Story-Shaped Faith
A Sermon About 1 Corinthians 10
Now, I know a few months have passed since the season of Christmas, but over the last week, I have been thinking quite a bit of the story of George Bailey from the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I think probably most of you know this story, but it is the story of a man who had been forced to give up some of his dearest dreams in life, and one day, he came to real crisis. Thrown into the depths of despair by this crisis, he came to the point where he wished he had never been born. And interestingly enough, God granted him his wish and the results were not pretty. In his unborn state, George could see that his beloved town was a mess and that the people he loved were either in great difficulty, had died, or had never been born because he had never been born. This marked a turning point for George. For he had been given the unique opportunity to see the bigger picture of his life and to realize how much his life was interconnected with others and how his sacrificial life had been a great blessing to many. George, therefore, was able to let go of his despair and to embrace a posture of thanksgiving. And God gave him his life back. For George, seeing the bigger picture of his life and all his relational interconnections was absolutely transformative for him.
Now while George Bailey’s story is obviously a made-up one, the idea behind this story is one that rings true for all people. Throughout history, numerous people have seen their perspectives changed and their lives transformed when they have seen the bigger story behind their lives and understood their relational interconnectedness, especially when it was in regards to being part of God’s great story and being part of God’s big family.
You see, the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we allow to shape our lives matter a great deal.
Friends, would you pray with me. Lord Jesus, we thank you that we are not isolated individuals seeking out our own salvation but are part of a larger redemptive story where you have pursued a people for yourself. We thank you that we are part of this people, this large family that spans thousands of years and crosses multiple continents. Lord, would you help us to truly recognize this gift - this blessing of journeying alongside one another, of learning from one another, and of being companioned by those who have gone before us. May we day by day grow to be people you have created us to be: people who build each other up and seek your glory in all things. Amen.
So today, we continue our journey through the Book of 1 Corinthians. Now you may recall that in in the first few chapters, Paul wrote passionately about erroneous thinking and living that had creeped into the heart of the Corinthian church. Paul had been rightly upset as some of the Corinthians behaviors were not even acceptable by their pagan neighbor’s standards, thus Paul had to call them out.
Well, in the last couple of chapters, Paul’s tone changed quite a bit. You see, at some point in time, the Corinthians had written a letter to Paul, asking several questions about a host of life situations, and Paul sought to answer these questions in his letter. These answers are what we find in the last couple of chapters we have studied and the one we read today. Today’s chapter specifically continues Paul’s guidance on food sacrifice to idols
And what do we find in this chapter?
Well, for some of us, we may actually be surprised. Instead of Paul giving the Corinthians a bunch of black and white answers about what they should do or should not do in every given situation, Paul rather shared some thoughts about how the Corinthians were to discern their situations, how they were to navigate a path between total license and total legalism, and how they were to look to the well-being of others rather than demanding their rights. Ultimately, he left the decisions in their hands. You see, Paul was not in the business of control, but was in the business of empowerment.
As a good spiritual father, Paul didn’t dictate every last aspect of the Corinthians lives for them, but instead gave them dignity and responsibility. Paul knew that if the Corinthians were to continue to mature in and be shaped by the life of Jesus, they didn’t need all the answers. What they needed to do was to learn to think, discern, and act on their own in a Christian manner. What they needed to know was their own story - who they were and who they belonged to. This would help them to live wisely in the world. Now, for those of us, who have been steeped in a view that Paul was a bully, this is not what we see here. What we see here is Paul as a true pastor.
And as a true pastor, what did he do? Well, he paused to tell a story. You see, good pastoral ministry is not just about communicating “does and don’ts”. It is about inviting people into relationship with God, a relationship with God’s people, and a God-shaped life, and what better way to do this then by telling a story, and not just any story – but the story of the Corinthians’ ancestors – the ancient Israelites as they wandered in the desert after God had rescued them from Egypt. So, this is what Paul did.
In his letter, Paul reminded the primarily Gentile-background Corinthians that they too were heirs of the people of Israel. When they had become members of the Body of Christ, they were grafted into the Jewish family. Israel’s story was their story. Israel’s family was their family, and this larger family came with both lessons to learn and responsibilities to take on.
