More Thinking Like Jesus
This last week or so was a busy one. We had the Juneteenth Celebration at St. Paul’s, our first Summer Hang Out at the Sandbox, Onwards & Upwards on Sunday, and a wild power-knocking-out storm (the church lost a few roof shingles…not too bad!). What a week!
I want to remind you that this Sunday is our next All In New Members Class. If you’re thinking of becoming a member at Central, looking to learn more about the church and membership, or want to hear more about how things work around here, please do come to the class. It’ll be from 11:00 to about 12:30. If you are planning on coming, please let me know asap! Childcare will be available if you need it (just make sure to let me know).
And speaking of membership in the church…right now, in our Central Reads bible reading plan, we are reading, perhaps, the letter on the ins and outs of church membership: First Corinthians.
If you ever think we (as a church) have problems, read this letter!!!
The reason I love First Corinthians is because the church in Corinth had ALL the problems (and so it should make us feel better!), and Paul utilizes his creative theological thinking to address them – from Jesus, outwards. It’s an amazing exercise in thinking Christ-centered (kind of like what I talked about on Sunday), and we have much to learn from the Corinthians and Paul’s dealing with them.
Division in the church…how can we reason with Jesus at the center of our thinking?
A guy sleeping with his mother in law…how can we think from Christ forward?
People not being considerate, showing others up in the church…how does thinking like Jesus change us?
Today’s reading includes the question: how should we use our bodies, i.e., our earthly, physical existence? And along with that, how should we think about our bodies? Are ‘our’ bodies even ours? Look at what Paul ends chapter 6 with:
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
Our bodies – and indeed, our whole lives – are a gift from God, and so according to Paul, ‘our’ bodies (and lives) are not truly ours. We belong, first and foremost, to God. We have a purpose: to be a temple – a house – for God’s Spirit to live within us, so that when people meet us, in a way, they come to God’s ‘house’ – and meet God.
According to Paul, we are to be the ‘place’ where people can meet God.
Amazing. Kind of scary. And incomparably dignifying.
Is there a higher calling?
Therefore, seeing ourselves as belonging to God first – we should live our lives ‘worthy’ (as Paul likes to say) of that awesome gift and calling. The question to ask ourselves is:
do we actually think like this?
…or do we think that we first belong to ourselves (so we can do whatever we want with our bodies…and our lives, time, resources, etc.)?
As I challenged you on Sunday: we need to know how to think like Jesus. This little snippet from First Corinthians is another example of how different that kind of thinking is. As you keep reading from First Corinthians – as well as the rest of the New Testament – the examples will keep coming up and, if we let them, keep hitting us in the face.
Thinking like Jesus is such a different way of thinking than we’re used to that Paul says it won’t do to just nibble around the edges. Instead, our entire minds have to be renewed – so that our entire lives may be transformed…and the only way that happens is when we present our lives as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2)…kind of like Jesus did (according to Philippians 2)…which is kind of (exactly) like what we’re taking about on Sunday…so, don’t miss this Sunday!