Healing Old Wounds

 

PROPERS:          5 EPIPHANY, YEAR C

TEXT:                1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11              

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        Christ can transform pain so that we do not transmit it to others.

 

            The Apostle Paul says something that is true of all of us in today’s first lesson.

 

            Like last week’s first lesson, Paul is writing an instructional letter to the young church he founded.  He is seeking to quell the anxiety and bitter divisions in that that Corinthian congregation.

 

            In today’s lesson, he recounts the essential Christian teaching. Hear his words once again:

 

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.”

 

            Then he adds the punch-line – that is also true of you and me:

 

 “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

 

            Paul, indeed, had been one who was untimely born.  You and I, too. Being untimely born like Paul, carry burdens we need to shed.

 

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            Paul was a Pharisaical Jew – well-schooled in a Greek education. Zealous for his faith.  He stood by and held the coats as an angry mob stoned Stephen to death.  He led the persecution of the young church.  His anger apparently knew no bounds. He raged at the people who were not yet known as Christians, but as followers of a small sect known as the Way.

 

            His pre-conversion name, of course, was Saul. He was transmitting his anger, his pain. But then, on the road to Damascus, as he sought to persecute other Christians, it was transformed.  In a blinding light, he was struck from his horse, and he heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

 

            The voice he heard in the brilliant light was Jesus. And his pain, his anger began to be transformed.  The world began to change.

 

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            Christian contemplative Richard Rohr publishes a daily meditation on-line. In October 2018, he wrote these words:

 

“All healthy religion shows you what to do with your pain, with the absurd, the tragic, the nonsensical, the unjust and the undeserved—all of which eventually come into every lifetime. If only we could see these ‘wounds’ as the way through, as Jesus did, then they would become sacred wounds rather than scars to deny, disguise, or project onto others. I am sorry to admit that I first see my wounds as an obstacle more than a gift. Healing is a long journey.

 

“If we cannot find a way to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably become cynical, negative, or bitter. This is the storyline of many of the greatest novels, myths, and stories of every culture. If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it—usually to those closest to us: our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, and, invariably, the most vulnerable, our children.”

 

            I would add that Rohr’s theology is also good psychology. The healing of memories and experiences are the pathway many people yearn for in their journey.

 

Henri Nouwen, the late Dutch Catholic writer and priest, penned a book named The Wounded Healer, that offered the perspective that our wounds, transformed, ultimately become the means of healing for us an others. He sounds a similar theme in another book, Life of the Beloved.

 

Rabbi Edwin Friedman wrote a book entitled Generation to Generation, which focused on the pain which Rohr describes being passed on within relationships and within congregations – from generation to generation, in families and in congregations.

 

            This is not a subject that is purely theoretical to me.  It is core to my faith and central to my experience.  The healing continues.

 

            I invite you to reflect on your own experience – to seek out those painful times in your life which prevent you from finding the peace which Christ offers… those experiences that place barriers between you and others.  Trust me – they are there for the finding. It can be fearful, but those times can be transformed.

 

It is likely a life-long journey.  But, as Paul discovered on the road to Damascus, the first step is the most important and can bring great relief. There is little to lose and so much to gain.

What do we mean by Love?

PROPERS:          4 EPIPHANY, YEAR C

TEXT:                1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-11              

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        Agape is the standard by which a Christian life is measured.

 

            Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will be present at the 51^st diocesan convention in Fort Walton in three weeks.  I have known Bishop Curry in his days as bishop of North Carolina, and he is the genuine article.  He may be the most consequential presiding bishop we have had in many years.

 

            The primary memory many people have of Bishop Curry is when he preached at the marriage of Megan Markle and Prince Harry.  Imagine the novelty and irony of that – a bishop from the colonies being asked to preach at a royal wedding at Windsor Castle!

 

            Bishop Curry is a genuine evangelical, in the best sense of the word.  He believes and he energetically proclaims that Jesus Christ can change lives.  He is truly unapologetic of his view.  He embraces both the modern and ancient teachings of the church.  He is known for his concise and emphatic statement: “If it is not about love, it is not about God.”

 

            But what does he mean about love? Some schmaltzy, sentimental feeling which says that anything goes? Or something else?

 

            Let’s look to scripture.

 

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            Coming to the end of his second missionary journey, Paul visited Corinth, a seaside town on a small Grecian isthmus.  He founded a church there, in about the year A.D. 50.

 

            Two or three years later, while Paul was on his third missionary journey, he heard reports of dissension, fights, and arguments within the young church in Corinth.  So, he wrote the letter we now know as his First Letter to the Corinthians, addressing those issues.

 

            We must be clear:  We have no original manuscript of Paul’s letters, or any other New Testament work.  But his words have been passed down from generation to generation and speak to us to this day.

 

            Many would say that the First Letter to the Corinthians reaches its climax in our first lesson.  That chapter represents Paul’s attempt to reduce Christian motivations to one word: love.

 

            The biblical Greek language is nuanced and there is a variety of words in the Greek for love. One, of course, is eros – the sexual, erotic love.  That was not the word the apostle used.  Another word is philia – a brotherly love (Hence, Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love).  That was not the word that Paul used in the 13^thchapter of his letter.

 

            The word he used in the 13^th chapter – and used it repeatedly – is agape.  Agape is not some sentimental, schmaltzy emotion.  It is deep, sacrificial, other-oriented love that is represented most graphically by the cross.

 

            The love that Paul is writing about is not the anything goes variety, but the form of love which intends the best for another person.  It is a love that requires effort. That is the essential message Jesus seeks to convey in all his teachings.  It is the message which echoes down through the ages from all sorts of religious leaders, sages, teachers, and rabbis. “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”

 

            Agape requires more than an automatic, instinctive, or unthinking response. Responses that are set in our minds or because of the way we intrinsically think do not necessarily represent agape.

 

            That essential teaching brings into question all sorts of actions and positions Christians and the church have taken over the centuries.  It should give us cause, too, to reflect on past and future actions.

 

            Paul crystalized it in today’s first lesson. As an ancient rabbi said, “Go and do likewise.”