Now concerning the contribution for the saints; as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 1 Corinthians 16:1
“England shall have her neck wrung like a chicken!” So sneered Marshal Pétain after Hitler’s conquest of France, becoming the collaborationist leader who predicted England’s fall within three week. “Some chicken! Some neck!” Those mocking words of him who conquered the fear of a nation traumatized by the Blitz, still ring in my ears, having heard them on January 30, 1965. On that date the body of Sir Winston Churchill was carried in solemn procession into London’s famed St. Paul’s Cathedral. Big Ben was silenced for the day. But the words of Paul, famed apostle, rang out majestically, “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible…Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’” A visibly moved assembly of mourners was shockingly jolted out of their somber mood when the Archbishop of Canterbury did the unthinkable. In lieu of ending with a lofty prayer, he nonchalantly called on the ushers to pass around the collection plates to help the struggling saints in Wales. Rather sternly he added that he had already directed the Scottish kirks to pitch in.
Try to walk out of St. Paul’s Cathedral on that historic day and attempt to conquer your outrage at he desecration you just witnessed! Then brace yourself by walking back into 1 Corinthians 15, one step away from today’s text that starts in chapter 16. But keep in mind now that at the time these letters were written, their content was not arbitrarily divided into numbered verses and sections by linguists and academics. As a result, Paul’s Spirit-breathed, majestically worded summary of Christ’s resurrection and ours, feeds right into the contribution for famine-stricken Jerusalem. (Part 2 of 2)
Comment: The prevalent food sufficiency of the Christmas season which a majority of our citizenry enjoys, may lead to a phrase uttered on December 25, “I’m stuffed to the gills.” Who knows how fish wormed their way into our vocabulary, since they, not we humans have gills? Those require living under water, but drowning in debt sounds like it, too. One festive month a year the jolly reveler is stuffed to the gills with turkey and all the trimmings that induce the pleasant sleepiness of tryptophan. The rude awakening is imminent when days later in January the mailbox becomes stuffed with credit-card bills that hunger to be satisfied. To cut to the chase, “the contribution for the saints” cannot be wished away because some are tired of having that need stuffed into their ears. Neither the jolly fat elf nor the Easter bunny had hijacked the religious calendar in Paul’s day, but he had personally encountered the risen Lord on the Damascus road “Saul, Saul,” Jesus had asked, “why do you persecute me?” That was startling news to the great persecutor of the church, and perhaps should shock.us as well. What if we touch Jesus personally in our cavalier dealings with His church? Worse, what if we purposely slight the Savior of suffering saints in all of His royal realm, by choosing to be “stuffed to the gills with boredom,” as one interpretation says? “Let him who has an ear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (said 8 times in Revelation). 1 Corinthians 16
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