“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
I have been utterly amazed at the ability and faithfulness of God in making me new. No matter what stage of my life and what difficulties I have been in, God has the right answer for what I need. A new mentor, a different job, anything. I have learned to focus on God’s new plan.
Dear God, help us all to focus on Your plans. Amen.
-Barb Cheyney
“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13
It was 2005. My former husband Jon was serving his first parish in Minnesota, and things were imploding. Instead of dealing with frustration constructively, several people decided to make life so hellish for me that I stopped attending worship there and would just go to the church in town instead. (Jon’s parishes were out in the fields.) Other people were trying to get the dysfunctional people to behave, and one of them uttered the following:
“We’ll all be really shiny when this is all over.”
That saying has stuck with me in the last 16 years. We did eventually leave that parish and went to a slightly healthier place (at the time), but life has not stopped throwing curveballs. In the time since, I’ve had a child, had that child almost die several times, got a divorce, and fought with my own health issues… and I can say that the testing has made me “shinier” as a result.
Lord, help us to remember that you are with us in the midst of the things that test us. Amen.
-Jen McCabe
“We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.” -1 Corinthians 10:9
If any of you are reading this verse and wondering what in the daylights the Apostle Paul is talking about, let me explain: In the Book of Numbers, the Israelites were getting cranky about it taking *FOREVER* to get to the Promised Land, and they decided to do that thing they always did where they whined about how God brought them into the wilderness to die, there was no food or water, and they hate the manna that God sent them to eat so they wouldn’t starve. God responded by sending venomous snakes (most likely, Daboia palaestinae) to bite them. A lot of Israelites died, likely due to neurotoxic manifestations from a phospholipase A2 found in the venom. The people went to Moses, told him that they were sorry for whining, and asked him to please tell God to take away the snakes. Moses prayed for the people, and God told him to make a serpent of bronze, put it on a pole, and tell everyone with a snakebite to look at it for healing.
Are we all caught up? Good!
The point that Paul is trying to make is to not test God. He gives a bunch of examples of Israel doing stupid things that ended badly for them. The issue in question for Paul, if you read further in this chapter, is idolatry. Israel messed up repeatedly in worshipping idols and turning away from God, causing God to allow Israel to be conquered. (The Book of Judges has this as a common theme.) Paul wants the church in Corinth to know that eating meat sacrificed to idols is no bueno, and they should not be testing God’s patience on the subject. It will not work out well.
So, how do all of you think we test God today? Is it complaining about “having nothing” when God has provided us everything that we need in life? Is it thinking that one little sin is OK and then having it snowball into a bigger issue?
While you’re pondering this? I think I’ll go watch Viperkeeper play with his snakes…
God, we know that we screw up at these things all the time, and we thank you for picking us up and dusting us off when we fall. Amen.
-Jen McCabe
“…but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” –1 Corinthians 10:13b
In this time of plague and inflamed passions, I have found it difficult to stay centered. It’s partly my fault because I doom scroll regularly even though the negativity collects in my soul like a ball of dryer lint. The unspoken tension pervading every gathering, even when others are masked and vaxxed, slowly eats at my spirit. Sometimes I feel as if I were walking on shifting sands, still upright, but unsteady. Maybe this really is “the ends of the ages.”
Recently, I developed a simple rule of life for myself. The process of forming the rule really helped to stabilize me as it required that I disengage from all the drama and connect with the spiritual. The rule itself now serves as a guide I can use to help regain my equilibrium whenever it starts to wobble. But it’s not a “get out of jail free” card or a magic pill. I have to make the effort every day to live into the intentions I have outlined there. Life is full of “testing,” challenging one’s ability to remain faithful to the way of Christ. My rule is a strong support and a reason for joy.
Even though I wrote the words, re-reading the rule refreshes my spirit and encourages me with sparks of positive energy. So, for example, my rule reminds me to be aware of God’s presence in all things and have faith even in darkness; to act with compassion and try to make someone’s life a little better this day; to extend, without over-extending, my God-given time, talent and treasure; and to know that I am loved by God.
