“Broken Connections”    2014

1 Corinthians 1:9-18     1 Peter 1:21-2:3

 

1 Corinthians 1:9-18

God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

1 Peter 1:21-2:3

Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” That word is the good news that was announced to you. Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

 

I have been delighted to find that my new cellphone

            can link and connect sources of information in ways

                        that are remarkably complex, helpful and very useful.

 

There is an appointment book function or app, as they are called,

            that uses GPS to locate exactly where I am,

                        which connects to a mapping function that figures out

                                    how long it will take to drive to a meeting

                                                along with the quickest route to get there.

            It can even show me pictures of those who will be attending ,

                        and also remind me, a few minutes before I need to leave.

 

It is wonderful and amazing how well it all fits & works together

     when the links and connections are in place and functioning,

                                       and how useless that phone app would be

                                                if those different functions stopped talking

                                                or refused to cooperate & work with each other.

 

In Corinth, the church was in trouble, struggling with factions.

            Fulfilling their true mission had even become secondary,

                     … because their links and connections were not working.

 

Now the Church is supposed to be the local gathering of those

            who have received God’s grace through Jesus Christ,

                        whose lives are being transformed by the Holy Spirit

                            into a community that is sent back out into the world

                                     to live,  to love, share and proclaim the Good News…

… which was not happening in Corinth.

                       

There was disunity and jealousy between different groups, withà

      each assuming they were superior & more important than others,

                        and so Paul wrote,  urging them to get back on track… 

vs. 10-11

            Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.

 

“my brothers and sisters”, meaning that these are not outsiders,

       but it’s a family feud, and the whole letter of 1^st Corinthians

                        deals with a long list of troubling issues and problems

                             that were dividing the people into separate factions…

… church members who were saying and doing destructively hurtful,

            harmful, and graceless things to each other     while à

                        seeing themselves   as spiritually superior to the rest.

 

For example, in the passage we read earlier today,

            some groups were focusing on the teacher who baptized them

                        as somehow making them better than the others…  vs. 12-13

            What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

 

These were various groups,

            jealously battling factions within that church at Corinth;

   Christians so focused on their limited perspective,         

            that they identified primarily with their own teacher,

                        each claiming superiority & wisdom  over all the others,

                             and ignoring the primacy of Jesus over all of them.

 

Paul reminds them , neither Christ nor his church can be divided

        because all are equally precious to God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is Lord over all of them, and  they must not let

            their stubborn preferences rip apart their Christian unity,

               or allow sinful & selfish divisiveness to disconnect them …

 

… for such conflicts, jealousies and quarrels are unworthy,

            and deny   that all  are equally loved and called to serve God,

                   and that no one is righteous,   except by grace alone.

 

In other chapters of this letter to the Christians in Corinth

        Paul addresses other struggles and divisions over Communion,

                  that some were claiming   their particular spiritual gifts

                           made them better and more spiritual than the others,

                                                    and even whether not eating meat somehow

                                                       made a person more righteous before God.

 

In each case,

            the issue was not so much about who was right or who was wrong,

                 as it was the damage they were doing to the body of Christ,

                        to their unity, fellowship, and to the church’s mission.

                                               

Furthermore, each time Paul addresses an issue, he demonstrates

        that all the issues related to their relationship with Jesus,

                   and to the difficulty they were having with

                             allowing God’s truth, mercy and gracious purpose

                                      define and guide their lives and attitudes…

* and that if our link & connection with other Christians is off,

    it’s a signal that our link and connection with God also is off.

 

The  problems in Corinth were not the issues themselves,

            but that their divisive misbehavior came from inside,

                  the fruit of their focus on self, and not walking in faith…

…and certainly not the humble, obedient & caring ways of Christ.

So what are some of the specific symptoms of this problem?

 

    It can be when we try to be righteous and spiritual on our own

      through our own effort, understanding, strength & willpower,

                     apart from depending on the Holy Spirit connecting us

                        to the Spirit, God’s love, guidance, presence, power…

            …which limits us to only what we ourselves can achieve…

                    … which is not the life that God intends for His children.

 

Sometimes it shows up

            as church members trying hard and wanting to get it right,

             yet frustrated, weary, & discouraged; struggling mightily

                                    against the pull of a spiritually downward spiral

                                                that robs them of their hope, wonder and joy.

          It’s when we are missing the promised fruits of the Spirit.                

It can be when our Christian service is driven

            more by a sense of duty rather than by a feeling of gratitude,

               which can make us prickly, touchy and quick to blame others,

               and the hypocrisy of not living an authentic walk of faith.

     This can lead to harsh judgment, frigid perfectionism

                             and feeling an impatience that leaves too little room

                                    for others to grow and learn from their mistakes…

… often characterized by inability to forgive, let go and move on.

 

It can be holding on to resentments, rancor and bitterness,

            or when we nurse old wounds, failures, offenses and hurts,

                   that leads to a religion that is cold, hard and demanding.

