Come In, Come In Whoever You Are

I Corinthians 12: 4-26
Rev. Alan Claassen November 15, 2009

Please pray with me:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (I Cor. 13: 1-3) O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, come from the grace of your love. Amen.

What a blessing it is for this church to have a storyteller, C.R., as a member of our church.
And what a blessing that C. was the liturgist for this Sunday, so that she could bring all of her storytelling skills to the reading of this morning’s scripture.

I hope to further enrich our experience of this scripture passage where the Apostle Paul compares the church to a body, where the diversity of the parts of the body enriches the work of the entire body.

Last Thursday our Bible study class completed the study called Listening to Scripture. In that class we learned six strategies for exploring the meaning of the books of the Bible for the original author and audience.
Then with that understanding, to explore the variety of meanings that the Bible has for us today.
We discovered that knowing the historical setting of the text, the literary context, and original meaning of words and phrases might provide us with a completely different meaning of a particular passage than the one we might have, just reading the verses on face value.

Last Thursday we applied this approach to a passage from the 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the same letter that Cynthia read from this morning.

What was going on in this early Christian church in Corinth that gave rise to this letter?
In this early Christian community there was a diverse mixture of peoples, theologies, cultures, levels of wealth, poverty, and social standing.
And they were being challenged by Paul to find a new unity in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
It was difficult. There was conflict. There was grace.

The Romans in 146 BCE had destroyed the city of Corinth. It was rebuilt in 44BCE as a colony to which Roman authorities sent their surplus population such as recently freed slaves, displaced peasants, and army veterans.
Corinth was a seaport, and it quickly developed into a busy hub of east-west trade in Roman Empire. Corinth was also the site of a religious community that worshipped Aphrodite.

There was a synagogue in Corinth, which Paul visited in 50 or 51CE. He met the leaders of the synagogue, including Priscilla and her husband, Aquila.

Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months, organizing and teaching in the small house churches of Corinth. Periodically these house churches would gather as a whole assembly to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which in the early Christian church was more like our potluck dinners than our service of Holy Communion.
The people of Corinth were greatly influenced by Hellenistic culture, which placed great emphasis on status. The fact that Priscilla’s name is most often cited before her husband’s may to point to the fact that she came from a wealthier family than Aquila, and therefore had a higher standing, even though she was a woman.
Possibly under the influence of Gnostic religions, “the Corinthian Christians attached great importance to the acquisition and display of special religious knowledge, and so tended to equate spirituality with possession of the more spectacular kinds of gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, understanding all mysteries and knowledge.”

Paul did not commend these practices.
Paul taught that as Christians, our source of wisdom is in the cross, which most people will think of as foolishness.
Speaking in tongues, knowledge of secret mysteries, and power to move mountains, all amount to nothing.
What is most important that type of love which is received as a gift from God.

This gift from God, symbolized in the cross, reminds us to lay aside all claims of status and superiority over others.
The distinctions of male and female, rich or poor, Gentile or Jew, are secondary to the true life and freedom that comes from receiving God’s love and celebrating our common humanity.

In the passage that the class studied last week, we learned that wealthy members of the community were abusing the Lord’s Supper in those large gatherings of the small house churches that I spoke of earlier.
The wealthy of the community provided much of the food that was shared at a common meal, and since they paid the bills, and often arrived at the large assembly site before the working class and hungry folk could, the wealthy thought that they could go ahead and eat, drink, and be merry before the others arrived.


For the poor folk this Lord’s Supper was literally their daily bread.
Paul had harsh words for the community members who claimed a privileged status, not just because of their selfishness, but because in denying their brother and sister a place at the table they were denying Jesus.
They had lost the purpose of celebrating the Lord’s Supper, which was to remember the self-giving love of Jesus, on behalf of humanity, on behalf of all people.
They were still caught up in lording over their neighbor instead of loving them.

That same theme is found in this morning’s scripture reading, which is found in Chapter 12.
There is no hierarchy in the Christian community. The richness of our unity as the Body of Christ is in our diversity. The foot and the elbow need one another. The heart and the head need one another. The ear and mouth need one another.

