Don’t point... it’s not polite...
Except... this is what John says that he is doing... in fact... over and over again... John points to the one who is to come and not to himself...
So... in this case... do point... because there is no better Christian posture to take than to be pointing away from oneself... and towards the one who is to come.
---
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians,
our 2nd lesson today...
… starts with Paul heaping praise on this Corinth community...
Says he gives thanks every day for them...
Says they, as a whole, have every Spiritual Gift...
Says that they have been enriched in speech and knowledge of every kind...
They lack nothing...
In their waiting for the coming of Christ... they are strong...
And Paul is confident that on the day of Christ’s coming they will be found blameless...
And if we left off the letter here... we would wish we could be them... We would think that the church of Corinth was a model church... probably had all the right programs... all the members did the right things... probably were looking at growing in size all the time... probably had no trouble meeting their budget... their baptismal font was full of new members and whole families were being baptized all the time...
All those wonderful things that Paul is saying... it sounds like a model community... it sounds like the community we would all dream to be a part of...
But... if we read the rest of the letter... if we read past these greetings and proclamations we get to the heart of the matter... Paul in fact writes to them in the midstof chaos... in the midst of the church of Corinth there are big problems...
Paul’s letter goes onto address a church that has split into factions within itself...
There are charges and questions of sexual immorality... that is... what practices from the community at a large are in question... should they also be the practice of the church?
And then...
There are questions about lawsuits within the church...
There are problems with the way they are celebrating the Lord’s supper... Some people seem to be eating all the food before others can arrive...
And these are just the problems of First Corinthians... a second letter was required as well...
And beyond what Paul Addresses in the two letters are all the problems that come with the clash of cultures... this new Christian way of thinking and being... and the existing status quo mixed with the ever changing norms of society.
---
And for all the advancement... for all the realities of modern convenience and different communication techniques... nothing much has changed in human nature.
This is why I love going to cluster meetings and talking to the old retired pastors... they tell the stories of what they struggled with 50 years ago and share a few stories of pastors that were old when they were young... they see a big picture...
and from the vantage point of age and wisdom, can look at the current church and see that so much has changed... but so much has stayed the same.
Just like the church of Corinth had to do the difficult work of answering the question “How are we to live before God” for themselves --- we too have the same struggle. We have the same letter that Paul wrote that we try to make sense for our context, for our time...
But the experience of senior Pastors... the reality of a world that is always at war with itself... and the witness of ancient letters to tiny congregations in the Roman city of Corinth show us that in fact... we are going to struggle and interpret and wrestle with Scriptures, with each other, and ourselves for as long as there is breath in our individual bodies. There is alwsys some issue of the day...
---
Which comes back to the Christian Pose of pointing that I was talking about... As Paul’s letter gets into the hot gossip of what is wrong in Corinth... and the more we spend our time looking at our own actions and issues and issue of the day... our finger tends to come down... to curl around... to point to ourselves.
This in effect is the definition of sin. Not a long list morality claims and dos and don’ts. But a posture of looking to our individual selves for righteousness... an attitude of worry about one’s own appearance of blamelessness on the day... and... curved in on self... we miss the mark... we are no longer pointing at the one whio is our righteousness...we stop doing the work commissioned to us by John, and Paul, and Jesus, and God. We don’t witness to the one.
---
Now this would be a hopeless place to leave off except that...
Paul knows how messed up those Corinthians are.
Paul has gotten to know them by visiting them... he knows their back stories.
Paul is under no illusion that somehow these people have changed into something Holy and blameless on their own... they are in fact real people... with real lives... with problems... with real sins... with real issues they fall down on.
And it is to these real fighting broken people Paul writes:
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Why peace? Why Grace? Because God has already named and claimed them... they have experienced Paul’s testimony of the Christ... God has acted upon them... As Paul says, they are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints...” They are people starting to live into the new reality of Christ... and... as it turns out... they aren’t very good at it...
Paul is under no illusion that they have or ever will achieve some sort of perfection in community... Paul is proclaiming that in Christ... under the reign of Christ... there is a declaration of righteousness given to the people... not something they earned... not something they obtained... not something based on their own strength to hold onto.
As the folk song goes “It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I get with each new start.”
And so before Paul really rips into the heart of the issues that are hurting the people... into the issues that divide them... but he begins where he will end... He begins with the proclamation that in Christ... we are a new creation... and only in this context does he engage the questions of how they will live together.
---
So be encouraged. God is doing a new thing as God always has... God is not contained to our best visions... but continues to surprise and renew faith in the form of community gatherings, news from beloved Christian friends, the word proclaimed, and the gifts of the Spirit that draw our attention to the one who saves.
Through this church... our church... this body... Christ’s body still reaches out with all the gifts of the Spirit.
Christ still reaches out in baptism and the Holy Meal... signs that point to Jesus.
We are given all the gifts of the Holy Spirit not so we can sit in our own righteous blamelessness... instead... we are given everything so that we can simply point to the one who makes it all true.
We are a work in progress... this church is a work in progress...
The death and resurrection event of Christ that names and claims us began a new thing that is not finished yet... to this we look... to this we point...
