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Out on the Margins, In from the Cold, Pastor Fred Kinsey

2/22/2015

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Readings for February 22, 2015
First Sunday in Lent Year B
  • Genesis 9:8-17  
  • Psalm 25:1-10  
  • 1 Peter 3:18-22  
  • Mark 1:9-15

Out on the Margins, In from the Cold
How do we come in from the cold?  How do we warm up and get close to the fire, and the warmth, to the place we want to be?  Why do we always -still- feel on the outside, on the margins, in the wilderness? 

On Ash Wednesday this week it was so cold I can’t believe anyone was able to make it to worship service and soup supper. It was dangerous to be out there, but the attraction of what was in here, the mark of the ashes, the beginning of a new journey, and a meal shared, was also strong and appealing, and many more than I expected were in attendance. 

Jesus and his cousin John are living on the margins, out in the wilderness.  Are they consolidating their power and building a church there?  Or, were they not invited-in to begin with?  Or, do they just not feel invited, feel more comfortable down in the valley at the bottom of the mountain from Mt. Zion, and the glory of the LORD, miles from where the Temple, and present kingdom of the Herodian priesthood, reside? 

John baptizes Jesus in the wilderness, in the Jordan River, a re-enactment of the hopeful days when Moses brought God’s people out of slavery into the freedom of the promised land, at virtually that very spot.  Jesus came, first of all, from Nazareth of Galilee, it says, that outlying, northerly land of the working poor, farmers and fishers, interlaced with impure foreigners and the influences of Hellenistic-Greek culture. 

The main route from Nazareth in Galilee, to Jerusalem in Judea, was along the Jordan River valley, going east and south, just as it is today.  So Jesus was – so far, in the very beginning of Mark’s gospel – traversing all around the power center of Judaism geographically, and also on its margins, socially, religiously, and politically. 

Suddenly, in his baptism, as he was coming up out of the water, we learn in an astounding turn-around, that Jesus is the very beloved Son of God, God’s anointed and crowning jewel!  And so, we might rightly expect that the story would send Jesus upwards now, literally up the final stretch of the road to the capital, and deservedly complete his journey from the margins of Nazareth, and the valley below, to the high mountain above, to the Temple of the LORD. 

But, Spoiler Alert!  Instead, the Holy Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness, that is, into the surrounding desert!  How will Jesus meet the people of his kingdom, shake hands with the rich and famous, kiss babies, and drive in his limo under a rain of confetti – if the Son of God is driven in the opposite direction, yet deeper away from the seat of power, alone into the wilderness?! 

Yet, Jesus is not quite alone.  There were three other characters there.  Can you name them?  The wild beasts; the angels, and, that one called Satan.  Out in the desert, Jesus demonstrates his power, in another way.  He manifests himself as a new Adam, confronting the wild beasts, and the wily snake-like tempter, Satan, which always threaten us on the edges of our society, our neighborhoods, and our world, threatening to tear it down.  But this time, Jesus, the new Adam, does not completely lose the battle against evil and temptation, but, attended by God’s messengers and helpers, the angels, Jesus, the Anointed One, is able to push back and claim God’s authority over the ruler of this world, and is clear and ready with his message of God’s realm, to the world. 

Where are you on your journey to Jerusalem, your journey to God, in this Lenten season?  Lent is our church’s invitation to journey to the cross and resurrection, a journey to confront the powers that tempt us to give-in to the sweet talk of riches that “glitter but are not gold.”  The forty days of Lent is the church’s baptismal journey of renewal, and learning again, the power and joy of being saved by the same water and word that Jesus, and everyone after, has been saved in – to find that on the margins, where Jesus and John come from, we are now invited up to the head of the table, the banqueting table of forgiveness, salvation and love, poured out.  Are you ready to drink from the cup, and to be washed in the waters?

