Called to Be Saints Together

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, January 15, 2023
1 Corinthians 1:1-9

    I have an unpopular opinion to share with you.  Rich and I recently watched the most-streamed movie over the holidays, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and we did not like it.  I actually argued about it with my brothers because they highly recommended it.  Have you ever watched a movie and about twenty minutes in hoped that it would get better, but it never does? That’s how I felt watching this movie.  Feel free to disagree with me about this particular movie, but recognize with me that beginnings are important, and the beginning of this movie lost me.  It just didn’t work for me.
When interviewing for a job, first impressions are important.  A prospective homebuyer makes a decision about a house in the first few minutes.  Same with a visitor at church.  In many aspects of our lives, first impressions are important!  They set the tone.  Today, we are beginning a series looking at Paul’s first letter to the Christian church, which he started, at Corinth.  We are beginning with the beginning – Paul’s greeting.  Paul, being a great rhetorician, wants to make a good first impression so that the church in Corinth listens to what he has to say in the rest of his letter. It’s long – 16 chapters, and there’s a sequel, 2 Corinthians, so he needs to get and hold the Corinthians’ attention.  Most of us start an email or letter “Dear so and so,” or without a greeting at all.  Take a look again at our second lesson for today on page 4 of your bulletin and notice that Paul’s greeting is much longer – ten verses – and this was expected in letter-writing at the time.  Paul explains who is writing (himself and Sosthenes, apostles of Christ) and then to whom he is writing.  He sets the tone by wishing his audience grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  And finally, he encourages the church that they have spiritual gifts, that Jesus is coming again, that Christ will give them strength to the end, that God is faithful, and that God has called them into the fellowship of his Son.
I will admit, to our modern way of communicating Paul’s greeting may seem too long and boring.  Because most people couldn’t read in Paul’s day and because he’s writing to an entire community, his letter was meant to be read aloud in its entirety probably in a worship service.  We’re breaking down just the first three chapters over five weeks!  If you’re looking for a book of the Bible to read in this new year, I’d challenge you to try to read 1 Corinthians in the next five weeks as a whole so you get the bigger picture of Paul’s message.  As we go along, though, I think you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that the church of Corinth struggled with similar challenges that we struggle with as people of faith today.  Paul’s message continues to be relevant, and his greeting outlines themes that will show up again and again throughout his letter.
Here's where I want to focus for the rest of today – we are called to be saints together.  Together.  In the church, we tend to lift up the joy of being in Christian community with one another.  Community is a great thing! However, the Corinthians specifically know that being together is also hard.  Living and working together in community isn’t always easy, because we are different! That means we bring different opinions, ideas and ways of seeing things to the point that we deeply disagree with one another.  We know that Paul started the church in Corinth, was there for about a year and a half, and then left to form other churches.  He is writing from Ephesus and refers to another letter he wrote the Corinthian church that is now lost.  He’s also heard from “Chloe’s people” about the division in the church of Corinth.  Unfortunately, the Corinthian Christians are fighting about more than just one thing.  Who’s in charge – Paul, or the new pastor who took over (Apollos) or someone else?  Which spiritual gifts are most important?  What are the rules around sexual morality and gender roles?  How is Holy Communion administered, and who can participate in the Lord’s Supper?  These are just some of the disagreements that are dividing the Christian church and causing Paul great concern.
Like the church of Corinth, we live in a diverse, important cultural and economic area which means that we, too, struggle with being together as Christian community sometimes.  Our disagreements may be different than those of the Corinthians, but just like them, it can be easy to let competing concerns dominate our time and attention rather than our commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some of us conflate following Biden or Trump with following Jesus.  We say we belong to the Catholic or the Lutheran or the Presbyterian church rather than belonging to Christ as our most important identity.  We cling to cultural traditions or get offended when someone doesn’t like our pick for the color of the carpet at church.  In our polarized society we, too, allow our other loyalties and allegiances to become more important than our faith in Christ.  We forget that God has called us saints TOGETHER as the body of Christ, the church. 
Many of us were praying fervently for the recovery of NFL player Damar Hamlin when he went into cardiac arrest on January 2.  I am not a huge football fan, but I was praying!  I’m not sure if there are any Cincinnati Bengals or Buffalo Bills fans here, but it was a rare moment when allegiances to teams were set aside, whether you like football or not, for people to come together and pray for a young man’s life around the country and even the world.  This is why Paul’s beginning of his letter to the Corinthians is so important – that we need not wait until there is another tragedy to bring us together as Christians.  We are called to be saints together, from the beginning, Paul reminds us, with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is their Lord and ours.  
Whoever the “they” is – the Lutheran church or the Methodist one down the road who is not our competitor but one with us in the body of Christ.  We want those churches to succeed because they are also a part of the body of Christ and a part of God’s mission to share the good news of Jesus!  The person of color.  The person who is gay.  The person on the other side of the political aisle.  The person who really likes the color of carpet you can’t stand.  Whoever “they” are, Jesus is their Lord and ours.  Paul reminds us of our true purpose as people of faith in Christ – we are called to be saints together.  The being together part will not always be easy.  We have this reminder from 1 Corinthians that from the birth of the church, conflict has been a reality.  As long as we keep the gospel of Christ at the center, our common faith will help us work through the disagreements.  “God is faithful, by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Amen.