View as Webpage

Morning Devotion for the Season of Easter

May 24, 2023

The Invitatory

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:8-11

The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones

Unfortunately or fortunately, in the first century there was no website for Paul to access that would have availed him of church planting techniques. Paul has set out to establish a worshiping community in Corinth among and with those who would follow Jesus Christ. At this time Corinth was a Roman city refounded according to Julius Caesar’s order. The city had a diverse population - freedmen, veterans, and an ethnic mix of Syrians, Egyptians, and Greeks from surrounding cities. There was also a sizable Jewish community. Similar to today’s experience, there were sharp contrasts along socio-economic lines. The city served as the capital of the senatorial province of Achaia and the judicial seat of the Roman proconsul. Corinth was also sacred to the goddess Aphrodite and the temple of Asclepius had a number of facilities in Corinth. In today’s experience It seemed to be a combination of Washington, DC, New York City and Los Angeles. A daunting place to launch a new religion.

But Paul is not without his own resources. Paul was a Roman citizen, the benefits of which were many and important They included; the right to vote and stand for election; the right to make a contract, to contract a legal marriage; to travel freely and to be safe from the death penalty. More than a matter of class or income, citizenship was a matter of security and identity. Given the disparate and varied means of identity expressed in Corinth, Paul’s declaration: “For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building,” is bold and challenging. Paul would dare to cast aside all the markers that define him together with all those that define and identify all those who live in Corinth with whom Paul now seeks to form this new community of believers and worshippers of Jesus Christ. Bear this in mind the very next time you step inside of Redeemer; drop every title, description and means of identity you use and know yourself as God’s servant alone.

It is important to bear in mind while reading this passage – indeed, as we find ourselves always in the midst of our activity that we be cognizant of God’s ongoing, continual action. Paul’s labor and ours would be fruitless if God had not been at work on our behalf, with us or without us.

 The church belongs to God, and the church has its identity rooted in that reality. This is the foundation. The primary proclamation is Jesus Christ and his Gospel. It reminds us that Christ is present as the basis for the Christian community. Perhaps we all need a reminder, whether we spend worship time in the pulpit or in the pew, that neither the congregation nor the ministry belongs to us. The church does not belong to culture or the marketplace. It doesn’t even belong to particular theologians or particular denominational confessions. The church belongs to God. So said, then we must proclaim Christ and worship and not the Church as an institution. So doing, directs us to the concerns that were then, and are now, Christ’s.

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.