Ten
Minutes for Teachers
Jan.
28, 2007
Vol. 5, Issue 3
Worship
Texts: Jer. 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30; 1 Cor.
13:1-13
Worship
Theme: Bears it All
Other
Texts: Psalm 71:1-6
Devotion:
What is essential for our bodies? Nutrients, sleep, water: yes, those are certainly all critical for the
human body. But, perhaps more important
than anything else, our bodies need air.
Without air our bodies become weak, exhausted and eventually die. We can go for days without sleep or food and
even a few days without water, but we can’t go more than a few minutes without
air – without oxygen being inhaled and carbon dioxide being exhaled.
But what about the Christian body? What does it need to survive? Love.
Love is essential to the survival of the Christian body, just ask
Paul. In the thirteenth chapter of
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul comes around to a central point: a congregation that cannot love is a
congregation that will not survive. Yes,
there are other essentials that must be present in any congregation if it is to
thrive – faith and hope to name a few – but love is air; without it, the body
can last no more than a few minutes before it begins to suffocate.
The one, scary difference is that our bodies know immediately
when they are not getting enough air.
Muscles begin to hurt, our head begins to ache, and eventually we pass
out in one last effort to get what we need:
air. There are blatant, obvious
signs something is wrong.
But, unfortunately, the Christian body can seemingly operate
very efficiently without love.
Congregations can go on for years content with knowledgeable
parishioners – reciting Bible verses or standing strong on doctrines. Congregations can survive many years with
fancy display of talent – riding the wave of one person’s charisma. And churches can sustain ministries with
charitable gifts given decades ago – surviving on financial life-support.
And, yet … no amount of charisma, no gift of knowledge, no
endowment can ever replace the gift of love.
For love is the blood that passes throughout the Christian body –
reviving, energizing, feeding, healing, and all the while collecting that which
needs to be exhaled and released. Love
is the glue that holds the body together and the band-aid that keeps it from
tearing apart.
Something
to Chew On:
The type of love Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t
the type of love that sweeps you off of your feet into romantic bliss. It is earthy; it is real to life. This type of love is more concerned about
sticking through things than it is about trailing off into a Hollywood This type of love – this agape –
is more about our inward disposition than it is about outward
circumstances.
sunset.
One way that we can live “out of love” is to willfully
determine to live in this manner. Try to
think of a few people who are easy to love – perhaps in the class you
participate in or teach. Then try to
think of a few people that are more difficult to love. Imagine yourself before both sets of people,
and read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. But where
it says “love is” alter it so it says, “I am.”
Thus, verse 4 would read, “I am patient; I am kind; I am not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude.”
And where you continue to experience frustration, envy or
even anger, exhale and pray: “God, I am
suffocating without your love. Holy
Spirit, fill me anew with love so I might not strain the body of Christ.”
Prayer
for the day:
“Love is who you are, O God.
Love is how you have come in Jesus Christ. Love is how you call us to be the body of
Christ. Teach us to love in word and
deed. May we persist in love, even as
you persistently grace us and all with your love. Amen.” Seasons
of the Spirit, pg. 51.
