By Rev. Gina Johnson
So, we spent some time talking about what it meant to be right where you are and the importance of practicing presence in any situation that you are in. Not getting caught up with things that are dragging you into the future or bringing in the things from the past, but just being really present to what is going on right in front of you. Being in that one space where you are able to do something about what's going on, and whether that's sitting and listening to someone, whether that's giving someone affirmation of feedback, whether it's a moment where you're on the sharing end, the importance of being present to right where you are in that moment.
Now, I want to move a little deeper. Our congregation said for 2025, our theme would be Welcome Home. What does it mean? What do we need to do? What is it going to take for us to really make our church a space where people feel at home? When they come through our doors, whether they come through for service, or whether they come through because they're part of the chorale, or one of the children practicing on a Tuesday night, what do we do here that can make this place feel more like a home?
Paul reminds us that we are God's building. We are that house. We are that structure, and we are built on the foundation of Christ. Before we can go and turn our workplace into a home, or our school, or our church, we have to really make sure that we are in alignment with the things that make this house, the mind, the body, the spirit, into a home. And so, today, our scripture is going to take us to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 9-16.
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it.
But each one should build care, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. And so, when you hear that, when you hear that scripture, that metaphor comes to life. So, Paul is saying that Christ is our foundation, and we are the house.
What exactly does that mean? Well, it means, one, we are God's building. We are the place in which God, in which spirit, in which source, in which that presence dwells. The I Am presence is within us.
That foundation is Jesus Christ. The construction is, what are we building in this home? What choices are we making? What thoughts are we spending time with? What actions are we taking that's constructing our home? And the dwelling place, that center place that we turn inward to, that is where we meet spirit. Spirit is dwelling within our home.
I want to talk about a few things that we can do in order to make our house a home. The first one is building on the right foundation. If this is the mind piece, you know, I said mind, body, and spirit, and I said that Christ is the foundation.
So, are you building your mind on the right foundation? It's said in verse 11, for no one can lay any foundation other than that one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. So, when you recognize that the foundation that you are building on, that you are standing on, is Christ Jesus, what is it that you are doing in alignment with your thoughts to build the right kind of house, to create the right kind of home on that foundation?
You know, about 15 to 20 years ago, I used to really enjoy watching those extreme home makeover shows, and they would come in, and whatever reason the family qualified for, next thing you know, mom and dad had like the bedroom that every mom and dad always wanted, the kids had the rooms where like drawers were built in the walls, and beds dropped out of the ceilings, but either way, everyone was excited for that move that bus moment, because they couldn't wait to see this home. Well, you know, that show is all well and good, because people come in, they have these crews, and they make it all happen.
I have a very dear friend of mine who lives in Sedalia, and she is super accomplished, crafty, you name it, she can do it, great personality, just a fantastic woman all around, and her house was wonderful. I was like, man, Kim, I love your house, this big wall of books, and all this pretty artwork, things she's designed herself, it just was a great place to be. And I remember there was a time where she was finally able to start doing some construction on her house. She wanted to remodel a few places, but the contractor came out, and he said, we can't do any of this remodeling until we fix that foundation. It doesn't matter what it looks like because even though everything looked picture perfect, and even though the atmosphere was great, and it was just a nice place to be, it wouldn't be too long before that foundation would have started causing problems, especially when we'd have the winters, and then transition to the spring, and water in the basement. Before she could do anything, tore up her yard, spent a little out of the pocketbook, she had to repair that foundation.
That's one of those things that we have to spend time into, examine your beliefs, examine where you're spending your time, and thought, and practice, and ask yourself that question, am I grounded in love, am I spending time in truth, am I surrounding myself with affirmation, am I taking things into my mind that continue to keep my foundation strong? And it's not a matter of keeping Christ Jesus strong, because Christ is strong, Christ is present, Christ is in each and every one of us, but are we doing those things to recognize the strength of that foundation, to let it be the support, to let it be what guides us, and navigates us as we continue to move forward.
It's really important that if you have any limiting thoughts around yourself, especially when it comes to aging, or dying, or what you do for your profession, what it comes to your ability to learn. You know, sometimes people say, “Well, I'm too old to understand that,” “Oh, I've done this forever, and I'm never gonna change my ways,” “Oh, you know, I tried that once, it didn't work out, I'm not gonna try that again.” It's okay to feel those things around that, but be careful not to limit yourself. Be careful not to embrace limiting beliefs. Perhaps you are a worrier, or a micromanager and say things like, “Well, I'm just always worrying. I'm always micromanaging.” That may be true, until you're not.
