Who We Are: Generosity

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, we made it! We have been in 2nd Corinthians for five weeks as of today. Immersed in this letter that is considered one of Paul’s most theologically dense writings. I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of exhausted. Yet, today, we come to the place really where the “rubber meets the road.” For the first seven chapters, Paul has been trying to explain to the church in Corinth the nature of his apostolic ministry - a ministry patterned after the life of Christ. And, in turn, what the nature of their ministry is to be. And my ministry. And your ministry.

So, this morning we see how all that Paul has talked about up to now is manifested in the most practical of ways. We read from 2nd Corinthians, chapter 8.

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints— and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,

“The one who had much did not have too much, 

    and the one who had little did not have too little.” --2 Corinthians 8:1-15 (NRSV)

Throughout all of 2nd Corinthians, Paul uses these themes of giving and receiving. Of reciprocity. If we think back to the first week, when our focus was on the word, consolation, we learned that within the body of Christ our suffering is mutual. When Christ suffers, we suffer. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. We are bound together in suffering and in consoling one another. There is reciprocity - a sense of suffering and consolation, of giving and receiving. An interconnectedness.

Then, in week two, we heard Paul talk about forgiveness and reconciliation. How Paul could have, in his anger and hurt, walked away from the Corinthian congregation. But that he didn’t. And instead, he moved in. Closer to them. Forgiving them. And seeking to be reconciled with them. A true and reciprocal witness of Jesus and of Jesus’ own love and reconciliation for us.

In the third week, we listened as Paul compared us to earthen vessels. Cracked and broken clay jars into which God has poured God’s Spirit. This treasure, this life that God has worked and continues to work in us that points to Christ. A life lived reciprocally, in response to the gift - the gracious gift of God’s mercy and love.  And a life that, as we heard last week, through which we walk by faith, trusting in the steadfast love of God, and shaped by the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Today is where all of this comes to fruition. Manifested through the reciprocity of love. If we truly believe that God is love and that the nature of this love is manifested in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus - love poured out for us in grace, then our only response can be love. Love that manifests itself in the most practical of ways. In generosity. By caring for one another, for our world, and for all that God has created.

There had been a desire, a plan generated in all earnestness by the churches in Macedonia and Achaia, including the congregation in Corinth. A plan to gather a collection of money for the church in Jerusalem, whose members had been experiencing economic hardship. Titus, Paul’s associate, had agreed to take the lead in organizing this collection from among the churches - gathered, as Paul had suggested, by each member setting aside a certain amount every week. Then gathered by Titus and delivered by Paul to their Jerusalem sisters and brothers in Christ on his next visit there. 

This is the reciprocity of love. As we have received, so we give. But note that this is not a one-way giving. Because one-way giving, one-sided giving, has the very real tendency to create a power imbalance, where those with wealth to distribute hold power and status over those without. Paul, instead, stresses equality and reciprocity. We have all been given gifts in abundance by God - gifts that may be manifested in different ways. Paul is seeking a fair balance, a fair distribution in wealth and of other gifts given to them by God. So that one with much doesn’t have too much. And one with little doesn’t have too little.

What are the implications of this for us? For us as the body of Christ in this time and place? Perhaps it is to be open in our giving. But, not to only be open and generous in our giving, but also to be open and generous in our receiving. Open to receiving the gifts God has given us and to others without resistance. Without fear. Without shame. Without trying to one-up one another’s gifts. Where all is grace. Grace that is modelled after the upside-down kingdom of God, where God’s grace is poured out generously and abundantly for us in love in Jesus. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

It is through this reciprocity of generosity - a generosity of receiving and giving - that in us and through us, God’s destiny is ultimately fulfilled. Amen.

Preached August 16, 2020, online at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

12th Sunday after Pentecost.

Readings: 2 Cor. 8:1-15; John 13:31-35

Who We Are: We Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

In these weeks that we’ve been reflecting on what was happening in the church in Corinth, on the conflict there, not only between members of the community, but between the community and Paul himself, one of the issues Paul has been dealing with is that of his apostolic authority. His ministry has come under attack. He, personally, has come under attack, with false apostles and members of the congregation challenging his attributes as a leader. That he is not polished enough. That he is not refined enough. That his speaking skills are inadequate. 

What Paul understands by these attacks is that the church in Corinth does not yet grasp the full meaning of apostleship. Not just his apostleship, but theirs, as well. 

And so, we begin this morning in the fifth chapter of 2nd Corinthians, where Paul continues the idea from last week of the treasure we have in earthen vessels. Paul’s theology was deeply grounded in the life of Christ, specifically in the death and resurrection of Christ. As this first part of today’s reading opens, we see Paul using metaphor - images familiar to him and to those in the Corinthian church - in order to help them understand the nature of life and death. We read, beginning with verse 1.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling — if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord — for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.  --2 Cor. 5:1-10 (NRSV)

Paul begins with the metaphor of a “tent,” something that, as a tentmaker by trade, he would have been familiar with. And an image that the Corinthians would have been familiar with, as well. Many people lived in tents at this time. Paul begins with this phrase: for we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed…” The word translated as tent can also be translated as tabernacle. This is something Paul does, too, in his writing. He will use a word or a phrase that just by its very use conjures up a much fuller picture. For example, to use the word tabernacle immediately connects Paul to his Jewish-ness. The tabernacle, or tent of meeting, was the structure constructed by Israel following God’s design, which was to be dismantled and moved with them throughout the wilderness. The tabernacle was the place where God promised to be present with them on their journey.

