It's God's Project--June 2, 2022

It's God's Project--June 2, 2022

"For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.  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." [1 Corinthians 3:9-10]

It's hard to let go of control sometimes.  But when it comes to God's work, the humbling truth is that I never had control in the first place. 

I think that's the big shift we all come to make (or have to keep making over and over again in our lives of faith) as we grow in maturity: we come to see faith is less about getting God to help us bring our plans to reality, but about God inviting us to be a part of God's new creation, which has already begun.  God isn't the genie or spiritual power I tap into in order to accomplish my wishes, but more the other way around: God welcomes me, along with others, to be a part of the grand work of making all things new that God has set into motion.  And since it's not my plan or design, I am going to have to learn that God gets to choose who else to use and work with, in addition to whatever I bring to the table.

That's the difference: for projects of my own devising, I get to be the one in charge.  If I'm painting a painting in my free time, for example, I get to make all the artistic decisions--what colors, what size brushes, how to compose the scene, and when to do the work on the canvas.  I get to decide if I let anybody else see my work or contribute to it, or whether I'll just do it all myself.  Or, if I'm building a shed in my back yard, I get to decide if I will ask friends or neighbors for help, or whether it will all be my hands and my labor that does it all. My project, my rules.  But when it's someone else's project, I don't get to call the shots. If someone else has the vision and has let me be a part of their work, I have to admit I don't have control over what we're doing, how we're doing it, or who else gets to share in the work alongside me.

And when Paul thinks about the community called church, he reminds us that it's much the same.  The church isn't my (or anybody else's) personal project to create or build as we like it.  It's God's.  That means God reserves the right to let each of us have a part in creating the whole, but none of us gets to direct the entire production.  We are less like sprinters competing in the individual 100-meter dash, and more like teammates in a relay race.  Someone else was here before us, and they ran with the baton for their part of the course before handing it to us for our leg of the race.  And the time will come when we each hand the stick off to others who will carry on as well beyond what we can see or do.  That's not a failure on anybody's part--that's just how a relay race works.  And, again to hear Paul tell it, that's how God's handiwork happens, too.  

Recognizing what Paul means can be uncomfortable in a number of ways, though.  For one, it means that I don't get veto power over the people God chooses to use and work through.  If I'm doing a project in my own back yard, I get to decide who else I will allow to be in on the job.  But if the project we are a part of is God's creation, then God gets to decide who else is on board, and God doesn't have to run the list of other helpers past me for approval.  God gets to decide to use people and work through people that I don't like, or don't agree with, or don't get along with, or even don't think are worthy.  Not only that, I will find myself humbled to realize I don't get a vote or a say over questions of who else God uses, because I'm not the one in charge--God is. It reminds me of an insight I think I first read from Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a theologian in her own right:  she point out that it's not even about me saying, "I should really let other people have a place at the table to make decisions," because even that framing suggests I have control of the table, and it's up to me to decide who else I will allow to have a stake in leadership.  Bernice King has helped me to understand a point I think Paul says here as well: it's God's table, God's project, and God's new creation--God gets to decide who has a place at the table and a voice in the conversation, and it's not really up to me to approve or not approve.  I'm just the help, along with everyone else God invites to be a part of God's universal restoration project. I don't get to overrule God's choices to call and work through others I might not approve of--it's not up to me.

Today is a day, then, for an honest look at how we contribute to God's "kingdom work."  I may get to play a part in it--sharing my faith with someone, serving a neighbor, showing mercy, practicing justice, or doing some other good in the world, maybe--but I don't get to direct the whole production.  My part is my part, and God is allowed to bring in others beyond what I can offer, who will also contribute their own talents, time, passions, and purpose to the project.  I can either delude myself into thinking God has left it all up to me and my designs, only to have a rude awakening later--or to recognize right now that it's God's baby, and we just get to be a part of the team who helps bring this new thing to birth. It's going to mean that I go beyond thinking I'm being charitable in "letting" others have a place at the table to voice their insights or offer their contributions, to instead realizing that it's actually God's table, and God has welcomed me along with others, without having to get my approval first.  

Like I say, that's humbling, because it means admitting I never had the control I thought I did.  But it's also beautiful and honest and true, because it means realizing the Kingdom is God's project, and God is the One who guarantees that it will all come together at the last.  And I can rest in that, even if I'm not in control of it.

Lord God, remind us that we are not the directors of your new creation--and let us be prepared for all the surprising faces you choose to include as your workers in this today's work, and your grand restoration of all things.