1 Corinthians 2.1-5

This Sunday is Passion/Palm Sunday. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem placed Jesus onto the radar screen of the authorities. The cries of the people, Hosanna ([God] save us), reminded the Roman and Jerusalem authorities of prophecy and politics. Although the authorities did not understand his kingdom or his message, they were correct in his annointing. The scene swiftly shifts from the palm lined entrance of a messiah into Jerusalem to the cross of a suffering servant.

Paul believes he is a herald of this king. No ordinary messenger, a herald brings the special message of a royal person. Heralds have authority and speak directly on behalf of a king. When Paul uses the word "proclamation" (kerygma), he means that his preaching is a royal message from the king of the universe.

The heart of Paul's proclamation is Jesus Christ and the cross. The cross reveals the power of God. On the cross, Jesus Christ died perfectly obedient to God, judging humanity and offering forgiveness.

During Holy Week, we remember the cross. The road to the empty tomb passes through Golgotha, blocked by the cross. Jesus Christ suffered on our behalf. May we pause there this week to see the true power of God.

Youth Sunday

^"12Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. ¹³Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhorting, to teaching." 1 Timothy 4.12-13

Since Forest Presbyterian's youth group is leading worship 3/21/2010, there is no sermon update this week. Check back next Thursday for Passion/Palm Sunday, when we will discuss 1 Corinthians 2.1-5. Check out the podcast link to the right to listen to earlier sermons.

God bless!

Yours in Christ...

1 Corinthians 6

This Sunday, Paul pushes the Corinthians further on the ethics of the community. He argues against taking fellow Christians to court and the anti-nomianism present at Corinth.

In Matthew, Jesus counsels the church to resolve disputes in the church face to face, before even involving any other people. Jesus understood human nature and our desire to solve our problems by involving others. Jesus counsels that we be direct, honest, and assertive.

The Corinthians had begun to take church matters into the Roman courts. Acts 18 shows how quickly the Corinthians had forgotten their history; the leaders of the synagogue tried to take Paul to court. Now, the Corinthian church was repeating history, asking a pagan civil court to settle a theological matter. Our baptism join us together in Christ and means Christians should settle our disputes within the community if at all possible.

The phrase "all things are lawful for me" translates more literally as "all things are possible." The law is not even at issue. The Corinthians think that since they are free from the letter of the law that they can do whatever they want. Paul counters with his earlier metaphor - our bodies are the very presence of God in the world, a temple, a place set apart. Paul focuses their attention on the Spirit within. Our response to the grace of God - glorify!

May we glorify and enjoy God forever!

1 Corinthians 5

Paul's epistles are "occasional" letters. Occasional does not mean that the letters are written at irregularly spaced intervals. Instead, Paul's letters are addressed to specific congregations with specific issues. Corinth's issues revolve around sex, resources/food, and power.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul finally begins to address the issues at hand. The word Paul uses is porneia, the root for our word pornography (a written porneia). The root of Porneia meant prostitute, male or female. This kind of sexual anarchy described violates the sanctity of the community and of the individuals involved. In Corinth, a man is living with his father's wife. Paul accuses a member of the community of incest, an ethical violation in virtually every culture. This breach corroded the life of the congregation and led to arrogance and defensiveness.

Paul makes the theological connection between sex and passover. Passover is a time for renewal and restoration, a deliverance from whatever is oppressing us. Lent is the forty days leading up to passover, a time to throw out the old things from our lives, remembering what Jesus has done for us and the new life to which he has called us. Actions based in "Sincerity and Truth" require repentance. May we become worthy, for worthy is the Lamb, Jesus Christ!

1 Corinthians 4

Since he is soon to virtually disappear from Paul's letter to Corinth, we should speak more about Apollos. Apollos remains a mysterious character in the Bible. He grew up in Alexandria and appears at Ephesus in Acts 18.24-28. After Priscilla and Aquila teach him "the Way of God," Luke's euphemism for faith in Christ, Apollos goes to Greece, where he eventually comes to teach in Corinth.

