“Living together – the story we share”
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (February 9, 2025)
Today we arrive at the third and last in a series of sermons using the lectionary texts from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It’s also my last sermon together with you. So you’d think I could come up with some profound, stunning new insight to leave. But alas, as I’ve said all along, these passages remind us of familiar things in the life we share together.
The Christian faith has been handed down through generations – two thousand years, for goodness sake. That’s not to say we shouldn’t hear it in a fresh new way. Or that the Spirit cannot lead us to new insight and understanding.
The pastor of the first pilgrims to arrive in America told them before they departed, “The Lord hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his holy word.”[1]
So don’t go thinking we can just retreat into the past. The Spirit has always led followers of Jesus in bold new directions.
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But before we go any further today, I want to ask if there is a favourite story that you remember from your past.
When I grew up, the Hardy Boys were all the rage. These fictional teenage brothers had exciting adventures and solved mysteries. I read the books voraciously.
What stories have stuck with you over time? Which authors have been most influential: Shaping your point of view? Inspiring? Enlarging your life?
The prominent Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, has said: “You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.”[2]
In other words, we are, by nature, storytellers. Whether written and published in a book. Or shared verbally around a blazing fire – like I imagine those ancient Hebrews did, as they reflected on their place in God’s creation. Sometimes we simply repeat them silently to ourselves. The stories we tell take many forms, but there’s no getting away from them.
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What we have in our scripture today is a foundational story of our faith. Without it, none of us would be here, in this church. In any church.
“Now I would remind you,” writes the apostle Paul, “of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received …” Paul too is reminding people about something they’ve heard before. “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received …”
Paul heard a story that changed his life. Then he shared it with others, including the Corinthians. And it changed their lives too. So we are all drawn in to something bigger than ourselves. A community. A way of life. A set of values. A lens through which to view the world.
Where did you first hear the gospel story? How did you find out about it?
I can remember my mom reading to me from a Bible Story book at bedtime. I also remember a Sunday School teacher who loved her students into life. I remember Uncle Donald and Aunt Jean helping me to memorize the 23rd Psalm. I remember the pastor of my church, who prepared me for baptism. So many people who, like the apostle Paul, had received the Good News, and now were sharing it with me!
Can you name some of those folks in your life? Can you say when the story finally began to sink in? How did it touch you? What was its appeal? Why do you hold on to it, even still?
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“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received …”
I’m struck by that phrase “first importance.” We’re not talking about side matters, controversies. Even denominational distinctives – as important as these may be.
Serving with you has reminded me that the whole church is bigger than any of its parts. I’m grateful that you’ve welcomed this “outsider” into your midst, introducing me to Mennonite ways. Though I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface. (By the way, I received the Anabaptist Study Bible you gifted me, and am looking forward to using it in the days to come.)
Paul tells us to stay focussed. Hold to the centre. Allow that to inform who we are and the way we live.
There’s a lot of crazy chaos in the world right now, some of it rather serious. The church too can get sidetracked into silly things.
I value this wise motto, which you may have heard before: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”[3] That sentiment should always be our guide.
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So what is the essential thing, the story at the heart of our faith? Can you tell me?
For the apostle Paul, it boils down to this: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day. All of this in accordance with the scriptures.
You see, it all fits into a much longer narrative, that goes back to the beginning of time. The story of a God who created the world, and called a people, and walked with them, and loved them through thick and thin. The story of Jesus grows out of that.
No wonder Easter has always been the great celebration at the heart of our faith community. No wonder we meet to worship every “Lord’s Day,” the first day of the week. Death and resurrection. A life given in love. New life promised to God’s creation!
The story of Jesus is simple, but life-changing. Paul says the Corinthians are being saved by it. Changed, redeemed, altered. For good! Jesus has a way of doing that to us, doesn’t he?
“I love to tell the story, ’Tis pleasant to repeat what seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet. …”[4] It’s amazing how this story’s been handed down, all these years. Still fresh, powerful. Still incredibly “sweet”.
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There’s a point at which the story of Jesus and our own personal stories are bound to intersect.
I picture it like those two disciples on the Emmaus Road. Remember how it goes?
They’re walking along the path, living out their lives – which happened to be grim and rather hopeless.
We all have our stories: Some are sad and some are joyful. And probably, for most of us, it’s a mix of both.
So these two are walking along, wrapped up in their own little world, when suddenly a stranger comes along. Who happens to be Jesus. But they don’t recognize him.
He opens the scriptures. Helps them to see the events they’ve been living through as part of something bigger. Which is God’s story.
And this is the point where our two narratives come to meet. Our personal stories encounter the presence and purpose of the living God.
