1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Epiphany 6 - Year B
Running without being disqualified is not all that easy. It is so easy to step outside a lane, to push when tired, to retaliate for being cut off, etc.
Even if we are not disqualified it is difficult to win. It is too easy for us to focus on winning rather than training when we hear this passage. Our culture honors winning but ignores training. How does winning connect with a G*D who refuses to let us get so far away we cannot turn toward G*D?
Paul has just spoken of the great service of being a servant of all. And then we get the image of not coming in last, but first. We need to be careful here to not get so caught up in these four verses using imagery of winning without noting we are winning servanthood.
I remember winning our conference 440 yard race while in high school. This qualified me for the state tournament where I came in dead last. The next year my school record was eclipsed. Even while striving for my best, it was soon gone. An early lesson in what lasts.
What story do you have that reminds you of the importance of running your race well and yet to not be bound by the outcome?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/february2003.html
We struggle with or train ourselves to have our skills coordinate with our goals.
It is one thing to have a vision but quite another to link it with strategies, programs or skill-building, and resources.
Put the other way around, we get so caught up in our accustomed ways and ways to deal with problem areas that it is difficult to keep a vision alive or renewed.
Whichever way you come at things, the process of linking our internals with our externals and our present with our future takes a lifetime of discipline and discipline redefined. Living in community helps this along as we support and correct one another. I suppose I should add doing so "in love," but that seems so evident and yet so forgetable.
Where this week have you spoken more boldly and assuredly about your future and then been reminded that your practice isn't matching up with your picture?
Where this week have you done well in a moment and not celebrated where that eventually will lead you and all of creation?
Is this athletic workout of Paul's the equivalent of healing, binding our incarnate lives with the mystery of eternity and thus bringing wholeness?
This binding together is not the strong suit of literalism. That divides us into smaller and smaller segments. It is the strong suit of progressive playing around. This includes in more than can be imagined from any part of our past or present.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/february2003.html
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, and everyone receives a prize?
Our competitive environment leads us to think there is only one winner per race. If everyone, then, is going to win (good old universal salvation) then there will be a whole series of races until one race has only one runner. Actually it is this last race that exemplifies all the others. Everyone competes against their own limitations and dreams of what might yet be.
I can still remember being a 440 yard high school record setter and conference champion. That qualified me for the state tournament, where I came in last. Believe it or not, I learned more in that last race than I had in all the previous ones and it held me in good stead when I went to the university and was on the track team.
I didn't get the perishable gold medal, but the imperishable one of clarity on what goal I was really running for – running to be the best runner I could be and the best learner I could be.
I wonder what Paul would think of the Special Olympics and how that would inform his imagery of faith journeys.
We sometimes set very high goals for everyone that forces everyone to fudge to make themselves seem better than they are. Our religious language actually gets in the way of our spiritual maturity.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/february2006.html
In the journey of spiritual maturity (a wonderful, never-ending story), we all compete with ourselves. Each race is to best use a unique set of gifts, experiences, and expectations. When all is said and done the question is how far I have come and how much further I have to go. There is no stage of life from preconception to resurrection where this is not the case. We all can rejoice that we have come thus far. We can all rejoice that we're not done yet.
The only disqualification is that of being unaware that the salvation of one is the salvation of all and vice versa. We disqualify ourselves, we are not disqualified from above (that's where the qualification is already accomplished and from when we might get back in the race to be whole as G*D in Christ in you desires to be whole through a process of having our children, our image, stand on our shoulders and go further).
So, we don't close our eyes and run off in all directions. We sense our call and those called alongside and strike off for the preferred future that yet awaits.
Enjoy your journey. Enjoy the journey of others. Coach others. Receive coaching from others. Becoming who we are (being who I am) is a worthy prize. |
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/february2006.html
Naaman begins with the imagery of the Psalmist and Paul, that one can make their own way in relationship to G*D. Naaman seeks to punish himself to free himself. He looks for some quick fix answer that G*D will bestow upon him, as Jesus did the leper.
After all, he is important enough to receive. In fact, things shouldn't have gone awry in the first place.
There is anger here in Elisha's willingness to display his prophetic power, in Naaman's response to Elisha's directions, in the leper calling Jesus to him instead of calling out "Unclean", and in Jesus' response of healing in anger and casting a healed one away (if you have a Bible that only talks of Jesus' pity or compassion and his sending a healed person to the priests, you need to read some footnotes or other translations).
Anger and discipline often go together. They can urge one another onward. These passages are not helpfully dealt with at face value.
The conscience in these passages is portrayed by an unnamed slave girl. It would be interesting to imagine her comment on each of the subsequent scenes. As a slave, what would she think of the Psalmist desire for extraverted thanks? of Paul's bootstrap pulling? of the leper's trick and Jesus' anger? To look at these passages through her eyes might bear some good fruit.
- - -
a Red Queen and Paul
run twice as fast to stay in place
run twice as often to stay fit
run twice as far to find a shortcutthis running demands results
Naaman ran twice
to Elisha and away
walked twice
to a river and fromthis running presumes rights
a leper putting a burden on Jesus
Jesus casting out leprosy
and casting out a healed leperthis running calls for questions
is twice really enough today
is the end result the result we seek
is anything but power used in healings
is thanksgiving ever humbly donethis running eventually runs out
our historic restlessness is calmed
we are grateful to not prove our power
to not demand curing
to breathe and breathe again
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
In today's world, what does it mean to "run to win". Are spiritual steroids appropriate? Can one hire a Prayer Warrior to cover your back? What are the limits of using perishable means to arrive at an imperishable end?
While there is much to be said for Type-A, workaholic, intentional and disciplined people, the other side of the coin is good old grace. Paul, so into grace, not law, comes pretty close here to relying on the law when it came to himself.
Give yourself a break Paul, relax your hyperbole, just do your best. Jesus will reach out and hug you, paunch and all, a leper told me so.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
Runners running races sounds very rigorous, intentional, trained, and competitive. It sounds like only one can win. This proto-protestant-work-ethic only forgets the freedom of grace and the mercy of G*D.
Yes, intend to do no harm, intend to do good, and intend to change your thinking with an encounter of a larger picture. Yes, give life your all. And, yes, practice, practice, practice to have your being and doing reflect well on one another.
Know that you are not disqualified. You never were and never will be disqualified. The opportunity to turn and become integrated with your self and with tomorrow is always present. Not being disqualified, brings with it so sweet a soul song that we find a joy in rigor, intentionality, training, and moving deeper. This allows us engagement with the disciplines that enhance our common experience and common wealth.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/1-corinthians-924-27.html