Then, the second word Paul uses here, is the word translated “destroyed.” When used, though, in tent-making imagery, this word really means dismantling. As one would dismantle a tent. 

And then, Paul continues on. Using additional metaphors of clothing and, especially, the contrast of being naked with being further clothed. 

So, what is Paul getting at? We, in the Western church, have become much more concerned about where we go after we die. But, the early Christians weren’t as concerned about this. Their focus was on God’s kingdom. And the unveiling of God’s kingdom here. “On earth as it is in heaven.” So, their groaning is not to be released from this earthly tent, but that a new and promised house might be placed over it - a house not made with human hands, but one made with God’s hands. And one that is forever. 

Paul uses these metaphors to provide a framework for the Corinthians and us to understand, not only his ministry, but ours, too. A framework that is centered around the Trinity. That the power of the Creator, who raises Jesus from the dead, is at work in us. Dismantling the battered old tent to place a new, free one over it - the new, free person God is making us into. Clothing our nakedness in new, permanent clothing. Crafting the eternal being God is making us into. 

The death and resurrection of Jesus shapes us. And prepares us for when he will come again on earth to judge. Us. And all people. Because how we live into this freedom we have been given matters. Otherwise, we simply cheapen the grace God has showered on us.

So, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is us in our downpayment. Our security. Our promise and foretaste of this new creation. Working in us and through us to create new life. Life that often bursts in upon us. That surprises us even in the midst of trouble and suffering. We, like Jesus, move from death and suffering to life. Because we are image bearers of Christ.

This is where Paul continues, beginning with verse 11.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  --2 Cor. 5:11-21 (NRSV)

This reforming, this re-clothing that God does in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, changes the way we look at the world. Giving us a new lens with which to view the world. Through the resurrected Jesus. Seeing glimpses of the long-promised new creation bursting into our world. And a hope that is perhaps best expressed in the words of Rev. Juanita Rasmus, pastor of St. John United Methodist in downtown Houston:

I think all things are going to be made new. You know, if nothing else, we can look at nature. You see a pine tree, experiencing some decay. And over time it falls to the ground. And over time it begins to house various animals that live off of the substance of that decay. Then, over time, that pine tree falls and crumbles. And, then, it becomes the floor of the forest and, in the midst of all of that, it becomes the basis for a new pine tree. So, yeah, if we can see that in nature, then we can see that in our own nature - in our human nature. That, indeed, all things can become made new. 

That gives me hope. That gives me hope, because I see a lot of people suffering. And I know that, even in my own suffering, God gives me an opportunity to dig down deep past all of the pain, and the disappointment, and the hurt, and the rejection, and the injustices. And in the midst of that, he'll let me see just a glimpse of something life-giving. That's what gives me hope. Hope not only for me, but for everybody.  Hope for the young African-American men who get shot because they wear hoodies or their music is determined by somebody as being too loud. I have to have hope. I don't know how I'd live if I didn't. 

So I trust that the same power that was able to resurrect Jesus will resurrect me. And that person who would shoot another person for their music being too loud. I don't want to be surprised when I get to heaven. I want to see this man redeemed. I want to see Hitler redeemed. I want to see slave masters redeemed. I want to see that. I long to see that. Because I think that is the hope that Christ offers me. That, if that pine tree can in the midst of decay become the ground of new life, then so can I. So can we. 

So, yeah, that's what I hope.*

May we walk in faith, not by sight. Even in times of deep struggle and pain. Trusting in the power of God’s steadfast love to work death out of life in us and through us, that we may become the ground of life in our world. Amen.

Preached August 9, 2020, online at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: 2 Cor. 5:1-21; Mark 8:22-26

*Quote from Rev. Juanita Rasmus taken from a video interview, entitled The Massive Living Program, found online at The Work of the People (www.theworkofthepeople.com)

Who We Are: Treasures in Clay Jars

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I’ve been thinking a lot this week about baptism. Perhaps, in part, because of the vast quantities of water we’ve received in rain over the past few days. Or, perhaps, it is because of all that we’ve seen and heard over these past few days about Congressman John Lewis and heard how he lived his life, with such integrity and humility, in much the same way we are called to live out our own baptismal promises.

Whatever has triggered it, I’ve been thinking about baptism. So, it led to me turning to the order that we use for baptism in our church. There are five parts to it. And I invite you to take a look at it more closely sometime. Within it, there’s a part called the Profession of Faith, or sometimes it’s called the Renunciation. Perhaps you remember it - it comes before the actual act of baptizing someone and is a series of questions asked of parents or sponsors or, in the case of an adult baptism, of the one being baptized. These are questions that come to us from the earliest centuries of the church. 

Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?

Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?

Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?

The answer to each of these questions in our own baptisms was likely the phrase, “I renounce them,” or something similar. But, that’s really easier said than done, isn’t it? Throughout our lives I dare say we feel the push and pull of these forces. Forces of evil and those that defy God. The powers of the world that rebel against God and seek to draw us from God. The sins we commit that bring us shame and can separate us from God. Yes, living into our baptismal promises is so much easier said than done.

