Pastor Steve Richards

How and where do you experience community? In today’s readings, I found very different ways of describing community. As the tribes of Israel settled into their new land, faithfulness to God only lasted one generation. The next generation wandered from the LORD God to the gods and idols of the people who had inhabited the land, and consequently things began to go poorly for them. If they did not want the LORD in their lives, the LORD would allow them to live on their own and suffer whatever would be. Judges offers a picture of what happens when the community strays from God.

Paul provides another picture of community for the Christians in Corinth. Picture a body with each person as a body part. Obviously all parts must work together for the body to function. When we invite Jesus into our lives, the Holy Spirit takes us residence in us and we receive certain spiritual gifts. These gifts are intended to be used within the body – the Christian community. We need all parts – all persons.

From both readings, I realize that God has chosen to be known and to be at work in community. I can try to exist as an individual Christian on my own, but without community I cannot fulfil God’s purpose for me and what God wants to do through me.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

The first part of 1 Corinthians 11 is one of the readings that seems oddly out of place in our contemporary world. Is Paul really saying that a husband has superiority over a wife? Does it really matter whether men take off their hats to worship and women cover their heads to worship? Why would men with short hair and women with long hair even matter to God?

And yet, what we do, how we conduct ourselves, our practices are noticed by others. Paul is writing in response to issues present in Corinth. What exactly those issues were is left to speculation? What Paul means by “head” also is unclear. Does he mean head as authority or could he be referring to the creation story where man is created before the woman? At other places in scripture, we find Paul using the word in both ways.

This is one passage where it may be best to take a few steps back. I think of certain paintings by impressionist artists where the images are much clearer from a distance than up close. What is the message for me in what I am reading? You will have to listen for how this passage speaks to you.

What I hear is a call to honor God. Do my practices show honor to God? Would others see in me a person who honors God above all? My goal is not to prove to others that this is the case. Rather, to live honestly and authentically as someone who wants nothing more than to honor God each and ever day.

I keep before me each day these words found in Colossians 3:17. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

I like prizes. I can remember how eager I was to find the prize in a box of cereal that my mother brought home from the grocery store. I would empty the entire box if I had to in order to find the prize before my sisters did. Maybe that was cheating, but I wanted the prize. Many years ago, I entered a 10k race and I trained for it. To be honest, the main motivation was the t-shirt I would receive at the end of the race. I still have the t-shirt!

But there is a difference between running for the prize and running because of the prize. There is a difference between living in order to receive the prize and living because of the prize. Both require training and discipline. In as much as I like prizes, I run the race that Paul describes because of the prize, and I have found that is an even greater motivation for me. I am reading through the Bible, not so that I will receive a prize (sorry folks, there is no t-shirt at the end of this) but because I have been promised the prize.

We do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Only recently did we have our property line surveyed. When we moved into our home, I continued to mow the lawn to the spot that the previous owner had mowed the lawn. Everything was fine – and frankly it hardly mattered where the exact property line was located – until it mattered. The city identified a diseased tree in the wooded area behind our house that seemed very close to the property line. Then on the other side, a family moved into the house next door and wanted to build a tree house in a tree that seemed very close to that property line. Whose responsibility and even liability would these trees and any potential damage be? It now mattered where the legal property line was located.

Reading Joshua, we have three chapters about property lines. I read quickly because the verses are not particularly interesting and don’t seem to matter – to me. Is there a reason why these chapters were important enough to be included in the Bible? It is a historical record – like going to the city office to find my plot line. We know enough about human nature that there are bound to be issues, even disputes with the family. All of the land is a gift. As the recipients of such a gift, there is a God-given responsibility to honor and care for the gift – all of it.

Then we read Paul’s response to the Christians with the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols. They have knowledge that there is no harm in eating the meat because the idols are meaningless. But what if new Christians who do not yet possess this knowledge are hurt when they see other Christians eating the meat? Paul is saying, let love be your guide. Don’t let knowledge get you all “puffed up”. Let love be your guide.

