Week 8—Sunday 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
WE HAVE CHRISTIAN STOMACHS!
We are discussing the question of the Christian way as the Way. And we are discussing it as the Way, not by a sovereign decree of God imposed on life, but as something that comes out of life itself—not imposed but exposed—exposed out of the facts themselves. Two and two make four is not imposed on mathematics by decree; it is built into the nature of mathematics. There is a built-in way to live and that way is the Way.
That Way is written in the Bible, supremely in Jesus who said, “I am the way,” but that Way is written into the facts, and they are more and more coming to the surface. Jesus said, “You shall love”; do the facts say the same? A man was shot through the stomach. When the wound healed, an aperture was left open so they could look through this aperture and watch the process of digestion. When he was in a good humor and on good terms with everybody, digestion was normal—the stomach blushed a rosy red, the gastric juices would run down the walls of the stomach like sweat down one’s face, and the stomach would go into churning movements. Digestion was normal. But the moment he became angry and out of sorts with others, the color of the stomach would change—the gastric juice would stop and digestion would be at an end. Obviously the stomach is made for good will and not ill will. In other words, you have a Christian stomach. Feed the stomach with ill will and it will go back on you; feed it with good will and it will act normally and well.
Jesus said, “Be not anxious.” Does the body say the same? I picked up my paper yesterday and read where Roger Maris, striving to hit sixty home runs, found his hair coming out in great chunks. He thought he had an infection. “No,” said the doctor, “tense anxiety.” So if Jesus said, “Be not anxious,” the body, even to the roots of your hair, says the same.
O Son of God, we see your footprints everywhere. We see you everywhere, for you are everywhere. And when you come to us, you come to your own. And when we come to you, we too come to our own. We are at Home—in you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Life works in his way, or it doesn’t work.