"Solid Food"

April 5 & 6, 2008

Bruce Davis

St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church

Omaha, Nebraska

©2007 Bruce Davis

          Reading from the first of two letters Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, chapter 3, verses 1-3:       

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food.  Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh.  For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving according to human inclinations?

This is the Word of the Lord

THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN!

          In February, I traveled to Bordeaux, France, to visit my daughter Mary, her husband, Remi, and, of course, the newest light of my life:  granddaughter Madeline Teissier Du Cros!  Maddy had just turned six months old at the time of my arrival.  

Miss Madeline is not big on subtlety.   When Madeline’s happy, you know she’s happy; but when she’s not—look out! The picture at the bottom left was snapped after her mother and father left the house for an evening to themselves, trusting me to baby sit.  The door hadn’t more than shut behind Mary and Remi before Madeline went into a hissy fit, the decibel count rising with each passing moment. 

I bounced Madeline on my knee, carried her around the house, played a song for her on the piano, sang to her—all to no avail.  I had forgotten how loud these little creatures can be.  Finally, I just put her down for the night, by which time she had cried herself to the point of exhaustion and quickly went to sleep.  

Happily, Madeline and I shared plenty of less hysterical moments, including this one, me holding the bottle as she did her intake of milk--which, at that point in her life, was the only food she had ever known.

Just days after my departure, Mary and Remi switched Madeline to solid food.  The first supper was pumpkin and avocados.  Mary’s one-word description of the experience:  DISASTER!  Not that I blame Madeline for being less than enthusiastic about pumpkin and avocados.  Next up was pears—strained, of course.  Other entrées included beets and zucchini.  Madeline didn’t want any of it.  Where’s my milk! 

Looking at the pictures, reading Mary’s account of the experience, I could not help but think of Paul writing to the church in Corinth, referencing the believers there as “infants in Christ”:  “I fed you with milk,” writes the apostle, “not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food.” Madeline’s misadventures of switching from the bottle to solids is endearing.  Alas, there was nothing endearing about the situation in Corinth.  

During what is remembered as the second of his three  epic “missionary journeys,” Paul of Tarsus stayed eighteen months in Corinth—his longest recorded stay in any one place.  Wherever Paul went, he planted churches.  By all accounts, Corinth was a tough row to hoe. 

Corinth was one of the major cities of ancient Greece.  It was a commercial center and port city, lots of ships, sailors, business-types passing through, people with money to spend.  The pride of the community was its temple to Aphrodite—goddess of love and fertility, and Corinth was famous for catering to sexual appetites.  In fact, the Chamber of Commerce had a slogan, famous throughout the Mediterranean: “What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth.”

Against all odds, Paul hoed the row and planted a church in Corinth.   As was his standard method of operation, once Paul saw the new faith community taking root and sprouting, he packed what bags he had and moved on, with the intention of planting in a new field.  

Paul was in Ephesus, on the other side of Aegean Sea, when he received a disturbing report about the church he’d left behind in Corinth.   Seems the place was wracked by dissension and division—phenomena not unknown to the church of our generation, or any generation, for that matter.  

That should not be terribly surprising.  The church is of God, but is made up of people--and wherever people are involved, there are going to be issues.   I love a phrase Paul used in long-distance communication with the Corinthians (II 4:7): “we have this treasure…” (the everlasting treasure of God’s grace and glory!) “…in an earthen vessel.”  Other translations read “jars of clay.”  I’ve served some conflicted congregations over the years of my ministry—treasures in jars so earthen they were downright leaking!--and have found Paul’s letters to the Corinthians incredibly helpful in working through the issues.

One of the flash points of controversy among the Corinthians was, of all things, the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion.   These people weren’t Methodists; they didn’t come forward in an orderly line, receiving a piece of bread, dipping it into a cup, and going back to their chairs. 

In Corinth, the Lord’s Supper seems to have been shared in the context of what we might think of as a carry-in fellowship dinner—without much fellowship.   Some brought the equivalent of picnic baskets filled with lots of rich foods; others had nothing to bring.  /// In a traditional Methodist carry-in supper, all the food is laid out on a table, everyone shares.  Not so in Corinth.  People were eating out of their own baskets, and those who didn’t have a basket went hungry, as they watched other members of the church stuff themselves.