It is important to know where our property line is located. I don’t want to unknowingly do something that will infringe on my neighbors. But if the tree is so close to the line that we need a surveyor to determine whose tree it is, let love be the guide. Let’s work together to remove the tree, to bear the cost. It is holding whatever is in question to the light and allowing the light of love to shine through.

What is your “property line” that needs to be held up to the light so God’s love can shine through?

Give me this hill country.

That’s not how it is supposed to work, is it? Caleb was the early investor. When Moses first brought the people to the edge of the Promised Land, Caleb, Joshua and ten others were sent ahead to see what awaited them. Everyone but Caleb and Joshua said it would be too hard and too dangerous for the people to enter the Promised Land. As a result, they all wandered in the wilderness for another forty years until everyone who had been to the edge of the Promised Land died. Everyone but Caleb and Joshua. They remained faithful. When Moses died, Joshua became the leader. What did Caleb get? He got to enter the Promised Land along with everyone else. He got to fight in battle after battle and watch as territory after territory was parcelled out to each of the tribes.

He was the early investor. Shouldn’t he get first pick of where to live? Shouldn’t there be some perk for the only one who believed, the only one courageous enough to choose what God had promised? That’s how we expect it to work. The early invest takes the risk and gets the best return on the investment. There ought to be some reward, some benefit. We look for perks! (I love perks – another punch and I’ll get a free meal!)

Not until chapter fourteen of Joshua does Caleb get his chance. Where do you want to live? What property will you choose? “Give me this hill country.” (verse 12) What?! Not beach front property or the valley where there is plenty of food or something by the river? Caleb, you are 85 years old. Take it easy. You’ve accomplished so much more than anyone else. You deserve to rest.

According to the scripture, Caleb is the LAST one to receive and instead of choosing the best property, he chooses “hill country”. Why do you suppose no one else had claimed the “hill country”? But Caleb does. He says he is 85 and as strong as he was when he was 40. To claim the hill country will require one more battle.

There is much we can learn from Caleb. Would that my life could be summarized with such words as we find in Joshua 14:14.He followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.To be remembered as Caleb was remembered. To leave that kind of legacy. That’s a perk worthy of a faithful life.

As I was reading 1 Corinthians 6, I remembered this photo that I took several years ago while standing amid the ruins of the city of Corinth. High above the city is the acropolis (literally “high city”). It was the location of the temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, with its one thousand prostitutes. Corinth was a cosmopolitan city with a thriving sea port and travelers from throughout the Mediterranean world. Some have called it the “sin city” of its time.

In stark contrast was the Christian life. Christians did not have a prominent temple that stood high above the city. Christians had something greater than that – their bodies. What is the body for? The worshippers of Aphrodite provided one example. Christians would provide another. Christians belong to Jesus and are part of his body. This is a union of the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit… The point of the temple  was that God lived there. Part of the point of being a Christian is that God lives in you (that’s the Holy Spirit). If you are a Christian, it isn’t only when you pray. The Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence. You cannot stop being someone who has been bought with a high price (Jesus paid that price on the cross). So, honor God with your bodies. In other words, discover how to live in such a way that in everything we honor God.

Like so much of life, I’m in training. This is a life-long process of becoming the temple that God wants me to be.

Rahab and Achan: two people who encounter God and experience very different outcomes. Rahab is described in the opening chapter of Joshua. She is a Canaanite woman, who provides refuge to the Israelite spies. She shows courageous allegiance and devotion to the LORD God and is therefore received into the Promised Land of Canaan. In today’s reading, we are introduced to Achan, an Israelite man who is disloyal to the ways of God and steals what belongs to God. Therefore he loses everything, even life.

We can draw many lessons from these two stories. One lesson is the importance of a disciplined life, following the teachings the God has given. Another is how the sin of Achan destroys an entire family and puts the nation at risk. A third is that God disciplines those God calls.

