Most to be pitied
/If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. -Corinthians 15:19
Sometimes Paul can be pretty blunt. In his letter to the Corinthians he is arguing with some in that church who apparently are questioning the whole idea of resurrection, which is, of course, central to the faith he has been teaching them. He tells them, “If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”
Whoa. I think Paul feels pretty strongly about this point, don’t you?
He goes on to say that if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. If we think of Christ as merely tool for us to ensure a good and comfortable life for ourselves, then our faith is really pretty thin gruel. That’s more like faith in Santa bringing you what you want, or in a genie who will grant you your wishes. Don’t reduce Christ to that, Paul warns them. If that’s all Jesus is to you - poor, poor pitiable you.
Our readings this Sunday all remind us that Christ is way more than a Santa or a genie and that our personal hopes for ourselves are not the point of a faithful life. A faithful life means aligning ourselves with God’s hopes, as shown us in the way of Jesus, which frankly is not always all that comfortable. After all, it’s the way of the cross.
In my annual address on Sunday, I said a few pretty blunt things myself about the church in this time we are living in:
It’s a time in which we can no longer focus primarily on what our faith does for us - but more on what it demands of us.
It is time to stop focusing on tending our own familiar nets and to recognize that God is calling us to be God’s own net.
It is a time to admit that it’s much, much easier to build your own church in your own image for your own comfort than it is to live into being God’s church.
As pitiable as it may be, we are all just regular people who really long for the kind of predictability and comfort that we think will bring us an abundant life. But as people of faith, we know that a truly abundant life is one in which no matter what kinds of blessings or woes come our way (and they will,) we will still stand strong - like trees planted by streams of water that shall not fear when heat comes, and their leaves shall stay green, and in the year of drought they are not anxious, and do not cease to bear fruit (as Jeremiah once put it.)
May God’s word to us this Sunday call us out of our self-created comfort zones a little bit more and into the deeper safety of Jesus’ way, where true abundance, and the fullness of joy, are to be found.
