Series: Grace Trek
Title: Returned to the World
Text: 1 Corinthians 13

Very early in our lives we are given the message by the world that who we really are is unacceptable in some way or another. Therefore, we begin to hide the true self and, to varying extents, build a false self which is thought to be acceptable and loveable to others.

The real person is often hiding under layers and layers of protective armor.
I’ve come to realize that the only thing which truly changes people and frees them to be the true person God made them to be is God’s love and grace.

No judgment, only love.

If we are going to confront somebody with the truth about themselves, we have to tell them the whole truth beginning with the fact that they are God’s beloved child in whom God is well pleased. Once people begin to internalize that truth, they begin to have a desire to BE what is most true about themselves and the false, compensating, armored behaviors begin to drop away because those ways of coping are no longer needed.

Jonah is invited to see the world, not through the lens of Judgment, but through the lens of God’s love.

How will you finish your grace trek? Will you respond to God’s invitation to see the world through the eyes of love and grace, or will you continue to hold onto seeing through your ego based judgements?

16 So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (CEB)

Paul uses the term, “In Christ” 164 times.

To be “in Christ” means to be means to be organically connected to Christ like a branch is to a tree or a limb is to a body. When we put our trust in Christ and follow him, Paul would expect that we would be connected to Christ in such a way that we take on His characteristics, including the way we see the world.

Paul is saying to open your new eyes and look at the world the way Christ does. When you do that, you won’t be looking at the world in the old judgmental, ego based, way (2 Cor. 5:16), but you will see the world through the eyes of Christ’s love and grace (2 Cor. 5:17). You will see the world the way it really is, no longer distorted by our (mis)judgments. It will be a whole new world which Paul calls, “The new creation.”

The first section of 1 Corinthians 13 shows how our good deeds can often be motivated out of ego and the false self and not from Christ’s love.
What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 What if I could prophesy and understand all secrets and all knowledge? And what if I had faith that moved mountains? I would be nothing, unless I loved others. 3 What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive? I would gain nothing, unless I loved others. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (CEB)

Paul is well aware that religious good works are often more motivated by the ego than by Godly love. It is a quid pro quo arrangement in which the ego gains validation by the person doing something sacrificial. That is not love. According to Paul, there is nothing to be gained by being a religious show off because only love has the power to do any sustainable good in the world.

The next section describes what Godly love is, and isn’t. Paul gives characteristics of what comes from the false self, and what comes from love.

4 Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or 5 rude. Love isn’t selfish or quick tempered. It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs that others do. 6 Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. 7 Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. 8 Love never fails! 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (CEB)

Love sees what is most true about a person and does not give up until that person rejects what is false and chooses the ultimate truth of love.

The next section describes how the reality of God’s love is clouded by our currently limited awareness.

Everyone who prophesies will stop, and unknown languages will no longer be spoken.All that we know will be forgotten. 9 We don’t know everything, and our prophecies are not complete. 10 But what is perfect will someday appear, and what isn’t perfect will then disappear. 11 When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do. But when we grew up, we quit our childish ways. 12 Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don’t know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 (CEB)

Judgment plays the know it all game. It sees only a small part of the picture (the part it wants to see) and judges it to be the whole thing.

Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up.
1 Corinthians 8:1 (CEB)

Paul reminds us that to remain in love is to remain humble. Nobody has a perfectly clear picture of God. Our normal human way of seeing and all of our knowledge only adds up to seeing a reflection in a cloudy mirror. In order to see the way God sees, it requires a different type of seeing.
Instead of relying on our normal way of seeing, we must rely on three Godly virtues instead.

13 For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CEB)

We must stop relying on our natural eyes of judgment, and learn to see by faith. We must begin to trust that what God says is true about me, you, and this world, is what is ultimately true. And as we put our trust in God’s love, we gain true hope that love ultimately wins. Therefore we learn to live by faith and hope in God’s love and not in judgment.

Instead of Nineveh being destroyed, the false Jonah would have been destroyed, and the real Jonah would have returned home with a different awareness and message. His new message would have been, “Don’t be afraid. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Only all of us. We are Ninevites and Ninevites are us. We are all in God’s love.”

God pulls us out of our ordinary world of earning our worth. God pulls us out of the ordinary world of judgment in order to restore us back to our true selves. But we are restored to return to our ordinary world with new eyes which see the world the way Christ sees. We are given new eyesight to envision a restored world. We are returned to do the work of love and restoration in this world.

Songs from Today's Service:

Say So by Gungor/Israel Houghton
Joy by Housefires
O Come to the Altar by Elevation Worship
I Have Decided (Traditional)
They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love by Fr. Peter Scholtes
Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath