Practical Theology: February 2025

Monday, February 24, 2025

AfterWords: "These Three Remain...."

I Corinthians 13:13

Corinth[1]—

· Where the Lord’s Supper turns into an orgy

· Where the congregation cheers the fellow who moves in with his newly single stepmom

· Where the fascination with languages leads people to forget what’s being said

· Where steaks are not steaks—some are Jason’s best, and some are Aphodite’s or Apollo’s tainted portion

· Where spiritual gifts are a local competition instead of a shared ministry….

Corinth—In this city we find a gathering of Jesus People who merit not one, not two, but at least three letters. And, these letters are not brief, not simple. These long letters reflect and address the multicultural complexities of a rapidly growing metropolis. Paul does his best to herd the cats, I mean, the Christians of this vibrant center of commerce. He does his best to help them make sense of living this newfound faith fiercely pagan city.

Corinth—Like his Lord, Paul does his best to reduce things for them to the simplest ideas. Do you remember how Jesus does this?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Jesus provides this reduction for those striving to live within Judaism. Paul turns around and does the same favor for the Jews and Gentiles in Corinth who are trying to figure how to live the faith in their setting.

We don’t often notice that it’s a great reduction, and we seldom understand it clearly. You may recognize the words:

“These three remain: Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.”
(1 Cor. 13:13)

We usually think of these words as the culmination of the “Love Chapter,” but if we read carefully, this is the culmination of four chapters of guiding the Corinthians into mature living. In this one verse Paul reduces things down to these three—three ways of thinking and doing (they have nothing to do with feelings in the original Greek).

Faith—truly trusting in who God is and what God says…and living as if we truly trust. This is about not being afraid.
Hope—seeing where God is leading and trusting God to act but also taking steps in that direction. This is about rejecting determinism.
And, Love—deciding to selflessly live a life of loving-kindness towards others, to sacrifice self that others might have life. This is about rejecting self-centeredness.

Paul had seen his Lord do these things, and Paul followed in his steps.

Perhaps what we need today in our own exploding, multicultural cities and towns is to hold on to these three eternal foundations of life in Christ—faith, hope, and love, and may we hold on to them as desperately as did the early Corinthians.

And now, may “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (II Cor. 13:14) be with us all.

Amen.

[1] A reflection written and presented in the ancient city of Corinth while touring Paul’s ministry sites in the eastern Mediterranean/Aegean Seas in February 2025.

AfterWords: “Does ‘Passing Through’ Matter?”

Acts 21:1

Rhodes[1]—In the centuries before Christ, the city with the same name and the island itself, was a significant center of trade in the Roman Empire. Rhodes boasted banks, traders, and no insignificant military as well. A military victory led them to celebrate with the construction of a 100’ bronze statue of the Sun god—the Colossus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

An ill-placed earthquake brought down the bronze statue, standing on the wrong side of history in the Third Macedonian War brought about Rome’s wrath (and their economic demise), and the great center of trade dwindled down to a shadow of its former brilliance. By the time Paul arrived in the 1^st Century AD, historians would write that he came to “a beautiful city with a glorious past.” (Substitute ‘church’ for ‘city,’ and we’d have a fair descriptor of too many of our churches today….)

Rhodes—This island is mentioned two or three times in Scripture. In Ezekiel 27, we find it in a list of trading powers/partners with ancient Tyre. In I Maccabees 15, a letter is sent by a Roman consul there. And, in Acts 21, we find our intrepid church-planter there as Luke tells:

“And when we had parted from [the leaders of the Ephesian church] and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara….” (Acts 21:1)

Basically, Rhodes—in the biblical narrative—is little more than a footnote, just a place mentioned in passing like we might or might not mention a small town we would have to drive through going from one significant city to another.

Rhodes—As we stand on this footnote of the biblical story, two thoughts come to my mind.

First, what we find here, what is confirmed in all of our stops and tours since we began a week ago, is that power, wealth, and the beauty we create are all fleeting. Beautiful, powerful, wealthy cities of the past are for the most part now buried under 10’ or 20’ of soil in this part of the world. We would do well to remember this when we stand in our own beautiful cities—cities with brightly lit skyscrapers, soaring apartment towers, and sprawling homes. These will all be gone in 2,000 years. We are seeing ancient cities constructed of stone, of marble…and they are gone. How much sooner our 21^st Century world constructed of plywood, sheetrock, and vinal siding….

Then, the second thought is really a question: Does ‘passing through’ matter? That’s all Paul did—at least as far as we know from Luke. The ship they traveled on stopped at Rhodes. Since the buffet on their ship was closed, they had to come ashore for food. And, since their radar was glitchy, they probably spent the night and awaited the light of day for safe travel. Was anything or anyone changed for Paul’s having passed that way? Did he speak a word of encouragement? Did he smile and greet someone in passing? Did offer any words of hope…or did he help someone with the load they were trying to get on or off the ship? We don’t know.

Today, do we take the opportunity given us to intentionally, positively impact those around us by allowing the selfless, outward-facing loving-kindness of Jesus to be expressed in our words or deeds? Paul may or may not have missed an opportunity—we don’t know. Luke simply doesn’t say. We’re here today—wherever we are—‘just passing through.’ Let’s not waste an opportunity.