It’s really the same challenge that the church in Corinth was dealing with. In fact, in the first part of our reading today, it seems that Paul makes reference to these very things the Corinth believers had also renounced. As in our baptisms. They, too, are experiencing the pull on the church from all sides. They are on the verge of being divided by many different factions, both internal and external. This is a new, fledgling church trying to find its way and not doing well. 

And so, as we’ve heard before, Paul has had to correct them, sometimes harshly. Yet, he knows that what they need now is not more correction and teaching. Instead, what they need now are words of comfort. And of hope. Words to help heal the wounds and guide them forward, against the pull of these forces of evil and the world and sin. Words that may feel especially written for us, too, in this time. Words to guide us. To give comfort and give hope. To heal our wounds and help us go forward. 

Which brings us to our reading today, from chapter 4 in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. --2 Corinthians 4:1-18 (NRSV)

Paul begins by reminding the church in Corinth - and us - how both of us got here. Solely by God’s mercy. It is nothing we have done, but what God has done. And Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that God is our foundation. Our center. Around whom our lives revolve.

Then, Paul continues on to make five important points. Creedal points almost - that serve as the basis for the lives and ministry of the Corinth church. And for ours, too.

First, Paul reminds us that our ministry is to be done out in the open. Transparently. Anytime we are fighting the powers that be, they will be on the watch for anything that can be used to tear us down. So, we are to be open and honest in the work. To be transparent in everything we do because it’s about integrity.

Then, Paul reminds us that everything we do should point to Christ. It’s so easy for us to want to be in the spotlight - in the center - of things. It’s natural. And human. But it’s not the way of Christ. And if we fall to this temptation, it has the potential to risk everything. 

Third, Paul writes that we are not impervious to pain. We are human. Made of mortal materials like that fragile clay jar. And, while we may want to hear only the positives here - that we are “not crushed, ...not driven to despair, ...not forsaken, ...not destroyed,” we cannot ignore the reality that in doing this work we will be “afflicted, ...perplexed, ...persecuted, ...and struck down.” I FaceTimed this week with one of our members who has been in lockdown in a nursing home since March. We mourned together the isolation she was feeling in this time. To acknowledge this to recognize our mortality. And our pain. Yet, Paul writes that this pain will not have the last word. Neither will death have the last word. Life - God - will.

Then, Paul writes that our faith is not silent, as he quotes from Psalm 116, these words: We believe and, therefore, we speak. When we see works in our world that are opposed to the way of Christ, our faith calls us not to be silent. But to speak out. To challenge the forces of evil at work in our world.

Finally, Paul’s last point is that while the fruit of our labor may be hidden, it is there. It can be easy to fall into despair when we don’t see the immediate fruit of our work. When we don’t see the world immediately changing. When it seems as though there is no improvement. We may begin to wonder if everything we do or have done is in vain. This is where point number two is important. Paul writes to help us remember that we are in this work and in this ministry as God’s people for the long haul. To trust in the work of the Holy Spirit. It may take a long time to sprout. So long, in fact, that we may not live to see it.  But, as Paul writes at the end of the chapter - in the same way he began it..."We do not lose heart." 

So, do not lose heart, dear friends, dear people of God. Even in the midst of all the troubles we are experiencing know that similar troubles and challenges have been experienced by believers and the church before. And know that, just as God promised life in Christ through Paul to the early church, God continues to promise life, through Christ, for us. And life is what will come. May we hold fast to this promise. In this time. Amen. 

Preached August 2, 2020, online at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

9th Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18; Matthew 5:13-16

Who We Are: Forgiveness

So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice; for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you. For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person; so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. --2 Corinthians 2:1-10 (NRSV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last week we began our study in Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. We know from our previous study in 1st Corinthians that there has been much conflict in the church in Corinth. And, as we read today’s text, it becomes apparent that, as a result of Paul’s instruction to the congregation, they have acted to discipline someone. Who this person is, we’re not entirely sure, but it appears that it is this person who, during a previous visit by Paul, has mistreated him. 

And so, instead of re-visiting them in person, Paul sends a harsh corrective - the letter we mentioned last Sunday that was delivered by Titus. The letter written in-between 1st and 2nd Corinthians, which we do not have.

In this letter, it appears that Paul has instructed the congregation to act to discipline this person - to put them to the “test” as he writes in verse 9, to see if they would obey his instruction.

Now it might seem as though Paul is on a bit of a power trip here. And, perhaps, that’s true. Or, perhaps, Paul, in issuing his instructions to the congregation, is testing the partnership - the koinonos we spoke of last week between the church and Paul, who has been as their pastoral leader called to them by Christ. Can they trust him - do they trust him to tell them the right thing to do, to guide them in dealing with this issue within the congregation? Paul writes in verse 4 that his corrective to them isn’t written to pain them or make them sad. But, that it is written out of overwhelming love for them.

