Title: What a Survey May Not Show
Text: I Corinthians 1:1-9
Thesis: Despite all that is broken, the Church is called to be God’s holy people in whom and through whom God is at work.
Introduction
An airline pilot brought his plane down onto the runway out at DIA… actually he hammered it down really hard. Airline policy dictates that the first officer stand at the door and smile as the passengers exit the plane and give them a, “Thank you for flying United Airlines today.”
He was a bit embarrassed and had a hard time looking each passenger in the eyes knowing someone would likely comment on the landing… Finally everyone was off except for an elderly lady, with a cane, making her way slowly down the aisle. As she passed by she asked, “Sonny, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Why no Ma’m,” the pilot said. The little old lady then asked, “Did we land or were we shot down?”
This past summer the Chicago Tribune ran an article on customer satisfaction in their Business Section. The Tribune cited a newly released report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index that targeted airlines. The report ranked airlines 43rd in customer satisfaction. The only two industries ranking lower than airlines were cable TV companies and Internet providers.
The clinkers for airline customers included crowded seating, rising ticket prices, extra fees, customer service, flight schedules and customer loyalty programs. Given that list I don’t know what’s left with which to be dissatisfied. My main criterion for customer satisfaction is a soft-landing. I figure if I get out of it alive it’s been a dandy flight!
Satisfaction Surveys may more appropriately be named Dissatisfaction Surveys… the more familiar we are with someone or something or a product or a service the more likely we are to be exposed to and aware of flaws.
If frequent fliers have come to be dissatisfied with airlines maybe the same is true of people who frequent church. The Church is without question flawed… If you thumb through the book of I Corinthians in your bible and note the chapter headings you will see that the Church at Corinth was about as dysfunctional as dysfunctional gets. So it was, in that context, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to them addressing those dysfunctions and sinful practices.
Yet the opening verses of I Corinthians point out what is right with the Church and foundational for dealing with all that is broken… a pertinent reminder for us today as we consider our own brokenness here at Heritage.
The big idea is that God has set the Church apart for himself.
I. God has set the Church apart for himself
I am writing this to God’s Church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people… just as he did for people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1:1-3
Origins are important. When Paul began this letter to the Church at Corinth he did upfront, what we generally do at the end.
Most letters commonly include the following parts:
• A date line – January 19, 20014
• A salutation –Dear Jack,
• A body – “I’m sorry it has taken me so long to respond… blah, blah, blah.”
• A complimentary close – Sincerely yours,
• A signature – We sign our name indicating who has written the letter.
The Apostle Paul did not do it that way. He began with who he was and why it was important that they read and respond appropriately to his letter. “This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ… and before he began the body of the letter, in verse 3 he gave them a complimentary opening, “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.”
So this letter was no willy-nilly catching up letter… it was a big deal and the fact that is was from someone who had been chosen by God to be an apostle was intended to give it weight.
But before I move on I do not want to skip over Paul’s salutation in verse 2. “I am writing to God’s Church in Corinth…”
The way we name churches is interesting. We may name churches in ways that reflect our mission: Restoration Covenant Church or New Life Church or Abundant Life or (here in Denver) The Scum of the Earth Church. Sometimes we name a church with words like Grace or Faith. Sometimes we name a church in reference to its location: Cape Church or Canyon Vineyard Church or Willow Creek or Saddleback Church. Here in our area we refer to Red Rocks and Flatirons Churches. Sometimes we include in naming a church the denomination of that congregation like Methodist or Lutheran or Covenant or Baptist. There is a church down on University Avenue named First Korean United Methodist Church. A sister church of ours in the inner city of Chicago is named: Jesus People USA or JPUSA. Our Church was once called 1st German Congregational Church and is now called Heritage Community Bible Church of the Evangelical Covenant Church of America. A Church name is a reflection of its perceived identity.
The Church at Corinth was not referred to as the Church at Corinth or 1st Corinth Apostolic Church of Paul. It was simply called “God Church in Corinth.” Their identity was wrapped up in a tight, all encompassing statement: God’s Church.
I wonder what difference it would make if we stopped thinking of our church as our church? What if we were to think of ourselves as “God’s” Church? I wonder what difference it would make if, when we find ourselves all messed up with dysfunction, we would remind ourselves it is not about us or our heritage… it is always about being who and what God has called us to be?
