Hold Firmly
Testify. Witness. Evangelize.
These words tend to evoke some emotion – often not particularly positive – in the hearts of the average church-goer.
One of the best ways to kill a conversation among church leaders is to ask for recommendations of who might serve on an evangelism team. Or whether someone is willing to offer testimony in worship.
Silence.
Shuffling of papers.
Averted eyes.
It’s real.
And just to be completely transparent, those words make my spine tighten up as well.
Testify. Witness. Evangelize.
But…
What if I asked you to share your God story?
Does that feel different?
Today as we celebrate CJ’s baptism and remember that we share with him God’s claim on us through the waters of baptism, as we gather next at a table to remember Christ’s love for us in bread and wine, to re-member (literally bring the pieces of the body of Christ, the members of the body back together as one), we do all of this against the backdrop of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth – listening for how it speaks to us today.
If we are paying close attention, we will discover that today our worship wraps us in the story of Jesus. And if we will dig a little deeper, we will find our own story interwoven in that big Jesus story.
These past weeks in the season after Epiphany, we have been unfolding the story of Jesus by seeking ways that Jesus is revealed to us.
In scripture.
And in our lives.
In the way we are embraced by God and claimed by God through baptism.
In the ways that we are created with unique gifts that the world needs.
In the ways our gifts are woven together with others’ so that we can serve our community as the Body of Christ.
In the ways that the work of loving God and one another refines our gifts, amplifies them, utilizes them to bring about glimpses of the Kin-dom of God.
And in this text today, Paul calls the early church – a community wrestling to get along – back to the basics of how Jesus is revealed.
Hold firmly, he says, to the message that I proclaimed to you.
Paul calls them all back to the story of Jesus. And in doing so, he also calls them (and us) to their own story of Jesus.
Paul begins by returning to stories the members of this community already know – by reminding them of how this story of Jesus, who was crucified and buried but rose from the dead to hang out again with his friends, is with them and all around them, in history, in tradition, in their worship.
He reminds them of the prophets of their scriptures. He reminds them of the stories that have been passed from place to place by believers. And he shares (once again) his own story.
Last of all, he says, as to one untimely born, Jesus appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and God’s grace toward me has not been in vain.
Paul has a story. His is a story about rejecting Jesus, persecuting the early followers, fighting the Jesus movement. And his story is about Jesus showing up to him anyway. Calling him anyway. Using him anyway.
And that story isn’t really unique. Thomas had a story of doubt and then Jesus showed up to him. The woman caught in adultery met Jesus who scattered those who would persecute her before telling her to go and sin no more. Zacchaeus found himself called on by Jesus to host him for dinner in spite of his reputation as one who took more in taxes than was just. Peter was always saying the wrong thing and losing sight of the big picture and yet Jesus called him the rock on which the church would be built.
Surely, through their struggles, through the wrestling about whose gifts are important and valid and worthy, the good people of Corinth have stories themselves. Surely there have been moments where they have experienced Jesus in their midst, understood God’s love for each of them.
Over the past four weeks, we have been remembering Paul’s counseling the church at Corinth as a community that is struggling to get along, struggling to work together. Last week, Paul reminded them that at the center of being community is the hard work of loving well. In each, God has created and called forth gifts that are valuable when used as a means of love and connection within the body of Christ in service to the world.
And so in this struggling community, perhaps as a way of encouraging members to hold on, dig deeper, keep trying, Paul calls them back to the basics – back to the story of who Jesus is and what Jesus did and how Jesus lives still. And not just to that story but to how THAT story of Jesus is also their story individually and collectively.
What is your story about Jesus? Or about God? Or about how the Holy Spirit shows up?
Our stories matter.
I wonder, what is your story about God and how God has shown up in your life?
Today, I ask you to take a few deep breaths and remember your story about Jesus, about God, about the Holy Spirit.
It may not be an extraordinary story at all, but rather a story of many bits and pieces, a story about playing hide and seek, a story of love at your lowest, a story of how God has been revealed to you through experience and relationship.
Where in your life have you encountered resurrection? Life where there was once death?
Where in your life have you encountered Jesus on the road?
Or the creator God?
Or the reviving breath of the Holy Spirit?
What is your story about God?
Your story? The one that includes you?
Today, we have been woven into part of Calvin Joseph Hedrick’s story.
Today, we have been called to remember and reflect on how we are part of God’s big story.
And now, today, we gather – people who have wildly different stories. Stories that matter. Just like the community at Corinth, we are being asked to bring the fullness of ourselves, which includes our stories, into relationship, in unity, in community.
At the table, we gather. Those stories bump up against one another. Some are known. Some have not been spoken. All matter.
Testify. Witness. Evangelize.
Meh.
Let's not let the words get in the way.
Tell your story.
It matters so.
Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment