I Corinthians 1:1-9
Showing some form of identification has become common place in American society. I thought about how often I am asked to show my identification. You are required to show your ID when you check-in at the airport. And don’t put it away, because you’ll need it to get through security, too. You must show your ID when you are pulled over by the police and proof of insurance. When applying for a job, when purchasing cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, when picking up tickets at the “Will Call” booth: you must show positive identification.
Why? Why all the hassle? There are certain situations in life that involve sharing sensitive, personal information. In these situations we must be able to prove who we really are. We need to show we are who we say we are; to show our real and true identity.
It’s easy to forget who you really are even with a positive ID. This happened to the church in Corinth. According to Sosthenes, Paul’s co-author of this letter to the Corinthian church, some of the members of the church are quarreling with one another and forming competitive cliques, each claiming to be more spiritual than the other. This level of spiritual arrogance is tearing apart the body of Christ in Corinth as each group boasts of their spiritual superiority. They are boasting and taking the credit for everything God has given them and done for them.
The apostle Paul addresses these concerns amongst a boatload of church dysfunctions. You've got people fighting for power, abusing the sacraments, sleeping around, suing each other, teaching false doctrine and marriages are melting down. If a survey were floated around the church at Corinth, chances are the average parishioner would rate his or her level of satisfaction just above the Department of Motor Vehicles and just below jury duty. It was a total mess. They had forgotten who they are.
The sad but sobering truth is the same is often true in our churches, in today's churches. When you lift the hood on any and every congregation you'll see leaks and cracks, you'll hear thumps and rattles. The church of Jesus Christ is made up of people saved by and yet still desperately in need of Jesus Christ. The truth is the church in Corinth isn't all that different from every other church today. There will be immorality that comes to light, politics at play, marriages that are messy and a mission that misses the mark. There will always be, in some way, reasons for deep discouragement.
The Apostle Paul addresses the issues at Corinth head on. And, in doing so, lifts the Corinthian people out of the depths to which they'd sunk and back into a life of following Jesus, more aware of the dignity and beauty given to them as disciples of Christ. But what's equally instructive, yet often overlooked, is what Paul did before he laid down the law. Before correcting the mistakes, Paul made it clear that despite all that was broken in the church; he was still deeply and truly satisfied with what God was accomplishing in the church.
So there are three areas of the text that are very significant for us in our present age. The first is that the radical reforming and re-organization of life’s relationship through the work of God in Christ. Paul is not a self-determined individual. His life is dominated and directed by God. God’s grace radically changes lives. He knows who he is.
In the movie The Lion King, one of the most masterful scenes in the movie was when Mufasa appeared to Simba in the sky. He tells Simba he has forgotten who he is. Simba ran away and lived in the jungle with a meerkat and a warthog. As Mufasa fades away into the clouds, he tells Simba “Remember who you are.” God remembers who you are. Do you remember?
The second point is that we as Christians do not go it alone. Pastor and writer Eugene Peterson is quoted saying, “No life of faith can be lived privately. There must be overflow into the lives of others.” This is to say there is no “Lone Ranger” for Jesus. Following Christ is a team sport, not an individual one. Theologian Paul Tillich puts it this way, “We have considered the depth of the world and the depth of our souls. But we are only in a world through a community of men. And we can discover our souls only through the mirror of those who look at us. There is no depth of life without the depth of the common life.”[1] Our congregation is not isolated from the community of the world. Christian identity is formed and developed, not by looking to or at ourselves, but in our God-willed relationship to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Former Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa says, “You can't be a solitary human being. [We're] all linked. ... Because of this deep sense of community, the harmony of the group is a prime attribute. And so you realize that anything that undermines the harmony is to be avoided as much as possible. Anger and jealousy and revenge are particularly corrosive, so you try ... to enhance the humanity of the other, because in that process, you enhance your own.” As Christians we do not go it alone. We go in community with one another.
Recognizing the radical transformation of lives through the saving grace of Christ and knowing that Christians don’t go it alone, but only in community, Paul begins to share his joy for the Corinthians as well as his serious concerns based on the news he has heard. Paul recognizes the Corinthians are blessed with spiritual gifts from God, but they have abused and misunderstood God’s gifts and blessings as often as we do. The Corinthians behave as if they themselves were to be credited with their gifts from God, not God. How often do we take the credit when we are successful and blame God when bad things come our way? How often do we bask in the glory of our own selves when good things happen to us, but blame God when bad things happen to us and when we do not succeed as we had hoped. God gave the Corinthians all that they have and are in Christ. Good, bad and ugly: we are all called to give God the glory in all times and in all situations. We get ahead of ourselves and forget that God’s good gifts are given to sustain us in mutual love and trust. In other words, we take things for granted. I often take for granted that I am able to go to the store and buy food for my family to eat for weeks at a time, forgetting for the moment that there are so many in Kilgore and around the world who don’t know when and where they will get their next meal. When you turn on the faucet in the morning, clean water pours out, forgetting there are millions around the world who don’t have access to clean drinking water, even spending an entire day traveling many miles for a few gallons of water to simply survive for the day. We take for granted the love of our family and friends, the roof over our heads, the faith that has made us whole, and the blessings from God too numerous to count.
Louis C.K., a well-known and typically crass comedian, laments our shortsightedness and apathy in the face of the truly amazing blessings in our lives. "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy," he says. We get frustrated with our phone as it falters for a moment to load up the latest headlines from Fox News or The Huffington Post. "Give it a second!" He says. "It's going into space. Is the speed of light too slow for you?" We tell horror stories about cancelled flights and waiting on the tarmac for 20 minutes overlooking the fact that after such an inconvenience we were "strapped to a chair in the sky" flying from New York to Los Angeles in a matter of hours. That's a trip that "used to take 30 years" on foot and "by the time you arrived half the clan would be dead." Life's pretty good. [2]
It's easy to take our blessings for granted. How incredible is it that we lose sight of God’s blessings and lose out on what we are called to do as his disciples? We forget who we are and so we don’t recognize the fact that God’s gift to us is our actual identity in Christ. Christ is our positive identification for it is in him that our true identity exists; it is in Him that our true identity as the church exists.
Perhaps the more time you spend with something, even an amazing thing, the easier it is to notice limitations, flaws and missed opportunities; the easier it becomes to see a modern marvel as mundane, and as having room for improvement.
For far too many, that's where we are with the church. Yet, for all her struggles, she, the church, has a lot going for her. Let's never forget that. She -- we -- are still something to be satisfied with. Not because of what we bring to the table, no. But because of what God has done to us and through us in Christ.
May we always remember there is so much in our lives to find joy, peace and satisfaction: for we are transformed by the grace of God, living in community and blessed with the gift of our identity in Christ Jesus. Remember who you are! Amen.
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