God has unquestionably provided a “way out” by offering me the opportunity to form the rule of life and blessing me with people who support me in living it. Centered in this, I can live in this world, endure the testing and release the fears that previously vexed me.
Thanks to the One who steadies my walk in the way of the Christ, who gives me guides along the way, and who is ever faithful in light and dark. Amen.
-Carol Treston
“… these things happened to [ancient Israelites] as an example, and they were written for our instruction …” – 1 Corinthians 10:11
I have almost always been invisible. It is my super-power. I have gone through life and cannot, for the life of me, recall a time when anyone ever pointed at me and said (to anyone else): You should be more like him, or try not to ever be like him. I have never been bad enough to be made a bad example; I’ve never been great enough to be made a good example. I have just gone through life trying as best I can to do what needs doing with as little fuss or muss as possible. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ve done plenty of things for which I’m ashamed, but I have been simultaneously lucky enough not to have been seen or caught. Invisibility truly is my super-power.
One of the things I have always appreciated about the Hebrew people, though, is that they don’t seem to have tried hiding things for which they should be ashamed. They whined in the wilderness, they engaged in idolatry, they wanted to be like their neighbors, and then complained when getting what they wanted did not give them what they’d hoped to gain or achieve. They are so human. Even the things they did well, such as overcoming adversity through luck, deceit, or trickery (and occasionally brute force) more often than not led them to, ultimately, acknowledge their dependence on God. They may not have wanted to be made examples to the world, but they kept their writings honest enough to be of value. Their visibility was their super-power, and I need to embrace that more in my own life if I ever want things to be truly well with my soul.
God, things happen. Ranchers know it. I know it. You know it. To hide the events of our lives under a bushel does not allow our light to shine, that others may see and learn from our example. The best news of all is that there is nothing we can do or have done that will separate us from the love you have for us. Help me expose your grace so that others may come to have confidence in you and your love. Amen.
-Fr. Keith Axberg
“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13b
This entire text is difficult to hear. I’m willing to wager that most preachers are like me, reluctant to take on a text like this for comment before a captive Sunday congregation, as it draws on an ancient text of the Hebrew Scriptures portraying God dealing out death and sickness as punishments for misbehavior. Episcopalians are not known for threatening congregations with a god of vengeance, and for that I thank God.
I have four hundred words available to me here, and so I’ll dispense with the harder stuff and get to my point, which is that Paul is here exhorting the believers in Corinth to a life of sacrificial love.
This text in a larger context shows us Paul teaching the Corinthian congregation that participation in the Eucharist obligates them to imitate the self-giving of Christ toward them, giving themselves to others in love and service. This letter to them begins with Paul pointing out how badly their practice falls short of this standard and calls them to this high standard. And let’s take his point. Who really wants to live in a world without sacrificial love?
Comedian Stephen Colbert recently summarized this essential Christian teaching. Having put his guest Dua Lipa on the spot to reverse roles with him, she responded brilliantly with a question to him:
Dua Lipa: Does your faith and your comedy ever overlap? And does one ever win out?
Colbert’s response included this statement:
Stephen Colbert: I’m a Christian and a Catholic and that’s always connected to the idea of love and sacrifice being always related, and giving yourselves to other people, and that death is not defeat if you can see where I’m getting at there.
Here is the interview if anyone wants to see it:
The essential truth of Christian faith is that God in Christ gives God’s own self to us in love and sacrifice. This gift of God is for the greatest sinner as well as the greatest saint. God always approaches us in mercy, evoking our response of love and gratitude and our willingness to give ourselves to others.
Christian life is a life of spiritual and moral challenge therefore, since sacrificing for others and loving others is hard. It will put us to the test. So I find comfort in Paul’s reminder that God is faithful to us, and will patiently assist our growth along this path.
Holy One, in Christ you have made it clear that there is no one beyond the reach of your love, and you ask me to walk in the way of his sacrificial love. That’s hard, O God, on some days more than others. Sometimes other folks irritate me, and there are times when I’ve been hurt. Help me to acknowledge that others may feel the same way about me. Help me on those days when it’s the hardest, and help me to trust that you’re always giving me the chance to try again. Amen.
-Fr. Jonathan Weldon