They invite the stranger in. Bread is broken. Eyes are opened! And so they see … How everything has changed. And nothing can ever be the same. And it sends them running back to Jerusalem to tell others.
He’s alive! The one who suffered and died, has defeated death. And we have seen him and walked with him.
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We all have our story. For me, it’s a pretty ordinary one.
You may think our present world is chaotic, but, as I think back, I can remember all kinds of things swirling around us in the 60’s and 70’s when I was growing up, especially south of the border: The assassination of a president, the Vietnam war, race riots and civil rights, hippie culture, drugs, rock and roll, free love, a lunar landing. Here at home, we had the FLQ.
Those were tumultuous times! Many of my classmates in Sunday School stopped attending church when they reached a certain age, never to return.
But somehow God found me and hung on tight. In baptism I made a commitment, which I have never regretted.
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What’s your story? And tell me this: In what way has God’s story entered into it? Each one of us is unique, you know. We all have a special place here, in the community of faith, and ultimately in the Reign of God. None of our living is lost. Everything can be turned into something good and beautiful.
Paul calls himself the “least of the apostles,” unfit for ministry, because of his violence and bloody self-righteousness.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am,” he writes, “and God’s grace toward me has not been in vain.” God’s grace can take any of our lives, however broken and messed up we may be, and use us for some creative purpose.
Each of our stories may be caught up into a larger story that stretches beyond time and leads to life.
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But now, here’s the last thing I want to say. Stories are one thing. Sometimes we think there’s nothing to them, that they are a form of entertainment perhaps, purely fiction.
Giovanni Antonio Galli, 1585-1652.
In our passage of scripture, Paul points to the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus was raised “in accordance with the scriptures.”
And then he appeared! To Cephas, then the twelve. Paul says, “he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive …” So ahead, ask them. This is more than fantasy.
The physical appearances of Jesus may be finished now, more or less. I’ve certainly never seen him, and I doubt I will. Those of us who follow Jesus today encounter him in a different way. But it’s no less real.
A starlit night, a moment of wondrous awe. A sound, a vision that brings me to tears. A faint echo of that voice that comes from beyond my own being. A flicker of light that will not be extinguished. A power that takes hold of me. A universe that embraces me. A “love that wilt not let me go.”
If there was no reality to the Gospel Story, it surely would have died out many years ago. And yet it persists! It’s maybe the most persistent thing on earth.
I pray that, in the days to come, the living Christ will continue to lead our congregation, and each of us individually.
We never know everything that lies ahead. We may be uncertain of the way. But we do not walk alone. The One who died, was buried, and raised to life on the third day – he goes with us. He will keep us.
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That’s nothing new. I know you’ve heard it before. But I’m here … well, “To remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message …”
It may be familiar. But it’s also the very centre of our life together in the community of faith.
Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! In fact, it’s a story that belongs to all of us. May we treasure it! Stand within it. Hold the message firmly to the end. Amen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robinson_(pastor), Accessed February 6, 2025.
[2] https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/storytelling.html, Accessed February 6, 2025.
[3] Variously attributed, but probably comes from a little-known German Lutheran theologian, Rupertus Meldenius, in 1627.
[4] Catherine Hankey, 1866. HWB #398.
“Living together – body talk”
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (January 26, 2025)
I came to a shocking realization last week. I should have known, but somehow it eluded me, that there weren’t going to be many more opportunities to preach here at FMC. Potentially, just three more sermons in your midst! So I looked at the lectionary readings for these next three Sundays. Was there any particular theme that emerged?
The prescribed passages from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians all have to do with living together in the community of faith. They’re familiar ones. Many of us have heard these things before. But that doesn’t make them any less relevant. Some of the most important truths deserve to be repeated, in the hope that maybe we can hear them again, in a different time, perhaps in a different way. And maybe this time they’ll stick.
So what we’re going to be doing these next three Sundays is remind ourselves of things we already know. Or should know.
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Living together – that’s our theme. But let me say right at the start: It ain’t easy to live together. Even though that’s exactly what God has made us for.
It didn’t take long for good old Adam, living in that ancient garden of bliss, to grow lonely, poor guy. He had everything he could want. But one thing was missing: another human being.
So God made a second person, a partner, a companion fit for him. And that’s where things get interesting. Because here, right at the very beginning of the human race, we start listening to those slippery, snake-like voices that whisper in our ears.
And we end up making a mess of things. Plagued with all sorts of family disfunction. Including envy, blame, violence and even murder!
Despite the passage of millennia, and great strides of progress in human civilization, this brokenness is still with us. It ain’t easy to live together.
