Sermons

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Called To Be Saints?!
May 6, 2001
Series on I Corinthians
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

I Corinthians 1:1-9

This morning, I’m going to give you a strange invitation. I’m going to invite you to join me in reading someone else’s mail! Now, that may remind you of being a kid in elementary school.

You were busily writing and passing notes to each other, and suddenly the teacher intercepted one. Perhaps read it out loud and embarrassed you: “Do you like Joey?!” It was awkward for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s content was not intended for everyone. The other is that it was taken totally out of context. It was part of a much larger communication that nobody got to hear about. You have to be very careful when you read a letter, don’t you?

But I’m still inviting you this morning to tear into this letter with me. The letter of First Corinthians. It’s one we’ll spend several months looking at. It was written 2,000 years ago. Written by someone who never dreamed it would be public into the ages. Written in response to some serious issues in a very young church community…and in a culture we don’t fully understand. We will be reading someone else’s mail. But I believe it is mail that God intended to be left around for us. It made its way into the New Testament at its very earliest formulation, and God has used it to speak to the church for 20 centuries now.

This letter is FROM the Apostle Paul. Jeff talked last week about the central event of Paul’s life, his radical conversion from a zealous Judaism…to following Christ after meeting the risen Lord. And it is TO the church in Corinth, a city in what is now Greece, and which some of you have probably visited. I want to tell you five quick things about Corinth:

a) Corinth was both a young and an old city. Ancient Corinth was destroyed by Rome in 146 BC. But it was then repopulated and revitalized in 44 BC by Caesar. Caesar sent retiring soldiers to repopulate the area, and they were joined by Greek merchants, indentured servants who had been freed, international traders and freed slaves. In short, Corinth was a city with little established aristocracy, and lots of upwardly mobile people.

b) Corinth was a commercial city. It had a very key geographic location on a narrow isthmus on the Greek peninsula…at a spot where the peninsula narrows to just 4 miles across. All the trade within Greece that went from North to South (towards Sparta and the Pelopeneese) went through Corinth. And similarly, all of the East-West trade from Turkey, towards Italy and Spain…also went through Corinth. Most ships stopped there. Now, they could go further south, around Cape Malea (Matapan), but that journey was extremely dangerous, like going around the Horn of Africa…storms and shipwrecks were very common. In fact, there was an ancient saying that said “Let him who sails around Malea first make out his will.” So most ships stopped at the isthmus near Corinth, and either unloaded their cargo, transported it across and reloaded onto a ship on the other side…OR, for smaller ships, there was a system of pulleys which could literally move the entire ship across the four miles. Corinth enjoyed great trade, and therefore great wealth.

c) Corinth was a diverse city. We know that it had a small Jewish population, but was mostly Gentiles from every corner of the globe. One historian said “Corinth had a mongrel and heterogeneous population of Greek adventurers and Roman bourgeois, with a tainting infusion of Phoenicians; this mass of Jews, ex-soldiers, philosophers, merchants, sailors, freedmen, slaves, tradespeople and hucksters.” There were gods and goddesses and temples on virtually every corner, various statues and religions and sacrifices being practiced everywhere.

d) Corinth was a wild city. In ancient times, it was well known as a center for luxury and immorality. One of the hugest landmarks was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of Love. A thousand sacred prostitutes would go into the streets in the evenings to solicit business. In fact, in the Greek language, a word was actually named after the city. “Corinthiezesthai” literally meant “drunken immorality.”

e) Finally, Corinth was a strategic city. Because of the trade both East-West and North-South, it was truly a crossroads. And for someone like Paul interested in the spreading of a message, it was a key location. So Paul started a church in this wild mix of a town. I imagine he must have looked around every day and said to himself, “This ain’t Kansas, Toto!” He spent 18 months there, longer than any other place. These were people he argued with, cared for and loved. He led them into relationship with God in Christ. And now it’s a few years later, and they are asking the question: “What’s it look like to live out this faith?” And Paul writes to them about faith-full living. So let’s open the mail:

I Corinthians 1:1-9

Not all was well in Corinth. Paul had apparently received some reports about just how badly things were going. There are more issues than one can name: dissension in the community, questions of marriage, accusations of sexual immorality, Christians dragging one another into legal disputes, wealthy believers snubbing poorer ones, idol worship, accomodation to the secular culture, theological disagreements, abuses of spiritual gifts in the church, questions of financial stewardship…This could easily be a 21st century list!

There seemed to be lots of confusion over how to live faithful Christian lives within a wildly NON-Christian culture.

Paul begins by…reminding the Corinthians who they are. Now, that sounds simple. But we need it as much as they did. I need reminding. I had something of an “over the top” week work-wise. In fact, Anne and I voted, 2-0, that it was over the top.

But one thing I was able to do was go and hear a talk by Gordon McDonald. McDonald is an author and pastor who has been through a lot in his life, and was at SPU to talk to a group of pastors and other leaders. What he said wasn’t complicated. He reminded us that we share in GOD’S ministry, that God doesn’t share in ours. He reminded us that God gives abilities, but that as soon as we start to rely on those…we are close to spiritual dryness. He reminded us that we truly are dependent on Christ. So simple, nothing new. But it was just a good reminder. We need to be reminded a lot.

Paul starts this letter by actually reminding himself, actually. “Called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…” Pretty much the same way he starts every book, over and over…reminding himself of who he is: an apostle (literally, “one sent”), a servant…almost as though if he reminds himself, it will help him live into it.

Then Paul writes “To the church of God that is in Corinth, together with all those who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus, both their Lord and ours…”

He reminds the Corinthians that they are PEOPLE of God, not a building or an institution. They are part of the ekklesia, the church, part of ALL the people of God. They’re not out on their own, not some kind of lone ranger, but part of something much bigger. We don’t know all the issues, but later in I Corinthians, Paul seems to speak against a little arrogance in Corinth. The Corinthians may have thought they were pretty cosmopolitan, better than others, thinking they could live the faith on their own strength.