That need for discipline surfaces in 1 Corinthians 5. Immoral behavior that is not self-disciplined is disciplined for the sake of the Christian community. It may seem harsh, but if the body encounters disease how are we to respond? The issues Paul mentions in verse 11. Are they like diseases? Do such things build up a community or destroy it?

Each person has influence that can be positive or it can be negative. Are we in need of discipline in our own lives – for our sake and for the sake of others? Certainly self-discipline is to be preferred.

Puffed up. Paul gives us words that provide a picture of what pride can look like. Pride is a problem when it becomes something that divides our allegiance. In the Old Testament reading, the people of Israel cross the Jordan River on dry land just as they did 40 years earlier when crossing the Red Sea. Each of the twelve tribes takes a stone and together they build a memorial to honor and remember what has happened. Not so they could celebrate what they had done.So that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God (Joshua 4:24).Israelites – be careful not to be puffed up! Without God, what would you be?

To the Corinthians Christians, Paul says, “don’t be puffed up”. They were a small group to begin with and yet that had already subdivided, declaring allegiance to one leader or another, taking pride in following one over following another. And when they got all “puffed up” about this, Christ got lost.

Pride is not a bad thing. Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Which also means it is okay to love yourself as your neighbor. That doesn’t mean your heart is to beat faster every time you look in the mirror, nor every time your neighbor passes the window. Being all “puffed up” should cause us to ask: what do we have that we have not received (as a gift)? And if we have received, why do we boast as if we did not receive? If we start boasting about ourselves we fool only ourselves. We are now as ever dependent on God’s grace. If we boast, let us boast in the LORD. It is God who has done great things.

What is wisdom? We usually recognize it when we see it and yet we can often be deceived into accepting as wise what is not wise. Let’s say you have an important decision to make – maybe it is a job or a relationship or as simple as an important purchase. There is conventional wisdom (what most people might do). There is the wisdom that your friends and family are quick to offer. But is this what Paul is describing?

Wisdom, it turns out, is more than intellectual information. It is what will satisfy our wondering. It is what God has in mind for those who love God. We know this because God has given us God’s Spirit. This does not mean Christians automatically know everything that God knows. It means we have open access to the “mind of Christ.”

Thus the importance of doing what we are doing – reading scripture each day and taking a few moments to listen for God’s direction through the scripture. I’ve been married for nearly 30 years. I know more about how my wife thinks than I did 30 years ago. But do I know her mind completely? How foolish of me if I ever thought that! We are still growing in our relationship – even after 30 years. And so it is with God. The closer we come, the more we open ourselves to God’s influence and direction, the more we will know the mind of Christ.

Lord, give me the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it.

Have you ever been so excited about something or someone that you could not stop talking about it (or him or her)? If there is any doubt about what Paul was excited about, the center of his thoughts and attention, the opening paragraph to 1 Corinthians makes this clear. One name occurs eight times in nine verses. Paul could not stop talking about Jesus. Without Jesus, nothing else he said or did made any sense. What about us?

In our reading from Deuteronomy, God promises to be faithful to the people, even renewing the covenant, even though God knows the people will forsake him. Do we deserve a God like that? And yet, God is like that.

In our reading from Psalm 40, in the midst of difficulties, David begins: I waited patiently and God heard my cry. Much of David’s difficulties were of his own doing. Did he deserve to have God on his side? Probably not, and yet as we will discover later in the Old Testament, David was a man after God’s own heart. In other words, God’s nature was to love David. And what God would do for David, God would do for you.

As the people reach the Promised Land and prepare to enter it, God tells them repeatedly to be “strong and courageous.” Recognizing that God is with me, that God’s faithfulness to me is not even dependent on my faithfulness to God – not only does this make me wonder why anyone would not choose to follow God, but I have renewed confidence that I can go through this day strong and courageous.

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. To have Jesus always on my heart, I want to make him proud today.