After Noah and his family travel 40 days through the Great Flood to the safety of dry land, in our Genesis First Reading, God makes a promise, the very first Covenant or promise in the Hebrew Scriptures.  As if repenting from the destruction of so many, all who were not on the Ark, both human and animals, God promises to never again destroy the earth like this in a flood.  “I have set my bow in the clouds,” God says, “and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”  The covenants of God from Noah to Abraham, and beyond, are promises from our living God, who has set the boundaries of the heavens and the earth, but whose interpretation demand faithful revisiting, just as God will, in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. 

For much of Christian history, we’ve regarded “the Creation” as a brief prelude to the “real” story of human and salvation history.  But in the rainbow that shines in our sky, we are invited to remember the continuing covenant, and the two-way relationship we enjoy with our living and loving God.  A new covenant based on God’s saving action and our faithful response.

After forty days, when Jesus returns from the wilderness, and after John was arrested for his ministry of baptism, and jailed in Jerusalem, Jesus certainly must be headed there now, wouldn’t you think?  Except that he doesn’t!  He goes back, instead, to back-water Galilee to announce his prophetic, Son of God message to “Nowheresville” saying: the time is fulfilled, farmers, fishers, and you working poor, parents, traders, and builders, the realm and kingdom of God has come near to you – here I am – repent, and believe in the good news – for I am here, among you!  The gospel good news has arrived, says Jesus, renewing the covenant of God, the new covenant, shed and broken for you, on the margins of the more recognized structures of power, working a new thing. 

Was Jesus afraid of heading to Jerusalem now that they had just arrested his cousin John?  Was he being conscientious, or careful, to avoid arrest, himself?  Was Jesus only interested in doing some nice workshops with the powerless people?  Help make them feel better, amidst all the corruption taking place in Jerusalem, keep them hopeful, while not stirring things up too much?  Or will Jesus redefine the seat of power, and who and what has been anointed by God, redefine and restore those who are on the margins, those out in the cold, the un-invited, the oppressed? 


It’s not explicit yet, here in chapter one.  But we may remember the next story, which we read just a couple of weeks ago.  Jesus’ first encounter with a person, there in Galilee, on the margins, is a man who is demon-possessed.  And Jesus dispatches the evil spirit with a word, and saves the man’s life.  This is the first evidence we see of what happened out in the desert, past the margins, in Jesus’ risky and dangerous encounter with Satan and the powers of evil, in the kingdom of this world. 

Jesus, here in the gospel of Mark, is clear that his opponent, first and foremost, will continue to be Satan, and the power of evil, throughout his ministry; that one he encountered out past the bounds of our societal constructs, lurking, shadowy and unseen, the one who tempts us all.  Good people, like you and me, can and do, follow the tempter – some may even offer to lead us there, as well – even those in the very seat of the capital where we expect to find good people who should be doing good things, can at the same time be afraid of the wild beasts and bolster the evil ones grip on the kingdom of this world. 

Jesus and John gather their disciples, mostly out in the rural wilderness, on the margins: amongst the demon-possessed, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed; and among the repentant: tax collectors and prostitutes.  Jesus is manifesting the power of God, by restoring the health of the marginalized, and building up the structures of society under siege by Satan.  Jesus doesn’t cut health and Medicaid, or universities, or mental health services, or the children’s child care – as has been proposed this week for the State of Illinois.  But Jesus invests in them.  Jesus invites those on the margins, inside, and lifted them up, as deserving as anyone else.  He protects us from the dangers and wild beasts of the wilderness. 

Jesus made a new covenant with us.  In the waters of baptism we are made children of God, and at the table we drink of the cup, in remembrance of our salvation, and entrance into the Promised Land.  You who are marginalized and forgotten, I will bring you from slavery into freedom!  “The time is fulfilled, and kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe in the good news.” 
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Sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey, Light for the Journey

2/15/2015

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Readings for Transfiguration of the Lord, Feb 18, 2015

  • 2 Kings 2:1-12  
  • Psalm 50:1-6  
  • 2 Corinthians 4:3-6  
  • Mark 9:2-9

Light for the Journey, Sermon by Pastor Kinsey

It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey.  It’s true for us, as well as for the disciples, who walk with Jesus up the mountain of transfiguration, and back down again. 