We can get that way too, here at Bethany. We start thinking we’re so unique, or cool or artsy or musical or whatever. But Paul reminds us, and them…that we’re part of something much bigger…the Church! They’re part of something huge that God is doing. Remember, for Paul the whole world had changed, had turned upside down. God was on the move! And he’s inviting people into this grand vision. He saw it unfolding, and he wanted the Corinthians to be reminded of it.

I just re-read a trilogy of books by Stephen Lawhead called the "Pendragon Cycle. " It’s a fresh look at the story of King Arthur, put in a kind of Celtic Christian setting. In the third book, the young Arthur is handed a kind of vision, a picture of his future kingdom called “The Kingdom of Summer.” It sounds like this:

I have seen a land bright with truth, where a man’s word is his pledge and falsehood is banished, where children sleep safe in their mother’s arms and never know fear or pain.

I have seen a land where kings extend their hands in justice rather than reach for the sword; where mercy, kindness, and compassion flow like deep water over the land, and men revere virtue, revere truth, revere beauty, above comfort, pleasure or selfish gain. A land where peace reigns in the hearts of men; where faith blazes like a beacon from every hill and love like a fire from every hearth; where the True God is worshiped and his way acclaimed by all.

Paul reminds the church of the vision. They are part of something much bigger.

Then he writes: “To those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…” Now, what’s with this churchy word “sanctification,” and what’s he talking about, “saints?” We only use that word for someone holy individual like Mother Theresa, or bestow it on someone hundreds of years after they die. No, Paul says this is YOU. He reminds them…YOU are saints! I had a professor in seminary who started every lecture with “Good morning, Saints!” We’d all think: “why does he do that? We know what we are…no saints, that’s for sure.”

And as we read about the Corinthians and these issues: immorality, lawsuits, quarrels…how can you call THEM saints?! But Paul is reminding them again who they are. “Sanctified” and “saint” come from the same word (agios) which means “holy, set apart for special purpose.” Israel’s priest, or the furniture of the Temple were “sanctified,” or consecrated for a certain task. Cindy’s first scripture said Israel was called to be a “holy nation.” They are different, set apart, called out. That is what Paul tells the Christians. You are saints, called by God for a special purpose…that through YOU the whole world might know. The world is in deep, deep trouble, and he’s calling YOU to work with him. He’s remind them, and you…it’s part of who you are.

And…Paul also reminds them WHO has called them: Jesus Christ. Nine times in nine verses: Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. Paul is writing to people who live in a city and culture with a different god worshiped on every corner, where Caesar ordered people to call him Lord…but the Corinthians call is to live in this world, but walk in the new kingdom because they have been called to Jesus Christ. The same with us.

The watchword of our day is “tolerance.” We have spirituality on every street corner as well. You hear it all the time. “Jesus, Buddha, Krishna…they all are going the same direction…just go with the flow.” That’s not Paul’s message.

Paul says “Remember, you were called by Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection, the world is different. Because of Jesus, we know God as never before.”

I was at a store this week, and the manager I was talking to figured out I was a pastor, and said what lot’s of people do: “I’m not too religious. My girlfriend, though, SHE’s religious!” Then his girlfriend walked in, and he shouted across the store, “Hey Debbie, Dan’s a pastor. I told him you were religious!” My usual answer is “I’m not too religious either.” I’m not too interested in talking about religion, or spirituality. I want to talk about Jesus. Paul reminds us who called us, and that it changes everything.

Finally, Paul says “Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He says that a lot. “Grace” was a typical Greek greeting, “Peace (shalom)” a typical Hebrew one. In one sentence, Paul wraps his arms around ALL of the church in Corinth…he knew who he was talking to!

Paul also talks about the gifts they have been given…and the main gift being “the grace of God given in Jesus Christ.” Paul reminds them to be thankful for the gifts of the whole community…because some of those very gifts are causing problems. How are they to be thankful? Instead of comparing, be grateful. Instead of criticizing, be thankful. Instead of focusing on what’s not there, look for what God is doing with what is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor that was killed by Hitler, writes in "Life Together,"

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

Paul says “remember who you are…called to be saints, and to influence the world you live in.”

Then one last reminder. Paul says “remember the big picture.” Everything is in the context that God is doing something. We’re living in the “in between” times, with the Holy Spirit in the world, but Jesus Christ coming again. The kingdom of God is here, and not yet. History has a purpose, time is moving in a direction and we are called to see where we fit into God’s story. Pride, despair, petty conflicts…no time for those.

And so, in these next months, we’re going to keep reading the Corinthians' mail. It strikes me that we in America, in Seattle… a city of commerce, a gathering place of the nations, a place where there are a plethora of gods from technology to wealth on every corner…where the culture pushes and pulls and is certainly NOT a Christian culture any longer…we share a great deal with the Corinth of 54 AD. Many of their issues are very live issues for us too, and so we will benefit from reading their mail.

One last thing. I’ve told you before of one of my few pen pals, Dr. Story. Dr. Story was my Greek prof at seminary, where he continued to teach at age 79. He and I would often meet at the gym to shoot baskets and play “H-O-R-S-E,” which he made me spell in Greek.

Anyway, he is a faithful writer with me, sending pages and pages of small print handwriting, now at 85 years old. His last letter ended this way: “So, my young brother Dan [that’s probably why I continue to write with him right there!] what may be ahead of us? I don’t know. I only know I need to place my life anew before the Lord Jesus and ask for the sure guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

You see, Dr. Story is a little like Paul for me. He helps remind me who I am. And I want to remind you. You are saints. Amen.