The Relationships

I gain hope from how messed up the church in Corinth was. In fact, as I think about the New Testament churches, I don't see many (any?) that did not have major problems. The New Testament documents themselves were almost exclusively written to address the problems being experienced in the churches. In spite of that, the gospel was spreading and new congregations were springing up everywhere. How marvelous that God doesn't need us to get everything "fixed" for Him to work in wonderful ways. His grace is what saves us and his grace is what sustains us. Far from making us complacent, may God's grace have the same effect in our lives that it had in the life of the one who because of his former life, called himself, "the least of the apostles." In his own words, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

The Altar & The Table

It's no secret that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the idea of devoting a day for the purpose of giving God the appropriate thanks for all that he has done for us. Being able to spend the day with my family makes the day joyous indeed!

Our assembly seemed so alive this morning. Our all male praise team made such a beautiful noise to the Lord encouraging us all to participate. Having our children down front for a special lesson is always fun. Our pantry collection was sufficient to help many needy families in the coming months (well over $4,000). Having our family prayer time focus on thanksgiving brought tears to my eyes as people I have prayed with over the year came to "report" on how God has answered our prayers. Finally, taking the Lord's Supper together at the end of the service was especially joy filled.

For some reason the tradition of taking the Lord's Supper that we inherited is very solemn, reflective, and individualized. As we read in the Scriptures today, the original purpose of the Supper was that it be joyful, festive, and communal. My hope is that we will continue to move in this direction exploring more ways to observe the Communion that we assist our growth in expressing our gratitude to God for all that he has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Resurrection

Some of us remember the old songs that used to be popular in church:

• This World is not My Home ("My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue")

• Won't it be Wonderful There ("When with the Savior we enter the glory land")

• Mansions Over The Hilltop ("I'm satisfied with just a cottage below; a little silver and a little gold")

• By and By ("Trials dark on every hand and we cannot understand all the ways that God will lead us to that blessed promised land.")

Most of these songs were written when life was hard and people looked forward to a "land of rest" when all of God's promises would come to fulfillment. Among African-Americans the spirituals had a similar theme such as this once familiar song, "I am a poor wayfaring stranger, a traveling through the world of woe."

As life became easier we stopping writing and singing these songs. Instead of thinking about Jesus' return, the end of time, resurrection, judgment, and eternity; we began to talk more about the blessings God has for us in this life. Christian bookstores are full of guides teaching us how to enjoy all the blessings of God right now. The epitome of this emphasis has become what is called the "Prosperity Gospel" or the "Gospel of Health and Wealth" which teaches that God wants to bless all of his children with health and wealth in this life.

Reading 1 Corinthians 15 in light of this emphasis seems strange indeed. For Paul, this world is messed up and needs more than a make over. It needs a complete purging. The world is held captive to sin and is ruled by death. Jesus' resurrection truly was the beginning of the End. We are living in the "last days" and the earth as we know it is passing away. We must resist the temptation to live as though this is our home. We are all here on assignment but our home is somewhere else. Resurrection means we are to live this life in preparation for the life to come.

The Assembly

The heritage that most of us grew up in followed a patternistic methodology whereby we believed that if we could simply discover the "pattern" of the 1st century church we could recreate that church in the modern age. In spite of this viewpoint I never remember 1 Corinthians 12-14 being taken seriously as a way to discover that pattern. In other words, we never taught that the pattern of early church worship could be found by following the correctives that Paul gives here, especially in the last part of chapter 14.

I have long since abandoned the quest to discover the pattern of worship followed by the churches of the New Testament believing instead that, aside from having some things in common such as the Lord's Supper and public reading of scripture, the assemblies of the New Testament churches were very different from one another. God did not give us a pattern to imitate but a Lord and Savior to follow. Such is the gist of Paul's teachings about the assembly. It's not enough to get all the right actions to be done in the right order. What is of critical importance is that we recognize one another in the spirit of Christ's love, and do all we can to edify, encourage, and build up one another in the faith. When we allow this to guide us in our decisions about what should or should not happen in our assemblies we are moving in the right direction.