Theovolution

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, January 25, 2009,

Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B,

(word count: 1157)

Theovolution

Our second reading, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, is weird. In those verses, Paul writes, “Let those who have wives be as though they had none. [A] nd those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.”

“What? Paul, are you saying that, if I am married, I should act like I'm not? I don't think Kim would take kindly to that. And if I am grieving, am I supposed to put on a phony smile and pretend that I am fine? That's dishonest. Aren't we Christians supposed to be honest, genuine, not phony? Paul, why do you urge us in this passage from 1 Corinthians to act the opposite of the way we are?”

Paul replies, “Dave, you're misunderstanding my poetry. Of course I want you to be faithful to Kim. After all, I write elsewhere in 1 Corinthians that a married person should care for her or his spouse. Likewise, if you are grieving or rejoicing, of course you are not be phony. Christians are to be genuine, truthful.”

“Okay, Paul, so what do you mean when you tell us to act the opposite of the way we are?”

Paul puts his large, rough hand on my shoulder. He holds up an index finger and says, “What I mean, David, is that you and I, the baptized, need to focus on God. Don't let marriage, grief, joy, possessions, or worldly dealings get in the way of concentrating on God.” He nods. I nod. We both nod. Then he adds, “And one crucial reason for focusing on God is that the end is near. The end is near.”

When I hear Paul say that, I remember him writing in 1 Corinthians 7, “The appointed time has grown short [ . . . ] the present form of this world is passing away.” The time is fulfilled, so focus on God first. Get ready. Repent and believe. Drop everything. Put Christ first. Don't procrastinate. Don't put Christ off to tomorrow. The time is now. The end is near.

I say to Paul, “Sir, no offense, but the Church has been announcing for two-thousand years that the end is near. You wrote 1 Corinthians two millennia ago, but the end has not come. Why should I continue to believe that the end is coming, that the present form of this world is passing away?”

Paul clears his throat. He says, “We simply must have faith that the end will arrive. In the meantime, the present form of this world is passing away. It may be passing away slowly, but it is still passing away. God is today working on making all things new. The new creation is a work in progress.”

I recall Revelation 21:5, in which, indeed, God declares, “I am making all things new.” We don't know when the end will come, but we do know that God is working in the present to erase the old world, to make all things new. The deletion of this world and the final renewal will not happen in a blink at the end. The renewing process goes on yesterday, tomorrow, and today, right now.

God is causing creation to evolve into a new world in which sin and death will be extinct and new life will stand upright. God is making all things new. God is causing the world to evolve.

By using the term “evolve,” I don't mean evolution in the sense of Darwin, although Darwin's theory is sound. Darwin was a genius who gave us an understanding of nature that scientists have verified over and over. Further, a Christian can believe in Darwin's theory and be a Christian. In fact, Darwin himself writes in The Origin of Species, “I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one.” Moreover, in 2005, 10,000 clergy signed an e-letter that states, “[ . . . ] the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist” (in Peters, Martinez, Can You Believe in God and Evolution, p.88). I agree.

I agree with much of Darwin's theory, too, but I am not talking about Darwin here. Here, when I use the word “evolution,” I mean simply that God is working right now, today and every day, to make the old world pass away and to make all things new (Peters, Martinez, p.130-1).

Many of us Christians talk as if the opposite were the case. We speak as if the world is getting worse, not better. It is indeed tempting for us to believe that good is losing to evil.

However, the Bible declares otherwise. Granted, Scripture, such as in Revelation, warns us of terrifying disasters and unprecedented evil. At the same time, the Bible holds before us fragrant, blooming hope. In essence, Revelation and other passages announce, “Yes, there will be horrors, but do not give up hope. Even when Satan spits in your face with his claws around your throat, do not give up hope.” God assures us, saying, “I am making all things new. Trust me. I really am. You'll see.”

Hm. Technology and medical science have never been better. Maybe those improvements are part of God making all things new. What other improvements are there? Could it be that we can see, hear and feel evidence of God making all things new, of God making the world better? I wonder.

In any case, whether we can see evidence or not, we have the promise that sin will not win; Satan will not survive; death will die; wickedness will wither. Christ will return to end evil. We have the scrumptious promise that today, right now, God is working, sleeves rolled up, making all things new. By God's power, the world is evolving away from evil and toward love eternal. In fact, maybe this week, God will use you, one of the baptized, to help make the world new.

Now Jesus stands face-to-face with you. He says, “I have won a place in heaven for you. You are the baptized, the saved. So then, drop everything. Follow me. Help make the world new.”