As a young teen, my cousins and I, along with my dad and my uncle, did some mountain climbing, and spelunking, in New Mexico one summer.  I was secretly terrified, but I didn’t let on – or, at least I thought I hadn’t – when the eight of us were exploring a cave one day.  Entering the darkness, in the side of the mountain, was not, fun to me!  We had flashlights, but that did little to take away my anxiety.  Finally we came to what I thought was the end, and I got ready for us to turn around.  But, in the front of the pack, my brother found that there was a waist high opening, that looked deeper than our flashlights could reach, and that everyone else thought was just a thrilling discovery.  But here’s where I drew the line!  Nothing my siblings and cousins could say would convince me otherwise, and so they went on without me.  My dad and my uncle stayed back with me – they were too big to fit, anyway!  I sat there, more petrified than all the rocks surrounding us, and wouldn’t be budged to continue the journey.  And now, I was afraid for them, as well as for me, as I watched them crawl in one by one, on hands and knees!  We had to give them our flashlights, while the three of us, left behind, sat in darkness – which seemed like an eternity.  When they finally returned, and we made our way back out, it was still daylight, and now I was leading the pack, into the dazzling bright light which I was afraid I wouldn’t ever see again!  

Each person's spiritual journey is unique.  We have inner, and outer journeys; personal fears to conquer, and also shared paths, we travel. 

The Transfiguration of Jesus is actually the second revelation, or apocalypse, in Mark’s gospel.  The first was the baptism of Jesus, when the heavens were torn open to send the Holy Spirit like a dove on Jesus, accompanied by the heavenly voice, which defines the inner journey of Jesus, who alone hears the voice: you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased!  But this gift of the divine launches him out on his public journey.

Here on the mountaintop, where Jesus was transfigured, dazzling white, Peter and James and John are nearly speechless, for they were terrified, it says.  Who wouldn’t be!  But when Peter speaks up anyway (that’s Peter for you!), offering to build three dwellings, to codify this holy and wonderful moment in time, by making it a permanent high, a heavenly state, forever – the voice from above interrupts Peter, redirecting him, and speaks with very similar words to the baptismal apocalypse, this time for all to hear: This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!  And for once, Peter shuts up!

What does your inner journey look like?  Do you have a destination in mind, a goal?  Do you ever get the two confused – the journey and the destination?  As J.R.R. Tolkien said, “Not all those who wander are lost.”  A good reminder, I think, that the journey matters, as much as the destination – especially if we aim with purpose, if we know who, is the target of our wandering! 

Jesus was actually aiming for another mountain, Mt Zion, and Golgotha, towards the end of his journey, even as he invited his three closest disciples up the un-named mountain of Transfiguration, at this mid-way point of his journey.  So here, along the way Jesus is traveling, is this spectacular apocalyptic, pulling back of the curtain!  Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of Israel appear with Jesus, and were talking with him.  

Like Moses, Elijah is so close to God that he does not die before God calls Elijah back to God’s Self, on that fire-y chariot, pulled by the fire-y horses!  But the apocalyptic story of Elijah that I think is even more important for us today, is the time Elijah was so depressed, thinking his life’s work is all for naught, and that he alone among the faithful, is left, that he finds a deep, dark cave to hide in.  But the Lord God comes to Elijah: and first there was a great wind, breaking rocks into pieces, followed by an earthquake, and then a fire, but God was not in any of those fearfully spectacular signs.   But the LORD calls Elijah to the edge of the cave’s opening, and speaks in a still small voice, and reassures Elijah that God will leave a remnant, a faithful 7,000, which for Elijah, is a word of salvation and healing for him.  This voice of God, pulling back the veil, defines the journey, and the destination, for Elijah – his inner and outer journeys line-up – and he is ready to pass his mantle on to Elisha, and go where God calls him now, onto that heavenly, fire-y, chariot ride.  

