Memorize & Ponder for Sunday Mar 15, 2015
What is the Mind of Christ for Us?
1 Corinthians 2: 16 (Full Reading – 1 Cor 2: 1-16) (NRSV)
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
Being the Church in Christ: Wisdom from Pastor Paul
(The Brentwood Sermon Series for 2015)
Throughout 2015, the Christian community at Brentwood Presbyterian Church will be considering how to be the church in Jesus Christ, guided by the wisdom of Pastor Paul. We invite you to listen for what the Spirit is saying in the text, then question how those insights might change the ways you see things and act in the world. Share your thoughts during the week on the meaning the Spirit creates for you in this text by posting a comment on our website – brentwoodpc.ca.
A Provocative Pondering
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us provoke one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together … (Hebrews 10:23-25a)
Jesus Christ, and especially his way of thinking, was the salvation the world had been awaiting.
That was Paul’s deepest conviction. All of the hopes and dreams imagined by the prophets, and especially by Isaiah (Paul is quoting here from 40:13), came to their foolish and scandalous fulfilment in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. In, with, and through this man, who had revealed himself to Paul as the long-promised Messiah, the final redemption of the world intended by its Creator was fully present and working its wonders of faith, hope, and love.
There is a lot in Paul that can be confusing. He has a complex mind in conversation with a variety of complex intellectual traditions – Jewish, Greek, and Roman. He is faced with a number of different challenges in widely diverse early Christian communities.
Greater clarity comes when we realize that he is convinced to his core that recognizing and aligning with what God has done for the world’s salvation in Jesus of Nazareth is the key to living a faithful and flourishing life.
That’s what Paul means by having in us the mind of Christ – to align ourselves with Jesus’ way of seeing the world and acting for it. It goes right back to the covenant with Abraham, where God promises to be our God so we can be blessings. In all of his writings, however convoluted they may seem to us at this distance from his circumstances, that is what Paul is witnessing to.
As we continue to study Paul this year, I’m confident the Spirit will lead us together into deeper practices of faith, hope, and love.