Living As Though (Sermon)

“Living As Though”

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

1/25/15

         Whether persecuting Christians or being persecuted as a Christian, Paul lives with unmistakable passion and tangible faithfulness to his convictions. On the other hand, in spite of all that he seems to get “right” enough, the apostle constantly lives in the grip of some crucially, and at times tragically mistaken convictions.

         From our perspective, Paul is mistaken in his initial denial of Jesus as the Christ.  Because of that mistake, he commits the more wide-ranging mistake of trying to use shock-and-awe terrorism to bully Christians into recanting their faith.

After his Damascus Road experience, Paul focuses his energies on preaching Jesus. And one premise for preaching is his mistaken notion that Jesus will literally and presently return to lead God’s people into the glorious days of messianic reign on earth.

Jesus does not return when and how Paul expects. And while one can imagine him crying out like Jonah, disappointed and maybe even a disillusioned, Paul sows the seeds of his own peace in his first letter to the embattled church at Corinth.

         The Corinthian Christians face deep disorientation. As groups within the church begin to identify with and to revolve around particular individuals, the community fragments.

“It has been reported to me,” says Paul in Chapter 1, “that there are quarrels among you…What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

         The apostle is scoffing at the idea that Christ has been divided. “What I mean,” he says, ‘is that Jesus is one and whole; and if the community is to survive it must revolve around Jesus.’

         In Chapter 7, Paul gets serious again. “I mean, brothers and sisters,” ‘that even though it looks like God’s promises are unraveling, and even though it feels like God has disappeared, God is present and faithful.’

‘The world is changing,’ says Paul. And this is not a bad thing. ‘Indeed,’ he says, ‘God is behind and within the changes happening to outward forms, but spiritual substance remains true.’

Paul’s words to the first-century church in Corinth hold relevance for the Church in 2015. Now, God is not calling us to “return” to old ways of thinking and being. On the contrary, I hear Paul challenging us to evolve ever deeper in our understanding of who God is and who we are as creatures made in God’s image. We cannot live with conviction in the emerging forms of faith while sipping the spiritual milk of static absolutes.

Paul challenges us, he dares us to live in the here and now of physical existence As Though God’s kingdom has arrived in its fullness.

On one level, Paul’s teaching sounds like an invitation to play make-believe. But living in the As Though of faith is not an act of denial. Living As Though is to engage the bold, creative Purpose who, billions of years ago, began the process of turning a seething and explosive chaos into the magnificent creation we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and wonder at today.

To live in the As Though of the Kingdom of God means to inhabit the physical reality of life with an eye toward the eternal reality that gives physical reality its true meaning. Living As Though transforms – and here I use Paul’s categories – marriage, mourning, rejoicing, owning, and even politics into platforms for experiencing and sharing God’s grace and presence in and for the world. This is no siimple task. It demands that we regard all of our relationships from the As Though point of view – that is from the already-redeemed place of wholeness and grace.

The tricky thing about this is that we all move in and out of various As Though configurations. When I choose to live As Though everyone is motivated by selfishness, I treat every stranger with suspicion and fear. When I choose to live As Though World War III will happen in my lifetime, I make war a holy endeavor. And I will teach my kids that their highest calling lies in their expendability, and in their capacity to render others expendable. When we live As Though the physical creation is fundamentally corrupt, we treat the earth and our very own bodies as if they are evils to be punished and escaped rather than sacredgifts to be treasured and cared for.

The As Though of Jesus is very different. Jesus calls us to live in the As Though of the Kingdom, where the image of God is apparent within all human beings, and even within all creation.

Last Tuesday I went with some friends to see the movie Selma. This extraordinarily important story reveals some competing As Thoughs at work in the world. The Governor George Wallaces and Sheriff Jim Clarks of the world live in the As Though of racism and overt violence. They live As Though a person’s humanity and ultimate worth are determined by skin color. If a person’s skin is not white, that person might be killed, but he or she cannot be murdered. Within the As Though of George Wallace and Jim Clark, to be murdered, or even treated unjustly, is a privilege of race.

Martin Luther King, and others like him live in the As Though of equality and justice. Within that Christlike As Though, faithful ones not only advocate for justice, they discover the almost inhuman strength to forgive those who persecute them.

To his fellow black South Africans Desmond Tutu has said, “Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”¹

The bishop’s words echo a rather famous, kingdom prayer: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34a)

In the Jesus who prays and lives that prayer, the kingdom of God is arriving. So, says Paul, “let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

Now, are we to stop marrying, mourning, rejoicing, purchasing the things we need, or dealing with the world around us? Of course not. But when, for example, a person realizes that every purchase has a price beyond dollars, and if she cares about the expense of producing and procuring an item to the extent that she is willing to do without it if that expense is the well-being of others, then she is living, or at least learning to live in the newly-emerging form. She is learning to live in the As Though of God’s kingdom.

The world is changing with terrifying speed, so we have much in common with the Corinthian Christians. Many of us do feel pulled in different directions, pulled to align ourselves with some Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, someone who seems As Though they are making good sense in an increasingly senseless world.

And into our own disorientation Paul says: Live As Though the Christ for whom you wait has come. And take heart, for in truth, he has.

¹http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/desmondtut188470.html