1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Epiphany 4
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
February 1, 2026
What’s your “this is what I was, and this is what I am now” story? Everybody has those stories. You might think back to high school. You were the athlete or the brain or the princess back in the day—or the basket case or the criminal. You might think of the larger role you had in a child’s life before they grew up and moved out. Or what it used to be like before you jumped into retirement. Sometimes it’s an entirely different kind of story with not a lot of joy. Our story includes a period of drug use…or fierce rejection of God…or a lifestyle that God calls wrong… or one really big mistake—or a series of them. By the grace and blessing of God, your life may be very different now. You know, just like our church, the congregation in Corinth, Greece was full of people who could reflect on who they used to be and what they had become—who had these personal stories that included some really distasteful things. Later in this letter to them, Paul would talk more about the changes they experienced, but to give you an idea, here’s a little of what he wrote: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have sex with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And some of you were those types of people. We all have our stories, right? So, did they. On a day when we hear about Jesus on a mountainside telling us that we are blessed, we also have the Apostle Paul explaining why that is and how it happens that we are. WHY DOES GOD BLESS US? Would you love it if your pastor told you that you’re not that smart, not that strong, and not that important? It sounds like that’s what Paul was saying to the Corinthians. But he really wasn’t insulting them. His point was that their church family just didn’t have many of the kind of people that the world tells us are very important. They had one, the city treasurer in Corinth (his name was Erastus), but no one else that we know of quite like that—and Paul talks like this, so…they were mostly an ordinary group. In that respect, there was nothing wrong with them. They just were not the powerful and influential types. The world is very good at reminding us who matters. Who’s wise. Who’s powerful. Who’s impressive. And…who is not. They were mostly “not.” But God has a different view and a different way of going about things. And because we are used to hearing that worldly kind of thinking, we even think that way. And so, what he says catches us by surprise. Through Jesus, God reveals something about who we are that doesn’t disappear just because we might not be feeling very blessed because we don’t feel we measure up to other people—we are painfully aware of our weaknesses and flaws…or because our circumstances are not great…or life just feels like a burden…or the grieving seems like it is never going to ease up…or we feel overlooked.