From Corinth to Wisconsin – Saints, Spiritual Gifts & Faith

 

Rev. Moira Finley

Trinity United Church of Christ and St. John’s United Church of Christ

16 January 2005

Second Sunday of Epiphany

1 Corinthians 1.1-9

 

During the time of Christ Corinth was a growing trading community, just outside of Athens.  People from all around the world came to Greece to trade.  From the east they brought spices and textiles.  From Egypt they brought paper and fruits.  Just about everyone who came to Greece came through Corinth.  Their marketplaces were full of people who looked differently, wore clothes that demonstrated what place they called home, spoke a host of different languages, and practiced a wide variety of religious traditions.

 

Into that cultural diversity Paul came bringing the message of Jesus Christ.  He founded the church at Corinth on one of his missionary journeys.  He taught them about Jesus’ life and ministry, about his death and resurrection.  He helped them grow their faith, forming a church that would nurture and support its members and friends, and would help them maintain the traditions of Christianity amid the diversity of the world they lived in.

 

Paul stayed for quite some time with them, but eventually he had to leave Corinth, to go and bring Jesus’ message to other communities.  After Paul leaves he receives word that the Corinthians are struggling with their faith.  So Paul decides to write them a series of letters, giving them advice and encouragement and reminding them of all the things that he taught them while he was with them.

 

Our epistle reading this morning is from Paul’s first letter back to the Corinthians.  In every letter he writes he begins with a greeting, bringing them the grace of God, reminding them whose people they are, that in all things they belong to Christ.  Then he gives thanks for the people, celebrating their lives and ministry.  In these few verses I think that Paul makes three very important statements about what it means to be the church.

 

First, Paul writes, “to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”  Saints are a tricky thing for most protestants.  The Catholic church is very big on saints.  People pray to the saints for help.  They have “theme” saints –St. George the saint of the Welsh, St. Andrew of the Scots, St. Christopher of travelers, and the list goes on.  There are very complicated rituals and procedures in order to become a saint, not the least of which is that you have to have three verifiable miracles attributed to you, and you have to be dead.  But in the Reformation, the protestant church made a break from all that.  They dispensed with saints, got rid of the icons and taught that prayer should only be lifted up to God in Christ.

 

I do think getting rid of the rules about how you get to be a saint was a good idea, but I’m not so convinced that we needed to completely do away with the idea of saints.  Before the institution of the church got in the way, Paul wrote that all the people in Corinth were called to be saints.  That meant everyone in the church at Corinth – from the highest ranking government officer to the lowliest servant – all of them had been chosen by God to be saints in Christ’s name.

 

Everyone who dares to believe in Jesus is a saint.  All of us here this morning are saints.  It doesn’t mean we’re perfect.  Far from it.  Being a saint isn’t about perfection, it isn’t about never making a mistake, never having a doubt.  Instead being a saint means that we’ve been called by God to show others the joy of having faith in Christ.  We are all the people already in the church.  There are people who aren’t here, who aren’t part of a church family.  Our being called as God’s saints means that when we go out into the world we take our faith with us.  We share our faith with other people.  We talk about the importance of the church in our lives.  We share with others that being a part of the church makes us part of a community that celebrates with us when times are good and supports us when times are difficult.

 

Then Paul writes, “you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.”  Each and every one of us has been given gifts by God.  They are gifts from the Holy Spirit, given to us that we might all participate in God’s work in the world, striving together to bring about the realm of peace and justice.  Some gifts from the spirit are obvious.  Preachers bring the Word of God every Sunday to the gathered people.  Pastors care for the members of a congregation, helping them develop their faith lives, witnessing with them as they face the joys and challenges of their lives.

 

But those aren’t the only gifts the Spirit gives.  Everyone has a gift, everyone.  Doctors help people return to physical health and accept their limitations.  Teachers instruct our children and youth so that they can take their place in the world.  Accountants balance books so that we know where our money comes from and where it goes.  Farmers raise and cooks prepare the food we all need to survive.  Parents and grandparents rear children, showing them how to become respectful and contributing members of society.  We all have gifts.  Whether what you do seems important in the eyes of the world or not, it’s important in God’s eyes.  The things we are good at, the things we enjoy doing, are all needed by God that the world might be whole.

 

Finally Paul writes, “God is faithful.”  For each of us there is usually a time when we doubt, when we question, when we wonder if God has abandoned us and left us to the ways of the world.  No matter how faithful we want to be, how much we want to love and serve God, there comes a time of uncertainty.  For some people that doubt is too much.  They figure that if they’ve doubted God, God will have doubted them, will have decided that any indication of hesitation, any moment of questioning will be the “evidence” God needs to leave, to give up on them, to abandon them.

 

I’ve spent the last several weeks trying to make sense of the tragedy in the Indian Ocean.  I’ve been plagued, as perhaps you have, with the “why” questions.  Why did the tsunami happen?  Why did it strike a part of the world already so economically disadvantaged?  Why did some people survive and others didn’t?  And it isn’t just things like the tsunami that stir up those “why” questions.  When people suffer, we want to know why.  When our lives seem unmanageable, we want to know why.  We want to know where God is while people are suffering, or in crisis, or experiencing a tragedy.  There aren’t answers for questions like this.  There aren’t answers for parents who have to bury their children, for fires, for wars.  Words fail in the face of heartbreak.

 

Many days I wish I had answers, concrete explanations.  I wish I could tell people who are struggling why bad things happen to good people, why disaster seems to come to people who were already having trouble making ends meet.  It would make being a pastor a great deal easier.  Instead, I have what Paul says this morning.  God is faithful.  Whatever our doubts, God is faithful.  Whenever we wonder why bad things happen, God is faithful.  If we are uncertain of God’s presence in our lives, God is faithful.  God doesn’t give up on us, no matter how much we question.  God is faithful through all the journeys of our lives, standing with us whatever we have to face, celebrating with us when there is reason to rejoice.

 

Though more than nineteen hundred years have passed since Paul wrote his letter, we live in a world a lot like the world the Corinthians lived in.  All kinds of people come through our lives.  Some of them in person at the grocery, the doctor’s office, the school.  Others come to our lives through the media of television and movies.  They have different accents, different styles of dress, different traditions, different foods.  In the diversity of our world we struggle to maintain our faith, to hold onto our traditions while we learn from those around us.  Paul’s message to the Corinthians is one we still need today.

 

We need to know, deep in our hearts, that we are all saints of God, that we have been called by God to share our faith with the world.  We don’t have to be perfect in order to be a saint, we just have to live every day as best we are able, trying to follow Jesus’ teachings, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, serving others in everything we do.

 

We need to know that we have each been given gifts by God through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We all have something we are good at doing, and things we love to do.  We express our gifts when we share those talents and passions with the world.  We share them so that the realm of God might come in all its fullness.

 

And we have to know that amid all the struggles of the world, all the uncertainty and doubt, God remains faithful to us.  Whatever questions we might ask, God will be with us.  Whatever the struggles of our lives, God believes in us.  Whatever challenges we might face, God stands right by our side, guiding us and giving us strength.

 

That is truly the Good News the people of Corinth needed, and that we need today, and every day of our lives.  Amen.