Better Than a Crown--July 4, 2022

Better Than A Crown--July 4, 2022

"Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!  Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to mortals." [1 Corinthians 4:8-9]

As Mel Brooks famously said (winking right at the camera), "It's good to be the king!"

Sure--fair enough.  It's nice to have some materials comforts.  It's enjoyable to have a thing called "disposable income" if you can have a season of life where you've got money you can afford to splurge with from time to time.  And I'm sure it does wonders for your mental health not to be constantly worrying about where your next meal will come from, or whether you'll be able to pay the electric bill this month.  (Like James Baldwin put it so compellingly: "Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor."  Or, like the rock anthem I remember blaring on the radio in 1997 put it, "I hate those people who love to tell you money is the root of all that kills--they have never been poor, they have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas.") So, sure--let's call a thing what it is: it's nice to get to live the good life, whether that's being literal royalty, or just getting to live the upper-middle-class two-car garage white-picket-fence life they sometimes call "the American dream."  

But, as another song has taught me, "'Nice' is different from good."  (That's a Sondheim lyric from "Into the Woods," in case you are wondering.)

And that's it. As pleasant and comfortable as it may well be to "be the king," in Brooks' phrasing, there's something wrong when we make that comfort the goal or measure of our lives.  All too often, we determine who is successful (at what--being human?) in terms of who's got the big house, the vacation time-share, the nest-egg for retirement, and the gated-community in which to park their high-end SUV.  And sure, maybe those things feel nice... but is that life really "good"? Is it enough, in other words, to be "the king"?

I'm reminded when I read this short passage from First Corinthians of an insight from Dr. King, who famously wrote a work of faithful imagination called, "Paul's Letter to American Christians."  And putting himself in the persona of the Apostle Paul, he asks contemporary American Christians about whether just "having it all" is really the point of life.  As "Paul," King notes all the advances in technology, medicine, and science of late-stage capitalism in 20th century America, and he can offer his applause... with an asterisk.  This fictional Paul says to the American church, "All of that is marvelous. You can do so many things in your day that I could not do in the Greco-Roman world of my day.... But America, as I look at you from afar, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress."  And then, a line that just gets me every time:  "Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighborhood, but through your moral and spiritual genius you have failed to make of it a brotherhood."  The real issue, says Martin Luther King's imaginary Paul, is "that many among you are more concerned with making a living than making a life."

In other words, you can have all the perks that make it "good"--or at least "nice"--to be king... but still to be missing out on the more fundamental connections we have to one another, especially those who suffer.  The thing about being "comfortable" is how easily it leads us to being numb without noticing.  When you're never in a position to feel a financial pinch, it's easy to forget what it's like to feel the pain others are struggling with right now.  And when that happens, we lose something important--something vital, even--about being human.

When the real Paul of First Corinthians writes to his friends there at First Church of Corinth, he's not bitter that they are in a position of material wealth--but he is worried about how that can insulate them to the point of being desensitized... or deadened.  He doesn't scold them for having access to the benefits of living in a prosperous time in a rich city--but he does seem to think that the Corinthian church is at risk for making the same mistakes that King's imaginary Paul saw in the contemporary American church.  We are both so easily tempted to think that being comfortable--financially, materially, and socially--is what makes life "good." And once we've bought into that mindset, it becomes hard to imagine a reason anyone would be willing to be made uncomfortable for the sake of others.  After all, if you've already passed GO and collected your $200, why would you let yourself get held back by helping someone else?  Once you've "made it" in life and no longer have to wonder where your next meal will come from or how you'll make ends meet to take care of the baby, it is easy to forget that others are still up at night worried sick over those and other questions.  And when you've decided that "having it all" makes you a "winner," it's easy to lose sight of the Gospel's word of table-turning hope for the "losers," the weak, the forgotten, and the left-out.  It is easy to forget that God offers us something better than a crown in Christ.

So today, it's worth listening to Paul again with new ears--both the actual first-century Paul writing to the Corinthians, and the Paul we might imagine speaking to us here in this time and place as well.  And before let ourselves get comfortable in the quest to "have it all," maybe we need to let Paul remind us of the Gospel's insistence that the way of Christ just might lead us to lose it all, to let go of our abundance so that others may have enough, and to step out of our comfort zones to share the sufferings of others.

'Nice' really is different from good.  And the Gospel is nothing less than good news for us all, not just the ones insulated from trouble inside their privilege.

Lord Jesus, keep us aware and sensitive to our connections with all people, and let us never confuse being rich or powerful with having the life that is really life.  Keep us connected to you and those whom you send us to love.