I read 1 Corinthians and have this image from the lunch room in Junior High School, little cliques gathered at the various tables, each group gossiping about the other:  Look at those nerds.  Who do those snobs think they are?   We’re on the honor roll, and you’re not!  We can imagine new people trying out the Corinthian congregation, hearing people in one faction saying of others, You wouldn’t want to hang around with that crowd!— newcomers reasonably deciding they wouldn’t be around any of these people!  If this is what this Jesus is about, who needs it!

Paul was appalled.  He implored the Corinthian Christians (I Corinthians 1:10-11): 

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.

That purpose was to be nothing less than the body of Christ, ambassadors of the Lord Jesus in Corinth.  Just as the human body has many and various parts--eyes, arms, legs, feet and such--so is the body of Christ, the church, made up of many members, various components, each important to the success of the whole.

If the whole body were an eye (asked Paul), where would the hearing be?  If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?  But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose… As it is, there are many members, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’

 These “me first” behaviors so prevalent in Corinth--the little cliques; us verses them; the spiritual snobbery: I’m a better Christian than you are—were downright infantile and had no place in the church of Jesus Christ.  Here’s the way things are supposed to be, said Paul (12:26):

 “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together in it.”

We’re all in this together!

 “Now you,” Paul continues, “are the body of Christ and each one of you is part of it.”

The reason, of course, that Mary and Remi switched Madeline from a steady diet of milk to solid foods is to build her body.   The milk served her well through six months, getting her off to a great start, but if she’s going to grow, Madeline needs a new kind of diet.  For that matter, the food she’s receiving now-- strained beets out of a glass jar--will eventually give way to a still more mature diet.

So it is with the Christian.   One of the challenges for a congregation such as St. Andrew’s is to come up with a menu of ministries appropriate to various stages of faith development.    

This is something we take very seriously.   Nobody expects you to be a finished Christian when you join the church.  What we expect is that you will commit yourself to supporting the congregation—the body of Christ here at St. Andrew’s—with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service.  This is entry-level stuff, but is as important to this body and your own faith development as the milk has been to Madeline.  

We need your prayers; and you need to pray.  

We need your presence in our worship gatherings; and you need to be present in worship, joining your songs of praise with others in the congregation. 

For us to do the ministry the Lord has set before us, the church needs your gifts, your offerings, your financial support; and it’s clear from the gospel that in order for you to grow in faith, you need to give.  That’s basic Christianity.

And we need your service, which means a commitment to finding your place in the body; and you need to find that place, engaging yourself in the larger purpose of the congregation. 

We’re thrilled to count any and all who desire to walk in the way of Jesus and will make these basic commitments as members of the Body of Christ at St. Andrew’s.   But receiving you to membership isn’t the end of anything; it’s only the beginning.  We’re not here to add names to the church roll, you see; we’re here to make disciples for the Lord Jesus Christ, building mature Christians; toward that end, we’re going to put a menu of ministry options in front of you designed to facilitate your growth in grace.

New Christians, for instance, may find ALPHA to your taste.  Alpha is Christianity 101, perfect for those with little if any faith background.   Alpha addresses basic questions such as:

·        Who is Jesus?

·        Why did Jesus die?

·        How can we have faith?

·        Why and how do we pray?

For those ready for the meat-and-potatoes of intensive Bible study, we offer DISCIPLE, a 34-week overview of the scripture.   The current Disciple year is winding down now; we’ll start a new cycle this fall.

 If you’re looking for somewhat lighter fare, right now we’re offering a ten-week study of the Psalms, meeting on Wednesday evenings.  The first session started last week, but there are still nine sessions to go and a place for you at the table. 

We put a lot of thought into our study menu, offering a wide variety of nutritional entrees designed to build both the individual member and the whole body of Christ.  New courses are added all the time.  Perhaps you have an idea for a new item; we’d love to hear about it.

And, of course, we offer one of the largest children’s menus you’ll find in any congregation, /// along with a high-protein diet designed especially for youth.

 Paul writes to the Corinthians that different people have different gifts, different strengths, and rather than fighting each other, they should celebrate each other.  Let’s read that, 1 Corinthians 12:4-7:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

At St. Andrew’s, we encourage people to identify their individual spiritual gifts, celebrate those gifts, and share them with the congregation!  For instance, many in our music program find their own souls fed by feeding the congregation through their gift of instrument and song.  It’s been said that the person who sings once prays twice.  I like that.

