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1 Corinthians 7:29-31
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Seventeen years ago, I experienced my first Lenten journey in an Episcopalian parish. I was in my second year as a seminarian and getting the opportunity, thanks to the new Full Communion Relationship, to be a Lutheran amongst Episcopalians. Little did I know then that this would be the laying of a foundation that would find me years later as an Episcopalian priest.
Like a number of Episcopalians, we began that Lenten jouney with one of the most stereotypical preparation events for Lent. We had a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner. 93 people showed up that night. On the following evening, 33 people came for the first Mass of Lent.
The dear English priest under whose supervision I was serving lost his usual English calm demeanour the following Sunday. He reminded them of Jesus' challenge to those who came seeking him after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 plus in John 6. In that challenge, Jesus says:
"Do not work for the food that perishes, but
for the food that endures to eternal life..."
I thought back to that moment as I pondered these few short verses from Paul that are the Epistle for this Sunday.
In this reading from Paul's first letter to the Church at Corinth, the apostle gives a challenge that sounds a lot like Jesus in John 6. Paul has a sense of urgency that mirrors Mark, who in today's Gospel and in the whole of his Gospel loves to use the word, "Immediately." Mark's Gospel happens with great speed and urgency.
Remember that Paul for much of his life did not believe that he would experience the death of the body but rather would be alive for the return of the victorious Christ risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, coming again to usher in the eternal Kingdom of God. It's this sense of immediacy which drives Paul to write these few verses that may easily sound rather strange to our modern ears.
The fact that these words were written nearly 2,000 years ago may take away the urgency of Paul for us. And yet I tell you that we should not loose that urgency, for to loose that urgency is to forget that we are speaking of God's time and are called to be focused on that which shall not pass away but endures forever.
We have an identity that never passes away. We are now and ever shall be the children of God. The enduring relationship that binds us together is that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow heirs of the promises of God in which God has claimed us forever. Paul addresses the Corinthians and us in that enduring relationship. And when he says that those who have wives (and husbands too, though Paul does not directly speak to those who have husbands), that they should be as though they had none, he is not advocating for the neglect of these persons to whom his audience is bound. What he is reminding us is that chiefly our wives and our husbands are our sisters and brothers, and above all else we ought to relate to each other in the terms of this everlasting relationship rooted in relationship with Jesus. In other words, friends, the apostle is challenging us as Church to be an enduring family that strive for the eternal.
When we remember that, the rest of the words of the apostle in this reading make sense. Paul calls those who mourn to look beyond their mourning and embrace the enduring truth that for those we love but see no longer, life is changed, not ended. Our loved ones whom we no longer see continue to be our living brothers and sisters, and in the knowledge of their eternal life, we rejoice.
Paul tells us when we rejoice to be as those who are not rejoicing, for as yet we see the promise of eternal live veiled in the temporal nature of this life. Here and now we believe by faith and not yet by sight. And when we are mindful of this, we as Christians are those who long for the veil to be removed and to have our faith confirmed by sight. On the day when we shall see Christ by sight, and know our brothers and sisters to be alive eternally by sight, we will rejoice with a joy that eternity itself cannot contain or consume.
Paul tells us to buy without possesions, without means to purchase. This reminds me of the beautiful and confortable words of the prophet Isaiah who, speaking in the name of God, says:
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come,
buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price."
From a temporal view, this makes no sense whatsoever. Never in human history has buying without price and without money made sense! We know well in our temporal world that if we have no money, we are not purchasing anything.
In the midst of this senselessness, we hear again the challenge of Paul which is above all the challenge of Jesus: "Do not strive for what is passing away but for what endures eternally." When we strive for the eternal, we are encountered by the grace of Jesus who has "paid it forward" for us and given us the ability to buy without money and without cost. And when we are so focused on that grace, our whole lives and all of our relationships are transformed in ways that words cannot express.
How we need that transformation! We may not understand Paul's urgency in terms of the return of Christ. And yet we need that urgency, for the temporal can be taken away from us with lightning speed. And if we are not focused on that which never passes away, we are left with nothing when the temporal fades away. But if even today we are focused on the eternal, we have all that we need even if all temporal things should be taken away from us this very day.
As Lent draws near, and as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the eternal victory of Jesus, let us remember that even now, we are the children of God, and then let us act accordingly, both for our good, and the good of all for whom Christ laid down his life in love to call us from the shortness of this life to the enduring and eternal loving presence of our God.
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The Rev'd Father Timothy Alleman
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