Just know that everything we say and think, which you guys have heard from me a number of times, is also making an impact on that foundation. The more that we see ourselves in doubt, and limitation, and disbelief, the more we might as well be putting cracks in our foundation.
Thankfully, nothing can crack, or destroy the presence of Christ in our life, but we can build an illusion that the foundation is cracked by the things that we allow in our mind. Stick to those affirmations, continuing to surround yourself with people who feed into the goodness that's going on into your life. And when you come across challenges, because it's not about bypassing challenges, it's not about ignoring the things that may be causing you some pause, and a little bit of perhaps anger, or sadness, or confusion, just knowing that when those things come, if your foundation is solid, if you've been nurturing your mind with good conversation, good reading, good listening, good environment, that those challenges will seem a lot less like mountains, and a little more like mole hills.
The other thing about having those safe spaces where you can continue to nurture your mind, when those challenges arise, and you're like, “But Pastor Gina, I can't get it to shrink in my mind, it's still just really weighing on me, and it's causing me all this tension,” then, the good thing is, is you have that community. You can go to that community, and you can share in that space of saying, “This is what I do to keep my foundation solid,” and perhaps from that you can learn.
The next one is caring for the temple. I don't know how your parents were when you learned how to drive, but my father got me a Ford Escort, and I didn't drive until I was 18, because of my epilepsy, and before we could actually get our license, we had to know how to, change a tire, which everyone's like, “oh me too, me too,” but no, I also had to know how to change my oil. I had to know at what point I should be thinking about whether or not I need a new air filter, when it's time to do a tranny flush, all of these things were things that I had to be a little more mindful of.
Now, he wasn't super hard on me, but when it came to oil changing, and tire changing, maintenance of the car, you had to pay attention to that, and as I became a mom, and even though I didn't have a vehicle, it was still very important to me that whatever means of transportation that is coming into my life, I have to be educated on that. Well, let's think about that for a moment. What happens when you neglect car maintenance? What happens when you think, “Oh, the car runs so smoothly, I'm not going to worry about it.”?
You know, the car can be feeling great, but we still need to get an oil change, we still need a tire rotation. We need to go in every now and then, and have some things adjusted and checked on, we still need to top off our fluids, we still need to replace the brake pads when they get worn. We still need to do those things. That's the body.
Caring for the temple itself, caring for the house that you build on the foundation is what makes it a home. If you neglect your car, especially if it is a used car that may not be doing the greatest, you are just speeding up that process of needing to go find a new car. Well, guess what, guys, when it comes to our bodies, it's not that easy.
It's not one of those things where I can just neglect this body all day long, but that's okay, I'm going to go to the body dealership, and I'm going to talk to a few people, and they’re going to hook me up with another one, because many of you know that even in all the beautiful technology and resources we have, even as we have maintenance done for us with our bodies, sometimes things just don't feel the same. We have to go through exercise and therapy, maybe changing what we eat, and being more mindful of the amount of rest we're getting, the amount of exercise we're doing, the amount of water we're intaking, all sorts of different things, because it's so important that we don't treat our bodies like this separate entity. In order to have that alignment with God, you have to have that mind-body-spirit connection, and that body piece is important. Are you nurturing your bodies? Think about that.
Even this afternoon, when you go home, sit for a moment and ask yourself, do I do the things to nurture my body? Are you resting enough? People say, “Oh, but I don't have time for rest. I have this, this, and this going on.” Okay, keep pushing, because you're either going to come down with something that's going to take you down, or you're just going to go to exhaustion.
You know, one of the biggest messages they teach us in seminary is pastors burn out, so be careful. Establish soul care, and it took me a while to even get behind that, because it was like, oh yeah, 20 minutes a day, an hour a week, that makes sense. No, no, no.
Establish soul care. Find a day a week where you take four to six hours and really care for your soul. Four to six hours? Who has four to six hours? And I hear in retirement, life gets even busier.
It's amazing how time goes by quickly, and the one thing we can't be ignoring is our bodies. Recognize that your body is God's handiwork. Your body is God's masterpiece, and if you were given a masterpiece to care for, what would you do with it? How would you nurture it? How would you take care of it? And are you doing that for your bodies?
In the scripture, in verse 16, it says, don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, that God's spirit dwells in your midst? So if God is residing within you, if the I Am presence lives within you, take a look.