In his opening lines to the people who were God’s Church at Corinth, he gave them weight. To giving weight to something is to attach importance to it. You are not just a bunch of people hanging out in Corinth. You are…
A. Called and Set Apart people (You are God’s Church at Corinth called by God and set apart as God’s.)
“You are called by God to be his own holy people…” I Corinthians 1:2a
The New International Version translates this verse, “those sanctified in Jesus and call to be his holy people.” The Message refers to the Church as “believers cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life.” But what do the terms “called by” and “set apart” mean?
1. Called by God – in this case the word generally means to summons or invite. Specifically it means God called or invited the people at Corinth to participate in the blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ.
2. Set apart for God – several words are used to describe what it means to be set apart for God. Sometimes the words sanctified or consecrated or dedicated are used. Sometimes we understand being sanctified or made holy refers to spiritual attainment. It is not about becoming better and better in the eyes of God, it is more of a state or position and of purpose.
Every year we participate in Operation Christmas Child. Many of you put together a shoe-box or two or more for a needy child somewhere in the world. On the last collection day we have created a sizeable stack of shoe-boxes here in front of the sanctuary. And every year we dedicate them for the purpose of glorifying God and blessing the children who receive them. In that simple act or ritual we take what is otherwise “ordinary” and give those shoe boxes an extraordinary and specific purpose. The stack, including each individual box, is set apart for the specific purpose of glorifying God and blessing children who need to know that God loves them. Each child receives along with his or her box, chock full of gifts, the story of God’s love for them in Christ.
In the same way God takes what is otherwise “ordinary” and transforms what is otherwise “ordinary” into something “extraordinary.” Christians are people set apart by God and for God’ purposes. Just as Paul was called by God for the purpose of being an apostle, every Christian in Corinth was (as are we) also called by God for the purpose of serving God. That is who Christians are and what Christians are designed and designated to do.
The tension at this point is the distance between what is and what ought to be. The Christians at Corinth were “messed up,” so to speak. They were dysfunctional and sinful as a faith community. But that did not change who they were and what they were intended to be. Who they were in Christ and who we are in Christ does not change because we are “messed up.” What they were intended to be and do and what we are intended to be and do does not change because we are “messed up.”
Bonnie and I went to dinner recently. I ordered a bowl of clam chowder and a fillet. When my chowder came I slurped it up like a pig in slop with the handy little soup spoon that came along with the clam chowder. Then when my fillet arrived, rather than dirty up additional silverware I just used my soup spoon on the fillet… not really. But if I had the fact that I was using a soup spoon to eat a hunk of beef does not change the fact that the soup spoon was a soup spoon designed to slurp soup. What we are intended to be and do does not change because we are messed up and do otherwise.
Their identity in Christ as Children of God called and set apart for God is where we begin. When we are dysfunctional and messed up and sinful the bible reminds to get back to our calling by God and our service to God.
Then Paul expands that thought to include a wider audience than God’s Church at Corinth. He called and set you apart just as he did… The were set apart but they were not the only ones set apart.
B. Set apart but not alone
“…just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” I Corinthians 1:2b
1. Is being set apart but not alone about the Corinthians Christians?
The NIV refers to the church of God at Corinth as being “together with all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Message refers to “all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. He is their Master as well as ours!”
This week I read about a Japanese soldier who hid in the jungle in the Philippines for 29 years following the end of WW II in 1945 when the Japanese troops surrendered when U.S. forces landed on Lubang. His name was Hiroo Onada. He refused to surrender until 1974 when his former commander flew out and reversed his orders from 1945, which had instructed him to spy on U.S. troops. He spent those 29 years surviving… he stole rice and bananas from locals and shot their cows to make dried beef. He was described as one of the “hold-outs” refusing to give themselves up after Emperor Hirohito surrendered to the Allies. (Arata Yamamoto and Alexander Smith, Japanese WWII solder who refused to surrender for 29 years dies, NBC News, January 17, 2014)
I wonder what Hiroo Onada thought about all those years? I wonder if he felt like the Old Testament Prophet Elijah felt when while hiding out in a cave on Mt. Sinai? There in the loneliness and isolation of the wilderness God spoke to Elijah and asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” and Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty but now they have killed all the prophets and I am the only prophet left and they are trying to kill me too.” I Kings 19:9-10
Both men felt they had received a high calling and took their calling seriously and so much so that they were pretty much convinced they were the last of the faithful.
