Reshaping Our Cup; Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Rev. George Miller
May 31, 2020
1 Corinthians 12:4-7

A few months ago, one of our beloved members journeyed home to be back with her family.

Among Cindy’s gifts of prayer shawls and baby blankets that she left behind was a book by Rev. Becca Stevens called Love Heals.

Rev. Stevens is an abuse survivor who uses her history to bring healing to others who have experienced trauma.

Love Heals is the kind of book that’s easy to read but can’t be rushed.

It is the kind of book you savor, like a soothing cup of tea.

In Chapter 13, Rev. Stevens shares something so profound-

“If you stress because you feel like your glass is half empty…your cup may be too big.”

If you stress because you feel like your glass is half empty…your cup may be too big…

Let that wash over and anoint you.

…Plenty of us know what it’s like to carry around a glass that is way too big; impossibly big.

So big it constantly sets us up for failure.

Then again, we are living during a time in which if we don’t carry the glass, it can shatter and hurt a lot of people, including ourselves.

So what do we do during this moment of high stress and being in continued survival mode?

Do we enlarge the cup; shrink the cup?

Maybe it’s not about the size…but the shape…

Maybe to alleviate the stress, fear, and anger, it is time for us to reshape the cup we are holding.

Over the past week it has become pastorally clear that we are in the stage of grief known as denial.

The affects of COVID-19 have been harsh waves, but many of us want to believe they are just ripples.

That when this all goes away, life will return to as it was.

That we will have large gatherings, endlessly kiss and hug, sing loud long songs, sit elbow to elbow.

But it’s not going to be that way. Not in a week, or a month, perhaps not even in a season or a year.

We can deny it as much as we want to, or disagree, or try to find a loophole, but it ain’t gonna happen.

When we reopen for public worship, to expect the glass to be the same size and shape as before,

is just going to cause more stress and heartbreak.

It would be like putting new wine into old wineskins.

So we can either enlarge the cup, shrink the cup, or be willing to change the shape of the cup.

Think of Highlands Lakeside Theatre as they get ready to present their newest musical production, “The Marvelous Wonderettes.”

Instead of canceling it, or opening to a full auditorium, they’re offering the show live and streamed into the safety of our homes.

Ingenious.

It’s not a bigger cup or a smaller cup, but a differently shaped cup to match a different time.

This is so reminiscent of Pentecost and what Pentecost means.

Pentecost is what we consider the birthday of the Christian Church.

As depicted in Acts 2, it is the moment that the Holy Spirit brazenly broke into the world making it possible for people from all backgrounds to become ONE.

If you read Acts 2 you discover how time and space meld and mix-

the inside becomes out, the outside comes in and a whole new level of communication takes place.

Pentecost is about the reshaping of faith and the new ways in which God can be experienced.

Pentecost is tied to the glory of the past, but it is also new and loud and confusing and exciting and welcoming and wall breaking.

Kind of like right now.

COVID-19 is our own kind of Pentecost in which the Message of Jesus Christ is being spoken and shared in new ways.

This is a time in which worship and ministry in on fire.

This is a time in which what’s going on inside and outside the walls are mixing and melding.

We are reaching out to other countries, other states, other time zones, other days, other languages in ways we were not doing just 3 months before.

The ministry of Emmanuel UCC is continuing to be reshaped.

For some this sounds glorious; for some it sounds scary, understandably so.

Do you think it was easy for those in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit poured down like wind and fire?

Do you think it was easy for the early Corinthian Church to adapt to the new shape and size?

Heck no…

Think of what it was like for those who were used to worshipping in the majesty of the Temple to now worship in the cramped space of someone’s home.

Think of what it was like for kosher observing Judeans to now sit beside foreigners who brought crab cakes and double bacon cheeseburgers to the table.

Imagine what it was like for those men who used to lay with the Priestesses of Aphrodite to now express their faith by remaining faithful to their wives.

Because of the Holy Spirit those who liked quiet were now sitting beside those who were loud.

Those who were stoic were beside those who were ecstatic.

Those who said women should be silent were now next to women who proudly spoke their mind.

Not a bigger glass, or a smaller glass, but a totally reshaped cup.

Friends, I know many of you are in deep grief and denial.

You’re missing the choir, the hand bells, the 150 chairs, the coffee…

But one way that our healing will take place is for all of us to start thinking about the new and exciting shapes our ministry will take on.

In today’s scripture Paul talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit- wisdom, healing, prophecy.

Those were some of the gifts the Holy Spirit gave the earliest Christians during their time of change.

If Paul was writing today, what do you think he would say?

No doubt the gifts of knowledge and miracles would still apply.

But today he would most likely include a list of other gifts-

-Web designing and Videographers
-Mask Makers
-COVID Care Package Creators
-ZOOM Masters
-Glove Givers
-Communion Kit Fillers
-Peaceful Protestors

This is a difficult time.

For those in Highlands County we have yet to see the full effects of COVID, so it’s hard to believe.

For those in my hometown, the cases are in the thousands and they are ages away from moving freely.

Many of us are in denial.

Many of us are holding onto the glass thinking its going to stay the same.

It’s time for us to accept that the glass will never be the same again.

We can stress ourselves out by making the glass bigger than it is.

We can sadden ourselves by thinking it’s now way too small.

Or we can empower ourselves by accepting that the glass is a different shape, and always will be.

After we allow ourselves to accept that new shape, we can better deal with and live within that reality.

Perhaps, over time we will be able to look back and celebrate the different shape while also mourning what was lost.

Maybe the cup we create will be a little more elastic, a little more pliable than before.

No matter what, this is a cup we are creating, not on our own, but co-creating with God,

with Christ, with the Holy Spirit,

all for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

Just as our Pentecostal ancestors in Jerusalem and Corinth so long ago,

WE now have the same chance to do, today. Amen and amen.