What are you looking at?
Substance over style
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Stephen H, Becker, M.Div., ULLM
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church—Evening Services
January 27, 2008; 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany
I heard a story about a woman driving alone over the Sierras on Highway 80 in the middle of the winter who ended up dab-smack in the middle of a huge winter snow storm. It was snowing so hard that it was near white-out conditions. She couldn’t see more than a foot or two in front of her car. So crawling along, she sees a snowplow and thinks, “yeah, that great luck! I’ll just follow him. The road will be clear behind him and he knows where he’s going.” So she followed the snowplow for about 30 minutes when it suddenly stopped and the driver hopped out of the cab and walked over to her car window and asked her, “Lady, where do you think you are going?” “I’m heading up to Reno and I thought if I stayed right behind you I’d be safe and I figured you know where you’re going.” The driver laughed and said, “yeah, I do know where I’m going. I’ve been plowing this same parking lot for the last 30 minutes and other than that, I ain’t going nowhere.”
My friends, do you ever feel like you’re moving in circles? Maybe running around aimlessly? Who are you following in your life? I mean, does it seem like we are that lady following the snowplow? Sometimes we have an idea, a plan, a philosophy in life, and we follow it with all we’ve got – only to find out that we’re going nowhere. And this can happen to churches too, can’t it? I mean, what are churches full of? People! A church can follow an idea, a plan, a philosophy, but ultimately it also can lead to nowhere. I mean, are you perfect? Are the members of St. Peter’s perfect? My friends, I can tell you that I am about as far from perfect as “A” is, from “Z.” So, is it possible that as individuals, and as members of a church, we are sometimes following the wrong plan, the wrong philosophy? Maybe. But there’s Good News, my friends. Our leader, our God in Heaven, will always point us in the right direction, guiding us with His philosophy, and His plan. All we’ve got to do is look for where God is at work, and join Him! Tonight, let’s take a look at how we do that. Let’s open with prayer…
The members of the church in Corinth were not perfect. As it turns out, they were like that woman following that snowplow – the people in Corinth were following a plan that was leading them nowhere. And it all came down to one thing – they were more concerned about style, than they were about substance. And that plan, that philosophy, was leading them nowhere. In our reading tonight, the Apostle Paul is literally throwing this in their face. He’s saying “what you’re doing now is dividing you, not uniting you. God gave you the faith to believe. God claims you as His redeemed children. He did this through His Son Jesus. So why are you fighting with each other? Why are you trying to out-do each other, when Jesus did it all for you? Stop fighting and know that I am God!” I talked about this a little last week as we looked at verses 1-9: these folks in the church at Corinth were busy either committing hideous moral sins or they were trying to one-up each other. Friends, that’s not what God wants us to concentrate on. God gives each believer the most wonderful gift: salvation and eternal life. Then, as saved Christians, the Lord gives us direction in our lives. And that direction not only gives Him all the glory, but it gives us the peace that comes from growing closer to God every day.
So let me ask you, in our own personal lives, and in our lives as members of God’s Church here through St. Peter’s, what is a good focus, a good philosophy as it were, for us to follow? Certainly I think you all will agree that we don’t want to be going nowhere. That’s what life outside of the Church, that’s what life outside of Christ brings us. But as Christians, as I said, we all have a God-given goal, a goal that calls us to choose substance over style.
Paul writes to the church in Corinth and says to them, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another, so that there may be no divisions among you, and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” See, there was something was wrong at the church in Corinth. Paul wanted all of them to agree with each other. But they weren’t. No divisions! Paul said. But there were. “I want you to be perfectly united in mind and thought.” But they weren’t. Something was wrong. The church in Corinth was split up into different cliques, different groups of people, and they were arguing—fighting—with each other. Paul even describes what kind of quarreling was going on: “One of you says, ‘I follow Paul;’ another, ‘I follow Apollos;’ another, ‘I follow Cephas;’ still another, ‘I follow Christ.” Each clique had their favorite pastor. One clique liked Paul, but didn’t like the others. One clique liked a man named Apollos, but not the others. Another liked the Apostle Peter, also known as Cephas. And then you had the independents - we follow Christ. What does that sound like? I mean, how much election stuff have you gotten in the mail over the last few weeks? Doesn’t this almost sound like election time, with people supporting their favorite candidates? Like little political parties going on, inside the church. It’s silly and Paul wants to send them a wake-up call. In my background in education, we call this “redirection”—Paul wants to re-direct their focus from themselves—to focusing upon what really matters in the Church—focusing upon God.
