January 21, 2024 1 Corinthians 7:29-35 Series B
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
In my personal life and with my personal background, I have never really understood art. Right? Like, I entered school on a path of science, very left brained, I have been told. Looking at the world, analyzing it and such. I heard a phrase that struck me, it hit me hard because I know it to be true from experience. A scientist misses out on the joy of a sunset.
And this is true. When I was deep in the world of science, I would look at the sky and think, not of the beauty of God’s creation, but at the brilliance of God’s mind, how he created oxygen and nitrogen molecules to absorb certain amounts of electrons, and scatter others so the world would look blue. How when you look at the horizon, you look through more air,more electrons, more molecules, and see more colors. It’s true, that’s how my mind worked. Until I learned I was missing out on art.
Since then, I have been working hard to understand and appreciate art. There is a museum, it’s neat the seminary in St. Louis, and it’s called, “The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art.” I never made the trip to it, honestly, I didn’t know it existed. But in preparing for this sermon, I came across it. In this museum there once was this display by an artist, Thomas Skomski. It’s called “Cup” or sometimes “Promise.” And like, in my previous years, I would see it for it’s surface. It’s a cup. A small cup, about counter top height, just sitting there, waiting to be grabbed. Probably has coffee in it, or maybe water for a hot day. Just a cup. But as is often the case with art, there is a twist. It’s in a cage. A cage of cast iron bars, like a prison. Ok, so it’s a cup in a metal box? That’s the scientist in me. But the artist describes it differently, again this locked cup, a cup in a cage. So, you have a cup perfectly positioned . . . but ultimately inaccessible. Desire and denial—that’s what the artist is playing with. You desire to take the cup and drink. Yet, you are denied.
All who would follow Jesus and drink from his cup are caught in the difficulties of discipleship. To follow Christ involves both denial and discovery. When you enter the discipleship and drink from the cup, you suddenly discover life in denial. Cup and cage are joined together. To be joined to Christ is to be brought into a different relationship with the things of this world.
The joy of hanging out with friends is rich and rewarding but pales in comparison to the joy of an answered prayer. The sorrow of losing your job is painful and distressing but pales in comparison to the sorrow of your child walking away from the faith. To be a disciple is difficult because you are always living at the intersection of this world and the kingdom of God. Baptized into Christ Jesus, you experience life differently.
The apostle Paul knew the difficulties of discipleship. Blinded on the Damascus road, he was baptized and, when he opened his eyes, he suddenly saw things differently. He discovered grace and nothing was ever the same. The wisdom of the world was foolishness to him. The strength of the world was weakness. God, the Father, took that which was low and despised, the crucified Christ, and raised him to rule over all. That one act changed how Paul saw the world. The foolishness of a crucified God was Paul’s wisdom. The weakness of a dying Savior was Paul’s strength. Paul lived at the intersection of this world and God’s kingdom, and that is a difficult place to be.
This difficult discipleship is what lies at the heart of Paul’s words in our epistle this Sunday. Paul is writing to the Corinthians about marital relations. His words offer guidance to those who are married and to those who are single. You need to be careful, however, for Paul is not really writing about marriage or the single life. He is writing about your relationship with Christ.
Paul affirms the married life (7:1–5, 9–16) and Paul affirms the single life (7:6–8, 32–35). Being married or being single is not the issue. The question is “how is your relationship with the Lord?” You see, there are married couples who served the Lord, like Priscilla and Aquila. And, there are married couples who fell away from the Lord, like Ananias and Sapphira. There are single individuals who served the Lord, like Paul, and there are single individuals who fell away from the Lord. It is not a matter of being married or being single. Paul is not writing a law to “lay any restraint upon you” but rather seeking “to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord” (7:35).
If you read this text to establish a law about being single or being married, you miss the larger picture. Your like me looking at a sunset. You take the details, the minutiae, and yet you miss the beauty of what God is doing. This text isn’t about whether singleness or wedded life is best for you. No. Paul has a much more beautiful picture in mind, the sunset. Paul wants to foster your relationship with Christ . . . whether you are single or married. Paul wants to know, “how does your life support your relationship with the Lord?”
Discipleship is difficult. Our relationship with Christ changes our relations with this world. Listen to how Paul describes this. “Let those who have wives live 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 goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it” (7:29–31). We are to experience the things of this world but not in an all-consuming way. Whether we are married or single, mourning or rejoicing, buying or selling . . . the most important thing is that we are in Christ. Since Christ is our life and Christ has given us life, we seek to live all of life in him.
In looking at the exhibit Cup one could discuss all sorts of things. How foolish it is for an artist to stick a cup in a cage and put it on the wall. I’ve thought that. But, the artist is seeking to bring you into a conversation that leads you closer to the Lord and to the difficulty of discipleship in him. In the same way, Paul’s letter raises all sorts of questions for people today. “Is Paul advocating the single life?” “What does Paul have against marriage?” But, Paul is not seeking to bring about that kind of a conversation. Instead, what Paul wants to foster among us today is a conversation about life in Christ and how our joys and our sorrows, our buying and our selling, yes even our marriages and our singleness lead us closer to Jesus..
And this is the challenge that we face today. When we make decisions, when you make decisions, what factors come into play? When you are planning out a vacation, or a new job, or where you want to go to college, or making plans with friends, do you consider the effect those decisions have on your faith?
Going to college is a big decision. Where do you want to go? Do you want to go? Which school has the best education? But also what will that school do to your faith? Will it help? Will it cause your faith to grow? Or will it kill you faith and drag you into apostasy?
What about a new job? Promotions can be a great honor and blessing, a new career can breathe fresh wind into your sails, it can help you afford that thing you have always wanted. While at the same time, it can be harmful. Do you consider you faith when you make a this decision? Moving for a job can be a wonderful opportunity, but how are the area churches? Is it a place where your faith will grow?
Live like you don’t have dealings with the world, live like your not married, live like college isn’t a thing, or tech school, or whatever. Paul wants you to wrestle with the truth about what is helpful for your eternity. The world is fading. Jesus has won you a victory, and he is leading you to his new kingdom. You are baptized. You are sustained by word and sacrament. Our focus should be on Christ frist, on what is best for our relationship with God, best for our faith, then all things - jobs, friends, college - all things follow after.
Don’t lose sight of the sunset. Don’t lose sight of what God has instore for you as you seek to plan out your time in this world. God has forgiven you. God has given you a future brighter than any we could plan. Let us focus our eyes, our hearts, our plans, our marriages, our singleness, our everything on Jesus. Amen.
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