Israel’s story of wanderings in the desert was a particularly helpful story for the Corinthians. Why? Well, according to Paul, the ancient Israelites were much like the current-day Corinthians in that they had a very special relationship with God.
Just as God had freed the Corinthians from the power of sin so that they could be Jesus’ hands and feet in the world, God had miraculously rescued the Israelites so that He could form them into a people of blessing for the entire world.
And just as the Corinthians had the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Table, which continually brought them into the Lord’s presence, the wandering Israelites also had sacramental experiences, which powerfully demonstrated God’s nearness to them.
For example, the Israelite’s experience of the crossing through the Red Sea was akin to the Corinthians experience of baptism. Both experiences set these people free and gave them a new identity and a new call. Moreover, the Lord’s giving of the daily manna and water from the rock to the Israelites was analogous to Christ offering up his body and blood to the Corinthians in the Eucharist. Both experiences nourished the people for the journey ahead.
So, like the Corinthians, the ancient Israelites had the great privilege of regularly being in the Lord’s presence, of being given a new identity, and the nourishment they needed to be the people God had called then to be. Yet despite these great privileges, all did not go well for the Israelites. In fact, many succumbed to idolatry and sexual immorality. Some tested God and grumbled against him. And many died as result of their disobedience.
So apparently, God’s nearness to the people wasn’t an automatic safety net that protected the people from giving into temptation. Now, you would have thought that God’s tangible presence and miraculous provision would have inspired trust and obedience in the Israelites, and thus they would have avoided falling into sin, but this was not the case.
Thus, Paul told the Israelites’ story and held out their disobedience as a grave warning to the Church in Corinth. In reality, the Corinthians were not all that different than their Israelite ancestors, and thus lest they be prideful and think that they were safe from falling because they regularly participated in the sacraments of the Church, let them take heed.
The sacraments were a gift from God that drew them into the Lord’s presence and opened up space for the Holy Spirit’s inner workings, but they were not magic. The sacraments did not make the Corinthians invulnerable to sin or alternatively did not give them license to sin because, “hey, they had already been saved”. No, God’s grace in the sacraments was be met with their response of obedience and their acceptance of the Holy Spirit’s work within them. The Corinthians needed to grow into spiritual maturity, into the very character of Christ, by learning to think, discern, and act in a Christ-like manner.
And part of that growth in maturity was learning to recognize the mistakes of their ancestors and not making those same mistakes, although sadly, numerous Corinthians had already gone down that road. Additionally, part of that maturity was recognizing that their actions did not only effect their personal relationship with God but had consequences for others. For the truth was that the Corinthians were not their own. Paul reminded them that they were members of the Body of Christ, and that through union with Christ through Baptism and the Eucharist, they also had union with each other. They also had responsibilities to one another.
Thus, when they engaged in idolatry or sexual immorality or any other sin, their sinful actions impacted their entire community. Same was actually true with their actions that were not sinful in themselves but nevertheless hurt fellow believers who had a more sensitive conscience. Life as a Christian was not an individual endeavor but a journey with a community. It was not a privatized faith and individualistic spirituality, but was a building up others in the body of Christ. Keeping this in mind would help the Corinthians discern wisely on a host of ethical scenarios, including the particular question regarding food sacrificed to idols.
Now, in his letter Paul did give one-clear cut example of when the Corinthians should not eat food sacrificed to idols, and that was in the context of pagan temple worship. You see, although the idols to which the food was sacrificed were not real, and thus were of no consequence, there were demonic influences and immoral practices surrounding pagan temple worship.
As N.T. Wright reminds us, just as there was no such thing as casual sex for the Corinthians, there was no such thing as casual worship either. The world had a sacramental reality to it. Just as one truly shared in the life of Jesus and others in the Eucharist, one truly shared in the life of evil spirits in temple worship and this life led to all sorts of idolatry and immorality. Thus, participation in temple worship was off limits.
