3 June 2005

We will end the week in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians.

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. (1 Cor. 3:10-11). Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:12-15)

It is important to note that the builder suffers loss and yet...the builder will be saved. It is also important to note that it doesn't matter what is used in the building...the builder will suffer loss. Fire has a way of reducing to nothing that which is not able to reflect the life of the foundation. As soon as I read this piece I couldn't help but think of Jesus pointing out the fine work and precious stones of the Temple and that even this fine work would one day be reduced to not one stone on another. Then, in that same section of the gospel there is the woman who drops mere coins - all that she has - into the treasury. Two very different builders - two very different structures...and yet one foundation of grace. There is that need for us to experience the fire that brings our grand ideas of life into line with the foundation upon which we are given life.

Connection: There are many ways that we go along our merry ways and think that the way we are moving is the way everyone should go. But unless we have a community of people who feel free to draw one another into question and offer suggestions and nudge us to look again at what we are building in our lives (all of this can be called prayer), we will continue on our way and miss the blessedness of new life that is always ours in Christ, Jesus.

Lord, you build the community of your disciples and we are in constant need of you Spirit of truthfulness and grace so that we can work with one another as we come to learn the depths of your love and the shape of the life you offer us. Amen.