I wonder if we don’t fall into the trap of thinking we are the last of the faithful… Everyone else has left or fallen away and I am the only good and godly person left. I’m sure there were some people in God’s Church at Corinth who were thinking that. Just think of it…
The Church at Corinth was torn by power struggles, popularity contests and partisanship. In chapter 3 we read how jealousy and quarrelsomeness were everyday life there. They had their favorite leaders and those leaders had following. It would be like us fussing about who was the greatest… Pastor Feek? Pastor Brookes? Pastor Monty? And of course the more spiritually minded of the bunch one-upped everyone by declaring, “I follow no man! I follow Christ and only Christ!”
In chapter 5 Paul unloads on those who were feeling all tolerant and proud of their open-mindedness by condemning them for overlooking the fact that one of the men in their faith community was living in sin with his step-mother.
Chapter 6 deals with Christians in their church suing each other and moves on to Christians engaging with prostitutes. In chapter 7 marriages are melting down. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with the challenge those who have freedom in Christ living in consideration of the weaker brother.
They were abusing the Lord’s Supper. In chapter 11 Paul confronted them with their divisiveness. Apparently they had congregational meals together before they shared the Lord’s Supper together. I would guess it was something like our potluck dinners. Those who had lots of good food would come to those dinners, sit down together and eat together without sharing with others. Paul got right to the heart of it when he asked, “Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor?”
And if those issues were not enough, there were issues with worship, the role of women in the church, the use and abuse of spiritual gifts, speaking in tongues, worship and Christians in the church who did not believe in the resurrection.
Paul told them up front, before dealing with all their messed up dysfunction and sin, that they were not the only people called and set apart for God. Was that intended to let them know that they were not alone and isolated as messed up Christians?
Is being set apart but not alone about the Corinthians Christians? Or…
2. Is being set apart but not alone about us?
Or do you think that maybe it is God’s way of letting all of us over the centuries, who “call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” are also called by God and set apart to be God’s people? Is it God’s way of letting all Christians of all time who read this letter know that it is a word to them, i.e., us, as well? Is it God’s way of reminding all who follow Christ that we are “God’s Church” be it God’s Church at Corinth or God’s Church at Arvada?
It may have been God’s way of telling of Christians of all time that we are not alone in their messed-upness (I know – not a real word), but to remember who we are and what we are: Called by God and Set Apart for God and then to set about, by the grace of God, finding our way back on course.
Conclusion:
It would seem that the Church of God, be it at Corinth or anywhere at any point in history, may get messed-up, dysfunctional, behave badly and act sinfully.
I’ve been watching “Chasing Shackleton” on PBS. It is a harrowing story of the greatest feat in Antarctic polar expedition. In 1916 Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew were caught in the ice. Their ship was crushed but they managed to escape in lifeboats to Elephant Island. With their supplies gone and living off penguins and seals they knew they were doomed unless they got help. Shackleton had his carpenter refit a 20 foot life boat with two sails and he along with five other crewmen set sail in the southern Atlantic Ocean for South Georgia Island… some 800 nautical miles away.
It was not just a matter of making a bee-line for South Georgia. They had to account for currents and wind and weather in making more of a big loop in order to land above the island rather than be driven below and by it. Amazingly they made it to South Georgia where Shackleton and two other men hiked overland 22 miles to a whaling station on the Island and the crew was eventually rescued.
My point is simply this… it is possible to set a perfect course but it is impossible to maintain a perfect course from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. Using only the navigational equipment and techniques known to them in 1916 they made their way just as we, using the navigational equipment and techniques known to us, i.e., scripture, prayer, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, wise counsel and so on, we make our way as God’s Church, called by God and set apart to be his own people.
And lest for a minute we forget, what the survey may not show in our personal lives and in our life as a Church, is this: Despite all that is broken and even cause for dissatisfaction, the Church at Arvada is called to be God’s holy people in whom and through whom God is at work.