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That’s exactly why Jesus came. To fix this mess – healing our destructive tendencies, and our discord, and drawing us back into right-relationship with God. And with each other. The two can never really be separated.
The apostle Paul writes to a particularly flawed gathering of believers in Corinth, whose community life had been so distorted by boastful arrogance and competing factions, that they’d forgotten the reason God had called them together in the first place.
We all know that churches can be that way. And it’s not hard to recognize the terrible irony of it: The community of Christ, breaking apart, fragmenting. Two thousand years later, not much has changed.
But the call of God remains as well: To rise above all that. To put aside our sinful selves and – by the grace of God, empowered by the Spirit, led by the person of Jesus – to walk in newness of life. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free …”
Paul skillfully sketches this image of what our life together is meant to look like: The body of Christ.
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In our current culture it seems that everyone is in pursuit of the perfect body. A body that is slim, trim, curvaceous, rippling with muscle. A kind of body that’s beautiful to look at.
But my body has never really lived up to that ideal. And as I age, I’ve given up hope that it will. It’s scarred in places. There are bulges, and saggy bits. But I don’t want to get into that. I take comfort in the knowledge that good health doesn’t always coincide with cultural ideas of beauty.
The church is the body of Christ. Think of that for a moment: God made manifest in the world through human members like you and me! It’s a miracle, surely.
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We were all baptized into one body. All of us. Regardless of our ethnic identities. Our social statuses. Our physical capacities. Jew or Greek, slave or free – it matters not a whit.
The body has many members, Paul reminds us. Exactly how many, I had no idea. So I decided to Google it. It’s hard to get a straight answer. Our bodies contain roughly 30 trillion cells. It boggles my mind!
“The internal human body includes organs, teeth, bones, muscle, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and blood, lymphatic vessels and lymph.”[1] All linked together by complex systems of connection and coordination.
The body has so many members, I wouldn’t know where to begin listing them all.
And the thing is, the whole creation is like that! Full of endless diversity. The stars in the sky. We shovel snow by the bucket. And every snowflake in that bucket is different from every other one.
God seems to revel in diversity and difference. How many kinds of trees in the forest? How many varieties of grass in the field? How many species of fish in the water, or birds in the air, or bugs, or animals … or human beings?
Each has their own unique place in the web of creation. And each is necessary to the well-being of the whole. Bio-diversity is a healthy thing.
So too in the body of Christ. When everyone begins to look and think and sound and act like you, that’s when you should worry!
The body of Christ thrives with a variety of spiritual gifts, each one of us doing our own God-given thing. Shovelling snow, offering rides, preparing food, playing music, attending meetings, leading Bible study. Yes, even preaching a sermon. We all have a place.
“God arranged the members of the body,” says Paul, “each one of them, as he chose.” As God chose. It’s all God’s doing. So who are we to say to any other member of the body, “You don’t belong here.”
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The Corinthians were big on flashy gifts. Things that get lots of attention. And that created, in their minds, a kind of hierarchy. “My gift is better than yours.”
And so there were some in the church all puffed up with pride. Instead of valuing cooperation and interdependence and community, they thought they could walk the road alone. “I don’t need you,” they said, dismissively.
Now let me see – where might we have heard this recently? Whenever any of us say such things about another church member, a neighbour, a political opponent, someone from a different background, who speaks another language, who sees the world in different way … whenever we dismiss anyone out of hand, the whole of God’s creation is diminished.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.” Yet sometimes that’s what we do. “The head cannot say to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.” Yet isn’t there part of us that craves the security and comfort of a community where everyone is the same?
Paul says the members of our bodies which are less honourable, those weaker members are, in fact, indispensable. He claims that God gives greater honour to the weakest members of the body of Christ! All of us are made in God’s image. All of us are to be valued and respected.
So if there’s someone who’s a little slow, who can’t keep up, or doesn’t understand, or dresses differently, or has weird ideas, or doesn’t fit in with your concept of what is good and proper … Well maybe God has put that very person here for a reason.
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And while we’re talking about not dismissing others, let me also caution you about dismissing yourself. Sometimes we put ourselves down. We diminish our own gifts. We think we’re not good enough. We have nothing to offer.
We look at some other incredibly talented person, and we think “how can I compete with that?” But it’s not a competition. It’s all about community. And God has put each one of us exactly where we’re meant to be. Can you believe that?
I think as we grow older, sometimes our confidence begins to wane. Because, once again, the culture around us says that we’re dispensable. That we don’t matter any more. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t dismiss others. Please don’t dismiss yourself!
