In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians 3:1-9, we read of St Paul writing to the Corinthians to say that when he was with them, he fed them with milk, not solid food, for they were not ready for solid food. What does he mean by milk and solid food when he writes about teaching the church in Corinth?
It is worth looking into the Old Testament at this point, and Psalm 131, which is another place in scripture using the language of a nursing baby and a weaned child. In Psalm 131, Israel is pictured as a weaned child resting in the arms of God, its mother. This Psalm opens up for us a particular avenue to rest, reflection and silence. In this Psalm the baby feeds on God so fully that it is satiated and satisfied and in that experience rests in silence. How often do we feed on the milk of God – her presence, her words, her actions – to the extent that we can, in that moment, take no more and lie still, trusting, satisfied, in the everlasting arms that always hold us whatever the great and marvellous things that surround us.
But this is just the beginning of our relationship with God, as it also is for a baby with its mother. Nancy Hicks has written compellingly about the change from a nursing baby to a weaned child, also based on Psalm 131:
“Nursing was one of the most intimate acts I have ever been allowed to participate in, and what joy to be utterly depended upon! But a nursing baby is a demanding baby, “Pick me up NOW! Feed me NOW!” And when she fell asleep in my arms I felt needed, but not really appreciated for anything other than my capacity to satisfy hunger.
Then she was weaned. Now, when she crawled into my lap it was for relationship and comfort and intimacy. I understood God’s delight at the psalmist’s words, “Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me.”
In Psalm 131, the Psalmist pictures himself having the kind of intimacy with God that a weaned child has as it cuddles up on its mother’s lap. That intimacy comes after the child has been fed and has moved on from milk to solid food.
So, the picture that we gain from these descriptions is of God’s love as the love of a mother for her child is that of God wanting to bring us into a place where we feel safe alongside her, where we know the comfort of being fed and therefore grow from the basics of the faith (the milk) to the depths of the faith (the solid food).
What is the solid food? Well, Paul begins by telling us what it is not. He says to the Corinthians, even now you are still not ready for there is jealousy and quarrelling among you when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’. Paul says that we behave like infants in Christ whenever we quarrel and argue and that means that we are not ready for the solid food which, therefore, has to be about unity and love. So, he continues by writing about the common purpose that unites the one who plants and the one who waters saying that we are all God’s servants, God’s field, God’s building; when we work together.
This means that our natural inclinations as human beings to argue and compete, to demand and to grasp for ourselves are, in the words of Paul, infant behaviour. It also means that Jesus’ teaching about love for God, neighbour, enemy and ourselves is the solid food because that is what we need to practice in order to experience unity, common purpose and togetherness.
Let us ask whether we, as individuals and as a church, are experiencing the love of God in these ways? God wants to take us into a deeper relationship with him and at the heart of that relationship is his infinite heart of love beating with the kind of love which mother’s commonly show towards their children. May we open up our lives and hearts to receive that love and enter in to that depth of relationship today! Through the safety and security, the acceptance and affirmation that we find in that relationship, God wants us to grow into people and a church where we love God, our neighbours, our enemies and ourselves in ways that lead us to unity, commonality of purpose and real togetherness. Are experiencing the love of God in these ways? Let us pray that we might. Amen.
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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - As The Waters Cover The Sea.
