“A More Excellent Way”       2013

1 Cor. 12:1, 27-31, 13:1-3, 13     Luke 13:10-17

 1 Cor. 12:1, 27-31, 13:1-3, 13

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

 

Luke 13:10-17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

 

Back when I was a high school student, I think around 1970,

            the whole school was gathered for an assembly in the gym,

                        and a speaker came to talk to us about world hunger,

                                    and about something called, ‘The Walk For Mankind’.

 

               We were encouraged to sign up and get people to pledge money

                        for each mile that we walked along the 21 mile course.

  The money we raised was to help feed the impoverished and hungry

      in some of the world’s most desperate and starving places.

 

The speaker explained the incredible number of starving people,

            and described how we could help do something about it,

                        and be part of making a real difference in the world.

 

I was just starting to take my faith seriously, and feeding à

          the poor and hungry seemed like a very Christian thing to do,

                   and so I was thrilled to be putting my faith into action.

 

But things are rarely that easy or clear in life ---

            there are always at least two sides, always some detractors.

 

One of the elders at church had some concerns about it.

            He objected to the walk being held on a Sunday,

                        for surely it could be sometime other than the Sabbath,

                                    because certainly we ought to be attending worship,

                                           rather than being out on a walk in the community.

He just didn’t see that as appropriate or holy   on the Sabbath.

 

I really did want to be a faithful Christian, and so I struggled --

                        - should I attend church as usual,

                                    or be a part of trying to feed the world’s hungry?

            I wanted to get it right.

                        What would Jesus do?, and what did God want me to do?

 

As a teenager,

          that required some pretty intense theological reflection –

                so I talked to other Christians, prayed and read my Bible…

**                                … and this Luke 13 passage helped me decide.

 

The story begins with Jesus at a synagogue on the Sabbath.

  vs. 11

            And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.

               

The way Luke tells the story,

            and the way he describes the woman’s condition,

                        the emphasis is not so much on her disease itself,

                                    but rather, on the results, that bent over,

                                                she is a captive, or in bondage to her ailment…

            … so when Jesus heals her,

                   it is described, as releasing her, or setting her free.

 

After 18 years, mostly nobody noticed or cared about this woman,

          but Jesus did, and Jesus saw her with mercy and compassion.

vs. 12-13

            When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.

 

This is the good news,

            Jesus saw her with mercy, and set her free.

               Jesus noticed her stooped over at the edge of the synagogue,

                        and without even asking,

                                    by grace, released her from her burden…

… that’s what Jesus does, that’s why coming to Jesus is good news!

 

It’s a simple healing story –

            Jesus sees the woman, he touches her

                        and he sets her free from the bondage of her ailment.

 

But there is more to this than just a simple miracle story.

          Luke takes this story a little deeper,

               Jesus uses this event to teach something more about God.

Continuing, vs. 13-14

    But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.”

 

Truth is, Jesus could have waited until sundown to heal her.

            Compared to eighteen years, what's just a few hours more…

                 - a minor delay until sundown

                             would have easily avoided the conflict & controversy.

 

Jesus was up to something and pushed this conflict for a reason.

            Turns out there were two people in the synagogue that day

                        who were both in bondage, and needing to be freed.

 

The first was the woman

            needing to be freed from the bondage of her ailment.

 

The other is a bit more subtle.

            The leader of the synagogue   was so bound by his rules,

                   that he couldn’t rejoice even when a woman was healed.

 

Something absolutely wonderful had just happened,

          and that cold-joyless religious leader had missed it

                   because he was looking in the wrong way ---

**        So why was the leader of the synagogue indignant,

                        instead of joining the woman and crowd in praising God?

 

The problem was with his understanding of God.

            He envisioned a harsh, angry and demanding God,

                        whose good has to be earned  by obedience to rules.

 

In contrast, consider the God Jesus knew and came to proclaim,

            - a father who rushes out to embrace his prodigal son;

                   - a shepherd who searches and carries home the lost sheep.

 

And because God loves us, the Sabbath celebrates God’s grace,

          and it’s not about joyless religion and endless rules.

In Exodus, the Israelites were freed from Egyptian slavery,

            and told to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.  That’s it.

 

In contrast to their bitter slave-life under Pharaoh,

            they were not to be productive every day of their lives:

                     because God loves us and has created this world

                            with abundance enough   that we are given a day of rest,

                                as a time to focus on the relationships of our lives.                           

 

Sabbath was given as a blessing from God for our benefit,

            but religious authorities turned it into human rules,

                        a legalistic bondage rather than a Sabbath celebration…

            … which as Jesus pointed out,

                  even the synagogue leader did not fully follow and obey.

vs. 15-16

            But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites!  Does not each of

you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?  And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

 

The hypocrisy was shameful, cold and obvious – to object that     

  Jesus healed, relieving this woman’s suffering on the Sabbath,

                        and yet they had no issue

                                   with caring for an ox or a donkey on the Sabbath.