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But now, let me turn from all this emphasis on individuals, and remind us that we are meant to be part of a greater whole. We are baptized into one body, says Paul.
I worry that in recent years we’ve put so much emphasis on the individual – all the rights and freedoms that we claim – we forget our collective identity. Because each one of us is 
in loving relationship with Jesus we are called, therefore, to be in loving relationship with one another.
Martin Luther King Jr. called this God’s “beloved community”.
“It really boils down to this,” King said. “That all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”[2]
The apostle Paul put it this way: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.”
We have this solidarity in the community of faith. If misfortune comes to any of us, then all of us feel the effects. No one exists in isolation.
And to the extent that any of us are raised up, healed, restored, made whole – well, that is a gift for the whole community to celebrate! One person’s success or accomplishment serves to enrich us all.
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The trick is to keep our focus on Christ, who is at the very centre of our life. The centre of all our lives. The centre of creation itself!
This is the final day in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Too often we focus on difference, which leads to fragmentation.
Let’s focus, instead, on that which draws us together. Let’s lift up those things we hold in common. Let’s put aside division and embrace the unity that is God’s gift. Let’s be a different kind of church. One that shows the world we can live in newness of life.
I know “it ain’t easy.” But we are the body of Christ, baptized by his Spirit. And so our lives are being drawn together, not split apart. The closer we get to Jesus, the closer we grow to one another.
After all this, Paul tells the Corinthians “I will show you a still more excellent way.” So now that I’ve wet your appetite … well, that’s for next Sunday. Stay tuned!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body, Accessed Januaryt 25, 2025.
[2] Martin Luther King Jr, A Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1967. https://blog.nwf.org/2024/02/diversity-in-nature-diversity-in-action/, Accessed January 23, 2025.
“Living together – love language”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (February 2, 2025)
Today we come to the second in a series of sermons from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It’s all about living together – which ain’t easy. Did I mention that?
But you already know how difficult it can be: To live with certain neighbours. To put up with that one particularly difficult person – in your work life, in your home life. To stay married to a spouse who’s probably not perfect. To raise kids who stubbornly ignore the things you say.
Whether it’s that little world of our home, or the much larger world of nations jockeying for position, asserting themselves … living together ain’t easy.
Last week we talked about diversity – in the natural world, in our human lives, and in the church as well. We are invited to celebrate that diversity.
Scripture also recognizes a deeper unity revealed to us in Jesus. We are baptized into one body with many members. All of us are valued by God. All of us contribute to a larger whole.
After saying these things, the apostle Paul lifts up the greatest gift of all. The one thing that truly matters. The treasure that makes all these other gifts look like peanuts. I wonder if you’ve been waiting breathlessly for it all week long? Well here it is: the gift of love!
I told you these sermons wouldn’t be talking about anything new. Just things we need to hear again. And then, again – throughout our Christian journey.
Over time they have a way of working themselves into our hearts and minds. And so the process of transformation unfolds. The Spirit is working in our lives, making us more like Jesus. Which is the goal.
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The gift of love. So tell me, what do you think love is? Are there words enough in the English language to define it?
Is love a feeling, a fluttering in your heart? Is it a candlelight dinner and romance? Have you made plans for Valentine’s Day?
Is love a function of hormones? A biological necessity for reproduction?
What on earth is love? Especially the kind of love that Paul is writing about in 1 Corinthians 13, that lasts for all eternity?
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Before we go any further, let me say that context matters when reading scripture.
The most common place to hear these words, in my experience, has been at a wedding. Picture a bride and groom standing there, starry-eyed at the front of the church, ready to make their vows.
The person officiating reads these words: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love …”
It’s a beautiful passage! Very poetic. Enough to inspire a young couple. And maybe re-invigorate the love of every older couple sitting there, listening in. Yes, it’s a fine passage for a wedding.
But that is far from the original purpose of Paul’s letter. He’s writing to a fractious, divided congregation, where no one sees eye to eye, where competition trumps cooperation. And people are pulling in different directions, every person putting their own interests first.
I picture the apostle Paul at his wit’s end, pulling his “pastoral hair” out! (Incidentally, he’s often depicted as a bald man in early Christian art.) Paul must surely have been frustrated.
A noisy gong! A clanging cymbal! I can be the world’s most eloquent speaker. I can understand all mysteries. I can say to a mountain: “Be taken up and thrown into the sea.” (cf. Mark 11:23) But if I don’t have love, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans!
As if to say, “Come on, you people. You can do better than this.” So, can we?
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I was speaking with a friend of mine about a week ago, who reminded me how much they dislike that song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Because we make a mess of loving others. And who do we think we are anyway? Are Christians the only ones who can love? The answer is, of course not.
