“From Conflict to Concord” 1 Cor. 1.18-31, Epiphany 4A, Jan. ‘17

1.               Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this morning is taken from 1 Cor 1:18–31.   Last week we learned that the Apostle Paul was writing 1 Corinthians to a congregation in the middle of intense conflict. The passage immediately prior to our reading today from 1 Corinthians, which was last week’s reading, clearly was addressed to the divisions that were taking place within the Corinthian congregation. Today, St. Paul reminds us that dwelling in the middle of every church conflict and the conflicts that boil up in every sphere of life is our sinful pride. Here in 1 Cor. 1:18-31, Paul is attacking pride because he knows that until it is slain by God’s Spirit and Word, there can be no resurrection of the Corinthian fellowship and love.  The message is entitled, “From Conflict to Concord,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.              One day our Lord Jesus brought two angry men into a pastor’s office. They had been factional leaders in terrible years of conflict in that parish. Both of them had left the church and now they wanted to return. But no one wanted the conflict to return. They sat down with the pastor, and they spoke openly about the past—both about what each of them had done and about what Christ had done. They spoke of the present and what Jesus saw in the two of them. And they spoke of what Christ promised to do in the future. That day, Christ made them both to see the foolishness of their pride and the beauty of Christ’s love for the other and for themselves. They shook hands with each other, the next Sunday and they deliberately took the Lord’s Supper together, and the church all wept tears of joy. Now they are both at rest in Christ.  I doubt either of these men—or perhaps anyone else in the congregation—could have foreseen this in themselves or in the other, could have foreseen them becoming men who, after so many years of anger, were instead so truly loving and forgiving. But that’s what God shows us in our text today, that Christ has called us out of conflict into concord or harmony to be what we could never be on our own.

3.              Conflict arises when we think we are something on our own.  Conflict isn’t new—it’s as old as human pride.  It was a wounded pride that stirred Cain to murder his brother Abel.  Paul’s congregation is boasting about whose leader/teacher is the best. “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos” or even someone who says, “I follow Christ!”  Not only was this claiming that Paul or Apollos was something on his own, apart from Christ; it was making each follower of Paul or Apollos more important than a fellow member.  Each member of the Corinthian congregation had the same Christ; that should have made them equally something.  By thinking “I’m more important than you,” people were arguing “I’m something on my own”—something more than I am in Christ.

4.              Our conflicts aren’t anything different; lurking in the basement of every fight is a stubborn human pride that wants to put me first and see attention and love come my way.  Notice here in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 how St Paul describes that sinful human pride causes conflicts in our congregations. Paul uses terms for the proud referring to them as: “the wise,” “the discerning,” “the scribe,” “the debater of this age.”  Paul’s use of boasting language and pride may sound strange to us, but for the Romans it was a little like listing out your accomplishments on a résumé or a job application. Boasting without cause was frowned upon, but honestly boasting was not only socially acceptable, it was encouraged. It allowed others to know what you’d done and could do.

5.              On the other hand, pride is just being dishonest with ourselves. Luther’s last written words were found on a scrap of paper on the table in the room below the bedroom where he died. He wrote, “We are all beggars!”  Pride often takes the form of a false humility: The redeemed man who insists he’s a worm may in fact be falling victim to another form of pride. To insist on one’s own miserable unworthiness after someone has been forgiven of his sin isn’t true piety but a prideful means of denying what the pastor and the Lord Jesus have said. Martin Luther instructed us to rise from confessing our sins confident and joyful in what Christ has done in us, eagerly expecting him to continue that good sanctifying work (1 Cor 1:28–31).

6.              That’s why conflict withers when we admit we’re really nothing on our own.  Our boasting should only be in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which alone has saved us and given us the forgiveness of our sins.  Let’s face it: Christ/Calvary Lutheran church isn’t the best church on earth and I’m not the world’s greatest pastor, dad, or husband, no matter what my coffee mug says.  God shoots us down!  In Corinthians 1:19-20 St. Paul says, “¹⁹For it is written.“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” ²⁰Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?   We don’t have to think very hard to remember how many times our wisdom, discernment, clever arguments have proved flat-out wrong: from our predicting presidential elections to advice given to our children.  But, that frees us from the need to judge, to compare, to measure up. I can own my failure and not be surprised at your failures. You’re nothing on your own, and neither am I.  St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:26, “²⁶For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” 

7.              And this shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus was criticized many years ago for collecting sinners and nothings to himself. He has not changed. Jesus calls folks who are nothing.  St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:27-29, “ ²⁷But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

8.              Instead, Christ calls us who were nothing and transforms us by the power of his cross.  The something that makes us what we could never be on our own is the cross.  1 Cor. 1:18 & 21-25 says, “¹⁸For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”  We realize how foolish we are as we see how brilliant God’s plan is. We could never have thought up a rescue that meant the very God we offend willingly taking our punishment.  We realize how weak we are when we see God hanging helpless on a cross, yet remaining powerful enough to save the whole world.

9.              But that cross does makes us something, transforms us with the gifts that flow from it. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says, “³⁰He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. ³¹Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  Wisdom that sees the cross as salvation and our sins as those for which he died.  Righteousness that stands in the judgment, freely given as we’re baptized into that cross.  Holiness that flows from Baptism and makes us right with God now taking real shape in our lives.  Redemption that has freed us from slavery to sin and empowered us to be God’s children right now.

