1 Cor 1:18-31 

Today’s Gospel lesson is the Beatitudes which is the focal point of our Lord’s teaching.  Along with the 23^rd psalm, this is one of the most popular and favorite Bible verses for most of us.  But today I decided to resume our look at the book of First Corinthians. The reason I chose the epistle lesson to preach today is that I already preached about the Beatitudes last year and probably you have heard a lot of sermons about it over the years because this text comes up every year in the lectionary reading cycle.  The second reason is: as you know, there are many talks and discussions about the future of our denomination.  I felt it was more relevant for me to prepare for a sermon based on what Apostle Paul said to Corinthian Christians such a time as this.

If you find out what happened in the Corinthian church, you will understand why I felt this way.  Paul has heard disturbing news about things that are happening in the church.  Factions have developed and now people are arguing with each other.  Paul has decided to write a letter in response.  Two weeks ago, we heard Paul reminding them in his letter and us how richly we have been blessed by God in our faith.  Last week, I preached based on the Gospel lesson, but in the epistle lesson, we can find out how the Corinthian church was divided and this reminded us of the historic and contemporary divisions in the Church.  Today Paul talks about the root cause of divisions within the church.  According to Paul, divisions and controversies in the church are caused by the differing expectations we have of how God interacts with humankind. 

Everyone who comes to church has an expectation of how God interacts with us.  This expectation is shaped by our cultural, educational, and religious background.  If everyone has the same expectation then there will be no conflict in the church.  But if people in the church have different expectations, then conflict abounds.  We see this clearly in the Corinthian church.  It was a diverse church.  It had both Greeks and Jews as members.  There were rich members and poor members.  Members have come from many nations of the world.  And they have come with different expectations. 

For example, the Greeks or Hellenes…, as you know, they invented democracy, distilled logic and reason, wrote plays to plumb the deepest recesses of the soul, and captured the perfection of the human form in art.  They believed that the world was a rational and logical place.  So it would be expected that God would reveal himself in this rational world.  That’s why the Gospel according to John begins this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   He was with God in the beginning.”  Here the Word is Logos in Greek.  Because John’s main audience was the Greeks, he introduced Jesus as Logos.  Of course, these people would want to know about Jesus’ life, what he did and especially what he taught.  For them, Jesus was God’s way of giving them a rational order for their lives through his teaching on ethics.  So these people would come to church to hear the moral teachings of Jesus and apply those teachings to their lives.

Also in the Corinthian congregation were converted Jews.  They were looking for signs and miracles because that was the way God had appeared to their ancestors.  God appeared to Moses in a burning bush that fire could not consume.  God appeared in a tornado and chariot of fire.  So they would be attracted to a church that proclaimed Jesus as a miracle worker who fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, who restored the blind to sight, and who raised Lazarus from the dead.

Other Jews were looking for a god who would interact with humanity through prophets proclaiming God’s justice.  In Israel’s history, many prophets had focused on the righteousness of God and social injustice.  For example, Amos proclaimed the total destruction of Israel, because the chosen people of God did not take care of the needy or welcome the strangers.  Amos chapter 2 reads, “This is what the Lord says: For sins of Israel…, I will not turn back my wrath.  They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.  They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.  Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.” (Amos 2:6-7). 

Prophets’ messages are uncomfortable to hear in any age.  They challenge us to examine ourselves and our society and to confront injustice wherever we find it.

In the turbulent times of the first century, they were looking for a prophet who tells them how God would act to end the corrupted world and bring about justice and more peaceful world where “the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will do no harm nor destruction on all My holy mountain….” (Isaiah 65:25).  So they would be attracted to a church that proclaimed Jesus’ teachings on God’s ultimate judgment and restoration of the world.

All of these groups came together for Sunday worship and they expected to hear stories of Jesus the man, the Christ, the Word of God; Jesus the miracle worker; and Jesus the prophet.  And of course they argued with each other over doctrine, and formed factions that threatened to divide the church.  Sadly, this is something that Christians have been doing ever since.

But the Apostle Paul has some good news for them and for us.  You see, God’s interaction with humanity came in a way that no one expected.  No one, neither Greek nor Jew, saw this one coming.  God came into the world in a surprising way.  God came to us with Jesus’ death on a cross.  How can it be in a rational world that God would interact with humans in suffering and death?  How can a perfect, unchanging, unlimited, infinite God suffer and die?  How can a person who raised Lazarus from the dead not prevent his own death with a miracle?  The prophet Elijah never died, but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind; so why did Jesus have to die?  No one expected the cross.  And yet that is exactly what happened.  God came to earth to interact with us and suffered and died on a cross.  Those who expected God to come in the rational world saw no rational order in his death.  Those who expected a miracle worker never expected that miracle worker would die.  Those who expected a prophet never expected his voice to be silenced by death.  Everyone was surprised by what really happened.

Paul writes in verse 19: “It is written in scripture: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the intelligence of the intelligent.”  Here he helps us to understand that God demonstrated the limitations of human wisdom and miraculous signs.  God showed us that we have at best a feeble understanding of the world around us.  Our expectations of how God interacts with humanity were too small, and too human oriented.  So we must humbly remember that we don’t know enough about God to expect anything.  And only then we can receive what God offers us.

According to Paul, this is the source of unity in the church.  We are united only when we realize that our expectations about God and how God interacts with us are flawed, and that these flawed expectations of God have led to our disagreement and divisions.  Then we can humbly approach one another reconciled by a cross which unites all of us in our salvation in Jesus Christ.

So the next time you are preparing for a meeting with fellow Christians to discuss a controversial topic, and you are preparing the scriptural references and theological arguments that support your side remember that you might be relying on your own flawed expectation of how God interacts with humanity.  Reconsider what you believe in the context of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross.  Remember the grace and forgiveness that you have received from God.  And humbly offer that grace to those who disagree with you thus reconciling with one another in the light of God’s love.  Let us pray:

Loving God, we humbly come before you in gratitude for your son’s sacrifice on the cross.  We never expected you to come to us in suffering and death.  But now we are so thankful for the love you showed us though Jesus, your son and our Lord.  And we pledge to serve and love one another in his name.  Amen.

Benediction
As you have learned wisdom—go and teach!
As you have been fed, go to feed the hungry.
As you have been set free, go to set free the imprisoned.
As you have heard – proclaim.
And the blessing which you have received
from the Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit
be always with you. Amen.