What Paul knows and has written about in the first chapter is that the community’s life is bound up together in Christ. When someone in a community is allowed license to go on sinning with no restraint, the whole community is harmed. Too often, the church - at least in modern times - has been so reticent to cause sorrow, that it has backed away from confrontation and even discipline. And, certainly, at times, the church has made the mistake in the opposite direction. But, Paul’s point is that a balance must be struck. As much as we want to have peace in our community, sin must also be confronted. To do otherwise is to give a weak witness to the world - a witness that says our gospel belief doesn’t really matter. 

Yet, at the same token, discipline must not be unending. So, Paul now asks them to forgive and to forget. To welcome this person back into the congregation - to reconcile with them. The word Paul uses here for “forgive” in the Greek is charizomai, which means to “give freely.” It’s also connected to charis, the word in Greek meaning “grace.” It's the same word Paul will use later in the letter when he encourages the congregation to “give freely” to a collection for the poor. To forgive is to give freely of oneself. Paul knows that forgiveness and reconciliation must be the next step. And to do so requires moving towards the person with whom reconciliation is sought. And to give freely of oneself. Because this is the way of Christ, the great Reconciler, who gives freely of himself for the whole world. And before whom we stand as people of God. Just as Paul writes in verse 10, when he says that he and the Corinthians stand together before the “face” of Christ. 

On Friday evening, I was privileged to be invited into a sacred space. A place that, honestly, few white people are allowed into - a conversation between black activists from here and Colorado. 

What I came away with from that conversation is how many of these young people have given up on the church. Mostly, because they don’t see the church as being out there, standing alongside them in their fight for justice and an end to the systemic racism that continues to challenge our society. Instead, they see the church as complacent. Comfortable. Unwilling to confront sin.

Now, you might claim that this has nothing to do with our text today from Paul’s letter, but I think it does. Because, what I think Paul is addressing here for the church in Corinth and for us, is the veracity of our witness. If we say, as a church, that racism and systemic racism is a sin, what are we doing to confront it? Do we choose not to say or do anything because it might upset our “peaceful” lives? Do we choose not to attempt to understand it and our complicity in it because it makes us uncomfortable? I wonder if this is the witness to the world that Paul, much less Jesus, would expect of us. 

I know that, for some of you at least, a few of my positions on different issues in our world make you uncomfortable. And you may disagree with me. Yet, if we can’t take on these hard conversations - if we can’t move into the difficult conversations here within our own community of faith - a community that has Christ at its center, then where can we have them? 

This is what Paul is doing and saying in our text. He could walk away and ignore what has happened. But it is out of love that he stays. And, instead of walking away, moves in closer. And challenges. And confronts. With the hope that the Corinth community will trust him. That they will find their way, address the issue, and then be reconciled with one another. And that, in doing this, will provide the most honest and truthful witness to the world of the power of Christ’s reconciling love for each and everyone one of us.  

So my prayer on this day is that we be honest in our conversations with one another. That we move towards each other in times of conflict. But, mostly, that we be true witnesses of the love and reconciliation of Jesus to the whole world. May God grant it. Amen.

Preached July 26, 2020, online at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

8th Sunday after Pentecost

Readings: 2 Corinthians 2:1-10; Matthew 18:21-22

The Power of God's Love: Many Gifts, One Spirit

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Amen.

It’s been a hard week. As it began, we first witnessed the hanging in effigy - on Memorial Day - of our governor, a racist practice used to stir up images of lynching and to stoke fear. Then, on the same day, George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, was murdered by police, calling for his dead mother. And crying, “I can’t breathe!” On Tuesday, we learned that the Justice Department is investigating the death of another black man, Ahmaud Arbury, shot down execution-style as he was jogging through his neighborhood in suburban Atlanta. On Wednesday, we learned that we had topped 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 here in the U.S., with a recognition that people of color are dying at four times the rate of white people. On that same day the 911 tape became public from the death of Breona Taylor - an black EMT shot by Louisville police entering her apartment using a no-knock warrant with no identification or warning. And we heard the cries of her boyfriend, “I don’t know what’s happening. Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.” Then, on Thursday, as we began to see the aftermath of the uprising in Minneapolis and watched it expand throughout the country, we heard these words over and over again: “No justice, no peace!” On Friday, we turned on the news to hear of more uprising throughout our country, as well as news that another 2.1 million jobs have been lost, bringing the total to almost 41 million people out of work. And then yesterday, after days of businesses opening up, we hear that coronavirus cases are spiking once again.

It’s been a hard week. And if we’ve been able to simply turn off our television or radio or ignore this on our smartphones or computers because it has simply been too much to take, then I wonder what it must feel like for those who can’t escape it. For those who have suffered for days and weeks, and months and years, and decades and centuries. And who continue to suffer. 

It’s hard to find words today. Yet, on this Pentecost Sunday, I’m reminded of the words in Romans 8, that the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

So, I sigh. And I pray that God, who searches my heart, knows, and that God’s will may come to you today in the few words I do have...

We are in two places in our readings today. We’ll begin in Corinth, because this is where we’ve been for the past few weeks. We know of the divisions in the church there - divisions that boil down to status - the belief that certain people are better than others. It’s this context where Paul writes these words in 1st Corinthians 12.

