Daily Liturgy and Scripture

The sense of community in this second letter to the Corinthians is unmistakable. He starts with something we might expect: your sufferings can help others. Comfort can be passed along. Then he comes back to something far more difficult. In essence, he says, “that guy that hurt us? It’s time to help him heal.” Anyone who has gone through a church split or endured opposing groups within a church knows how difficult this can be. It’s much more our nature to side up with everyone who agrees with us and shoot down our opposition. Of course, this doesn’t build up the body of Christ. This should always be our goal in the church.

While Paul is known as a great teacher and theologian, it’s kind of refreshing to read him take care of practical matters. (I’m paraphrasing here) “Help other churches financially. I hope I can stay a while. Don’t be mean to Timothy. Thank God for these three guys who picked up where you Corinthians left off. It’s great to be encouraged.” The church isn’t just a lot of people with their heads in the clouds. It’s a real group of people who believe in a real Savior, working together in real ways.

Bodies are important in the resurrection. Sometimes it’s easy to think that we have a spirit living in our body is anxious to get out and get away, but that’s not what Paul teaches. While our current bodies can’t live forever, those in Christ will get another one. Judging from what Jesus was able to do after his resurrection, it might actually be a lot of fun!

Resurrection is a promise God has made his people, shown to be true by Jesus being raised from the dead first. All our hope is in Jesus, and resurrection is a big part of that. Paul agrees in this verse, saying that if there is no resurrection, it’s all a big waste of time. Of course, it’s not. Christ was indeed raised from the dead, and we have the same future to look forward to.

God is the God of order, not of chaos. Worship services, according to Paul, should follow this rule. It makes sense, because who among us wouldn’t make extensive plans if they were welcoming a famous celebrity into their house? Perhaps we are too familiar with God’s faithful presence, so we don’t think of it as being particularly special in any given worship service. But indeed it is, and we should welcome God each week with our best effort.

The gift of tongues is considered by Paul to be a true spiritual gift, but not for the benefit of the entire church. For that reason, Paul encourages the church to seek things that can be shared. He’s spent time talking about how the body works together and how love is the bond, so this is the next natural progression: if you are one body, bonded together, make sure you can worship together. Don’t separate yourselves. Then the body stays together, and worship becomes body work.

After talking about being the body of Christ… what holds us together? The greatest gift, love. This one is not like the others, it is given to all. And just as it is given to all, so should it be the thing we most often give between the members of the body.

Being the body of Christ is no small task. We remember his bodily sacrifice every time we partake of the Eucharist, or the Lord’s supper. But the body has more sacrifices. We must sacrifice for one another as well, feeling one another’s hurts with the same urgency that the hands to into action when the toe hurts, or that the arm goes into action to shield the eyes. It’s going to mean taking on a little pain that isn’t originally our own, but it’s the way body life works.

What’s with the head coverings? As Paul has advocated before, this is a measure of unity. In ancient days, women sometimes uncovered their heads to show a higher social status. Unmarried women in some cultures would go without head coverings in order to attract a husband, still others considered women with uncovered heads immodest. You can imagine how distracting this argument must have been for the church. So Paul gets to the heart of it: ladies, wear a head covering. We’re coming together in a spirit of unity to worship, not argue about what statement a woman makes by covering her head. (Information taken from page 2003 of the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, NIV version.)

If you’ve ever been called a people pleaser, you might actually be in good company: Paul’s. His total willingness to go with the flow and do what others do is so that he can bring them into a sense of community, not so that he can avoid conflict. He is very concerned with doing what is necessary to win others to Christ, not maintain even his own sense of identity. Perhaps that is because his identity is totally grounded in Christ, and he needs no other.