 

To the religious authorities,

          Sabbath holiness meant obeying human rules and traditions,

                   but Jesus defined Sabbath holiness as compassion,

                       as a reflection of God’s gracious love and compassion.

 

Their conflict was not about whether to keep the Sabbath holy,

          but  how   to keep the Sabbath holy. à  à

 

Because we belong to God by love and by grace,

          our call is to reflect that love and grace we have received…

                                … and if those others do not matter to us,

                                      then our Christianity is missing the point.

           

The holiness God seeks is more than obedience to rules,

            because love, mercy and grace also matter,

*                      compassion and human needs   must be factored in…

… which means that our decisions and application of the rules

          must always be guided and tempered by love and compassion…

… as the Apostle Paul describes it 1 Cor.  13:1, 13

            If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. …  And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;  and the greatest of these is love.

 

Paul message was, everybody matters, everybody’s gift matters,

            everyone is important and necessary to the body of Christ,

                        so don’t miss out on the joy and purpose God intends,

                                    of our serving together in loving cooperation.

 

Paul wants us to know that we are all parts of the one body,

            and godly sacrificial love is the glue that is necessary

                        to hold the many wonderfully different parts together.

 

So Paul explains to the church at Corinth,  vs. 12:27,31

            Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it… strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

 

                             - so what is this           “still more excellent way” ?

vs. 1-3

            If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.              And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.              If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 

Love is the indispensable ingredient  and motivating foundation,

          upon which alone, gives worth and value and meaning

                   to all the other Christian gifts, ministries & tasks.

 

**  What is the God like that you serve?

                        - harsh demanding taskmaster like Pharaoh?,

                                    or the God of Exodus who loves and frees the slaves?

 

If I preach the finest sermon ever heard by mortals in pews,

            but if it’s not with love --- then my preaching matters not.

 

If I put in hours of endless Christian service and ministry,

            but do not love, then what is the point to what I have done?

 

It is not a case of love     instead of gifts and Christian service,

            or that we should bring to the Lord any less than our best,

    but if our gifts and good deeds are done without love,

          or are not love-offerings to build up the body of Christ,

                   then how can they really  honor or please the Lord God?

 

 

          Love is the context in which our offerings and service

                    become made pleasing, worthy,  and acceptable to God.

 

The Corinthian Christians were very talented and gifted.

    They probably worked very hard & were committed to their faith;

                        but Paul’s complaint was they were not

                                    living out    godly sacrificial Christian love.

 

This love that Paul is describing is very specific in the Greek.

            It’s a self-sacrificing active and practical love

                        that places the wants and welfare of others above self;

                that places your needs & interests ahead of my own,

                        and asks,  not what’s in it for me, but what can I give.

 

The point is, by striving to live Christ-like sacrificial love

    we learn to restrain our sinful-selfish ways and desires,

           as the Holy Spirit helps us become who He created us to be.

 

The critical question is pragmatic and simple,

            are we using our gifts and blessing from God   to build upà

               our fellow Christians, the church, the one body of Christ?,

                   and when someone has been with us, have they felt judged,

                      or have they felt the joy and gracious love of God?        

 

This kind of godly sacrificial love that Paul describes in 1 Cor. 13

            does not come naturally or easily to us,

                        and it is not some surface  warm and fuzzy feeling.

This kind of love is truly a lifetime

            of repeated repentance and getting back up when we fall.

 

* So how do we accomplish this goal of godly sacrificial love ?

 

It requires far more than just our human will power, andà

    even with fervent desire it doesn’t happen easily or overnight.

It is a life-long spiritual journey

          toward the joy and grace that God intends for us to live.

 

            It is a growing consciousness of God’s grace and presence

                        at work in our lives and in the world around us,

                             as we turn aside from that which is not of the Lord.

 

One of my Sunday School teachers decided that squirmy little boys

            might pay attention and listen better

                        if he could find a way to keep our active hands busy.

            Since his hobby was carving things out of wood,

                        during his Bible lesson he gave us each

                                    a cut-out of a small duck for us to whittle.

 

And his instructions were simple:

          “Just sit there, be quiet and listen and gradually

                    carve away everything that doesn’t look like a duck.”

 

This is also excellent advise for a life of growing discipleship…

            … learn to be quiet and listen, reflect on our lives,

                        on the things we say and do, our feelings and attitudes,

                              and much like whittling a duck out of a block of wood,

   --  gradually cut away everything that doesn’t look like love.

 

As Paul writes 1 Corinthians 12:1, 31, 13:13

            Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed… strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.  And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.