Brothers and sisters, I don’t want you to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. You know that when you were Gentiles you were often misled by false gods that can’t even speak. So I want to make it clear to you that no one says, “Jesus is cursed!” when speaking by God’s Spirit, and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries and the same Lord; and there are different activities but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good. A word of wisdom is given by the Spirit to one person, a word of knowledge to another according to the same Spirit, faith to still another by the same Spirit, gifts of healing to another in the one Spirit, performance of miracles to another, prophecy to another, the ability to tell spirits apart to another, different kinds of tongues to another, and the interpretation of the tongues to another. All these things are produced by the one and same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person.

Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. --1 Corinthians 12:1-13 (CEB)

One of the problems in Corinth was that those who had been given the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues believed that their gift was better than all the others. By all accounts, the church in Corinth had been given a very full measure of the Spirit’s power. So, Paul sets about teaching them how they might discern God’s work in the activity of these many gifts. And, also, how they might value their brothers and sisters in Christ across that variety of gifts.

Or how they might discern what God is up to or what God may be doing in this place. Questions that we might, particularly, be asking at this time.

To begin with, Paul says that through God’s Spirit, God first bears witness to Jesus as Lord. One way to know whether a movement is led by the Spirit is to listen for its claims about Jesus Christ. Through the Spirit, we know Jesus on the cross, in the Lord’s supper, and in the resurrection. Through the Spirit, the church testifies that Jesus - not money, or security, or self esteem, or paranoia, or power, or anything else, but Jesus - is Lord. Gifts that come from the Spirit proclaim Jesus as Lord. 

They also serve the common good. This is Paul’s second criteria. Do our gifts serve the common good - our common life together, not only in the church, but in the world? The Spirit is all about building up the group rather than enriching individuals. While we each may receive gifts from the Spirit, they are to be used for the body as a whole. If not, or if they can’t be shared, then they are not from the Spirit. And, as was happening in Corinth, to rank one’s gift as better than the other is completely odds with the purpose of each gift, which is given for the good of all.

The third point that Paul makes is that, whatever God’s Spirit is doing, it will probably not be characterized by tidiness. Wherever we find the Spirit’s gifts, it will be messy. What Paul noticed in the Corinthian church is that they were enthusiastic about the more dramatic manifestations of the Spirit’s work, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, or healing. They ignored the quieter work of the Spirit which is to draw them into a community that respects all of its members. Paul is trying to redirect some of their enthusiasm to the more excellent way of faith, hope, and, especially, love, so that they will return to valuing one another more than themselves and their own gifts. That brother or sister in Christ matters more than all of the spiritual gifts in the congregation, according to Paul. And this will be messy. But, Paul’s goal is not a neat and tidy life in community, but a loving one.

These are the criteria for discerning the work of the Holy Spirit among us. The Spirit proclaims Jesus as Lord. Offers its gifts to the church for the common good. And activates love for neighbor in all of the messiness it may bring. 

Now let’s go back in time a little to Acts and the first outpouring of the Spirit. We read from Acts 2:

When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak. --Acts 2:1-4 (CEB)

The disciples are gathered together in one house, devoting themselves to prayer, and waiting for the arrival of the promised Advocate. 

The future for them is uncertain. Jesus is no longer physically with them, but they wait. And hope. And trust. And, after these past few months, perhaps we, too, can relate. 

And then these signs of the Holy Spirit - fire and wind - descend on them and the Spirit pushes them out of the safety of the room in which they have been staying.

Fire and wind are powerful symbols. They have the potential both for creation and for destruction. Perhaps they are appropriate symbols for the work of the Spirit in this moment. As we wait in the wreckage of what was or what is coming, as we wait for the birth of what will be, we are called to see visions and to dream dreams. 

We might ask of ourselves what of our old lives, both personally and communally, needs to be burned away? What needs to be renewed? Will we allow the fire of pandemic and uprising to burn away the economic inequality and racial inequity that has led to so much unnecessary and unjust loss of life? Will we allow the fire to burn away mass incarceration and an industrial system that has served no one well? Will we allow the fire to burn away an economic system where too many workers are considered “essential” but are not compensated fairly for their work? Will we allow the fire to burn away the idea that equal access to health care is not a human right?

Yet as the Spirit fire burns and winnows, as the Spirit wind tears down and destroys, we know that the Spirit creates. We have seen unprecedented cooperation between scientists and researchers all over the world. We have seen healthcare workers and many others work in sacrificial ways to save lives. We have seen white people stand as allies with their black and brown sisters and brothers. We have seen people of faith reaching out in our neighborhoods in creative and caring ways. We have seen the face of the earth and the sky renewed. 

So, what needs to be burned away in our personal and communal lives in this time? What needs to be renewed? Or, in our language of worship, of what do we need to repent? And in what ways do we need to witness to the life-giving work of God in Jesus Christ? 

We have been given gifts to discern the answers to these questions. We have been given gifts to help us seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We have been given gifts to witness that Jesus. Is. Lord. In our homes. In our church. And where it is needed right now the most, in our world. 

So, come, Holy Spirit. Burn, blow, breathe, move upon us all. That earth and all that’s in it may thrive. That earth and all that’s in it may love. That earth and all that’s in it may live in the harmony and wholeness you desire for us, for people of every color, and for all of creation. Come, Holy Spirit. Come.