 

And though Jesus commands his followers repeatedly

                        to love our neighbors and even our enemies,

                              yet we refuse and find excuses for holding a grudge…

… ignoring the fact that they are sisters and brothers by faith,

          all are beloved, for whom our Lord Jesus was willing to die.

 

It’s usually not that    we intend to turn away from God’s will,

          but our hurts and disappointments are so difficult & painful

                   that we struggle, agonize, and cannot find our way out…

    … there’s something so broken deep inside us that leaks out

             as harsh judgment, as a graceless attitude of bitterness.

 

When Kathy and I lived in a land of hurricanes,

            sometimes when the storm surge had receded,                              

                        it would leave some very nasty debris behind…

 

… and  by far one of the nastiest was someone else’s freezer,

            that though filled with food, had floated near our yard.

 

            After having sat in the hot sun for a few days,

                        and though the door was still closed and sealed shut,

                            horrible foul odors and putrid fluids would seep out

                                    from the rotting decay that was building up inside …

 

          … just as our graceless, coldly harsh and uncaring behavior

                   is seepage out from our tightly held wounds and hurts,

                                       which is the corrupting bitterness we feel inside

                                            when our focus is not kept on the grace of Jesus.

 

When our walk with God is not linked and connected by grace,

            when we are more focused on troubles, wrongs and failures

                 than on the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ,

                          then our resentments and bitterness will rot inside us,

                                    will most surely seep out and contaminate our life

                                                and block God’s gifts of joy, hope, and peace …

… and that’s not how our loving God intends for us to live…

 

            … and I don’t want to live like that, or be like that,

                             and I don’t want that

                                    rotting stuff to be in me or to leak out from me,

but the truth is, for the really big losses and crushing offenses,

     we cannot repair such hurt, pain and damage on our own…

            … any more than wiping down the outside of a storm-freezer

                 would have resolved the horrible smell and putrid seepage.

 

It is not a matter of trying harder, or more effort and will power,

            but rather, it’s finding  * the inner courage and trust

                        that will allow God’s gracious love and the Holy Spirit

                                    to shine deep into the shadows and darkness

                                                of our disappointments, despair, regrets,

                           and expose our wounds, brokenness and painful hurtsà

 

                        that can bring about cleaning and healing and redemption

                            to all that squeezes and restricts our walk with God,

                                 so to build up  our links and connections of faith.

 

It’s a matter of true repentance …  not as guilt, shame or regret à

      but turning back to God’s gracious mercy through Jesus Christ…

                 … it’s a longing and a desire for something else,

                              to stop drinking the poison of bitterness and rancor.

 

One time during one of my sermons about responding to God’s grace,

            a man stayed awake … and he experienced God’s claim on him.

 

He and a neighbor

            had been in a bitter conflict that had built up for years,

                        and during all that time they had each said and done

                                    terrible and shameful things to each other.

            Forgiveness and reconciliation

                        were certainly not likely or expected in this case.

 

But he also knew that his behavior, his anger and bitterness

            did not honor God, or the gracious love he had received.

 

So that afternoon

     he knocked on his neighbor’s door and asked if they could talk,

                        and began a process toward resolving their conflict,

                             making a little space for God’s power and God’s grace…

   … knowing that if we don’t allow room for God’s grace,

          then sin and selfishness will surely fill that space.

 

It was truly a God-thing accomplished over time,

      that they didn’t have to keep hating and living in bitterness,

                        but they found another possibility, -- healing and hope.

 

As we read in 1^st Peter: vs. 21-22, 1, 3

            Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

            Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love,   love one another deeply from the heart … if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

 

The question is, where is our focus?,

            and are putting more energy into seeing our differences,

                  or in the grace & unity that we share though Jesus Christ?

 

Have you ever wondered, why our church choir can sounds so good?

            Yes, they are talented and they practice faithfully,

                                    but that's not it  -- that's not the real reason.

 

The choir is great  because they listen to each other.

            They carefully blend together with each one's unique voice,

                        not singing in unison or in competition,

                                    but linked and connected in delightful harmony.

 

            Their focus is not on any individual talent or performance,

                        but on combining their voices to glorify and honor God.

 

As I’ve choir directors often say,

    “if you can't hear other voices, then you are singing too loud.”

That's true in the church as well,

          harmony requires that we listen to others,

                   and adjust our heart, attitudes and behavior to blend.

 

At the final judgment, when I bow and kneel before my God,

            I don't expect to hear Jesus ask me,

"Well Norm, did you figure out all the mysteries of the Bible?,

            did you make the most of every opportunity I gave you?

                        and did you truly make a difference for my Kingdom?"

 

Nor do I expect Jesus to demand,

                        "Were you the perfect pastor,

                                    leading the perfect congregation?"

 

The question Jesus will ask, will be much tougher than those:

            I expect to hear, "Did you love  your sisters and brothers,

               love your neighbors and antagonists  as you did yourself?

 

… did you link and connect   as well as your cellphone?