God saw that it was good.
That’s the refrain, the returning theme, of the whole story of creation.
God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good.
I find it easy to see that goodness when I look at the beauty of our gardens, the stars, the extraordinary variety of animals and plants, and moments of love and generosity between people.
But looking across the world, at everything…. Well, these days I see the devastation of viruses and violence, uncertainty and discord, and it gets harder to see the goodness of creation. Very hard, sometimes, to imagine that God can look at us now and see good, let alone very good.
But looking across the world, at everything…. Well, these days I see the devastation of viruses and violence, uncertainty and discord, and it gets harder to see the goodness of creation. Very hard, sometimes, to imagine that God can look at us now and see good, let alone very good.
My perspective these days feels a lot more like Paul, in the throes of his conflict with the church in Corinth, than the perspective of God looking at fresh and full creation.
You see, “super-apostles” have come to Corinth since Paul left, boasting that they’ve got a new and better gospel to share, that their way is the best way and Paul is wrong. They are, it seems, stirring up division and discomfort in the community – Paul writes that he’s expecting to come back to a church full of “quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder.”
(Sounds like Paul’s expectations of Corinth are much like what you and I might expect from Twitter or the nightly news!)
Paul pours out his frustration and anger, putting his hope in Christ, yes, but just about ready to write off his Corinthian friends as hopeless. And then, after pages of “you’re doing this wrong” and “I’m right but I won’t brag about it,” he suddenly seems to change tone:
(Sounds like Paul’s expectations of Corinth are much like what you and I might expect from Twitter or the nightly news!)
Paul pours out his frustration and anger, putting his hope in Christ, yes, but just about ready to write off his Corinthian friends as hopeless. And then, after pages of “you’re doing this wrong” and “I’m right but I won’t brag about it,” he suddenly seems to change tone:
“Finally, rejoice. Repair the broken, be whole, be encouraged, be of one mind, live in peace….”
What we heard today – Paul’s final words to that hot mess of a church in Corinth – proclaim a vision of that same church as a healthy, whole, unified community.
In almost the same breath as his cranky, exasperated scolding, Paul blesses that hot mess of a congregation with all the characteristics and gifts of God as Christ, Almighty, and Spirit. Paul blesses them in the name and the image of the Holy Trinity, calling them to share the characteristics of God the Three-in-One: shared purpose, a sense of completeness together, a peace that is a deeply mutual trust in one another.
I need to hear that right now. I want that for our world. Maybe you do, too.
Paul’s not interested in why we can’t all just get along. He doesn’t want differences suppressed and a cease-fire called “peace” papered over the divisions in the community. He’s calling the messed-up, confused, divided, and kind of selfish and greedy community in Corinth to be the image of God. To live as God lives: in deep, peace that can take on controversy and difference and hold all that in a healing trust; and a sense of shared dependence on one another that means we go forward together, not apart. He calls us to live in mutuality that feels one another’s pain as our own – the way Creator and Spirit are fully present in Jesus’ agony at the cross – and feels one another’s growth and joy and strength as our very own, the way the creativity of creation and the joy of resurrection belong to Father, Son, and Spirit in equal measure.
It’s easy for me – and maybe for many of you – to look around our nation and world today and see much of what Paul saw in Corinth: “quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder.”
It’s easy to look at strangers on TV or the internet, or at our friends and neighbors, and be upset that the people who are supposed to be Christians are following bad teachers of all kinds. Easy to see and be hurt by the division that comes from too many teachers or leaders peddling their own rightness, their own slant on the truth.
Paul sees all that in the church in Corinth, and also sees – wants us to see – the image of God in one another and ourselves. Paul sees the division, and at the same time sees the truth that we were created to be united in our differences. To reflect the three-in-oneness of God and depend on each other in deep, mutual, inseparable trust. To find our life in the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit.
Now, some of us are able to see God’s goodness in the world around us all the time. Some of us never lose sight of ourselves and every other human being – enemies, strangers, politicians, and crowds on TV as well as beloved friends – as the image of God, created very good.
Others of us need help to see as God sees. We need Paul’s bi-focals, able to show us the image of God even as we look division and controversy straight in the face.
So Jesus gives us that.
Speaking to a much reduced and rather doubtful congregation of worshippers, in the uncertain days after his resurrection, Jesus gives them a truth, a command, power and presence that have been considered the “mission of the church” for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Speaking to a much reduced and rather doubtful congregation of worshippers, in the uncertain days after his resurrection, Jesus gives them a truth, a command, power and presence that have been considered the “mission of the church” for hundreds and hundreds of years.
“All authority in heaven and earth is given to me” he tells them: a truth assuring us that evil does not rule the world, no matter what it looks like. So we know that we will be able to see good when we look.
“So go and disciple” – a command to welcome people into the image of the Father, Son, and Spirit – “and teach” – the power to be like Jesus in showing people how to live like God. So we know it can be done.
“Behold, I am with you always, to the end.” Not just a promise, or a suggestion, but the whole presence of God, Trinity and unity, every where and every when that we are. So we know we don’t do it alone.
“So go and disciple” – a command to welcome people into the image of the Father, Son, and Spirit – “and teach” – the power to be like Jesus in showing people how to live like God. So we know it can be done.
“Behold, I am with you always, to the end.” Not just a promise, or a suggestion, but the whole presence of God, Trinity and unity, every where and every when that we are. So we know we don’t do it alone.
We aren’t sent off into the sunset to preach and teach and welcome on our own, but carried in the creative, healing, life-giving power and presence of God as Father, Son, and Spirit. Our power to heal and teach, to bring others into their identity as the image of God, to be that image ourselves, comes from our relationship to God, with us always.
It’s not always easy to see that when we look at the news. It’s easy, often, to see ourselves as powerless and disconnected, uncertain how to share this world with people who seem so different from us – people who seem or even are dangerous to us.
And yet God sees the same world, the same us, as deeply connected, able to share one another’s joys and hurts as our own, the good image of God with God’s help – not on our own.
So Paul – and Jesus, and God as Creator and Spirit – all invite us to learn to look that way, to look for God’s good image in the stranger and the enemy and the neighbor and the friend and know we will see it.
To look and see how our hearts are connected to every other heart in God’s creation,
how we, like Father, Son, and Spirit are eternally and always one.
To look, and feel ourselves strengthened by one another’s strength - and God’s. Feel our pain and joy shared and held in love, by one another and by God. To live in that deep peace of God’s shared heart: the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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