Preached online June 7, 2020, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

Day of Pentecost

Readings: Acts 2:1-4; 1 Corinthians 12:1-13; Mark 1:4-8; Psalm 104:24-34, 35b 

The Power of God's Love: Death, the Last Enemy

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

    Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:1-26; 15:51-57 (NRSV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Amen.

I’ve mentioned before that, when I lived in California, I lived and worked in downtown Los Angeles for several years. Beginning in 1999 and continuing for three years, I would drive to work and pass by the construction site of what would become the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. During that time I watched it grow into a huge, kind of monstrous, 11-story, contemporary cathedral. 

To be honest, the exterior design wasn’t appealing. But the interior was breathtaking - in its simplicity and spirituality. One truly seemed to sense God’s presence in that space.

One aspect of the interior that I particularly love is a series of tapestries that surround the sides and back of the worship space - tapestries designed by artist John Nava. Most prominent are those along the south and north walls. Twenty-five fresco-like tapestries that depict 135 saints and blessed ones from around the world. People like Pope John the 23rd and Mother Teresa, from the 19th and 20th centuries. Or Ignatius Loyola, sainted in the 17th century. But, perhaps the most special figures in these beautiful tapestries are twelve figures that are untitled, including children. That represent the many anonymous holy people in our midst. In this space, one feels surrounded by the communion of saints. 

Now you might wonder why I’m talking about this cathedral and these tapestries, and particularly, the communion of saints. After all, this isn’t All Saints Sunday. It’s not the end of the church year. Yet, it is this communion of saints that Paul refers to in these opening verses of chapter 15, which we just heard. Those from whom the members of the Corinthian congregation have received their tradition of faith. In addressing the dispute over the veracity of the resurrection and the dispute over whether the resurrection of the dead will happen in the last days, Paul begins with a reminder to the church in Corinth. That he has passed a tradition of faith onto them, challenging them to hold on firmly to the message he first proclaimed to them. And that message? That Christ died for their sins and his. That Christ was buried. That he was raised from the dead on the third day. That he appeared to Cephas or Peter, and then to the twelve. And then to more than five hundred brothers and sisters. Then to James, Jesus’ earthly brother. And then to all of the apostles. This roll call of the earliest of the saints. Paul uses it to help them understand that this tradition - this eyewitness testimony to the resurrection - has passed from believer to believer to believer. And then to them. And that Christ’s resurrection from the dead can only be true.

But Paul does not stop there. He argues that, if it is true that Christ has been raised from the dead, then it is also true that the Corinthian believers will also be raised from the dead. If this is not true, then their faith has been in vain. Futile. Pitiful. Useless. Without hope. 

But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. And he is the first of what will be many in the last days, when Christ comes a second time. After the kingdom of God, which he has initiated on earth, comes into its fullness. And when all the dead will be raised in bodily form. 

What did this mean for them? What does this mean for us? 

Perhaps Luther says it best: To [Paul] the resurrection is like putting on a beautiful new garment called...immortality. It is [a garment] spun and woven by Christ’s victory. For the victory of Christ [over death] was wrought for the purpose of clothing you with it and of cleansing you from your sin and death, so that nothing of your corruptible body remains…For God did not create man that he should sin and die, but that he should live...This [life] is not brought about in any other way than that we first shed this old, evil garment through death. We must be divested of it entirely, and it must turn into death. (LW 28, p. 2020)

With death we shed our old body, our old garment. This garment that carries with it our misfortunes and frailties. Our error and folly. The evil that we experience on earth. This old garment turns to dust. 

And at the end of days, this new time, this beginning of the new creation will happen when God will raise all the dead and will demonstrate God’s power over the power of death first witnessed in Christ’s resurrection. We will put on our new bodily garment.

It is in that first resurrection, though, that the future of this new world of life has already begun. We, believing in this risen Christ, trusting this tradition of the faith that has been passed onto us over and over throughout the centuries - we live in this in-between time. This time between a world of death and a new world. Of life. This time between - where God in Christ through the Holy Spirit continues to work to bring about new life. New life that is already in our midst, because the future has begun. 

This is the hope that we hold onto as believers in this faith that has been passed onto us through the communion of saints. This is the hope we hold onto as believers in Christ’s resurrection in the midst of this pandemic. This is the hope we hold onto in this time in-between, as we wait to shed our old worn bodily garment and put on our new one - our incorruptible one given to us and to the communion of all the saints. This is what we believe. This is what we hope. This is what we know. 

Or, as Luther writes: Now we say, Scriptum est, but then we shall say, Factum est.

Death has been swallowed up. New life begins. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Preached online May 24, 2020, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.

Easter 7

Readings: 1 Corinthians 15:1-26, 51-57; Mark 12:26-27a; Psalm 1

The Power of God's Love: The Greatest of These is Love

Today’s story takes us back to the city of Corinth, which was the home of a Christian community founded by Paul. Paul, as an apostle, traveled between cities, planting churches and then, checked back in with them, after he has left. Today’s reading is taken from a letter - likely one of four - that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth after hearing that they were experiencing conflict. As you listen, I invite you to take the clay and begin to shape it into the form of a human body. We read...

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. --1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NRSV)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Corinthian congregation was beset with division.