“It is good to have an end to journey toward;” as Ernest Hemingway said, “but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” 

For the Apostle Paul, it’s all about the veil, on his journey.  When the Holy Spirit struck him with lightening, throwing him off his horse, blinding him, on his way to arrest still more Christians, Jesus turned Paul’s life around, saying, “why are you persecuting me Saul, and un-veiling a new path for the traveling Evangelist.  Later, after the scales had fallen from his eyes, and the veil is lifted, Paul wrote the Church in Corinth: “…if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel…”  Paul is talking about his discovery that, the Law – which once had given him life, and which was his great passion and love – has for him, been "hijacked by sin." 

Or in the words of Professor Carla Works: “It is as though the law turned on a flashlight in the darkness, but Christ has shone, daylight. And after seeing the world with the light of the sun, the limitations of the flashlight, though a wonderful tool, are obvious.”

Have you reached the light at the entrance to the cave?  Have you felt that moment of rejoicing?  Have you heard the still small voice of God?  Has the veil been lifted?  Each person's spiritual path is unique.  But the birthing of Christians, is a work of the Holy Spirit, to which the church community is like a midwife.  

These are dark times for this global community we live in.  People are afraid, of course, to find themselves in this cave of darkness, but also afraid to lift the veil, unsure of where, or who, is daylight, much less how to find a way out, with such a dimly lit flashlight.  Our inner spiritual journeys are not well connected to the call of God into the outer public world, which is necessary in forming a safe and healthy community.  People have become like the disciples, who scurry back down the mountain, excited about the revelation they’ve seen, but easily bored, or discouraged, to take responsibility for what the next step holds, content enough with the comforts of home, in a life that has become so busy, there’s no time to remember, and reflect, on where we’ve been.

But, in the bread broken and the wine poured, Jesus lives big, for us.  He is dazzling white, unafraid, unveiling and unmasking the powers we don’t see, that mess with our minds, and try to scatter us away from building up the trust needed, in community, wherein lies the power of the Holy Spirit, just waiting to be ignited.  

Jesus invites us to live big too.  Not to take on a savior complex, or to be Jesus ourselves, but to journey with courage, and to know the goal.  The goal is the dazzling white, that is God, all in all.  And the goal is the cross.  And it is there, in Mark’s gospel, on that dark and rocky Golgatha hill, where the third and final revelation, or apocalypse, happens.  But this time it is not God who breaks through to speak to us.  But it an outsider, like Paul; and like the blind man who receives his sight; and like the woman who touches Jesus’ cloak to be healed.  This time it is a Centurion, perhaps the one, who gave orders to his soldiers, to lift Jesus on to that cross, an enemy, who has the scales fall from his eyes, who sees the veil lifted, who drops his flashlight, because now he sees, the light of the world – and he says, there at the foot of the cross: “Truly, this was God’s Son.” 

Each person's spiritual path is unique.  But together we are all on the same journey to the same cross and resurrection.  The church community, like a midwife, gives birth to a life in Christ.
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Healing Plan for All, Pastor Kinsey

2/10/2015

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Readings for February 8, 2015 | Epiphany 5B
  • Isaiah 40:21-31  
  • Psalm 147:1-11, 20c  
  • 1 Corinthians 9:16-23  
  • Mark 1:29-39

Healing Plan for All, Pastor Fred Kinsey


[God] gives power to the faint,
                and strengthens the powerless, says the prophet Isaiah,
                they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
                they shall run and not be weary,
                they shall walk and not faint.\

 

Our God is an awesome God – don’t ya think!?!  Empowering us to fly like an eagle, even when we are weary.  Jesus comes to us as God’s anointed, to enact this kingdom and realm of God more fully.  In the public square and in people’s homes, Jesus liberates us from evil powers and cures the sick. 

 

I just wish we had a health care plan that reflected that! 

 

Just how important public health care can be, started to dawn on me some years ago, when it got personal, and my mother-in-law, on a limited income – having been divorced just as her fifth, and last child, had turned 18 – was now living with us.  And, before she was eligible for Medicare, but was working 2 part time jobs, neither of which offered health care, had to be hospitalized with a broken ankle.  The doctors and nurses were great, but the bills were astronomical, sort of like a cosmic joke.  They could sue her if they wanted, she concluded, but she didn’t have anything near valuable enough to cover that one simple request: payment due!  Thankfully, they accepted a small, monthly, token of a payment.  Much later I discovered there was a law, part of COBRA, requiring that people not be turned away in an emergency, regardless of insurance or ability to pay, whether at the time of the emergency, or in the future.  But not everyone is as lucky as my mother-in-law.  The COBRA rider is applied in different ways, in different communities, and not always fairly, or timely.  The ability to pay was an often repeated story though, when we lived in rural Upper Michigan, amongst a very impoverished community. 

