1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Advent 1 - Year B

"All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God...is right alongside to keep you steady and on track.... [God] will never give up on you. Never forget that." The Message

All good gifts are present in medias res.

GOD alongside - never giving up.

Us alongside one another - never giving up.

We are in this for the long haul and we have the resources needed for the journey.

When we forget the footprints we will be reminded by the butt prints.

When you start getting forgetful that the needed gifts are already present in the community, check with the wisest person you know. You'll be reminded that you have enough to act on and that your acting is important to partnering with GOD and neighbor.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/december2002.html

What might it mean to be called by GOD into companionship with Jesus?

If Jesus was about coming to oneness with GOD, we join him on the quest. We journey toward oneness with GOD.

If Jesus was not about this, then what was Jesus about? Was Jesus about making new rules? Was Jesus about forming an exclusive community? Was Jesus about being worshipped?

The NRSV says our fellowship with Jesus is a reflection on GOD's faithfulness.

The NJB reflects in a note, "Because Jesus is our partner in human nature, we are his in the divine nature."
If we back up just one verse to #2, we find we are also called to be holy or saints or God-filled (depending on translation).

All of this is wonderfully circular. The Community Christian Bible reflects, "You have to become holy, but you are already. Holy, in the biblical sense, is the person or thing that belongs to God."

There never is a time when we are not companions or partners with Jesus. There never is a time when anyone is not a companion or partner with Jesus. [Admittedly sometimes the companionship and partnership are tighter and looser.] When looked at through the lens of holiness and oneness, what is said about Jesus might be said of all the guys - Abraham and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha. A holy one is free to surpass all these limits - even those of one's own companions.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/december2002.html

As in foreground/background studies, grace is most clearly revealed in a time of stress. Just as we are not to sin the more simply for the joy of forgiveness, so we are not to revel in difficulties for the blessing of grace.

There are, of course, those moments of grace upon grace, but mostly we recognize grace against a backdrop of some form of suffering (remember, for some suffering is always but a form).

Here the parallelism is "the grace of God that has been given" to "strengthen you to the end." Again, grace appears as antidote to giving up in the face of "disaster" (however that is defined). Christ is equated with this process and, so, when we are so encouraging folks, we are Christ/grace to them; when we are so encouraged, another is Christ/grace to us; and when we encourage together, Christ/grace is in our midst.

How long has it been since you recognized yourself as graced/Christed? If it has been awhile, grace's half-life may have faded in your life. Time to get prophetic. It is one of the quickest ways to move into harm's way (the status quo being as sharp as any two-edged sword) and to again, joyfully, find your salvation connected with fear and trembling.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html

To be called into a fellowship with such as Jesus Christ is to be called away from some immediately disastrous situation or some current edge that will later come to naught. To get caught up with Jesus Christ is to get caught up with someone who plays with death in a way that is never in fashion if you have any idea at all that you'll sneak through life or if you know you have an advantage. Jesus asks you to put yourself "all in", as in the poker rage of the moment.

Principalities and powers can claim that Jesus has thrown his lot in with them, that he finally saw the benefit of Satan's offer in the desert, and can be commodified by them to bolster their control. But they don't know the kind of risk of kindness that they are comparing themselves to and the eventuality that they will be seen for the hypocrites they are.

Have you been invited to a fellowship with a living, crucified, dead, and raised Jesus Christ? Be careful if you think you can control where that fellowship will lead. Odds are you, too, will need to learn to play with death without succumbing to its emptiness. Ready, or not, you are invited to play a "losing" hand with a sense of being in a faithful hand.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/november2005.html

Do you remember and yearn for the Age Of Awesome Deeds? Men were men, black was black and white was white and ne'er the twain shall meet - doing right was rewarded and transgression quickly punished. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end.

But it has been long years since a favored few could so easily justify their separation from the unlucky, the poor, the unfavored, the sick, the sinner, the other.

With this hiatus we can wait with envy to be restored to what ought to be our rightful place, a place where nothing changes. We might also find the humility to move away from these kinds of false and make-believe separations to appeal, "Now consider, we are all your people."

It is this larger view of the particularity of circumstance not being unique that needs new light to be shined on it.

When such a shining saving arrives we note that there has been a shift from a single cause to a renewed appreciation of community of an earthly creation or paradise with which the heavenly "we" is well pleased and claims is good.

So thanks can be given, not just for creator(s) but creation(s). Our wait for revelation shows creation called into fellowship with creator, not constantly manipulated by same.

Having now come through Isaiah, Psalmist, and Paul we turn to Mark to solidify our keeping awake to new connections. Fig leaves are connected to summer, not as cause and effect but as a community of revelation. In one we can now see the other.

In like manner, in a generation we can mark a moment that more clearly reveals a shift that has moved us from whatever stage of immaturity we are in to a next step of maturity. We keep awake for such connections are life as we move from bated breath to next breath. To keep awake is to keep breathing.

- - -

Whew, I have every spiritual gift.
Oh, I am strengthened to use each in its time.
Ahh, fellowship shines in remembering, in anticipating, in medias res.

Whew, I am blessed.
Oh, I am blessing.
Ahh, simply Ahh.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

"You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Really?
True?

Then why this felt distance from heaven come on earth?
Then why this experienced distance from one another?

Our love of G*D isn't yet will all we are and have.
Our love of Neighbor isn't yet comparable to our own survival.

Our image of G*D doesn't yet include ourself.
Our image of Neighbor doesn't yet include G*D.

How then are we not lacking any gift (deleting the spiritual limitation is helpful here) while actively waiting for a desired revelation? If we are not lacking such an insight into the universe, is it our implementation that is awry?

This excused out from our original affirmation doesn't altogether satisfy as surely there is a gift of gift-implementation included in our bag of tricks. What are we to do with this bold statement?

Give thanks that the needed gifts are present, are able to built with and upon them. A primordial soup can be restirred, even at this late date.

Give thanks that not even a carb-overload nap will erode your gifts, only delay their use. A choice to eat in moderation, allowing left-overs their day, and to walk and talk with each other is still within reach.

Give thanks that a gift of giving-thanks is not lacking. Use it frequently. It will open other gifts.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html

Thanks be given on this day of commercialized thanksgiving – we are not lacking any gift needed (for waiting or other aspects of growth in wisdom and stature - together).

What we are lacking is strength to affirm one another's gifts and their importance to the whole living process (implying action and waiting and ever so much more). Somehow we have lost the gift of connecting gifts (Christ being strengthened among you, so to speak).

Rather than counting your blessings on this day, try acknowledging and counting the blessings of another and all together (we are called into fellowship).

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/11/1-corinthians-13-9.html