January 20, 2008

Scripture:         1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon:           “The Good News First”

            We’ll be studying a passage from 1 Corinthians this morning.  So, you can turn with me to the opening of that book if you like.  It is on page 220 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            While you’re finding that let me say that I’m always amazed at the number of Christian institutions that adopt the name of Corinth in some way.  Corinthian Christian Book Store.  Corinthian Baptist Church.  I want to say that just because a name is in the Bible doesn’t make it all that desirable.

            I was in a play when I was a teenager.  One of the girls had this wonderful line that went:  My mother said that my name is biblical.  The name of her character was Jezebel, who was, perhaps, the most despised woman in all of scripture.

            The church at Corinth was a real mess.  So, I don’t know what inspires folks to use its name.  These folks, it seems, could do one thing really well.  They could fight.

            A quick litany of issues that the Apostle Paul tried to address goes like this:  the folks at Corinth believed that their own wisdom was the key to their salvation, there was one man in the church who was having some sort of relationship with his stepmother, folks would take their church arguments to be decided by the courts, some of them had some real difficulty being faithful in their marriages, some of them got very confused about eating meat from the market because it had been sacrificed at pagan temples, they argued about the roles of women in the church and the appropriate hairstyles of people, some of them drank a little too much wine when they celebrated the Lord’s Supper, folks were speaking in tongues and nobody had a clue what was being said, and they argued about money.  Now, how are you going to be a church like that?  What a mess.

            It appears that the church folk in Corinth were so lost that a few of them wrote a letter to Paul.  They wanted his opinion on a few things.  They needed an apostle to get them on the right track again.  And this is Paul’s response.

            I’m just going to read the very opening of Paul’s letter back to them.  We’ll look at this again next week when the sermon will be titled “And Now The Bad News”.  Today, however, we’ll get the good news first.

            Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

            To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with those who in every place call on 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.

            I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

            When I was in high school, I had the chance to play a little football.  And I do mean a little.  Coach had recruited me to be the placekicker, which meant that I didn’t really play football.  I just wore the pads and the helmet and the uniform.  Every now and then coach would say, “okay, Brown, get in there and kick it.”

            And all of this gave me the opportunity to travel to some of the most exotic places in the state of Georgia.  Places like Snellville.  Places like Rome.  And then this place called Valdosta.

            Now, best that I can tell, the fellas down in Valdosta take a break from eating and moving tractors with their bare hands just long enough to practice and play games on Friday nights.  These were some big boys.  And there must not be a whole lot to do around the swamps of South Georgia because about 20,000 people show up for their games.  High school football games.  Maybe that has something to do with the fact that the Valdosta High School Wildcats have won the state championship 23 times.

            Well, the score was something outrageous like 47 to 3 when the whistle mercifully sounded.  I know that we had 3 points.  I was the placekicker.  We were just kind of looking at the referee for a few minutes as if to say, “please blow your whistle.”  He finally did.  Halftime had arrived.

            Coach kind of walked around in front of us for a few minutes, running his hands through his hair and pulling at his lower lip.  What could he possibly say?  We were in danger of giving up 100 points, for crying out loud.

            He stopped and looked at us square in the eyes.  He said, “boys, let’s look at what’s working for us and build from there.  Our kicking game is outstanding.  Haven’t missed one all night.  And we’re opening up some running lanes you could drive a truck through.  Never mind the fact that they are driving trucks through them.  Let’s stay positive, here.”

            I’d like to tell you that we made a game of it after half time.  Wouldn’t that be something?

            The good news first.  Sometimes that’s important.  Point out the positive and lay a foundation for the ugly truth to follow.  It kind of eases the blow.  It lets somebody know that you really do care about them before you point out all of their flaws.  Tell them the good news first.

            Maybe there is a principle to live by in all of that.  You can’t just give somebody an ear full of complaints and hope that they come around.  You and I aren’t wired that way.  When somebody comes down on us really hard, no matter how good of a point they may have, we don’t respond.

