The Power of the Cross

The Power of the Cross

(1 Corinthians 1:10-18)

Sun, Jan 26, 2014. Windsor UBC; J G White

The message of the cross… to us who are being saved … is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:17)

There is power from our Lord to do good: in us, with us.  There is power from our God to heal and forgive and reconcile people.  There is power from our Saviour to save and keep on saving!

This scripture text is being read today in many churches across the globe.  It’s a prescribed reading in a list that is used by many: the Revised Common Lectionary. I have not been using this much at all for the past three years, but I am just now.  Many believers today are hearing these words read, and then preached, in many languages…

10 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.  It’s a good text for the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The author, Paul, appeals to his congregation in Corinth.  In the English of 400 years ago – King James – “I beseech you, brethren.”  Some of you have already heard my subtle appeal this year, an appeal to find joy and rejoicing.  As we discover the ways we are built upon Christ, and also see the ways we try to build our church family on other things, God can grow and transform us.  The Spirit can unite us, that we may be in agreement, have no divisions, be of the same mind and purpose.  I, for one, believe in the potential to be positive!

Sharon was excited a week or so ago to get in the mail a book she had ordered, Marva Dawn’s ‘Truly the Community: Romans 12 and How to be the Church.’  It looks to be a lovely book.  The 31 little chapters can be read devotionally, and in a small group, one for each day of a month.  And in Marva Dawn’s delightful, deep and challenging way, I’m sure she inspires a better sense of community for the local church.  One main theme she picks up on in Romans is a deep cheerfulness that is a mark of the Christian family. 

In her preface she says: As I travel around the country to teach, I am deeply saddened by our failure to be what God designed the Church to be.  People who have been Christians for a while are not very often characterized by the profound gladness that marked the earliest followers of Jesus and that frequently bubbles forth in present-day new believers.  (p.xi)

Instead of joyfulness bubbling up among us old-timers in the Church, what comes to the surface often is correction, complaints, discontent, and problems.  In February I plan to read through Marva Dawn’s book, one day at a time, to seek joy in the God who gave us Romans 12.  Now, back to this other letter, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1.

11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 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."  This is what Paul had been hearing, and though the little congregation had written him for advice on other matters, he starts his letter off with this trouble.  Here they are, caught up in their squabbles over church leadership.

13 Has Christ been divided?  Paul asks.

Later on in this letter – 1 Cor – and in other bits of the New Testament, we are given the picture of belonging like parts of one human body – the Body of Christ.  The little church in Corinth Greece was likely only five years old.  Already, they were splitting up from within.  That little body of Jesus was threatened with being dismembered, drawn and quartered!  No wonder Paul appeals to them, beseeches them.  Has Christ been divided?  Of course not.

Georges Florovsky was an Orthodox Christian priest of the 20^th century.  He claimed:  Christianity entered history as a new social order, or rather a new social dimension.  From the very beginning Christianity was not primarily a ‘doctrine,’ but exactly a ‘community.’  There was not only a ‘Message’ to be proclaimed and delivered, and ‘Good News’ to be declared.  There was precisely a New Community, distinct and peculiar, in the process of growth and formation, to which members were called and recruited.  Indeed, ‘fellowship’ (koinonia) was the basic category of Christian existence.” 

So, we remember that each person is part of Jesus’ body now on earth.  We remember this when we think about someone, or talk about that person, or speak with that person. 

Was Paul crucified for you?

Of course not.  This rhetorical question gets me thinking about Paul’s actual role with this congregation.  Here is a little gathering of Christians in a major city in ancient Greece.  Paul had been in on the founding of the fellowship in Corinth, in on their first training and teaching the things of Christ.  A few years later, he is away, and writes to them this long letter.  He, of course, did not go to the cross to die for the sins of the people of Corinth, nor is Paul their Saviour.

It still happens that church people idolize a former pastor or leader who was used excellently by the Lord.  This sometimes draws attention away from Jesus Christ, and, as in Corinth of old, can divide people into factions.  Those who liked that leader better than the new ones, yadda yadda yadda…

I remember with appreciation my organist and choir director in Parrsboro Baptist Church, years ago.  Donna was very devoted to Christ, and devoted to her music.  But at times she lived in the shadow of Mrs. Reynolds, who had been the organist and director before her.  Mrs. Reynolds had retired, and died, just a few years before I got to that Church.  I heard stories of her that painted a great picture of her wonderful personality, her demanding choir-directing, and her exquisite musicianship.  The old drawbar organ in the choir loft – she could make it talk, as they say.  Mrs. Reynolds’ upright Heintzman piano is still in the church sanctuary today.  My new organist and director, Donna, was not the same – of course.  But, thankfully, I think it was seldom that anyone criticized or compared Donna to Mrs. Reynolds. 

Neither of those wonderful, musical women was the saviour of Parrsboro Baptist Church.  Jesus was and is their Saviour.   Various leaders were servants of the Master, doing good work.  So it is here, today, for Windsor Baptist, thanks to the grace of God.  Jesus is our Saviour; He suffered and died for us.  Some of us happen to be on the serving team, helping lead the way. 

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

No.  Paul knows this; those folks in the Corinth church knew this too.  Paul’s point is this:  it’s not about who the leader is.  People are baptized in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  You and I don’t show we are believers by the pastor or local church we follow.  We show we are believers by submitting to God.  Baptism itself shows we are all on common ground: every one of us as good as dead; raised up by the supernatural love of God! 

Paul goes on. 17 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.  Ah, we see him going on about how he did not want to detract from the Master and the Message.   His preaching was not eloquent, and this was a good thing!  A danger of being a great orator is that people clamour to hear you, not the Lord.  [Your online talks go viral; may Jesus go viral.] The amazing singer gets applauded instead of God.  [The soloist is a christian Idol; may the Lord of song alone be worshipped.] The brilliant strategic thinker is hailed as the one who set a church free, rather than Christ and the Spirit He sent.  [The…

Paul speaks of the cross of Christ: the power of the cross.  As people representing Jesus to others, it is important we be clear about the cross.  Yes, the cross is a wooden object.  Yes, it is now a main symbol of our religion and Christ.  But when we talk in our faith of the cross, we usually are getting at the event – the execution of Jesus.  We don’t mean the wood, we mean Jesus dying.  Jesus gets killed, and He submits to this for us.  There are many ways – from the Bible – to explain this to our hearts and imaginations.  The event – Jesus’ death, and then His being brought back to life – is the power outlet that can give each person life.  Life much more as it should be.  Life that conquers death.  Life that overcomes sin and evil and wrong. 

In the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, Jesus sings, “To conquer death you only have to die, you only have to die.”  This He does.

Paul wrote: 18 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.  Our souls are free because of Jesus! 

More about this next Sunday... For now, remember in every circumstance that God, our God, is with us, and has power to redeem – to set free!  Praise God!