 

But, it was always an honor to be asked into so many different hospital rooms in those days, young and old, facing a slew of various ailments, and to be the shaman-pastor of healing, for patient, and family alike.  Many were lifted up, by the power of God, and returned to normal or renewed lives.  Some we prayed out, into death and resurrection. 

 

I remember Bill Koppenen, our Council President, and, a former Mining Union President, in and out of the hospital so many times in the final years of his life, as he slowly lost his breath, to black lung disease.  Little Travis – now in college – who in his preteen years contracted Blasto-mycosis, a rare fungal infection, most likely from rotting trees out in the woods where he played.  He went undiagnosed for weeks and was so sickly, it nearly took him from us.  But finally, transferred to the UW-Madison hospital, specialists were able to figure it out, and treat him.  I remember Gladys, also in and out of the hospital, as long as we knew her, for undiagnosed illnesses, but that all her relatives told us, was for a well-deserved respite from her unbearable husband! 

 

Jesus leaves the public space of the synagogue, in today’s gospel story – where he has exorcised an evil spirit and freed a man to live a new life – only to walk into Peter’s mother-in-law’s house, looking for a little respite himself.  But, as Jesus is settling into Peter’s Lazy-boy, Peter discovers his mother-in -law is sick in bed with a fever.  Which might not sound like much to us, but, pre-antibiotics, and pre-measles medication, it was a life threatening illness.  At once, Jesus is pressed into action again.  And taking her by the hand, Jesus lifted her up.  Then the fever left her, and she is made well. 

 

And still, “at sundown,” when the Sabbath day had ended, “they brought more, all who were sick or possessed with demons,” to Jesus.  “And the whole city was gathered around the door.  And he cured many …”  This is an oft repeated formula for the way Jesus heals in the gospel of Mark.  And always, it’s the people in some way or fashion who come to Jesus.  Jesus never appears to go out in search of people that need curing; they find him.

 

Why is it that Jesus is a magnet for the people?  If there were, many healers in those days – as scholars of all stripes agree – what is the universal appeal of Jesus?  Even in neighboring towns where people hadn’t yet met him, why did they come to him?  Did he appear to them as a doctor carrying a black bag and stethoscope?  In our compartmentalized world, it’s hard to get out of this medical box, and think bigger. 

 

But remember last week’s story – when Jesus exorcised the evil spirit and saved the man – how the people praised Jesus for teaching with authority, how he was different from the teachers they had known?  Jesus, was much more than a healer.  He was a teacher, and preacher, and exorcist, and prophet, and a liberator, and ultimately, he was a savior. 

 

If we remember the story of the Exodus, for example, as a story of the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, we homogenize God’s power and action in the world.  Exodus, is the story of liberation from slavery, and the gracious gift of a Promised Land.  In other words, why are we so enamored with miracle stories that betray our own understanding of the natural world, and yet are so quick to forget the deeper transformational meaning of God’s actions in our social and cultural lives we live together?  How is our faith affected by this constricted interpretation?

 

Raising the mother-in-law of Simon Peter, is not just an act of healing, like getting over the flu, but it is a powerful action of God’s love for all people in need of healing and wholeness.  And that is faith building and faith forming!  For Peter and the families of Capernaum, a fever meant a disability that leads to unemployment and impoverishment, changing the fate of families and community.  Disease and sickness were an inseparable part of the cycle of poverty, for the vast majority of working people. 