What is the spirit living in? What are you inviting God into? If Jesus were to come in human form and come into your house, how many of us would run home and clean house really quick? Go by the grocery store and make sure we have something to offer him to drink and a little bit of snack. What would we be doing there?
Now, understand that you don't need to invite God. God is always dwelling within you. So how are you nurturing that space in which God is dwelling? How can you make this house a home?
The last one is the spirit. So when you have this foundation of Christ, you have this temple of the body, and now in the indwelling, we have the spirit. And what is the spirit? One of my favorite metaphors for the spirit is light.
When we lived in this house I remember one night, because of the weather, the power went out. So here we are, eight people in this living room and the weather is a little crazy, but we're all there together. Still, that complete darkness made all of us feel just a little different. So while Travis is trying to find a flashlight or candles, we're asking, how long will the power be out? No one wants to admit they're scared.
Perhaps people feel scared very much the same way about the light of the spirit. That if we don't allow that light, if we don't nurture that light, if we don't take actions through prayer and meditation, through expressing gratitude, the light of the spirit that fills our temple, that lights our homes, can get a little dim.
You ever have someone in your life and they're always kind of grouchy, they're always so negative? You don't really feel lifted up after you spend time with them, and slowly but surely, you've already moved them away in your mind, and now you're moving them away physically. Take a moment right now and bless them because they are serving as a lesson.
What is it that makes that person that way? Let’s not pass some kind of scolding judgment about it, but what is it? Those individuals you know that are always dark, and gloomy, and grouchy, and always pointing out the negatives, and always looking for the next thing to debate about, always looking for the next place to say, “No, no, no, that's not right. Try it this way.” What is that?
I guarantee you, just like in the darkness of that space I was in, once you invite the light in, once you start to light even a simple candle, you can be a light to them.
What is that candle for you? What is that that you are bringing in to increase the light there? Because sometimes that person who we know, who maybe we can picture in our mind, that fits that description very much, maybe we have to be that presence that meets them and hands them a candle, and maybe that candle is nothing but the overflow of the spirit within us.
In the scripture, verses 12 and 13, it says, if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is. Focusing on building on things that are just temporary, such as gold and silver, such as status and acclimation, such as materialism, are not going to increase that light. But focusing on love and kindness, having a strong faith, letting go of all of the shallow places, and bringing yourself into the depths of what it means to be with spirit, to be in spirit, and to share spirit does increase the light. That is the light in your house.
When you bring those altogether, when you take a moment and say, “Okay, how am I recognizing the foundation that I am on? How am I building on this foundation? How am I taking the strength of this foundation to create this place?” Then you can ask, “Now that I have this house, how can I nurture it? How can I take care of it? How can I use it in such a way that it feels like a home? That the presence of Christ which dwells in me is able to be in there and speak to me?”
When you got a lot of noise going on in your home, it might be hard to hear what the spirit is saying. So, you have to declutter. You have to declutter your mind. You have to declutter your body. You have to declutter the things that might be distracting you from spirit.
I really welcome you all to think about your true home. It's not a place. It is a state of being. It's not just the place that you go to. It's a state where your mind and your body and your spirit are aligned. It's a place where your thinking and your feeling and your willingness is aligned. And if you can do the things to nurture those aspects of your house, then you will have a home. And that home will be a space that you can invite people into.
And what are you inviting them into? The presence of you. The alignment of body, mind, and spirit, what it means to be in communion with Christ. So I want to challenge you, as you move forward in this week, take some time. Look at your foundation. Think about what those beliefs are. What are those limiting thoughts? What can I do to help shift those in a positive direction?
I want you to look at your body. And for some of us, this is a very private space. You know, not all of us are think, “I'm going to go work out of the gym or do the aerobics class.” So whatever it is for you, whatever it is for you to say, “I can make my body feel better this way,” think on it. Find a way to nurture your body.
And of course, spirit. What are the building materials that you are using? How is spirit moving in you? And are you allowing that light to really be what's shining forth and not all the other things we try to put in the way of it? Think, “This is who we are. We are the light. We are the love.” That's what we need to have not only in our home, but flowing from our home.
Please pray with me. Almighty God, we give you thanks that you have laid such a beautiful foundation for us to build on. We give you thanks for the Holy Spirit, the great architect, the guidance and the discernment that we have.
And God, we give you thanks for our bodies. Our bodies that were created in your image, our bodies that are that perfect alignment and perfection. Guide us in how we can better take care of our temple, your temple. And spirit, we surrender and we give you thanks for all that you continue to do in our lives.
In Jesus name, amen.
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