Alexandria was the seat of knowledge in the ancient world, famed for its library. Founded by the conquering hero Alexander the Great, who saw himself as the new Pharoah, scholars tells us that ancient Alexandria developed into a city whose population was one third Egyptian, one third Greek, and one third Jewish. Philo's school there taught a unique brand of Judaism, heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and rhetoric. Apollos must have been raised in this tradition, which gave him the confidence to "speak boldly in the synagogue" (Acts 18.26).

Acts comment that Apollos "powerfully refuted the Jews in public" (Acts 18.28) tells how persuasive he must have been. Paul's refutation had led him before Gallio, the local Roman magistrate. Paul would have relished the opportunity to offer a defense before Gallio; God had other plans. Apollos had the rhtorical skill to avoid that kind of confrontation, for a time.

Where Apollos succeeded with outsiders, he struggle within the church. St Jerome tells us that Apollos left for Crete, returning to Corinth only after Paul's letter. This is tradition, not scripturally based. Paul says that he encouraged Apollos to return from Ephesus (1 Cor 16.12). Apollos politely refused. Corinth was an ornery bunch, tougher opponents for Apollos than the leaders of the synagogue.

Some, including Martin Luther, believe Apollos wrote Hebrews. Hebrews reads more like a sermon or a teaching than a letter. Paul or someone else may have written it. The text gives us few clues. Martin Luther's idea is more of a wish than scholarship.

Ultimately, Apollos was a faithful preacher and teacher, who demurred when people thought more highly of him than Paul. Many say he later became a bishop, some say there in Corinth. More importantly, Apollos would have remained a faithful, dynamic teacher of the Way of God.

1 Corinthians 2.6-16

On Passion/Palm Sunday we will come back to 1 Cor 2.1-5. This Sunday, we will focus on the remainder of chapter 2.

One word can make all the difference in our understanding of the scriptures. In this case, the word "unspiritual" (v14) causes the problem. Unspiritual does not accurately translate the word psychikos. Nor does the "natural man" of the King James Version.

Paul intends to contrast the spirit and the psyche. The Greek means something more like the "psychological man" - the person who is focused on the inner self.

The psyche is not bad, but it is not the basis for life with God. The Spirit completes us. We have a human part and a God part. The human part is already there, filled with the human spirit. The spiritual part is empty, destroyed at the fall, filled in only when we receive the spirit of God.

The Corinth church was filled with people who believed they had spirit, and that others in the church did not. But that is a story for later in the book. His main purpose here is to orient us around the Spirit of God, the foundation of all true Wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1.18-31

²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

The community in Corinth consisted of a mixture of backgrounds, Gentile and Jewish. In order to understand the difficulty these groups had trusting and understanding the cross of Jesus Christ, Paul's other epistles provide some clue.

For the Jews, dying on a tree was an abomination. As Paul quotes Deuteronomy 21.22-23 in his epistle to Galatia, "for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”" Crucifixion, according to modern historians, usually involved nailing the victim to a standing tree (our modern imagination of the event ordinarily contains a post driven into the ground - still a tree), putting him under this curse (Deuteronomy also explains why Jesus followers were so insistent that his body come down right away). Paul offers a theological explanation for this manner of death. In Galatians 3.13, Paul he says that Jesus became a curse for us in order to remove the curse of the law. The legal source of the stumbling is understandable, albeit surmountable.

The Gentiles were under the sway of gnosticism, the philosophical schools of the day, and many other worldviews. Paul lumps them together in Colossians. The key to understanding Paul's problem with this "wisdom" is that it is constructed by humans. Wisdom is not bad according to Paul; any wisdom which elevates itself above Christ is.

How do we understand the cross today? What are our stumbling blocks? What wisdom competes with the cross?

²⁴but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.