1 Corinthians 12

Summary

Last spring the pastors and spouses of the Association of International Churches in Europe and the Middle East met in Athens, Greece for our conference.  On our first full day we drove South of Athens to the ancient city of Corinth.  It was a beautiful day to walk amongst the excavated ruins, but more than that it was a day that unexpectedly moved me.  For as we explored this important city, I came to understand the realities of the social, political and religious environment in which the Corinthian Church was founded and lived.  The church in Corinth was comprised of both Jewish and Gentile Christians, and is understood to have been quite diverse.  Their struggles often sprang up over their divisions of; previous beliefs, social standing, difference in wealth, how they could and should interact with the non-Christian world, and the differing beliefs of those whom had baptized them; Apollos, Peter, or Paul himself.  In other words they had much they could fight over, and they did.

In his letters to the church in Corinth Paul was encouraging that young church, to rise above their troubles, and to become united.

Let me share with you again the first verse of today’s lesson from First Corinthians. It reads, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

The apostle Paul is urging, even imploring the people in the church in Corinth to be united in their belief and actions. In other words Paul was exhorting the church in Corinth to be, united in Christ!

One of the post-communion prayers given in the liturgical guide, sitting here on the altar starts, “God of abundance, with this bread of life and cup of salvation you have united us with Christ, making us one with all your people.”

This is a definition of what it means to be the church. The reason we’re all here this morning is because Jesus Christ has called us together to be united as one body, one community in him. As Jesus’ followers we are called to be, united in Christ.

It is our calling as Christians, but too often unity has been one of our biggest challenges, right from the beginning of the Christian church. And it is that challenge of unifying Christ’s people that Paul is facing in the church in Corinth. The believers in Corinth had split into factions within the congregation and each faction was claiming they were in the right and the others in the wrong.

Boy doesn’t that sound like a bunch of humans trying to get along?  In fact it still sounds like a description of the earthly church…doesn’t it?

The believers in the church in Corinth had all come together because they had believed the good news about Jesus of Nazareth. Paul had come preaching in the synagogues in Corinth, convincing many that Jesus was the promised Christ sent by God to save the world. Priscilla and Aquila, Crispus and his family and many others came to faith in Jesus and united together in his name to worship, learn, grow and tell others of this good news of forgiveness, love and salvation. And so, the church in Corinth grew. After a year and a half of living and preaching there Paul moved on to Ephesus where he stayed for three years. It was near the end of these three years when Paul received news from Corinth that the church was in trouble and was in danger of breaking apart.

As Pastor Eugene Peterson puts it in his modern language paraphrase of the Bible, entitled, THE MESSAGE, when he writes about the church in Corinth, “Factions had developed, morals were in disrepair, worship had degenerated into a selfish grabbing for the supernatural.”

We must ask, why did this happen?

Pastor Peterson reminds us of who Christians are when he writes, “When people become Christians, they don’t at the same moment become nice. This always comes as something of a surprise. Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn’t automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals. The people of Corinth had a reputation in the ancient world as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people. When Paul arrived with the Message and many of them became believers in Jesus, they brought their reputations with them right into the church.”

Why do I quote this, well, as a reminder to each of us that we’re a community of imperfect humans who have rallied together in the name of Christ, so that Jesus might lead us to live and do as people of God beyond our own natural desires and inclinations.

Just like in the ancient church in Corinth, we in today’s modern church struggle with our humanity as we go about being the people who Christ calls us to be.

If you struggle as a self-centered human, being a Christian does not automatically or instantaneously change you into a selfless human who is watching out for others without thinking about it. Nor if you are a person who gossips about, or slanders others do you suddenly become someone who either keeps silent or only shares good things about people. In the same way if your someone who puts others down to make yourself feel good, you don’t all of the sudden start to encourage others. In fact if we mistakenly think that believing in Jesus miraculously alters our personality and innermost desires, then we set ourselves up for huge disappointment and even failure in our faith.

No, what we must understand, is that Jesus graciously gives us life with him, in spite of our personality faults and inmost desires, and then promises to walk with us in our lives, so that we might grow and try to learn and live as he desires us to. Yes, he wants us to try and be selfless by thinking and doing for others, Jesus wants us to keep people’s confidences and share the good and not the bad, and to encourage others rather than tear them down, all of these positive, loving actions creates the community that is the church. Of course Jesus knows we’re going to fail again and again, but he is there offering us forgiveness and leading us to try and try again.

So, the surprise in the church in Corinth, or the church as a whole throughout history is not that it struggles with human problems, but that it survives and can be Jesus’ people living lives of forgiveness and active love in the world.

And this is the good news, the gospel of Jesus for us today. For us every day!

As is denoted in our name Christian, Christ claims us, he claims you, and you, and you, and me, every day as his child and as his follower in faith. But he not only claims us as individuals, but he calls us together as his church, united in him, united in Christ.

And so, we are not expected to be perfect or to always make the correct decisions or even to always say the “right” or most compassionate thing to one another. But Jesus does want us to live as forgiven people, together. People who try and look beyond our own and other’s short-fallings and failures to Christ’s perfect love and follow in his example, by asking for forgiveness and offering the same to one another in his love. And so we live united by our faith, and strive to be the people Christ calls us to be, people who are claimed and united in our Savior’s love…people united in Christ.

Amen.

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