1 Corinthians 1:26-31 [Epiphany 4—CWS A]
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
February 2, 2020
In the name of our Savior Jesus, dear friends, We live a self-obsessed society, don’t we? It seems that it is all about me…and my rights…and my needs…and my wants. Many of us take selfies and post them on social media, and some would point to that as an obsession with self. It doesn’t always have to be total self-obsession, but it certainly can be. Whole groups or cultures can be self-absorbed too. There’s a popular book out right now, in fact, it’s the latest to land on Oprah’s book club. It’s called “American Dirt.” It’s a fictional story of about Mexican immigrants fleeing dangers in their own country and seeking safety in the United States. The problem is not necessarily the details of this made-up story—although in the eyes of some it may be—but it’s the person who wrote it. Jeanine Cummins is white. So…she is being attacked by literary critics and others in the Hispanic community because they say it is not her story to tell. They say that she has no business writing about a culture that is not her own. This seems rather selfish of those within the culture. It would be a mistake to think that the Mexican or Mexican-American communities have cornered the market on this selffocused attitude. It seems that every person and every group of people wants to be understood and wants to tell their story and demand their rights. It’s ethnic groups and the poor and the wealthy and the LGBT community. Why even Christians can become self-focused about the disrespect shown to them by our society—as if Jesus didn’t say this would be the case! I guess what I’m getting at is that every single one of us sitting here today—and every other person out there in the world—has a self-centeredness problem. It’s the sinful side of us that brings this problem about. This morning, God’s Word forces us to think about our own attitudes and behaviors. What’s the object or your attention, your time, your love…or your life? What is it that matters to you? Does everything revolve around what you want and what you like and what you’re interested in? Are you the central thing? Are you the focus? What about when it comes to you and God? IS IT ALL ABOUT YOU? 1. WHAT YOU WERE AND WERE NOT The only way to answer that question is to talk about us for a bit today. That’s what Paul did with the Corinthians. He told them to take a good look at themselves. He wanted them to consider what kind of people they were when God called them to faith. So I’d like you to consider that as well—just as I had to do while preparing to preach on this lesson. What’s your story? Are you a lifelong Christian? If so, you weren’t much of anything at all when God called you. If you were brought into the family of God at your baptism as a baby, that was a time when you couldn’t feed yourself or keep your diaper clean, much less be impressive in God’s eyes! No, if you were a drooling baby when the Holy Spirit came to you and you are a lifelong Christian, you weren’t much at all when you were called to faith.
Or are you one of those who fell from faith somewhere along the line and now the Lord has called you back to the fold? I suppose if that’s the case, you would have to admit that God wasn’t impressed with your falling away. You certainly did not earn his love the first time and he definitely didn’t love your wayward wandering. Are you someone who more recently came to know Jesus as your Savior? Maybe you can remember back to that time in your life and how good it felt to finally know that there is a God and that he loves you. When God reached out and called you to faith, were you a well-known educator? A media personality? A highly paid consultant? A high-powered lawyer? A famous surgeon? A self-made millionaire? A member of a well-connected and well-off family? People in Corinth weren’t like that—not many anyway. Most were simple, everyday people who couldn’t have made a favorable impression on God that he should have chosen them. In fact, even the influential socialites and noble people didn’t impress God with their earthly status! The fact that no single person—rich or poor, famous or obscure, simple or wise—has anything that would make God say, “That person deserves to be in my family,” reminds us of how the sin in each of us makes us objects of God’s righteous anger. Not one person deserves or somehow earns the love of the Holy God! No one in Corinth, and not one of us here today. I’m fairly certain that none of us like to be called names. It hurts our feelings and even makes us angry at the name-caller. What would you do if God called you names, though? Well, he does! Did you catch them? He called you foolish… weak… lowly… despised… nothings (things that are not). I’d like to think of myself as smart or strong or important or well-liked or something—or maybe all of those things! Wouldn’t you? I mean, we have some decent qualities! Don’t you think there might have been something in us that made God like us? Well, there wasn’t! Even the likeable qualities that we have are all spoiled by our sin. I like cheese, so there’s usually some in the fridge. But there are times when the block of cheddar has sat in there a little too long and little green and white circles of mold have formed on the surface. But I feel like if I just trim that exterior off, the rest of the cheese is still pretty good. And I might not get sick. I can tell you that Pastor Heiman down at Sahuarita feels differently. I know this because whenever I have food that is a little suspect looking but I’m still thinking about eating it, I text him a picture just to get his reaction. It’s now become a running joke. Where I see something that is maybe okay or might have some good left in it, Pastor Heiman sees rot and decay and tells me to just throw it out! He wants to see pure, unadulterated food with no funky smells or off-tastes! That smelly, fuzzy mold and food on the edge is disgusting to him!
