev 19:2) How did the Israelites learn
to be holy? They learned to be holy, while they were living in the wilderness for forty years. In
the wilderness they learned to depend on God as they received their manna daily
and directly from God. In the wilderness they learned to belong to each other
in community as they took the same journey together. In the wilderness they
learned that they were known and loved by God, not because they were productive
or useful, but just because they were God’s beloved.
Probably you have noticed that the Corinthian church was filled with problems. But Paul looks at this broken local church and envisions beauty. Paul thinks the church as the classroom, or the wilderness, for learning to be holy as God’s people. In the church we learn how to get along in God’s family. We learn how to be connected and dependent on God and on each other. Sometimes we wonder why the church is filled with so many problems and challenges, and why God does not take care of them. Sometimes we feel like God moves so slowly. Theologian Kosuke Koyama shares his wisdom with us, saying, “God’s aim for his people is holiness, not happiness. There is a vast difference between ‘happy-end-religion’ and ‘trust-end-faith.’ In the wilderness, unable to exert control, our speed is slowed down, slowed to three miles an hour. There we find the God who walks at three miles an hour. We find love.” Koyama concludes[1]:
Love has its speed. It is an inner
speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the
technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is “slow” yet it is lord
over all other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of
our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or
not, at three miles an hour. It is
the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.
Three Mile an Hour God
Recently, I have thought a lot
about death and dementia as I ministered to Clark family. As many of you are
aware, Ed Clark passed away about two weeks ago. His wife Priscilla who is
living with dementia doesn’t seem to know about this, and the family doesn’t
dare to explain it. Many questions came to my mind: “Where is God on this
treacherous journey with dementia? What if the person forgets God? What does it
mean to be part of the church when one can no longer participate? What is the
role of the church in all this? What does salvation really mean?” I was slowed
down. I was in agony. But in this wilderness God met me. And I met God who
walks at three miles an hour. Bishop Kenneth Carder’s book Ministry with the Forgotten was particularly helpful. In his book
Bishop Carder shares his shock and grief when his wife Linda began showing
early signs of frontotemporal dementia. Over the next several years, as the
disease affected her life more and more, his vocation changed from full-time
bishop and scholar to full-time caregiver. Bishop Carder and Linda found
themselves in the wilderness, slowed to three miles an hour and, eventually,
nearly to a stop. But an amazing thing happened when they were slowed to three
miles an hour. God met them in the wilderness.
The first thing he learned on this journey is that people with dementia or disabilities are our teacher and means of grace, if we are willing to receive their gifts. The supreme gift anyone, including people with dementia, can bring to the life of the church is his or her being. As I was listening to Bishop Carder’s story, I realized that for me, “presence” was often measured by the metrics – attendance, financial contributions, participation in church activities. To be present meant to sing in the choir, attend the Bible study, serve on committees, share in mission projects. Presence meant adding to the metrics. But, I learned from people with dementia that God’s economy is different. The essence of human identity and worth lie in God’s grace, a gift. That would mean each person, regardless of capacities, would be viewed as God’s unique gift to be celebrated. Bishop Carder says, “The very presence of people with dementia adds to the church’s rich diversity, thereby expanding the imagination and broadening participation in God’s life and mission.”[2] That was exactly what I felt and learned as I was visiting Priscila Clark, Barbara Kelley, and Dottie Frame the other day.
With, Not For
While taking care of his wife
Linda, Bishop Carder served as volunteer chaplain in a memory care facility for
four years. During those times he had known of only a half dozen visits from
pastors of the residents. He heard one of the pastors say, “I really don’t feel
that it’s a productive use of my time. I go occasionally to support the family,
but I don’t feel that I can contribute anything to the person with dementia.”
But from the wilderness Bishop Carder learned that the most effective ministry
among people living with cognitive impairment is presence. The ministry of presence. From the wilderness he learned
that pastoral presence is about being
with rather than doing for. Dr.
Benjamin Mast, a clinical psychologist, interviewed caregivers for people with
dementia. The most common response is: “They simply want the church to be
present in their lives through the journey with dementia. They do not want to
be alone.”[3]
Although he is writing about presence with homeless persons, Sam Wells’s words
are equally relevant for those with dementia[4]:
You don’t sit and have a coffee
with a homeless person because you’re trying to solve their problem—you do so
because you want to receive the wealth of wisdom, humanity, and grace that God
has to give you through them. You aren’t the source of their salvation: they
are the source of yours. . . . Your every effort is to
enjoy their being, and share your own, rather than change their reality
assuming a script you’ve imposed from elsewhere.
The same principle applies to senior ministry, children and youth ministry, family ministry, every mission and ministry of the church. It is about being with, not doing for.
Marana Tha!
I don’t know about you, but for me,
I have to confess that I feel powerless
when I visit people with dementia. I read the Bible to them. I sing hymns to
them. I pray with them, but they often don’t even know what I’m doing when I
pray. But perhaps our powerlessness is the strength of our presence. As we
simply to be with them, we may receive God’s grace through them, and they may
also feel God’s love and comfort through our presence.
There were times in the wilderness when Paul also felt powerless because of his own weaknesses. But then, he heard Jesus saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). From the wilderness he learned that such powerlessness or weakness is the very place where God’s grace grows. When we think about our local church, we may feel powerless. For we don’t know how to bring new people to church. We don’t know how to pass on our faith to the next generation. We don’t know how to raise new church leaders.
As Paul concludes his letter, the Corinthian church is still broken, still childish, still messy. But Paul’s
final messages are very hopeful and encouraging. Why? Because Paul thinks about
the church in the same way that Jesus does. Paul looks at the broken local
church and envisions the universal Church
that will always prevail. “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”
(Matt 16:18). So Paul is sending greetings
from other churches along with his own greetings, so that the Corinthian church
may also see the big picture. “The churches of Asia send greetings… All the
brothers and sisters send greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss” (vv. 19-20).
The one who began a good work among us [the church] will bring it to completion
by the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). He will do it. Our part is to be
faithful – be present with one another, especially be present with the weak and
vulnerable. Then, we will be ready to see Jesus at any time, saying, “Marana tha!” “Come, Lord Jesus!” (v. 22)
[1] Kosuke Koyama, Three Mile an Hour God: Biblical Reflections
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 7. quoted in Kenneth Carder, Ministry with the Forgotten (p. 153), Abingdon Press, Kindle
Edition.
[2] Kenneth Carder, 104.
[3] Ibid., 142.
[4] Ibid., 142.
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