Situated in a cosmopolitan and diverse city, the church was immersed in a pluralistic culture. People came into the community with many different beliefs, from different classes, slaves and free, Jew and Gentile, from a variety of national and ethnic groups present in the city.

So, it was only to be expected that this diversity would be present in the church and would lead to division and conflict. Some of the examples of this division and conflict, and of the problems addressed by Paul in his letter include factions within the congregation, including members who had brought lawsuits against each other. There was an abuse of Eucharistic practices where certain people, mostly of lower class, were being excluded from communion. There was even a man engaged in a very public affair with his step mother. Perhaps most troubling to Paul was that the church seemed to have accepted a spirituality that led some to deny the resurrection.

The church was a mess.

Last week I mentioned that much of the division came from a desire for status. Some of this status revolved around the issue of spiritual gifts and whether certain gifts were better than others. As our reading opened, we heard Paul mention a few of these gifts. Did you catch them? The gift of speaking in tongues. The gift of prophesy, the ability to speak the prophetic word. The gift of generosity.

These were only a few, but there were many other gifts present in the congregation - gifts poured out on them by the Holy Spirit. Gifts such as administration, hospitality, leadership, discernment, healing, knowledge, evangelism, teaching, miracles, mercy, service, and faith. Among others.

In the chapter that precedes today’s reading, Paul begins to address this dispute over certain spiritual gifts and whether some are more important than others.

To do so, he uses a comparison with the human body.

This was a metaphor that the community would have been familiar with. It was common in Greek and Roman political speeches to use this metaphor of the body to encourage social unity based on a certain hierarchy...that certain parts of the body were more important than other parts. That those that were weaker were dispensable. That those that were more important were treated with greater respect and honor.

Paul turns this cultural understanding upside down. He writes of a “more excellent way” of being the body - of being the body of Christ - urging the Corinthians to understand that every part of the body is important. That no part is unnecessary. That the weaker parts are as important as the stronger parts. That when one part of the body rejoices, all rejoice. And that one part of the body suffers, all suffer.

Paul challenges the church in Corinth to understand that, as they are reveling in their newfound gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit, they have completely missed the point. They have failed to understand that their gifts were ultimately to be used for the edification - for the building up - of others.

Because this is what love does. Because this is what love is. Love is a gift that is greater than the ability to prophesy, to fathom spiritual mysteries, to speak in other tongues. Love is a love that loves the other more than oneself.

Love is what God is.

It’s at the cross where Love is found. Where Christ is patient and kind. Not envious or boastful. Not rude or seeking advantage. Not irritable or keeping a record of his complaints. Not rejoicing in wrongdoing, but in the truth. It is at the cross where Christ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

For the Corinthian church. For you. And for me.

This love is the force that can make Corinth a community again. This love nourishes and sustains all Christian communities, including ours. This love shapes us and our love, as this passage in 1st Corinthians 13 becomes the poetry and prayer that puts us in touch with what we now are not and reminds us of who and what we were meant to be. It is the foundation of our freedom that allows us to maintain and establish relationships and that turns us outward. To live caring and compassionate lives, not only in our church, but outside our church and especially for the neighbor in need.

Each of us comes here in all our diversity and differences. With numerous gifts and abilities. We are not asked to leave this diversity and difference at the door. Unity and diversity - like the body and its parts - are not incompatible.

But what we are asked to do is to love one another in the same kind of self-sacrificing way of Christ on the cross.

Find a piece of clay or Play-Dough or make your own. Then, out of it, form a clay figure. Imagine if everyone in our community did this. Would you notice that we come in all different colors and shapes, from all different places and experiences? With all different kinds of opinions and gifts? That this is how God has created each one of us to be? But, do you also notice that, together in our diversity, we are a beautiful and unified body of Christ.

May you know that you are unique. May you know that you are an important part of this body of Christ. May you know that you have been given amazing gifts by God to be used to lift others up. And may you know that you are loved by me, by this community, and most importantly by God. And that through God’s love for you, God, you have been set free to love and serve.

Amen.

Preached online on May 17, 2020, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Easter 6
Readings: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Mark 12:28-31; Psalm 119:1-8

God Works Through Us: Called to Be Saints

After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together—by trade they were tentmakers. Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks. --Acts 18:1-4 (NRSV)

To God’s church that is in Goshen: To those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus, who are called to be God’s people, together with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place—he’s their Lord and ours, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

With just a simple tweak, this is the very same greeting used by Paul in his letter to address those in the Corinth congregation, a portion of which we will hear in just a moment. And a letter that we will be spending the next three weeks in. 

We believe that this letter was written a couple of years after Paul had left Corinth. He first arrived there in approximately 50 CE. Scripture tells us that he stayed there for a “considerable time.” It’s estimated he was there for about a year-and-a-half. At first, he was duo-vocational, meaning he worked both as an apostle and as a tent-maker along with Aquila and Priscilla, two Jewish Christians who had been expelled from Rome, along with others. Tent-making was Paul’s trade. We often think of him as an elite, highly educated as a Pharisee. But, by trade, he was working class. So, he began his stay in Corinth working in his trade and spreading the good news. While Paul was there, he received an offering that had been taken up by the churches in Macedonia (including from the church in Thessalonica in last week’s story). This allowed him at some point during his stay to begin preaching and teaching full-time.

