What’s Cooking?  Binding the Ingredients

1 Corinthians 12:31b-14:1a

February 1, 2004

 

UP TO DATE

We’ve been working our way through Paul’s letters to the Corinthians

            It’s taking us a while

            Actually > began this time last year > following the lectionary schedule of scripture readings

            Then we picked back up couple of weeks ago > right where we left off a year ago

Something was cooking in Corinth > smell was so bad that it drifted to Ephesus where Paul was

            So he wrote them several letters > the Master Chef writing his culinary students

Last week we checked his ingredients for “cooking” a good church > spiritual gifts

            He listed them > and made certain they had their gifts in the right proportions

            Equal numbers of gifted people

Some who can tell unchurched people about Jesus

            Some who will listen for God and tell it to rest of us

                        Some who will to pass on teachings of the Bible

                        Some who can get things done

                        Some who can make unhealthy situations healthy

            Some who will be deacons

                        Some who will be elders

                        Some who can speak a language other than English

            Or, in one “i” sentence

Interdependent individuals involved in incredibly important endeavors

BINDING INGREDIENTS

Apparently Corinthians had all of them > they had all the right ingredients > in the right proportions

But something was still missing > that ‘something’ was a binder

            We most often think of ‘binder’ as something you’d find in the three-ring section >

Papers often need to be binded together [grammatically correct = bound]

If papers are left ‘unbinded’ first gust of wind blows them in every direction

            That’s not good

            But in its broadest sense > ‘binder’ > something that produces or promotes cohesion

Holds together loosely assembled whatevers

                        If we are in kitchen cooking > those whatevers can be ingredients for a cake

flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa, cinnamon

can you imagine having piles of these ingredients sitting on the counter

you open window to let in fresh air > POOF > away they fly

dry ingredients are absolutely nothing in and of themselves

if we’re going to end up with a cake > we need something to bind dry ingredients

            for cakes > binders are some liquid > oil, water, milk, eggs

            for meat loaf > binder is an egg or two

            for stew > binder is gravy

                        so, if you want to be cook or chef, you learn what binds dry ingredients together

PAUL BINDING THE CORINTHIANS

It may seem that cake ingredients are only meaningful when they apply to church pot-luck suppers

But ingredients go way beyond pot-luck dinners

Ingredients are to a cake what spiritual gifts are to a church

                        Just as ingredients are worthless without a binder          

So spiritual gifts are absolutely nothing in and of themselves

            All the people who “house” these gifts need a binder > something to bind them together

The binder the Corinthians Christians needed was love

            Notice that love is not in the list of spiritual gifts

            Love is the way to use to use their gifts

                        Not friendship love > it’s easy to love your friends

                        Not romantic love > it’s inappropriate to be romantically involved with everybody

            No, the kind of love that binds Christians together is kindness love > God’s kindness love

                  The kindness love that is gentle and caring to everyone

Gentle and caring even to the unlovable people of the world

                                                The weird people > people who do strange things

                                                The people who are so very different > skin color, beliefs, lifestyles

                                                The people you just can’t like

                        Lovingkindness is what binds Christians together

            So Paul tells them > and he tells them eloquently

Love is the way to use your spiritual gifts

With faith, and with hope, and with love > and the best way is with love

US BINDING ST. ANDREW’S

If love was good enough for the Corinthians > it’s good enough for us!

As we go about our week > let’s bind ourselves together in Christ’s love