Others find their souls built up by the very spiritual exercise of serving others.  

If you’re concerned that you’ll try one of these items and find they taste like strained broccoli, let me share this picture from the Women’s Retreat Nancy led at Mahoney State Park last month.  Forty-some ladies spent the weekend chowin’ down on faith and fellowship, and the picture tells the story of their shared joy. 

What I’m trying to say is this:  If you see something on our ministry menu that looks tasty, I encourage you to try it; you’ll like it!

If you have any questions about the menu itself, or any of the items on it, or how to identify your own strengths and spiritual gifts, stop by the Connection Point out in the Rotunda, and cheerful people will walk you through the options.

These worship services are themselves designed with nutrition in mind, the feeding of souls.  No small amount of planning goes into blending the preaching, the music, the fellowship, including heaping helpings of hospitality.  We are always mindful that there will be people in the room representing the entire spectrum of faith stages, with a wide variety of dietary needs.  That’s trickier than it may sound.

One of the best preachers I know sent out an e-mailing after his most recent sermon that read like this:

I've had a good time listening to people's reactions to last Sunday's message.  They range from "that was terrible" to "that was excellent"…. People seem to understand that sometimes we offer food for thought. It is a blessing when people are able to disagree or challenge in productive and fruitful ways.

If, on a given weekend, you’re hearing something that’s hard to swallow, rather than instinctively reacting like this (Madeline asleep), I encourage you to consider the possibility that it’s something you may want to hear, if you’re going to grow.  Indeed, it’s at least possible God brought you to this place, at this moment, in order put you in the path of this very message.  Strained beets may not be the stuff of happiness, but it can be the stuff of growth. 

But let’s be abundantly clear about this:  The main course of the Christian life is love.  Not the kind of love they were selling over at Aphrodite’s place, either, but rather what the Greeks called “agape”—love that gives rather than takes.  Paul writes to the Corinthians (we’re reading from The Message translation, with personal interjections added ):

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy (the greatest sermons you ever heard!) but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump,’ and it jumps, but I don’t have love, I’m nothing.  /// If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere.  So no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.  Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.  Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always ‘me first,’ doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel. (Love takes no joy in the misfortune of others.)/// Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with everything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

The more traditional reading is this:  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.)

Love never dies.  Inspired speech will be over some day, praying in tongues (and other spiritual manifestations) will end, understanding will reach its limit.  We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete.  (The know-it-all—and there are plenty of those in the church--is really a baby Christian; humility—the quick admission we don’t know it all—is a sign of spiritual maturity.)  But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant.  When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.  (Dear Corinthinas, Paul is saying, Grow up!)

We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright!  We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us to that consummation.  Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of these three (the greatest of these!) is love.

Let Paul’s words be the model of the mature Christian, the kind of believer we’re trying to grow at St. Andrew’s:  Trust steadily, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.  (LET’S SAY THAT TOGETHER…)

I have known plenty of church members—even some who’ve been on the rolls for a long time—who were the equivalent of baby Christians.  The solid food of steady trust, unswerving hope and extravagant love would be new and strange. 

CRYING MADELINE:  Let these photos of Madeline serve as an example of possibilities.  In this picture, she’s taking her first solids and not liking it one bit.   All she’d known to that point in her life was the milk, and that was good enough for her.

WARY MADELINE:  But wait.  Huh.  Maybe this isn’t so bad.  Hummm.  In fact, now that I’ve tried it, it’s kind of tasty.

SMILING MADELINE:  I’m developing a real appetite for this.  Give me more, mom.  

GRINNING MADELINE:  And in our final photo, Madeline’s ready and eager for more solid food.  It’s even putting hair on her head!  

Which of these best represents where you are in your Christian growth?

Finally:  Remember, we said even the Lord’s Supper had become a place of contention at the church in Corinth.  Toward the end of correcting this, Paul gave the following instruction:  (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

 “For I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said:  ‘This is my body that is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Back to the Maddy picture one more time.  When I was a child, my mother used to call us to dinner:  “Come to your places with smiles on your faces.”  Likewise, we invite you to come to the Lord’s table with joy.  This is solid food that’s been building souls and congregations for two thousand years. 

BRD 4/5&6/08