Corinth was an important city. It was located in a strategic location, on a road that connected two ports on the Isthmus of Corinth. This isthmus connected the Peloponnesian peninsula with the rest of Greece. Merchants would arrive in one of the ports, unload their cargo and transport it across the land, through Corinth, to the other port. It was a preferred route, much easier and faster than sailing around the entire peninsula. Corinth was also a strategic political and military location for the Romans. It was the seat of the governor of the entire Roman province of Achaea. So, Corinth was a large, important, powerful, prosperous, diverse, busy, cosmopolitan city. And it was here that Paul settled for some time to build and pastor this young congregation.

In our Acts narrative, we see a growing, vibrant congregation. After some time, Paul left Corinth and moved on to Ephesus. In the time between his departure from Corinth and his letter in 1st Corinthians, the church in Corinth was visited by another Christian preacher named Apollos. It began to face various internal tensions and quarrels and experience much division. So, they wrote a letter to Paul asking for guidance in how to deal with these issues. Paul’s letter, and subsequent letters, are his attempt to deal with these very practical issues. But along with practice advice are deep and important theological statements. Let’s listen now to the first part of 1st Corinthians, chapter 1.

Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Agree with each other and don’t be divided into rival groups. Instead, be restored with the same mind and the same purpose. My brothers and sisters, Chloe’s people gave me some information about you, that you’re fighting with each other. What I mean is this: that each one of you says, “I belong to Paul,” “I belong to Apollos,” “I belong to Cephas,” “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul’s name? Thank God that I didn’t baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, so that nobody can say that you were baptized in my name! Oh, I baptized the house of Stephanas too. Otherwise, I don’t know if I baptized anyone else. Christ didn’t send me to baptize but to preach the good news. And Christ didn’t send me to preach the good news with clever words so that Christ’s cross won’t be emptied of its meaning.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved. --1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (NRSV)

The central problem in the Corinth church revolved around status. Whether those converted by Paul were the most important? Or those by Apollos? Or even those by Cephas, who we also know as Peter. Each group wanted to be first. Most important. The highest status. This need for status was something that they had learned from the surrounding culture in Corinth, which was filled by those with “new money.” The cultural lessons were those of individualism, of self-importance, of the status one achieved by pulling oneself up by their own bootstrap. Get the picture? Sound at all familiar?

The first part of Paul’s message to the Corinth church was to remind them that they were both holy and called to be saints. To be called has the same sense as being holy. And holiness is not a quality of the individual, but a communal state into which we are placed by our baptism. Paul never uses the word “holy” in reference to the singular of the individual Christian, but always in reference to community. That holiness, that sanctification, that becoming God’s disciples happens in community. Our salvation is wrapped up together, as a community, as the broader church, and ultimately with that of all creation. Paul’s message and that of Christ is not about our individual salvation, but about the salvation of the whole community.

 It is this communal idea, then, that moves Paul to his message of the cross. Of the foolishness of the cross. That a condemned and crucified man, one with the lowest possible status in the world, would be God’s vehicle for this communal salvation. This message of the cross was intended to teach the believers in Corinth (and us) that God’s status markers are not those of the world. These markers of the world - class, wealth, wisdom, rhetorical skill, physical strength, beauty are the status markers important to the world. By contrast, God chooses and places the highest status on those whom the world despises: the weak, the lowborn, the foolish, the poor. Paul’s argument to the church in Corinth doesn’t eliminate the status hierarchy. It inverts it. It turns the world’s status markers upside down. So that the last or the lowest of the world are now the first and highest. This is how our communities are to be. Embracing the message of the cross. Embracing it’s foolishness in the eyes of the world.

What might this mean for us in our current time? As there are so many questions to think through? As the world seems, as usual, to be so divided? Are we all to agree? Is this what Paul is telling us?

I don’t think so. But, what I do believe Paul is saying to us is that even in our disagreements it is important for us to understand and to know, first, where our ultimate allegiance is to lie. It’s not with the world, or with other human leaders, even with your pastor. But our allegiance must be centered, must be grounded in Christ. Christ is our leader. Perhaps this is why God deemed it so important to come to us in human form. Because our natural tendency is to attach ourselves to human leaders. But Paul asks the question, “Was I crucified for you?” We might ask that same question of those human leaders we follow. If our answer is no - and it can only be no - then, we know where our source lies.

Then, finally, Paul calls us to embrace the logic of the cross. To, as a community, accept weakness and humility as marks of God’s favor. And that, in so doing, to seek to eliminate and end the status-seeking behavior that is taught by the world, that is so easy to fall into, often unknowingly. 

Perhaps if we do this, if we both remember where our allegiance is to lie and then to seek to engage and discern our answers to the questions and disagreements in our community, then we, as Paul reminds the church in Corinth - perhaps then, we and they, might recognize that we are already of the highest status in God’s eyes. Already rich. Already been given the gift of life and all we need through the abundant grace and love of God through Christ Jesus. 

What more do we need? 

Preached May 10, 2020, online at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Easter 5
Readings: Mark 9:34-35; Psalm 54; Acts 18:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.