Yet the invitation to love is central to the Christian calling. It’s at the heart of everything Jesus stood for. Remember how he said to his disciples: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you ….” (John 13:34-35)
Jesus himself embodied God’s love … as he cared for others, even the least among them. As he taught them, healed them, led them. Even died for them. That’s the kicker. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
He loved not only friends, but enemies also. And tells us to do the same: Care for others, even when they don’t give a hoot about you. When someone does you wrong, forgive. And not just once, but many times.
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So now we see that love is more than just a nice idea. And certainly more than mushy sentimentality. Love is a disciplined way of life, a path we’re called to follow.
Love is a verb, a movement, a doing. Not mere words, but action.
Love, says Paul, means being patient. Showing kindness. Being humble – not boastful or arrogant or rude. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. It doesn’t gloat when things go wrong for others. It doesn’t utter falsehoods. Love rejoices in the truth.
You can see, can’t you, that this is no namby-pamby kind of love. This is love that challenges our humanity to the core. (And love that draws out of us the very best of who we are.)
Scripture calls for love in the most demanding circumstances. These times in which we live can be challenging. Like the church in Corinth, we too encounter division. Personalities drive us crazy. Love sounds fine, until it comes time to put it into practice with our neighbours.
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Love doesn’t happen all at once. It takes determination and practice.
If we want to keep our physical bodies fit and healthy, we have to exercise. It’s no good flopping down on the couch all day. We need to keep moving. This is why we have our Fitness in Motion group here at the church. To encourage seniors in our community stay well.
And just as we exercise our physical bodies, so too we can build our spiritual selves in the “body of Christ.” It’s a form of resistance training, a way to grow our “love muscles.” We push against the weight of hatred, prejudice and pride.
Instead of lashing out, we try to be patient. Instead of further division, we work to find common ground. Instead of putting others down, we offer respect.
This is heavy lifting! It doesn’t come easy, not at all. And there are times when I have failed miserably. But the more we live God’s kingdom way, the stronger we grow. I’m hoping the day will come when it’s second nature to me.
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Speaking of days to come, our passage calls us to focus on things of lasting value.
Prophecies, tongues knowledge – all of these gifts the Corinthians thought so highly of, even bragged about – are limited and will, ultimately, come to an end.
We are invited to turn our attention from that which is partial and fragmentary, to that which is complete. From present to future. From what is now to what will be.
From childish ways, to maturity in our Christian walk. From seeing in a mirror dimly, to seeing God face to face.
Christians have this eschatological (end time) hope. We live our lives in flawed, imperfect ways. But we strive for a kingdom that’s coming to be. We’re surrounded by chaos, disintegration. But we are living for the promise of a world made whole.
At the end of the day, says Paul, there are only three things of enduring value: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these … well you know what that is. Love is the one thing that matters – eternally!
All else, everything we strive for and work so hard to attain – the good, the bad, the whole of our world and all our living – will fade into insignificance compared to this most precious gift in the God-given universe.
Faith hope and love abide. And the greatest of these is love.
When I arrive at the end of life, and I stand before my maker, the only thing that matters is that love will be waiting there to welcome me. I trust my life with that! Can you?
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It is a gift, you know: Salvation at the end of time. Love even here and now. These are gifts that come from God’s generous hand.
Scripture claims the only reason we love at all is because God has first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
“…love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:7-9)
I think of the amazing turn-around the apostle Paul experienced in his life. He was a smart guy, well-educated. He was zealous for the Lord. So much so, that concern for righteousness turned to violence. There was no love in his practice of faith.
Until one day Jesus showed up, out of the blue, and revealed himself, and said, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And it knocked proud Saul to his knees.
Love is always seeking us. Never gives up on us. Wants to dwell within us.
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When I read 1 Corinthians 13, I hear these lovely, lofty words. Then realize all the ways I have fallen short of them. It’s fine to say we should love more. Be patient, less irritable. Kinder, thinking less of self …. All down through the list of things that Paul presents in our passage as the way of love.
In my experience, it’s a bit like flogging a stubborn mule that’s bent on resistance. It doesn’t want to go. My life doesn’t want to change.
But as we open ourselves to God’s love, allowing it to come and dwell more fully within us – like a burning ember glowing in our hearts – then, maybe, hopefully, love will flourish!
And lives will change. And my life will grow to be more like that of Jesus.
The source of love is God. Love, says Paul, is the greatest of all God’s gifts. In love we were formed. In love we are redeemed. In love we will be welcomed. Love never ends!
And for that, we say whole-heartedly: “Thanks be to God!”
