Trinity 18
1
Cor 1:4-9
10/15/17
I am correct in assuming that you
don’t read your neighbor’s mail … right?
I am sure that you don’t go up to your neighbor’s mailbox and open their
mail to see what is going on in their life.
You don’t open their credit card statement to see what they have been
buying and whether they have any debt.
You don’t open their mortgage statement to see how much they still owe
on their house. You don’t open any
medical bills to see what kind of tests or procedures they have had
recently. You don’t do this because it
would be rude and completely inappropriate.
It is also, by the way, illegal.
It is a federal crime to open intentionally another person’s mail,
punishable by up to three years in prison.
So if you would never do it at home,
why are you doing here at church? Here
are you are, reading the Corinthians’ mail.
Well ok, actually I am the one who reads it to you, but we are all in
this together. After all you knew I was
going to do it. I do it pretty much
every Sunday and none of you have ever raised any objections about it.
While I speak this introduction in
jest, it does highlight something that we just take for granted in the
Church. Paul’s letters are in the
Bible. They are Scripture. They are
God’s Word. And so of course, we read
them in church. But at the same time
they are also real letters that were sent to a particular group of people. When we read them, we are reading someone
else’s mail. We are reading letters that
often are addressing specific concerns and issues in that particular church.
You can see this in our text today
from 1 Corinthians, if you know where to look. Paul’s letters begin with an
opening address. So, he begins this
letter by saying: “Paul,
called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother
Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place
call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
After the
opening address, almost all of Paul’s letters sent to a congregation next have
a thanksgiving. Here Paul expresses
thanks to God because of what he has done in Christ for those Christians, along
with some aspect of how they are now living in the faith. So in our text he
writes: “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God
that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him
in all speech and all knowledge-- even as the testimony about Christ was
confirmed among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you
wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the
end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is clear
that Paul’s letters were to be received as if the apostle himself were present
there speaking to the congregation. They
were “long distance sermons.” The
convention in the ancient world was that an address began with praise of the
audience. The speaker “warmed them up”
for his message by first telling them something they liked to hear.
Paul does
this in the thanksgivings of his letters … but with a twist. Paul’s thanksgivings usually introduce
subjects that he is going to talk about in the letter. Sometimes those are subjects that will
involve correcting errors in belief and practice among those Christians. That
is certainly the case here.
Paul says
that he gives thanks to his God because in every way the Corinthians have been
enriched in Christ in all speech and
all knowledge. He says that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift and that the Lord will
sustain them to the end, guiltless.
And then he adds, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord.”
If fact,
this is a list of problems at Corinth that Paul is about to address. Speech: The Corinthians thought that were
superior spiritual people and they were focused on speaking in tongues because
it showed how superior they were.
Knowledge: The Corinthians thought that their knowledge about the triune
God being the only true God permitted them to eat food in any pagan cultic
setting they wanted. Spiritual gift: The
Corinthians wanted to focus on tongues rather than the whole range of gifts the
benefit the Body of Christ. Blameless: The Corinthians did not see sexual sin
in their midst as being contradictory to the Christian faith. Fellowship: The wealthy Corinthians were
mistreating the poor ones in the very setting where the Lord’s Supper was
celebrated.
If St. Paul
wrote a letter today to Good Shepherd, what would he be mentioning in the
thanksgiving section of the letter? I
think he would give thanks for the manner in which Christ’s Means of Grace are
valued here. I think he would give
thanks for the way this congregation welcomes people in Christ.
But what
else would he mention as he introduced the problems – the sin he wanted to
address? Would he mention knowledge?:
That because we have the sure knowledge of our baptism, we feel that sin is not
really something against which we need to struggle? – After all, we are
forgiven. Would he mention blameless?:
That more and more we take on the world’s views about sex? – Sure I watch some
porn, who doesn’t?; - Sure I am having sex with my girlfriend or my daughter is
living with her boyfriend, that’s just what people do these days. What else would he mention?
In our
text, we hear some of the major problems at Corinth that Paul is going to
address in the letter. There is some bad
stuff there. If you take an honest look
at yourself – you’ll find bad stuff there too. You will find sin. But remember
that Paul’s opening address is just as true for you as it was for the
Corinthians: “To the church of God that is
in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together
with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
both their Lord and ours.”
You have been called by God. Through baptism and the Word the Holy Spirit
gave you faith in Jesus Christ. As Paul
says in our text, “I
give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given
you in Christ Jesus.” You have received
God’s grace – his undeserved loving favor. He has given this unmerited and
undeserved love to you in his Son Jesus Christ who offered himself for you on
the cross.
Because of
Jesus you are saints – you are holy ones in Christ Jesus. He is the One “who will sustain you to the
end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Already now, you are ready for the judgment
of the Last Day. The sins of the past
can’t change that. As Paul says in
chapter six: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you
were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by
the Spirit of our God.”
We don’t live as people who are
bound by chains of guilt about the past. You have been freed by Christ! You are forgiven. You are a saint. Through his Spirit, Christ gives us all we
need so that we can live with eager expectation. Paul says in our text “that
you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our present – the way we live right
now – is determined by the fact that the crucified Christ is now the risen and
ascended Lord. Paul lays it on the line
in chapter 15 as he says, “If
in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be
pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of
those who have fallen asleep.” Jesus
Christ has risen from the dead! This
fact trumps everything. It conquers
every problem and difficulty you are facing because you have a certain
hope. No matter what twists and turns
your life may take, you know that you have victory in Christ – you know how it
ends. It ends with the return of Jesus
Christ who will raise your body to be like his.
And so as Paul says, “you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ.”
With the
living hope of the resurrection, we eagerly wait for our Lord. But that eager waiting turns out to be a very
active thing. It is a life lived on the
basis of the hope we have in Christ. So,
seek to live as what God has made you to be.
We are a new creation in Christ.
Our hope filled lives now seek to live like it.
Corinth was
the home of the Isthmian games – an athletic competition like the Olympics in
Athens. When Paul talks about this aspect of the Christian life, he uses
athletic metaphors as he says in chapter nine: “Do you not know that in a race
all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may
obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to
receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly;
I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under
control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
This desire
to live in ways that are true to God’s will; this effort to resist sin and live
in love towards others is produced by faith – faith in Jesus Christ. It is made possible and led by the Spirit who
created that faith and sustains it. It
does not find its source in us, but instead in God. And at the end of our text Paul reminds us
about good news that we need to hear: “God
is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord.”
Paul tells us that God is faithful.
This means that he keeps his promises.
He is true to his word. If he
says you are forgiven in Christ and that you will share in his resurrection, then you will. After all, he is the One who has called us
into fellowship with his Son, our Lord Jesus.
For us, this fellowship is
experienced in a way that speaks to both our present and future. Here at the Sacrament of the Altar we share
in the fellowship of the body and blood of Christ. Here, he gives you his body and blood given
and shed for you. He gives you forgiveness in the present.
And by coming to us in this
miraculous way – by coming into our midst bodily – our Lord assures us that he
will come again on the Last Day. We sing
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” for the One who comes to us
in the Sacrament. He comes to us now as
he gives us his body and blood in, with and under bread and wine. Through this gift he strengthens and sustains
faith – faith that trusts in God who is faithful; faith that serves the
neighbor. He does this so that, as Paul says in our text this morning, “you are not lacking in any spiritual
gift, as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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