That scenario aside, however, there was much more wiggle room when it came to other
scenarios involving food sacrificed to idols, and Paul left it up to Corinthians to discern what was best in each situation. What would guide them was whether eating the food would be a hindrance to other believers’ faith and growth in maturity. If it was, it should be avoided. If not, it could be eaten without a second thought. The point again in all this is that the Corinthians were not their own.
Being a member of the Body of Christ came with responsibility to love and nurture the faith of other members of the Body and to be a light to the world, just as being a member of the people of Israel had come with responsibilities to one another and to be a blessing to the world. Sadly, the Israelites had failed on too many occasions. The Corinthians, however, had another choice and Paul hoped for a better path for the Corinthians.
Thus, he told them a story that gave them a bigger picture of their lives, reminding them of those who had gone before them and who they were: members of Christ’s body who were not their own. And he also gave them good news. He reminded them that God was faithful. If the Corinthians set out to intentionally avoid idolatry and to love their fellow believers, God would give them discernment when they needed it and would help them to escape temptation when it did come their way. Their response of obedience in thanksgiving for God’s grace would be met with more grace.
And friends, this reality that was true for the Corinthians is also true for us. Life with God is a partnership. God initiates, we respond in obedience, and then he lavishes more grace on us to empower us to live the life he is calling us to live, a life that involves companionship and responsibility and faith. And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, this life is not what many of us what to pursue, and that is what I would like to take a few minutes to discuss now.
For you see, for many of us Western Christians, the truth is that we want a pragmatic and privatized faith. We want 7 simple steps to personal spiritual growth. We want a Bible that tells us clearly what we should and should not do so we can develop our own personal morality. Well, at least we say we do.
The reality of course is that we often get indignant when God’s explicit “dos and don’ts” don’t align with our desires. So, actually what many of us want is a life where we take the reins of planning our own lives, enlisting God to help us out where needed and to bless what we have already decided to do. What we want is to live a life where our decisions are good for us, regardless of whether they are good for others. And we want a personal Jesus who will give us comfort and peace along the way.
This, however, is not the life that God invites us into – it was not the life that God invited the Israelites or Corinthians into. As Eugene Peterson says, “In life as created by the word of God and life as experienced in history there are simply no private actions – everything is personal but nothing is private. Everything we do is connected with everything else.”
And, friends, one of the best ways we as followers of Christ can see these interconnections in our lives is by entering in the story of God’s people, both those of the past and those in the present. Just as Paul invited the Corinthians into the story of their ancestors, we too are invited. If we sit with their stories long enough, as different as they are from our own, we see that we have much to learn from the Israelites, the Corinthians, and indeed Christians throughout history. In their messy and glorious stories, we see our own stories. In their triumphs and their failures, we see our own triumphs and failures. And most importantly, we see that we are not our own. We belong to a family. And this family shows us what is truly most important, that we are responsible to one another and that God is faithful, to use the words of Richard Foster, that God’s divine purposes are “worked out through the messiness and sprawl of human history.”
And this big picture of God’s people gives us hope that God is then also working his purposes through the messiness and sprawl of our own lives. It shows us that God is faithful to us, even in our missteps. At the same time, we do not need to make the same mistakes as our ancestors did, but can forge a different path, through the help of the Holy Spirit. Regular receipt of the sacraments of course will not make us invulnerable to sin. And our Scriptures and pastors and mentors are not going to give us all the dos and don’ts of life, but that is okay. When we are awakened to the sacramental realities of our world and our interconnectedness with others – when we see the big picture of our lives - we can increasingly, with God’s help, make wise choices on our own that prioritize love of others. With God’s help, we can grow into the character of Jesus and learn to glorify and love God and others in all that we do. In short, we can live out God’s greatest commandments to love God and love neighbor.
So, Mission Cincinnati, my invitation for us today is this. Let us take heed of the story of the ancient Israelites. Let us take heed of the story of the Corinthians. For the stories we tell ourselves and enter into do matter. So, let us learn from the triumphs and failures of our spiritual family and see our interconnectedness with others in the Body of Christ. And let us embrace God’s faithfulness to us, knowing that He who started a good work in us will bring it to completion. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.