Saints of God, Gifted for Service—Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 2A (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)

Sunrise at Canyonlands National Park

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

² To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶ just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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                With a few exceptions, Paul’s letters are directed to congregations he was intimately involved in establishing. As you read his letters, you can feel the paternal nature of the relationship. When things go wrong or when a congregation is threatened from outside, he wants to resolve the situation. Nowhere is this more evident than in his two Corinthian letters. It almost seems as if something could go wrong in a congregation; it went wrong in Corinth. Nevertheless, when Paul writes his first letter to this congregation, in partnership with Sosthenes, who might be Paul’s scribe, he calls them saints. If we use the term saint to describe someone who is especially holy, a person like Francis of Assisi, then it is difficult to think of the Corinthians as being saints. Yet, according to Paul, they are saints of God. Why? Because they are sanctified in Christ Jesus. It’s not their holiness that makes them saints, it’s Jesus’ holiness.

                I have long been fascinated by the Corinthian church. Paul’s letter to the Romans has a lot of doctrinal meat, but the Corinthian letters invite us into a congregation that isn’t a model for the contemporary church. However, Paul’s engagement with them offers us a lot of interesting material that does speak to the contemporary church. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the section on spiritual gifts. His words about spiritual gifts in chapter 12 provide important guidance to the church as it seeks to live into God’s call to service. His discussion of spiritual gifts also helps us understand how we can have unity in diversity. There is but one church, one body of Christ. However, this one body has many members, each of whom is gifted differently (1 Cor. 12:12).

                In a letter that deals with a lot of problems that include sexual immorality, worship of idols, social divisions, and more, Paul’s salutation is rather gracious. He is going to take them to the “woodshed,” so to speak, but first he wants the recipients of this letter to know that they are saints of God who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. He offers them words of grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

                After the salutation is offered, Paul continues to let the Corinthians know that he is grateful to God for them. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be dealt with, but first, Paul  wants them to know that he is grateful to God because God has given them grace in Christ Jesus, such that they have been gifted and enriched in every way, “in speech and knowledge of every kind.” They are lacking nothing, such that the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among them. Paul will remind them on several occasions in this letter that they have what is needed to make known the testimony of Christ to their neighbors.

                While Paul will develop his understanding of spiritual gifts (charismata) more fully in chapters 12-14, right up front, Paul wants this congregation to know that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift (charismata). They have what they need to fulfill their calling as the people of God as they await the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here you see a glimpse of Paul’s apocalyptic theology. In fact, when speaking of the revealing of the Lord Jesus, he doesn’t use the Greek word parousia, which is used to speak of the second coming, but rather he uses the Greek word apokalypsis. It may have the same effect, though it is more connected with the day of judgment. Nevertheless, as we discover in reading 1 Corinthians, Paul expects the return of Christ to take place in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, they have been gifted for service.

I have explored the gifts of the Spirit in some detail in my book Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening, which is now in a second revised and expanded edition. I will commend that book to you as I believe it offers a helpful word to the church as it seeks to engage the world with God’s grace and love, gifted by the Spirit, such that all the saints of God have been gifted, differently, but still gifted so that together the saints of God can be a testimony to Christ’s life and message.  

                This word about waiting for the revealing of Christ Jesus, which is representative of Paul’s apocalyptic worldview, fits well with the season of Epiphany, which is itself a season of reflecting on the revealing of Christ in the world. The season begins with the visit of the magi who follow a star to Bethlehem, where they meet the newborn messiah (Matt 2:1-12). The visit of the magi is followed by the Baptism of Jesus Sunday, where the Gospel readings point us to the baptism of Jesus by John, at which time the Spirit falls on Jesus and a voice from heaven proclaims him God’s beloved Son (Matthew 3:13-17). While the Gospel reading from John 1 offers John the Baptist’s witness to Jesus’ ministry, calling him the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—though without mentioning John baptizing Jesus—such that this is a witness to Jesus earthly ministry, Paul points us to the second revealing, one that is still to come. Of course, we sit here two millennia later, and Jesus still hasn’t returned. Nevertheless, in Paul’s mind, we still await the full revealing (apokalypsis) of Jesus.  

                In verse 8, Paul continues encouraging this congregation, letting them know that God will strengthen them until the end. That is, Paul promises here that God will not abandon them as they await the revealing of Jesus, so that they might be blameless on the day of Christ’s revealing. Here is where things get tricky. God might not abandon them, and they may be fully gifted; they might even be saints of God, who have been sanctified in Jesus, but as one reads the letter, it is clear that they are not blameless. If we jump down to verse 10, which is not part of our reading, we see that this is a congregation that is deeply divided. In verses 10-17, Paul takes note of the quarrels and partisanship present in the community. People are dividing into parties, some claiming they belong to Paul, while others claim to be part of the party of Apollos, while still others claim to follow Cephas (Peter). Then there are the purists, who belong to Christ. I like that last party because my own tradition makes that claim. One of the movement’s slogans is “we’re not the only Christians, but Christians only.” There is a bit of arrogance in that declaration. Having served as pastor of two congregations named “First Christian Church,” I have heard the question, who made you the first Christian church? In those verses, Paul even has to distance himself from having baptized people, because it seems people were dividing over who had baptized them. No wonder there are some 1500 or more denominations and sects in the world!  It started right there at the beginning in one of the congregations first established by Paul.

                The call to be blameless, like the call to be perfect in Christ, continues to be a challenge. Perhaps this is meant to be aspirational. Thus, Michael Gorman writes concerning the tension between the call to holiness and the reality of our imperfections:

The tension between being called to be holy, with the goal of blamelessness at the final judgment, on the one hand, and the realities of human imperfection,  on the other, was and is perhaps the most obvious and disappointing aspect of Christian life, whether individual or corporate. That Paul can be so positive and hopeful about a church as chaotic and messed up (to put it colloquially) as the Corinthian assembly should give each of us and our churches hope—not in ourselves, but in the grace of God.  [Gorman, 1 Corinthians, p. 99].

Now, it is clear that Paul is not content to leave things as they were. He addresses, often forcefully, the problems present in this “chaotic and messed up” church, but he does so recognizing that the starting point is God’s grace. Therefore, despite everything, they remain saints of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, because “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). It starts with God’s faithfulness and grace, so that we might be partners with Jesus our Lord.