1 Corinthians 2:1-16
One of the most difficult tasks in studying the New
Testament is dating it. We know broadly
speaking when the events it describes took place, but precision eludes us. One of the few precise dates, however,
relates to the Church that St Paul wrote to in this morning’s second reading:
the Church at Corinth.
St Paul had come to Corinth to escape attempts on his
life. He, Silvanus, and Timothy,
following what they believed to be the leading of the Holy Spirit, had
travelled from Syria to Europe. There
they had preached the Gospel in a number of places, including Philippi and
Thessalonica to which St Paul would subsequently write letters. In both places, they encountered not only
resistance, but even violent opposition.
This violence was focused primarily on the person of St Paul
himself. One of the interesting features
of St Luke’s account of St Paul’s mission is how St Paul is the one that
everyone seems to hate. For example, St
Paul was able to leave Timothy and Silvanus in Macedonia while he himself had
to flee for his life first to Athens and then to Corinth.
At Corinth, however, things took a turn for the better. For the first time in Luke’s account of St
Paul’s missionary journeys, St Paul is able to stay in one place. We are told that he was in Corinth for about
18 months.
This doesn’t mean that there wasn’t opposition: just that it wasn’t as violent or intense as
that he had encountered in Thessalonica or would encounter in Ephesus. Such opposition as there was came to a head
when one Gallio became the pro-Consul.
And this brings us back to dates.
We know that Gallio became the pro-Consul in AD 51.
His appointment gave the Jews in Corinth an opportunity to
attack St Paul. They complained about St
Paul formally to the pro-Consul. Gallio,
however, dismissed their complaint as having no basis in Roman Law. Gallio seems to have thought it just an
internal dispute amongst Jews concerning the intricacies of the Jewish
religion. This meant that the Church
could continue largely unhindered. It
also meant that the Church could enjoy for the time being the same privileges
as was granted under Roman Law to other Jewish groups.
Good news! Well, yes
and no. Clearly the Church at Corinth
grew and prospered. As I have said
previously, it seems to have been so successful that is attracted the stars of
the first century Church. St Paul
describes the Church as lacking no spiritual gift, and he is clearly proud (if
that’s the right word) of all he had been able to achieve in Corinth.
The downside of this, however, seems to have been that
success went to the Corinthians’ heads.
They were flattered by the attention they received from the celebrities
of the early Church so much so that they divided into fan clubs based on the
preacher they liked the most. They were
only too aware of their gifts and achievements.
They were able to take this approach to the Christian life
precisely because they didn’t have to face the sort of opposition that Churches
such as Thessalonica had to face. St
Paul writes contrasting how he and his co-workers were treated compared to the
Corinthians. He doesn’t use these words
exactly, but it is clear that he thought they had it easy.
From what St Paul writes, the picture we get of the Church
at Corinth is of a Church that is growing numerically, that is successful and
strong spiritually, and has no problems when it comes to money. It is in every way the model of a Church that
seems to be getting it right. And this
success was due in no small measure to St Paul’s extended ministry there. Nowadays, a book would be written or a course
devised to teach other churches how to emulate the Corinthians’ success. St Paul had every right to be proud of what
he had achieved.
Except that is not how St Paul himself saw it. St Paul is scathing in what he has to say
about the Corinthians’ attitude and outlook.
Firstly, be couldn’t care less about their numerical success. Numbers in and of themselves simply do not
matter. If they are wrong, it just means
that more are wrong. Secondly, he
deplores the Corinthians sense of their own worth and achievement. The Corinthians were outwardly successful and
they knew it and were proud of it. And
this pride in their achievement lead them into many difficulties. It was the root cause of their divisions and
behind most of the problems they faced.
It lead them into immoral behavior and theological error.
So in 1 Corinthians, St Paul is having to do two
things. He is having to tackle the
specific problems in the Christian community at Corinth: problems to do with division, sexual
immorality, social involvement, spiritual gifts, and theological beliefs. But he is also trying to tackle the
underlying causes of these problems. And
this he believes is to do with a wrong view of the Christian faith.
The Corinthians were into success and achievement. St Paul believed the Gospel was about loss
and failure. He writes that when he was
with the Corinthians he had determined to know nothing among them except Jesus
Christ and him crucified. This was
certainly not a formula for success. St
Paul himself tells us that the Jews thought such an idea impossible: a stumbling-block. How could the Christ, the Messiah, suffer
such an ignominious death? By
definition, the Messiah should be an all-conquering hero, not a humiliated,
defeated victim. And the Greeks just
thought the idea stupid: foolishness.
Crucifixion was the ultimate scandal; a death that was too shameful to
even speak of.
Our Lord’s death was on the Cross, but all his life was
modelled on it. And it was what he
demanded of his followers. They were to
take up their cross daily. The life of a
disciple was to be one of service and sacrifice. Jesus’ last act before his betrayal and
crucifixion was to wash his disciples’ feet.
An act, he said, that was to be an example to them of how they should
live as his followers.
This is an extremely difficult message. More than ever, we live in a success based
society. We are judged by our
attainments, by our exam passes, our degrees, our job status, the brands we can
afford, where we live, how well we are doing in life. This inevitably affects how we evaluate our
success or failure as a Church.
I regularly attend a meeting of representatives of a number
of churches during which we share how things are going in our respective
churches. The stories tell of success:
new buildings, increased attendance at services, sound finances.
In other words, the exact same criteria is being used to
judge how the church is doing as would be used to judge the success or failure
of a company. It is not that there is
anything wrong necessarily with all these things, it is just that I rather
suspect that if things weren’t so good, we wouldn’t get to hear about
them. The pressure to tell a success
story is simply too great.
When I first started preaching, I used to go to various
Methodist churches in the area where I lived.
These were small numerically, elderly, and struggling to survive. The good thing about this, however, is that I
was never under any illusion about what ministry was about. Yes, you do get your superstars, but most
ministers will never be one. Sadly, that
can lead to a feeling of failure and defeat.
I realize that there is also another danger here. In rejecting the world’s standards for
evaluating success, we can use the Gospel of Christ crucified to justify our
lack of effectiveness. St Paul certainly
criticized the Corinthians for their arrogance and self-satisfaction. He stressed that the Lord we serve was a
failure by human standards. But he also
praised those churches that were successful by divine standards: that is these
churches who preached Christ crucified and which lived sacrificial lives of
service.
In other words, what matters, as far as God is concerned, is
not whether we are a success or failure by human standards, but whether we are
faithful. And being faithful is solely
about whether we model ourselves on the one who was humiliated and
crucified. This is not easy and at times
it can be painful, but it is what we are all called to as Christians.
May God grant that we may know only Christ and him crucified
and seek to follow him daily in our lives.
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