Pastor Heiman is more like God that way, isn’t he? That moldy and decaying food looks the way sin looks on us in God’s eyes. God doesn’t want sinful people with him any more than we want to bite into fuzzy green spores! Suspect and spoiled food is destined for the garbage can, and humans spoiled with sin are destined for hell. Sinful and condemned is WHAT WE WERE WHEN God called us to faith. WHAT WE WERE NOT, of course, was holy and perfect as God demands. So you see, God calling you to salvation really wasn’t all about you, was it? Just like rotten cheddar can’t clean itself up and dead people can’t raise themselves to life and blind people can’t restore their sight, so we can’t rid ourselves of our sin or raise ourselves from death in hell to life in heaven or bring ourselves to see the wondrous ways of the Almighty God. There is a beauty to this whole thing though. God did what we couldn’t do! He knew WHAT YOU WERE AND WHAT YOU WEREN’T. But in a sense, he made it ALL ABOUT YOU. 2. WHAT YOU ARE AND WILL BE Most of you know what he did. The only way to make up for the sin of all people was to have someone perfectly keep all of his commands and live a pristine life the way God expects. Again, the sinful nature of people made it impossible for that to happen. So, in love for you and every sinful person, God sent his one and only Son to do it for us. God sent him because he wanted to save you! Jesus came and lived and suffered and even died on the cross because he wanted to save you! The Holy Spirit—at your baptism or as you heard the Word of God—gave you faith because he wanted to make you holy! And that is what you ARE NOW. God now calls you a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9). The blood of Jesus Christ washes you clean. The rot of sin is washed away, leaving you as a perfect child of God who now pleases him. You are now equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can live for him. In fact, that verse that I just referenced continues like this: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). Now you are the kind of person who does not think that IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU. You think, and rightly so, that IT’S ALL ABOUT God! You want to make the love and grace of God known by the way you live your life. You want to proclaim to other people the undeserved love of God that took a poor, rotten sinner like you and saved you from an empty life and eternity in hell. To close our service today, you’ll sing “Amazing Grace” with love filling your heart— and maybe even a tear in your eye. Why is that? Because the light of salvation has shined upon you and you didn’t deserve it. None of us did. But how wonderful and humbling to know as we continue in the Epiphany season—celebrating Jesus as the Light of the whole world—that we have the love of our Savior! Because of that love and your faith in Jesus, you have the promise of WHAT YOU WILL BE. You will be around God’s throne in heaven. You will sing his praises for eternity. You will forever be with all who put their trust in Christ. It truly is amazing grace that those things are ours!
If you’re like most people, Christians included, sometimes you ask the “Why” questions. “Why did God do that?” “Why does God allow that?” Many times we simply have to acknowledge that God’s wisdom and love and justice are so far above our weakened and sin-tainted knowledge and reason and emotion that we can’t know the answers. But sometimes God tells us why he does stuff. Why did he send his only Son to be the Savior? You know because he tells you: God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). His reasons were that he loved sinful mankind so much and that he wanted them to have eternal life. God gives reasons for his actions here too. God says he chose the foolish, weak, lowly, despised, “nothing” kinds of things to shame those who are wise and strong and to offset those who are thought to be important. And to show everyone that because of this there is not a person alive who will be able to boast and brag before God. The important and influential often reject God and live without him, so there is certainly nothing for them to boast about. The simple and everyday people had nothing to offer God, so they can’t boast either. Why did God shower his grace in that way? It’s simple, really. To show that IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU OR ME. But to show that it IS all about Jesus! Listen again: But because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. It is because of Jesus that you are no longer foolish, but wise for salvation! It is because of Jesus that you are no longer weak, but strong in faith! It is because of Jesus that you are no longer lowly, but will reign with Christ in heaven! It is because of Jesus that you are no longer “nothing,” but something special to God! IS IT ALL ABOUT YOU? So many people today think that the world does or ought to revolve around them—the grandstanding athlete (which you’re almost sure to see this afternoon), the rapper who sings about how wonderful he is, the person with no regard for others, the corporate man or woman who will climb over anyone to make it to the top. But it’s not that way, is it? You see, it’s not just about you—it’s really about Jesus. You know, John the Baptist had it right. To some people who were confused about Jesus, he said, “He must become greater; I must become less (John 3:30).” Isn’t that what it’s all about? IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU AND ME. It’s about Jesus. If you want to boast and brag—don’t let it be about you. There was nothing so great about you that made God love you. It was his grace. Doesn’t it make a lot more sense to brag and boast about what a wonderful God and Savior you have? By God’s grace you know the truth: IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU AND ME; it is ALL ABOUT JESUS. So then, Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.