Amen
Except... this is what John says that he is doing... in fact... over and over again... John points to the one who is to come and not to himself...
So... in this case... do point... because there is no better Christian posture to take than to be pointing away from oneself... and towards the one who is to come.
---
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians,
our 2nd lesson today...
… starts with Paul heaping praise on this Corinth community...
Says he gives thanks every day for them...
Says they, as a whole, have every Spiritual Gift...
Says that they have been enriched in speech and knowledge of every kind...
They lack nothing...
In their waiting for the coming of Christ... they are strong...
And Paul is confident that on the day of Christ’s coming they will be found blameless...
And if we left off the letter here... we would wish we could be them... We would think that the church of Corinth was a model church... probably had all the right programs... all the members did the right things... probably were looking at growing in size all the time... probably had no trouble meeting their budget... their baptismal font was full of new members and whole families were being baptized all the time...
All those wonderful things that Paul is saying... it sounds like a model community... it sounds like the community we would all dream to be a part of...
But... if we read the rest of the letter... if we read past these greetings and proclamations we get to the heart of the matter... Paul in fact writes to them in the midstof chaos... in the midst of the church of Corinth there are big problems...
Paul’s letter goes onto address a church that has split into factions within itself...
There are charges and questions of sexual immorality... that is... what practices from the community at a large are in question... should they also be the practice of the church?
And then...
There are questions about lawsuits within the church...
There are problems with the way they are celebrating the Lord’s supper... Some people seem to be eating all the food before others can arrive...
And these are just the problems of First Corinthians... a second letter was required as well...
And beyond what Paul Addresses in the two letters are all the problems that come with the clash of cultures... this new Christian way of thinking and being... and the existing status quo mixed with the ever changing norms of society.
---
And for all the advancement... for all the realities of modern convenience and different communication techniques... nothing much has changed in human nature.
This is why I love going to cluster meetings and talking to the old retired pastors... they tell the stories of what they struggled with 50 years ago and share a few stories of pastors that were old when they were young... they see a big picture...
and from the vantage point of age and wisdom, can look at the current church and see that so much has changed... but so much has stayed the same.
Just like the church of Corinth had to do the difficult work of answering the question “How are we to live before God” for themselves --- we too have the same struggle. We have the same letter that Paul wrote that we try to make sense for our context, for our time...
to try to make sense for us to live together.
to try to find a way to be what Paul calls “a Holy People”... and to be found “blameless” on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But the experience of senior Pastors... the reality of a world that is always at war with itself... and the witness of ancient letters to tiny congregations in the Roman city of Corinth show us that in fact... we are going to struggle and interpret and wrestle with Scriptures, with each other, and ourselves for as long as there is breath in our individual bodies. There is alwsys some issue of the day...
---
Which comes back to the Christian Pose of pointing that I was talking about... As Paul’s letter gets into the hot gossip of what is wrong in Corinth... and the more we spend our time looking at our own actions and issues and issue of the day... our finger tends to come down... to curl around... to point to ourselves.
This in effect is the definition of sin. Not a long list morality claims and dos and don’ts. But a posture of looking to our individual selves for righteousness... an attitude of worry about one’s own appearance of blamelessness on the day... and... curved in on self... we miss the mark... we are no longer pointing at the one whio is our righteousness...we stop doing the work commissioned to us by John, and Paul, and Jesus, and God. We don’t witness to the one.
---
Now this would be a hopeless place to leave off except that...
Paul knows how messed up those Corinthians are.
Paul has gotten to know them by visiting them... he knows their back stories.
Paul is under no illusion that somehow these people have changed into something Holy and blameless on their own... they are in fact real people... with real lives... with problems... with real sins... with real issues they fall down on.
And it is to these real fighting broken people Paul writes:
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Why peace? Why Grace? Because God has already named and claimed them... they have experienced Paul’s testimony of the Christ... God has acted upon them... As Paul says, they are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints...” They are people starting to live into the new reality of Christ... and... as it turns out... they aren’t very good at it...
Paul is under no illusion that they have or ever will achieve some sort of perfection in community... Paul is proclaiming that in Christ... under the reign of Christ... there is a declaration of righteousness given to the people... not something they earned... not something they obtained... not something based on their own strength to hold onto.
As the folk song goes “It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I get with each new start.”
And so before Paul really rips into the heart of the issues that are hurting the people... into the issues that divide them... but he begins where he will end... He begins with the proclamation that in Christ... we are a new creation... and only in this context does he engage the questions of how they will live together.
---
So be encouraged. God is doing a new thing as God always has... God is not contained to our best visions... but continues to surprise and renew faith in the form of community gatherings, news from beloved Christian friends, the word proclaimed, and the gifts of the Spirit that draw our attention to the one who saves.
Through this church... our church... this body... Christ’s body still reaches out with all the gifts of the Spirit.
Christ still reaches out in baptism and the Holy Meal... signs that point to Jesus.
We are given all the gifts of the Holy Spirit not so we can sit in our own righteous blamelessness... instead... we are given everything so that we can simply point to the one who makes it all true.
We are a work in progress... this church is a work in progress...
The death and resurrection event of Christ that names and claims us began a new thing that is not finished yet... to this we look... to this we point...
Amen
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