            We walk away from an encounter like that mumbling to ourselves, “sheesh, what’s her problem?  Did he switch to decaf this morning, or what?”

            If there is something that you have to work out with somebody in your life, in your house, in your office, or wherever, it just isn’t very productive to begin your conversation with a list of everything they’ve ever done wrong.  He or she will most likely feel worthless, or else you’ll just appear to be out of control of your emotions.  In either case, you will be lucky to make any progress.

            On the other hand, if you are confronting a problem with somebody, and you begin by reaffirming your love and respect for them, tell them what you do appreciate, what is working, they’ll listen to you.  And chances are much better that they’ll understand how important the issue is.

            That’s what Paul was doing here in the opening of his letter to those troubled folks in Corinth.  They had some serious issues.  And if Paul just came out and said all of that, they wouldn’t be able to hear him.  He had to first remind them of what was working in their lives.  He had to make sure that they understood that he loved them.  Whatever important words that were going to come afterward could only be communicated in the midst of their ongoing relationship.

            Are you with me?

            Now, this might sound something like what you’d call “buttering somebody up.”  You butter somebody up when you want to soften the blow.  And that’s nothing more than manipulating somebody.  You want an example?

            There is a young woman sitting across a table from a young man she’s been dating.  They’re having dinner in a restaurant.  She says to him, “you know, I think that you are a really nice guy.  You’re a wonderful friend.  And you deserve to be happy.”

            Now, what do you think she is about to do?

            Well, as I remember that conversation, she broke up with the guy.  And none of those things she said had anything to do with how she really felt.  She just didn’t want to feel so bad herself.

            That’s what you call buttering somebody up.

            But, that’s not what Paul is doing here.  In fact, he’s making sure they understand he’s in it for the long haul.  This isn’t manipulation.  It’s probably evidence that Paul was so angry at what had been going on that he had to remind himself of the good things.

            It’s a wise model for all of us to consider in our lives.  When we have conflicts with one another, it is good to reaffirm our relationships and remember the things that we love about one another before we get to the difficult work of resolving our differences.  And that’s not just about producing results with the person we’ve got a problem with.  When we begin with affirmations, we also keep ourselves from crossing the line with what we say and do, keeping our emotions under control.  It’s a wise model.

            So, Paul lays out this foundation for all of the hard words that he has to say.  It’s like he reminded them that, you know what, our kicking game is outstanding.

            He said, “now look at all you’ve got going for you.  You’ve discovered the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  And if nothing else is working for you, that alone is more than you’ll ever need.  You belong to God.  And you’ve grown so much from the people that you were before.  You’ve really come a long way.  Let’s be honest.”

            These folks lived in a time and in a culture that was really a stretch from the Christian life.  Corinth had a reputation like that of the darker side of Las Vegas or New Orleans.  Some referred to Corinth as “Sin City.”  And wealthy folks there were very wealthy.  Poor folks there were very poor.  And all of that meant that folks were used to abusing one another.  It’s not too surprising that the church there had problems.

            But, they’d come a long way from where they were.  And that was worth saying.

            On top of that, God’s Spirit had managed to produce quite a few gifts among the people in Corinth.  Paul said, “you’re not lacking for any spiritual gift.  Look at you.  It’s really amazing.”

            Now, Paul was about to tell them what for.  Church just can’t look like what they’d managed to do to one another.  Christians just can’t go on like that.  There’s no integrity to it.

            But, he added one more thing before getting into all of that.  He said, “Christ will strengthen you.  You will be blameless before God.  It is the gift of Christ to you.  And, you know what?  God is faithful.”

            Now, I want you to hear that.  It’s like we’ve been listening at the door while Paul has a little discussion with the Corinthians.  But, I want you to hear that.  I want you to overhear it.

            There isn’t anything you can do, any mess that you can create, any situation that you can find yourself in that God can’t and won’t redeem.  God is faithful.  Even when we aren’t.  God is faithful.  I don’t know why.  And I can’t always understand for myself how.  But, that’s what we’ve been given in Jesus Christ.

            And that’s the good news.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)