“Healing Relationships,” by Rev. Mike Holly
Sermon Series: Community – Letters to the Church in Corinth
“Make room in your hearts,” Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth. Paul is pleading for reconciliation between the members of the church, a teacher who led them astray, and with Paul and his fellow missionaries. He desires that everyone would again sit at the table in harmony of spirit and singleness of mission.
Have you ever seen the Children’s message or the video clip of a child who is asked to pour a whole pitcher of water into a single cup? Some of the students stop when the cup is to the brim. Others keep pouring as the cup overflows. The message is clear: the cup only holds so much water. Our hearts are a different story. Our hearts have the ability to stretch in the metaphorical sense. Often, we think we know what love is until we are surprised by a gesture of love that is so great we could not have imagined it. We might ask, “how can a person love to that extent?” It is because their heart has been stretched so that the love more deeply and more broadly than before.
Forgiveness and reconciliation have the ability to help stretch our hearts. And I believe that this is what Paul is saying here. He’s not asking them to stop loving others so that there is room for them to love him and his fellow missionaries again. He is asking them to stretch in their ability to love because they have done the hard work of learning to forgive and to be reconciled to one another.
Bluff Park friends, may you never stop making room in your hearts!
—Mike Holly
The Word
Make room in your hearts for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I often boast about you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with consolation; I am overjoyed in all our affliction.
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