BEpiphany4 – 2018
St. Paul’s Patronal Feast Day & Annual Parish Meeting
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; I Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
January 28, 2018
Today we are celebrating St. Paul, whose special feast day is actually January 25th.
We are also celebrating St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilmington, NC.
After this service we will gather the parish hall for brunch and have our annual parish meeting.
This is a time to review what God has accomplished through us in the past year,
To elect new vestry members and thank the members of the vestry who
have faithfully served their term of three years.
So, for a few moments, I’d like to focus on the apostle Paul, our patron saint.
What was his message for the Christians in Corinth? His message now?
How were they to go about being a church? How are we to be ‘church’?
They and we are a diverse group of people who have given their lives to follow Jesus?
Our epistle reading this morning is from 1 Corinthians.
We don’t know exactly when Paul founded the church in Corinth.
But, he did depart from them in the year 51.
This letter was written to the church in Corinth from Ephesus in the spring, prior to Pentecost.
So, anytime between, say, March and May and sometime between 53 and 55.
This letter is in response to a couple of letters Paul has received.
They are reporting dissensions in the group that include issues the church today would never have to deal with:
Immorality – who’s misbehavin’
Arguments about how to do Holy Communion correctly.
Controversies about the resurrection of the dead – What really happens when we die?
Legal disputes.
They ask advice about
How spiritual gifts should be used in community:
If I have the spiritual gift of ecstatic utterances during worship, who’s to stop me?
The issue a couple of decades ago for the Episcopal Church was the question of anointing and laying on of hands for healing by a lay person:
If I have the gift of healing, why wouldn’t I anoint and lay hands on the sick?
Why can only the clergy do it?
The collection of funds for the church in Jerusalem:
Why send money to the diocese? We need it here!
And, the controversy in today’s reading –
Whether or not to eat meat that has first been used in sacrificial rites in the pagan temples.
The pagan temples in Corinth had restaurants where meal that had been used as sacrifices
in their religious rites was then cooked and served.
For some Christians, this was a non-issue because
these meats were sacrificed to gods that didn’t exist, had no power.
But, there were some who felt they should have nothing to do with their former religion
now that they were followers of Jesus.
We learn about Paul’s core beliefs as he writes this letter in response to these complaints.
For Paul, The core identity of the church must be shaped
in reference to the story of Jesus Christ – his life, death, and resurrection.
The church was to be a community that intentionally patterned its life on Jesus.
Every action, every opinion, every decision must begin and end in Christ.
The Corinthian’s took great stock in having intellectual knowledge and wisdom
drawn from the great philosophers.
The ones in the church there who were well-educated
had trouble tolerating the ones who had no such understanding.
Paul reacts to this overemphasis on knowledge and wisdom.
He believed that everything is redefined when you become a Christian.
Love is above all else and must rule over all other values and virtues.
To love as Jesus loved should permeate every action, ever interaction.
As the Body of Christ, he urges them to be linked together
in a network of mutual love and concern for each other.
God’s love, made known through Jesus, should bridge the gap between
the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, between slave and free.
So, some wanted Paul to set the record straight
by encouraging the “weak” to overcome their qualms about rules they had been taught
and enter the world of spiritual freedom.
A summary of Paul’s response to these disputes and complaints goes like this:
Those who are writing the letter have written to him:
“All of us possess knowledge”
Which translates to “Everybody knows this is how it should be.”
His response is: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Anyone who claims to “know” everything doesn’t really know what is important.
What is important is loving God and being known by God.
This is the knowledge you need to be a follower of Jesus.
How many of us have thrilled with excitement and anticipation
when we knew we were going to finally get to see someone we really are keen about.
A rock star? A famous athlete? A famous author? A celebrity? An esteemed leader?
You get the ticket. You go to the event where this person is going to be.
You ask yourself what is the one thing you would say or ask
if you had the chance to meet him or her after the event.
You get the chance to go backstage and you meet this larger-than-life figure.
You ask your question.
Then, what happens next is what really matters.
This person looks at you. Asks you your name. Speaks to you.
This person now has knowledge of you.
Millions of people know this person.
But now, you have experienced this person knowing you.
That’s what Paul is talking about.
Anyone who loves – is known by God.
It’s not about us having all sorts of knowledge.
Paul writes that
There is one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist.
And one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
When you get to the tables in the parish hall,
you will find the annual parish report.
Accounts about our life together as a congregation.
We are among those churches in this day and time who are flourishing.
We don’t have complaining and bickering.
When there is a problem, we seem to settle it and move on.
That’s because I think we are much more concerned about letting nothing hinder us
from continuing to move forward, following God’s plan for us:
moving forward, learning more and more how to love each other well
and to see each other as beloved of God, known by God,
and assisting one another, loving and having care for one another,
as we each in our own way practices patterning our life after Christ.
We are increasing in every way –
in numbers, in recognizing God’s call
in having the confidence in God and in each other to step out in faith.
This knowledge is not given to us to puff us up
Lest we begin to think that WE’VE got what it takes.
All the good that we are experiencing is to assure us that we are known by God.
Being known and loved by God – through Christ
will take us where we need to go and give us what we need to do
…all to the glory of God.