Team Work

1Corinthians 3:5  What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9  For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building. 10  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. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-- 13  the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14  If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15  If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. 16  Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17  If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18  Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20  and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21  So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, 23  and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

This Christian life is not a solitary journey. We who follow Jesus live in community. This means that no one achieves goals on individual merit – “for we are God's servants, working together .“ One lays a foundation, another builds on it, and a third completes the project. All of us work by the Grace of God, and achieve the purposes of God. “So let no one boast about human leaders.... --all belong to ...Christ, and Christ belongs to God”.

Ascension Day is an apt moment to remind ourselves that we submit to the authority of Jesus – as stated in the Christian creed: “he is seated on the right-hand of God the Father.” In a culture that idolises individuals and relentless promotes the cult of celebrity, we who follow Jesus choose to step back and point beyond ourselves to the Grace of God. 

Song:

The church is much more than an organization, 
It's Christ's living body, which needs no adaptation. 
So we will not look to our own imagination.
For we are builders together with God.

Copyright Bob and Kathy Stenson,

Seventh  Sunday of Easter

Life Together

The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Rueben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 178.

This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.