10.        At the heart of our conflicts lies a terrible lie, which Satan would have us believe. For he would feed that ravenous thing within all of us that sees us as the center of our universe. Jesus smashed Paul’s little universe and took that place on a road to Damascus. Paul was smashing the little universes of the Corinthians long ago, and he’s still doing it to us today. Jesus has called foolish, sinful, and stubborn people. But having slain us all in Baptism, he’s raised us up new to live in his wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption!  We have been called out of conflict into concord and harmony through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“We Are Brothers and Sisters in Christ” 1 Cor. 1.10-18, Eph. 3A, Jan. ‘17

1.              Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word today is taken from 1 Cor. 1:10-18 and is entitled, “We Are Brothers and Sisters in Christ.”

2.              Let’s face it: there are some people out there who are never going to be our best friends. Maybe the first time you met you just got off on the wrong foot. Maybe you value, stand for, believe in very different things. Maybe it’s just personalities—oil and water that don’t mix. Or maybe you run with a different crowd—you’re really close with somebody; they’re really close with somebody else; you each follow a different leader, and that keeps you apart. You’re just never going to be friends. He or she is never really going to like you much, and the feeling is pretty mutual. You live with it. It happens.

3.              It even happens here, in church, in this very congregation, probably in this very sanctuary this morning. Your never-going-to-be-friend may be sitting not too many pews away, but after church, you’ll go in opposite directions, sometimes intentionally.

4.              In our text this morning, St. Paul says that was happening in the Church at Corinth. We don’t know all the causes, but here’s how it played out: some said, “I follow Paul,” others said, “I follow Apollos,” others, “I follow Cephas,” and still others, “I follow Christ” (v 12). There were divisions, quarrels, among the members of the Church at Corinth. They weren’t friends. It happens.

5.              We do understand why some people just won’t be our friends, don’t we!  All the usual human dynamics were no doubt in play in the Church at Corinth.  In 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 St. Paul says, “¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. ¹¹For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. ¹²What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”   In the Corinthians Church there were substantial disagreements about doctrine and practice (v 10)—sexual immorality, lawsuits, marriage, giving offense, the Lord’s Supper, women’s roles, worship, the resurrection.  The church was dividing into “parties” (vv 11–12)—even though the “leaders” of those parties had no intention of being pitted one against another.  There were personality issues too—in a city and congregation that brought together people with very diverse backgrounds.

6.       We recognize all those problems!  Disagreements about decisions in the congregation that really matter.  In the church there may be disagreements about how preaching should be done, worship—contemporary or liturgical, or on the distribution of the Lord’s Supper.  Cliques can also form within the church around those people we are most comfortable with unfortunately leaving some people left out.  There can be individual conflicts among members, such as poor first impressions, strong personalities clashing, and so on.  It happens. St. Paul says it was happening in the Church at Corinth. And that, Paul says . . . is unacceptable! Sinful! Totally out of place in the Church of God!  St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:13, “13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

7.              Let me tell you a story about two men who were just never going to be friends.  Sosthenes . . . synagogue ruler in Corinth . . . zealous for the law . . . used to being in charge.  St. Paul . . . comes along with new teachings . . . equally zealous . . . winning converts away from the synagogue (even the previous leader)  Two men off on the wrong foot . . . strong personalities . . . following the God of Abraham or Jesus Christ? . . . zealous for the law or for salvation by faith apart from works? . . . one drags the other into court . . . not going to be friends!  But . . . Sosthenes beaten . . . abandoned . . . perhaps befriended by Paul . . . more than friends: brothers and co-authors of 1 Corinthians (1:1)!

8.              How can this be, then, that people who were never going to be friends can be even more than friends?  Did seeing Sosthenes, this zealous Jew, lying on the street remind Paul of his own encounter with the pavement once on a road to Damascus?  Jesus hadn’t abandoned Saul, despite their so badly getting off on the wrong foot.  And Jesus forgiving Paul changed everything for him! No longer could Paul see anyone as a hopelessly never-to-be friend.

9.       As we have learned from Paul and Sosthenes, how we relate to one another as human beings depends upon how we see ourselves as creatures created by God our Creator.  This in turn affects our everyday relationships with one another.  This is what we teach our children at Christ Lutheran School in West Bloomfield.  Every day they are taught to show love and kindness to everyone around them because each person is created in God’s image.  They even work on showing kindness to each other through a program of earning kindness points each week.  At Christ Lutheran School our children learn that the value of human life doesn’t depend upon what someone is able to do or not to do. God creates life. God made the first two human beings in His image (Gn 1:26–27). Even though this image was lost when sin came into the world, this original, lofty position still gives value to human life (cf Gn 9:6).

10.   All life is worthy of life, because God makes it so.  And how we relate to each other as Christians also can show this fact.  We don’t hate our neighbor, for that would be murdering our neighbor in our heart, instead we see each person as being created by God our Heavenly Father. He created life with His hands. You and every life have handmade value! God redeemed life with His outstretched hands through His Son Jesus Christ. You and every life have been bought with a price! God’s power is at work in those He calls His own. You and every child of God are instruments of His power (Jer 1:5). Thank God for the value He gives to every life!

11.   So, Paul asks us this morning has Christ been divided from us? We got off on the wrong foot with him by our sin—especially those sins of separating ourselves from our fellow members right here—but Christ has done everything to make us his friends again—and more than that, brothers!  2 Cor 5:17–19 says, “¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

 

12.   We stood for different things—Jesus for us, we for ourselves. We followed different leaders—Jesus his heavenly Father, we our sinful desires. We had totally clashing personalities—Jesus humble and serving, we “me-first” and stubborn.  But Jesus made us his own brothers by dying for all those sins of ours and then baptizing us into his cross (v 18).  And he’s done the same for everyone sitting in every other pew here this morning.  Which makes every one of us here today better than just friends.  Every Member of God’s Church Is Better than a Best Friend; He or She Is a Brother or Sister in Christ.  “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that there be no divisions among you” (v 10). For Christ is not divided from you. Amen.