So, in the next verses, Paul asks them, whose name were you baptized into? Who was crucified for you? Was it Paul? Maybe they even fought over who would baptize their children: “I don’t want Apollos baptizing my child. I want Peter or I want Paul!” Why was this problem taking place in the Corinthian church? Why were these different cliques developing? Because the people were focused more on style, than on substance. Each pastor at that church had his own personality, his own style. Whoever you liked, whoever you clicked with, well, that’s who you would listen to. And those other pastors –well, they had the same message, but you didn’t like their style, so they’re “outta here.” I don’t want to listen to them. And what did this result in, in Corinth? What does this result in, in any church today that does the same thing? The church in Corinth was in trouble – they were divided – they couldn’t grow. They were heading nowhere, just like that woman following the snowplow. Instead of wanting to be lead spiritually, instead of wanting to be fed spiritually, the Christians there at Corinth were more worried about who had a better preaching style, who was more eloquent in their baptisms, maybe even, who was better looking. And don’t we, to some extent, still find that to be true today? Isn’t a church’s style what people evaluate when picking a church to attend instead of looking at the substance of a church’s teaching?
Now, I’m not excusing a church’s poor preaching style or a boring Sunday school teacher. If I’m boring you, I want to know. Because if you’re bored, you’re not hearing God. Likewise, I’m not excusing a church’s poorly planned worship services – where everything is disorganized and the music is terrible and you just can’t wait to leave. Now I gotta tell you that with our praise team, I know you’re loving the music! But the point is boring preaching and terrible music doesn’t teach you and doesn’t bring God any glory. And what I am saying is that the most important thing, as you seek to grow closer to God, as you come to hear God’s Word, as you come to worship God through Word and Sacramento and music in a service – the most important thing, is substance, not style.
These verses call us to repent – to repent for all those times we have been so critical of God’s speakers, that we have ignored the message. It’s so easy for us to find something wrong with the people that God sends into our lives, the messengers of the Gospel. As sinful human beings, we have a tendency to be very critical, and sometimes, maybe very often, we have rejected the message of the Gospel because we didn’t like the speaker. For example, I’m much better looking than Pastor Lundbloom but that doesn’t mean my message is better! Because it’s not my message, it’s not Pastor Steve’s—it God’s. Paul’s words call out to us tonight, and tell us to turn to our God and repent of our sin, the sin of focusing more on style than on substance. If we don’t repent, we will never really be satisfied with any of the messengers God sends into our lives. We’ll ignore them all, and our faith will eventually die. We can even do harm to God’s church – divide it, like the Corinthians were doing. And without repentance, without our faith, ultimately, our souls will end up in hell. So rather than style, Paul urges us to focus on substance. Verse 17, Paul says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize” (he’s referring to how they argued over who baptized who in the church) …“but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” Focus on the message—the substance, focus on the substance of the message, not the preacher, or the preacher’s style—that’s what Paul is saying.
And so my friends, what is that substance that we should be focusing on? Jesus Christ, our Savior, His Gospel, that God is an amazingly gracious and forgiving and loving God. He really is the opposite of us, isn’t He? We like style. Forget it, God says. I will send my Son, and He will be anti-style. Born to a poor peasant family, growing up in an obscure village, rejected by most of the people of His day. Murdered eventually. And favoritism? “Forget it!” God says. Instead of treating His Son better than everybody else, what did God do? He punished His Son for the sins of the world—for OUR sins. He sacrificed His Son. “I’m going to love the world, even even if they don’t love me back,” God says. “I’m going to save the world, even if the world rejects me. I’m going to take away the sins of the world, even if no one pays attention or understands.” Isn’t that amazing? That God looks at you and me, and He sees all of our shortcomings. He sees how shallow we are, how we tend to favor style over substance. And instead of punishing us, He punishes His Son instead. Instead of being angry with us, He loves us and forgives us, for Jesus’ sake. My friends, from God’s point of view, you and I have no style, and yet, because of Jesus, God forgives us and loves us and saves us. Really and truly amazing. That is the Gospel. And that’s the message Paul wanted the Corinthians to focus on. Paul wanted them to appreciate and thank God for every messenger—and the message that the preaching messenger was bring them—that God sent to them. Paul wanted them—and God wants us—to focus on the substance of the Gospel, not the style of the speaker.
Every speaker is different, isn’t he? A few weeks ago, Nita Hansen was here talking. Sometimes Pastor Steve preaches. And I’ll tell you a little secret – every pastor, every messenger of the Gospel, has his good qualities, but also his shortcomings. Tonight, the Holy Spirit calls out to each one of us through His Word, and urges us to focus on the substance, and not on the style. The Holy Spirit calls each one of us to look beyond the style of the speaker, to look instead to the message that the speaker is bringing: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord Who died and then rose again as your Savior – friends, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Jesus died so that we can live. And Jesus lives, so that we can live eternally. And when we remember that, that that’s the substance of the Gospel, then we become just like the people that are described here, people who agree with one another, people “without divisions, people who are perfectly united in mind and thought.” May God bless us as we seek to glorify Him more and more this way. Amen. Let’s pray…
Now may the true faith…
