A Marriage Made in Heaven

Today’s text from First Corinthians can easily lead into a discussion about the gifts of the Spirit ending with the question, “What is your gift?” But that is not the primary reason Paul has written these verses – that the Corinthians needed to discern their gifts. They already knew them. The problem Paul is addressing here is that the Corinthians were arguing over who’s gifts were more important and which one of them was the best Christian. Paul is writing to scold them because, by their arguments, they were not showing the world the gift of Jesus. Who would want any of God’s gifts if they only led to bickering and division? Paul in these verses (and those that follow) is calling the Corinthians to live the life of a new community – a new family. It is happenstance that we read these words with those of the account of the wedding at Cana in John but they do fit in with each other.

I have mentioned before that Jesus’ mother is never named in John’s Gospel and Jesus addresses her as, “woman.” I believe that this is because John is using the Mother of Jesus and this wedding feast as an image of the church and of our relationship to it. It also should not be lost on you that this first miracle involves wine. John is telling us that we, the church, are the bride of Jesus. That marriage, the church, has been made in heaven. No wonder Paul is so upset with the Corinthians on how they were treating each other.

Now, I suppose, anyone who has been married knows that it is not always smooth sailing. Once you get married all things do not fall into place. Marriage often is hard work. It does involve arguments and anger. But it always involves the love of two (hopefully that is why people get married) which helps them to work things out. That is true of our marriage to Jesus. We too have arguments and get angry but the marriage happened because of the love from one – Jesus. That is why the wine is the best after everyone has drunk from the world. It is the wine of salvation.

We are the bride of Christ. We have been filled with new wine. We now can look at the gifts of the Spirit in a new light and see why God has given them to us. Paul reminds us that everyone of us has been given gifts. While the world tries to rank the gifts deciding which are the most important, Paul reminds us that they are all equally part of the whole. If the importance of the gift made the Christian there would be very few (if any) Christians. For Jesus it is those who receive the gifts who are important. It is you and I bonded together in the body of Christ at the marriage feast that has no end who are given gifts so that together we may share the love of Jesus to the whole world inviting them to join us around the great gift of salvation.