Book: 1 Corinthians

As sinful human beings, we have a unique talent for making ourselves and our needs the center of attention, if not the center of our universe. Holy Communion should shatter our illusion that we are the most important thing in our lives.

The Holy Spirit made possible the unity that was lost at the first Tower of Babel, and it is only by the Holy Spirit that broken humanity can today be renewed in the rubble of our modern Towers of Babel.

We have become a country untethered from the immutable Truth that a loving Father created us to know, love, and serve Him in this life, which alone is the assured path to our happiness in eternal life. We indeed have perpetual amnesia about this fact (including a majority of those in “the land of the free and the home of the brave” who claim to be Christians).

When we focus on Christ instead of complaining about the many hardships in our lives, we become a witness to the Gospel. Our lives become saturated with the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. This doesn’t make any sense if you don’t know Christ! This is how Spafford could write a hymn praising the Lord mere days after all his children died in a shipwreck.

Obedience to God is the only way to true happiness. But in order to trust and obey God, we must first abandon our pride and admit that we are no longer going to do things “our way.” Only when we begin boast in the Lord and not in ourselves will we know the joy of salvation and help others to find their way to God.

What can the US debt ceiling teach us about the Christian life? It demonstrates the attitude of our wider culture, even among Christians. We have no desire to do the hard work of self-examination and repentance. We don’t want to embrace the struggle of a life of holiness, following Christ. We just want more stuff! We want to be comfortable, and we don’t want to be reminded that we must be holy, just as God is holy.

Secular culture espouses many useless sayings which may make us feel good but are devoid of meaning because they deny the power and reality of the Triune God. The expectation of Christians is not to merely be nice or say nice things – it is to be kind, persist in prayer, and to boldly speak about our faith. What good is our faith if we don’t tell anyone about it?

Every sinful instinct we have tells us we can do it all on our own. We are beholden to our pride. We are so held captive by our pride, that we have a whole month to celebrate it! The bread of man is this: you can define who you are; you can define your identity; you can do whatever you want and expect the world to affirm you; you can define your own meaning of life; you get to define your meaning of love, your meaning of truth, your meaning of justice. All the answers, and ultimately your salvation, are found deep inside yourself. The Holy Eucharist is a repudiation of all of this, everything our culture stands for.

The Day of Pentecost is one of the most widely misconstrued events in Church history. Contrary to popular belief, the Day of Pentecost is about far more than the gift of speaking in tongues – it is about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church, empowering Christians as God’s chosen people to go forth and renew the face of the earth.