 

So, how’s your health care plan working today?  Even with the good intentions of Obama’s Affordable Care Act – and almost 10 million more have health care because of it – still not everyone is covered, and wouldn’t be, even if political opposition to it, ended tomorrow.  America, the richest nation in the world, is way down the list of countries in providing adequate health care.  We’re not even in the top ten!  Not in the top 20; not in the top 30!  We’re 38, according to the U.N., behind pretty much every industrialized economy, and a few poor ones too.  Who pays the price?  The middle class and working poor, while an unnecessary corporate-middleman Health Care Industry, is getting rich. 

 

Jesus offers a universal plan, of whole health, well-being, and salvation care, a prevention plan as a human right.  He doesn’t just talk the talk, but he walks the walk.  And so, after an evening of curing many who were sick with various diseases, and casting out many demons, Jesus rises very early in the morning, while it was still very dark, to go to a deserted place.  And there he prayed, to restore his strength, and his soul, for the journey ahead.  The disciples had to hunt him down to find him, desperate, because many more were searching for him.  But Jesus did not come to be the local doctor, honorable as that is, but Jesus came to announce to the whole world the good news: that God had come very near, to inaugurate a new age of healing, wholeness, and peace, for all people – not just the rich, like the Herodians and leaders at the top of the hill in Jerusalem’s Temple – but to the whole creation that God made for us. 

 

Jesus, walking the walk, gets going down the road, with his growing band of followers, on to the neighboring towns, in order to lift us up on eagle’s wings, to give power to the faint-hearted, and to strengthen the powerless. 

 

We shall run and not be weary.  We shall walk and not faint!
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Healing Plan for All, Sermon by Pastor Kinsey

2/10/2015

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Sunday Feb 1, 2015 Sermon, Pastor Kinsey

2/2/2015

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Readings for Epiphany 4B/February 1, 2015, Annual Meeting of the Assembly
  • Deuteronomy 18:15-20  
  • Psalm 111  
  • 1 Corinthians 8:1-13  
  • Mark 1:21-28


Food for Celebration, by Pastor Fred Kinsey
I can't wait till Fat Tuesday when we have our traditional household Mardi Gras meal before Lent begins: Giordano's Stuffed Spinach pizza!  O boy, I'm telling you, for the feast before the fast, that's the way to go.  Every neuron receptor of my brain’s olfactory-lobe, is shouting for joy as I lick my lips and chew with vigor and glee.  That perfect combination of salty mozzarella and Romano cheeses melted around fresh spinach, with that not too sweet, basily tomato sauce, and flakey, done to perfection, crust!  Umh!  I know you can taste it!

Sure, it is a bit of a cheese bomb!  But that's the point, right?!  Fat Tuesday! 

Well, with much the same delight, I'm looking forward to our potluck meal after worship today where the feast continues with our fellowship and food downstairs.  Today the feast is Chicken and Ham, with green bean and kale salads, breads and potatoes au gratin, cucumber sandwiches, red curry rice, along with some kind of fantastic deliciously-rich desserts, I’m hoping! 

I don't know about you, but this is not my normal, everyday diet!  But for a special, once a year, gathering, I'm all in!  Bring it on! 

So, what is today's diet?  For some, it’s the Atkins diet, or it's more recent iterations, the Paleolithic diet, the caveman diet, the Stone Age diet, and the hunter-gatherer diet.  Or, for others it’s basically the opposite, a vegetarian or vegan diet that allows for some carbohydrates.  Some diets are for losing weight, fast, some slowly over time.  Others recognize the need to make their diet an everyday meal plan.  Some people are more, economic vegetarians – choosing vegetables over meat because of cost, and buying locally – as opposed to environmental vegetarians – who seek to live in harmony with the earth, and to buy vegetables from organic and sustainable farming, or a spin-off group, who allow themselves to eat meat occasionally, usually from non-industrial, or range-free, meat production, who call themselves, “flexitarians”.  

But St. Paul's issue with meat was different.  In fact, in our culture today we don't have the issue the Corinthians had, which is, whether or not to eat meat that has been sacrificed as an offering to one of the many Hellenistic gods, or idols.  Paul doesn't have a problem with killing animals for food, as far as we know – so, he may fall somewhat closer to the caveman diet, you might say.  But Paul's real issue is, how to respect and protect, the new faith of those who have joined the church he founded in the city of Corinth, the quintessential pagan city of the Mediterranean.  Some of these new believers have just recently come to understand and confess the one God, through Christ Jesus, and have courageously renounced the pantheon of many gods.  So they are still very close to the culture of Hellenism, which is always, all around you, in Corinth, and it is different for them, than it is for Paul, who grew up Jewish.  In order for the Corinthians to separate themselves from idol worship, and start a new life in Christ, they’ve renounced their former diet of meat offered to a pantheon of gods in Corinth, which they had just recently been praying to.

Paul knows that because the one God is sovereign, he sees no power at all in the statues of gods here, there and everywhere in Corinth.  Whether you eat the meat that's been sacrificed to these gods or not, has no effect, Paul knows.  And yet, he says, this knowledge “puffs up, but love builds up.”

There is a greater issue at work here, says Paul, the law of love!  Knowledge is one thing, a good thing even, but love is the overarching principle, especially in community.  And for Paul, he never conceives of a fellow believer as an independent individual, one who would make decisions that involve him or herself, only.  For Paul, we are first and foremost, involved in a community, enmeshed in a network of relationships, formed by our interconnectedness, as, the Body of Christ.  We must take into account how our behavior, influences the behavior of others. 

At this point, you may be wanting to walk out, seeing how un-American this must all sound!  And considering this is Super Bowl Sunday, after all, when we practice our own particular brand of community, getting together with friends to celebrate however we want to.  No one’s going to tell me how, or how not to, do it.  If I want to pig out on guacamole and beer, I will!  If I want to eat 5 buckets of hot chicken wings – or even, meat sacrificed to the gods of football, I can, and I will! 

Personally, I like to tie my feasting and fasting to religious holidays, but if the Super Bowl means something important to you – as long as it’s not destructive of self or others – go for it! 

But what Paul found in his community of faith, is that the good of the community comes before anything else.  So Paul would not eat meat sacrificed to idols, because he didn’t want to injure a brother or sister, even though, personally, he believed doing so would have no consequence in his relationship with God. 

In this view, being members of the Body of Christ, part of the same local parish or congregation, takes on a level of responsibility to one another.  If an injustice is happening to a brother or sister in the faith, or anywhere in the community, we as the Body of Christ must do everything we can, out of love for the other, for the whole, to protect and speak up for them. 

When Jesus comes to the fishing town of Capernaum where Peter and Andrew live, and they go to worship on the Sabbath, he speaks up for the whole community, that evil powers are trying to prevent God’s realm, God’s power, and God’s people, from transforming the world, Jesus came to save.  The man with an unclean spirit knows him, and that he is, the Holy One of God.  Even the 12 disciples haven’t had the insight to confess that yet!  The leaders from Jerusalem, the scribes, don’t want Jesus to bring this new kingdom either, which will mean a big change for them.  But Jesus represents the restoration of God’s order, God’s kingdom – so he speaks up.  He does not destroy the man with the unclean spirit, as the man fears he will, but Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit, silencing its voice, and exorcizing it out, so the man – the human – can be liberated, and made free.  The unclean Spirit’s will no longer control God’s people, Jesus makes clear.  He has come, that humans, and all creation, may be saved.  And, that’s just in the 1st chapter of Mark! 

When we live together in community, we make it a priority, and stick up for one another, to save each other from harm, without doing harm.  Jesus shows that we must be proactive about this.  Don’t think for a minute that the power of evil is not capable of walking in the door at any time.  And so – by training – we are to be ready, with the weapons of love. 

Today we give thanks for another year together at Unity Lutheran Church, a community that looks out for one another, speaks out proactively against the powers of evil in our community, our city, and our world, and courageously love one another, even our enemies.  We Gather every Sabbath to give thanks for that unity that we have, we faithfully hear God’s Word, are strengthened with the Meal at Christ’s table, and gladly are Sent out once again, to be lights to the world, and proclaimers of God’s liberation. 

The church is God’s people, we feast together, and we fast together, and we give thanks in all things, as we learn to put love and community first.
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