January 22, 2012
1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-31 NRSV
29I
mean, brothers and sisters,
the
appointed time has grown short; from now on,
let even those who have wives be as though they
had none,
30and 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,
31and those who deal
with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of
this world is passing away.
***
I am going to ask you a question, and then I’m going
to sit down and let you think about it for a couple minutes. Try to keep your
answer to yourself until after the service, and close your eyes if you need to.
The question is:
What would you do today if Christ were coming
tomorrow?
What would you do today if Christ were coming
tomorrow?
***
Since, I’m asking you this question, I figured I’d
share a few of my own answers.
My first instinct is to want to hike somewhere and
sit and watch, watch the leaves play, the bugs creep and crawl, and the sunset
slowly change. I think that’s what I want to do. It would be prayer, a
meditation, and a saying goodbye, and a saying thank you.
But I admit, part of me gets really scared. I don’t
know what Christ coming will look like. Would I get to see Will, and my family,
and my closest friends? Would I get to go swimming in the warm ocean ever
again? Would I ever get to grow up and live a full life? To what would I need
to say goodbye that I might not be ready for?
In thinking about the question, there is also the
part of me that has a hard time breaking rules. Am I supposed to be in church
all day the day before Christ comes? Is this morning’s service good enough? If
there is great judgment, can I even do anything to right all my wrongs?
Don’t get me wrong; I look forward to the day Christ
comes back. I look forward to that justice, that healing, that peace, that
jubilee, but I don’t live my life like its coming tomorrow. Which brings me to
the second question, a continuation of the first.
What would you do today if Christ were coming
tomorrow, and why is that not your plan for today? What would you do today if
Christ were coming tomorrow, and why is that not your plan for today?
***
I told you my dreaming of what I would do, but I
will spare you my excuses about why it isn’t in my plan for today. I don’t know
if you also live more in the excuses than in preparation for Christ, but the
Corinthian’s whom Paul is addressing certainly are in the excuse place. It takes
Paul to give them the vision of how to live as if Christ was coming.
Paul tells them to live as if there were no
relationships, as if there was no mourning, no rejoicing, no possessions, and
no dealings with the world. In place of the nothingness, Paul puts Christ. In
place of everything we hold onto, Paul puts Christ. In place of all our excuses
Paul puts Christ. And I guess if Christ was coming on Monday, we might live
that same way.
Now, I doubt Christ is going to come tomorrow, and
I’ll admit Paul may have been a little off. But I’ll tell you something even
more urgent. Christ is continually breaking in to this present moment. Paul
describes it, “The present form of the world is passing away.” It’s not about
tomorrow. Tomorrow is too far away. Christ is in here today. I wonder then,
what will you do today?
