1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Epiphany 2 - Year A

“Called to be saints” is a line worth remembering as well as simply membering—being mindful of something important, like being beloved.

We might translate this phrase, “Intended to be beloved”. Note that this is addressed to a congregation and not just an individual. When was the last time you dealt with the plural reality of “saintliness” or “belovedness”?

A result of revealing mindful saints is the giving of thanks. May someone be thankful for your individual saintliness and our common belovedness.

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

Hey! You! Did you know you were called to be a saint?

You are not lacking any spiritual gift that you need or that is needed in a larger community of growing people.

When you feel yourself flagging, strength is available one more time so that you might be whole in the present moment and ready to be wholer in the next. Quite a mystery this wholeness. It seems there is no end to it.

It is time to get together with folks who are stretching their hearts and minds and opening their doors to new opportunities. When such is done it can be called Christian — following Christ, not just as an imitation but as a fellow-traveller.

Hey, Saint! You can still be a force for good. Remember to read about yourself in the mysteries of Leslie Charteris.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html

With Human Relations Sunday coming in the United Methodist Church we can look at this passage through the lens of community building. Paul (and Sosthenes, we too often forget) write to the saints as saints (plural, never singular).

Who would you join in writing a joint letter to another group to be encouraging? Or, in our individualistic world, is it out of bounds to do such a thing? Can you imagine your own response getting a letter written by another congregation, addressed to the congregation you are in, and then reading it aloud in your gathering? Wouldn't it take up too much time that could be better spent in improving your own ministries? Wouldn't it miss some important nuance and so be counter-productive?

On the other hand, what would be important enough for you to join someone else in writing to another branch? Would you focus on the issue of the abundance of spiritual gifts that will strengthen them even further in the common ministry you both have (they in their time and place and you in your place and time)?

Can you relate spiritual gifts to the revelation of GOD? The opportunity to be more strongly bonded together with one another and with others? In this regard spiritual gifts are a slow-drying glue, not the instant glues of today that if you don't get it right the first time it is just wrong? Slow-drying gives the opportunity for realignment and looking from a variety of angles to see that it is what is needed.

To return to the writing process, what feelings and thoughts do you have when you consider the possibility of writing to others? How bold would you be? How cautious in your phrasing? Would a sense of an expansive grace and peace assist you to be both pastoral and prophetic? So, why, again, aren't we writing or otherwise communicating between the varieties of saints?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html

Even though I was called before being birthed [Isaiah], yet I have waited patiently [Psalm] for spiritual gifts [1 Corinthians] to be identified and put to work [John].

This is an arduous journey at each stage.

Calling before birthing leads to entitlement that all ought to go well with me. When it doesn't a tantrum ensues. It is difficult to be patient.

Presuming patience is learned there is still a desire to arrive and we can patiently go down many a wrong alley. Patience is needed, though, to clarify a gift's presence.

Again with the entitlement, seems it never goes away, isn't a spiritual gift a very valuable thing to possess and to use at every occasion, even when a different gift is called for. The spiritual gift of a hammer sees every occasion as a nail, even when it isn't. It is difficult to find one's place and to humbly use one's gift.

And we are back to a call again. Jesus is called, disciples are called, all G*D's children are called to birth after birth, to use of their present gift and future gifts (but not necessarily past gifts) again and again. A call to communal birthing moves us onward even as we try to find our place in a community that will challenge our entitlements with its own and both will need to be seen in a larger light.

The initial process seemed pretty straight-forward at first and then our realities set in. Now we need to move on to see our community as but one gift part of a community of communities.

- - -

called
through time
through space
through ancestors
and descendants

called
in time
in space
in ancestors
and descendants

called
in spite of everything so far
in anticipation of something different

called
through insight
through attribution

called
through and in mercy
to birth ad infinitum

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

Again an expansion from the individual to the communal.

To the "church of God that is in Corinth" (or wherever you may be) and to the larger communion that includes both – the call of Christ is strengthened by the combining of every spiritual gift.

Remember those diagrams of a radio tower with the little ball at the top surrounded by concentric rings of signal going out? Imagine that little ball being the testimony of Jesus. It is as weak as a baby's cry in a dusty, out-of-the-way manger outside a noisy inn. A sense of belovedness comes to move that cry outward a bit. One-by-one and, later, one congregation by one congregation moves the cry of faithfulness out another ring and another. There is still a ways to go and so you and your gift are added in – one more ring. And those you have called forth – one more ring. And those they will call - yet more rings.

G*D's faithful, steadfast love continues to expand. It is a joy to receive it and pass it on.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

"Called to be saints", is a line worth remembering as well as simply membering - being mindful of something important, like being beloved.

We might translate this phrase, "Intended to be beloved". Note that this is addressed to a congregation and not just an individual. When was the last time you dealt with the plural reality of "saintliness" or "belovedness"?

A result of revealing mindful saints is the giving of thanks. May someone be thankful for your individual saintliness and our common belovedness.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/01/1-corinthians-11-9.html

Look around. The context of your journey is large. You are moving well beyond today to be able to see the long line that has led here and to anticipate even more to come. This long view enriches your moment in time.

Every gift needed is available in a community that works together to transcend our current limits so tomorrow won’t be bound according to the limits of today.

The faithfulness of G*D is found in your trusting you have been called together to work together. G*D’s faithfulness can be thwarted by our extreme freedom to break covenant with one another for a momentary advantage. This does fail as our only advantage is how well we can blend our gifts into a working whole.

Do feel free to substitute for the holy words here. If you leave them out it turns out this is a relatively simple message.

Paul, called beyond self and related to all, announces to you: Goodwill and Health. I give thanks for the gifts you have. In every way you are enriched by your calling tomorrow into being through an engagement of what you now know. This Way is being continually strengthened in you that your best will be activated and revealed to all of creation. Together you have the strength to see this journey to its end and find yourselves “in a place just right”. Trust your fellowship, one with another and all manner of things will “come round right”.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/01/1-corinthians-11-9.html