The Apostle Paul had a very difficult job in Corinth. He had to speak the truth in love to a culture that was based upon status and tell them that true knowledge, salvation and freedom, come from self-giving love.

Paul wanted to convince these early Greek, Roman, Jewish, rich and poor followers of the way of Jesus, that understanding the holy mystery of God comes from opening ones heart to the love of God and affirming that others, different than you, are also well loved.

Paul had to tell the Christians of Corinth that they had to let go of the knowledge that was handed down to them, and understand something that was radically new.
Paul had to write more than one letter to the Corinthians.

Paul, in his love for the people of Corinth knew that change is never easy, and yet, he was confident, that he could show them a still, better way. This better way is described in Chapter 13, which I will read as the Pastoral Prayer this morning.

In our final class last week, we students of the Bible were given the task of moving from asking what a text meant to the original author and audience, to asking what the passage might mean for us today. It is not there is one meaning of any text. But when we understand the original meaning of the passage, it helps us to form clearer questions for our own time and situation.
Let me share with you one application that I see in this morning’s scripture reading. Remembering that we all see through a glass dimly I do not say that this is the only way to understand the passage. But I do see a way of approaching the Open and Affirming process through the wisdom that is offered in this passage.

But first a story.

One of my favorite games as a child was hide and seek. I loved playing it as a child, as a high schooler, and I love it still. Though I can’t fit or get into the some of the hiding places I used to.

As a child I remember that magical moment at the end of a hide and seek game, when the person who is “it” has given up on finding everyone and calls out in a loud voice, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Or, “Ollie, Ollie Ox and free.”
And then like lost children, like successful pirates, like masterminds of small spaces, the lost who hadn’t been found came out with beaming smiles on their faces.

I wonder what would have happened to those friends of ours, hiding in that seemingly perfect hiding place, if someone hadn’t cried out to the neighborhood, to the park, to the forest, to the community, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Everyone may have gone to his or her comfortable homes, while those in hiding would stay stuck, wondering, is it safe to come out now?
Have they forgotten me? Is this a trap to capture me?
Have they all gone and left me here alone? When is it safe? Where is it safe to come out of hiding?
The person doesn’t know unless they hear, while still in their hiding place, “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

I believe that there are individuals and there are families waiting to hear that cry, so that they can know, before they enter the doors of this sanctuary, that they are welcome here.

We as a community are being asked to consider what it would mean to be a church that proclaims to the community something that would seem like foolishness to many. What would it mean for us to call out that we are open and affirming of all people, no matter their sexual orientation or their gender, their age, their religious perspective, their race, their economic statues, or their physical or mental abilities?

That is what the Open and Affirming process is all about. Knowing what we as a community truly believe so that we as a community can act together of one accord, one heart and mind, as we welcome new members into the life of this diverse community.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit in an open, honest, and compassionate process of sharing information, feelings, experiences that comes from engaging the open and affirming process, regardless of the outcome.
In fact, the way that we engage one another in this process may be the most significant outcome.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation, to trust one another, and to trust the Holy Spirit, as we walk this journey together.


I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation to let go of status, and to re-examine long held beliefs that we were taught by our culture but go against the grain of the Gospel.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as we listen, compassionately, to one another’s observations, feelings, needs and requests.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation, to see that the love that Christ shared expanded the circle of who is included in the kin-dom of heaven, and by the grace of God, it includes us.

What we will learn together in this process, regardless of the final outcome, that no one can know at this time, can be for us a time to deepen our experience of what it means to be the Body of Christ together.
As we respect the differences of each part of the body, may we remember that the head of the body is Jesus.
May we remember to look to Jesus, who gave his life for whole body of humanity, as we learn together what the Bible says, what science says, what each part of the body is saying.
May our words, our thoughts, and our actions come from the grace of Christ’s self-giving love for all of humanity.
Let the people who stand by these words say... Amen
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Resource for background material on Corinth was taken from Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul Achtemeier, General Editor, Harper One, 1996