Amen.

[1] A reflection written and presented on the island of Rhodes while touring Paul’s ministry sites in the eastern Mediterranean/Aegean Seas in February 2025.

Monday, February 10, 2025

AfterWords: "...Shared Ministry: Outside the Lines"

Luke 7:1-10

While we do not know the servant’s name in this episode from Jesus’ ministry, we do know that he was dear to his master, a Roman centurion.

And, if this centurion built a synagogue for a community, he has the resources to pay the medical care of the day. As a good Roman, he would have already prayed to his Roman gods. But, it seems that neither the gods nor the healers could heal his servant. Maybe that rabbi the centurion had heard about could cure his servant?

At the request of the centurion, the elders of the synagogue find Jesus and implore him to come and heal the servant. Jesus says yes, and he goes with the elders. But as Jesus gets close to the house, the centurion sends friend with a curious message:

“Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (Luke 7:6b-8).

Jesus is astounded by the centurion’s faith. Jesus heals the servant.

In this beautiful story of faith and healing, Jesus draws outside the lines: He answers the prayers of a pagan Roman centurion, and he praises the faith of a Gentile, an outsider.

You see, these lines that Jesus draws outside of are not lines that God had drawn. These are lines that people drew, that tradition drew. In fact, most of the lines that we hold onto are drawn by ourselves or others…and not by God.

When I was 25 years old, I stepped outside the lines at God’s nudging. I was led as a university student to the office of a Catholic priest—someone I would not usually seek out. In and through that priest, Father Gary, I was saved from the difficult times I was going through. He gave me a gift—an icon (the one above)—a gift that reminds me every time I see it that God sometimes draws outside the lines, definitely outside of the lines I’ve drawn.

I imagine that every time the centurion saw his servant after that day, he thought of Jesus. Every time the elders of the synagogue saw the centurion, they thought of Jesus. When the servant heard the story, he thought of Jesus. I see the icon on my bookcase almost every day, and I think of how God saved me in a difficult time through a kind, Catholic priest. All of these happened because God draws outside of our lines.

What would happen if we would allow God to lead us outside the lines? How much more might we touch the lives of others? How much more could our lives be touched if we allowed “outsiders” to cross lines into our lives? Let us not be afraid to follow God outside the lines. Thanks be to a God who draws outside the lines, who drew outside the lines to enter our lives, because we, like the centurion, certainly were not worthy. Amen.

Sunday, February 9, 2025
“…Shared Ministry: Outside the Lines”
Watch/Listen: HERE

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

AfterWords: "...Shared Ministry: All In"

Luke 6:1-16

A lot is going on in the readings for this Sunday. We begin with these Sabbath issues—picking grain on the Sabbath and healing on the Sabbath.

This first seems to be a rather innocent act. The disciples and Jesus are passing through a wheat field and simply pick some grain to eat as they walk along. This doesn’t seem very different from what often happened as I walked home from school as a kid. I’d often pass a mango tree, grab a stone from the ground, pelt it up and knock a mango out of the tree, and eat that mango on my way. I don’t think anyone thought for a moment that I was going about the business of “harvesting mangos.” But, the teachers of the Jewish law have put so many protections and hedges around the laws over the centuries that by Jesus’ time, the simple act of picking a head of grain to eat as a snack had been outlawed on Sabbath. Ironically, the keeping of Sabbath—a day of rest—had become a lot of work.

Healing had somehow fallen into the same category as “work” and, therefore, was also forbidden. Sabbath—a good gift from God to provide rhythm to our lives, to give us a day of rest from the labors of the week—should have been a good day for doing good. But, not so. Jesus sees a man who is practically in bondage from his injury or illness, a man who cannot provide as would like for his family. While we have options, technology, and the like to compensate for injuries today, God’s act in his life is the only recourse this fellow has. Jesus sees the need and meets the need—he heals the man. And the Pharisees go nuts.

We also read the calling of the Twelve disciples—that “inner circle” that will walk with Jesus and be the ones to carry the Gospel across the known world after the resurrection. What’s important to see is the that not only are they chosen by Jesus, they have chosen to still be around him—after hearing about his being thrown out of his hometown synagogue for suggesting God’s love and grace extended beyond the borders of Israel, after hearing about his healings and exorcisms, after seeing the amazing catch of fish, after hearing that he forgave a man’s sins and restored a paralytic to life, after seeing and hearing his run-ins with the Pharisees. After all of this and more, they are still there. The disciples have seen that Jesus is a trouble-maker and rule-breaker…and a healer, peace-maker, and mender of lives—and still, they are “all in.” They have stayed with Jesus, they have chosen Jesus…and now Jesus has chosen them.

As we see the unfolding of Jesus’ life in our journey through Luke, we’re seeing what the early disciples saw—following Jesus includes of a life of trouble-making and rule-breaking…and healing, peace-making, and life-mending. Are we “all in”? Do we remain committed to living the disciple-life today? Luke 6:1-16