Tim's Sermon Notes

To start, again, some background.
Paul founded the church of Corinth, then spent 18 months there. Sometime later, Paul writes to the church, warning about their need to deal with the sin in their midst (this is part of 1 Corinthians), specially, a man’s affair with his step-mother.

Paul subsequently visits Corinth and the disciplinary process begins, apparently not well. He then writes the “Severe Letter” which has been lost (probably for the best), and plans to visit Corinth again, but is prevented. Finally, he writes 2 Corinthians, trying to ratchet some some of what has happened in response to his letters and visit.

That second visit was distressing, even traumatic. As it is for many pastors, Paul is fatigued by being the one people call only when they are in crisis, particularly when dealing with sin against them or by them. In many ways it is a privilege to be in these situations, but when they are the primary way you interact with people, it takes a toll.

This is something all pastors deal with, and Paul in particular has been dealing with this in regards to the Corinthians. This is why he wants them to deal with their issues internally. This is one reason he is glad not to be able to visit them as he had planned. When he comes to them, he wants it to be a joyful experience.

He then explains the background of his initial confrontation of the sin in the church, explaining that the motive was his concern for them, not just his personal desire to be “the hammer.” It is a legitimate concern, but Paul wants to dispel it.

The tone here is very different from Paul’s initial condemnation, where he called on them to hand the man over to Satan. Now, he calls them to forgive him, to avoid themselves falling under the influence of Satan.

We see here in the Corinthians the human tendency to jump from one extreme to the other. Just as it is important to be clear on the need to confront sin, it is important to offer forgiveness. This is why the gospel has two parts – we are worse than we think we are, but more loved than we can possibly imagine. Humans constantly struggle between justice and mercy.

This time around, Paul is addressing the abuse of justice. One of the most successful strategies of Satan is to take our healthy zeal for justice and produce in us a heart of hate. God’s wrath is justified and righteous – ours, on the other hand, is not so much. The scriptures never justify human wrath. Instead, it is condemned categorically by Christ in Matthew 5, by Paul in Galatians, Ephesians & 1 Timothy, by James. We are called to “get rid of” our wrath, categorized right alongside idolatry and witchcraft. The only text in all the New Testament that gives permission for wrath pretty clearly calls us to keep it limited to 24 hours (“do not let the sun go down on your anger.”). God’s perfect wrath is not permission for us to be imperfectly wrathful.

As we seek justice in our communities, we must guard our hearts. We live in an age where wrath and self-righteousness is endemic in social media. We have all created zones of justification where we see our wrath as justified. There are horrific, monstrous things that people do, but we are not called to wrath and vengeance. True justice only comes from God.

We must confront sin, advocate for the oppressed and guard the weak. But we must also guard our hearts. We all have the same depravity within us. We should seek to not feel wrath, but rather pity, in those cases where we are confronted by people who do evil. We should aspire to be like Rachael Denhollander, the gymnast who confronted her abuser and that of hundreds of girls, in her clear, unflinching condemnation of evil, and the bright beacon of Christ’s mercy that she points to.

That evil and that hope exists within each of us. May we each seek to confront that evil, in our life and our world, without giving into it though self-righteousness and wrath.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 28, 2017

2 Corinthians 2:11-21

Paul here is defending himself from attacks around his change of travel plans to Corinth. The real story, though, is that his teaching is being undermined and criticised by Judaizers who want to require gentile Christians to follow the ceremonial law, become circumcised and so forth.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul notes that he plans to visit Corinth around his visit to Macedonia. In the end, though, that did not come together for reasons outside his control. Paul’s enemies in the church used this as leverage to attack not just Paul, but his teachings in general.

Paul, in turn, uses the story of his human inability to accomplish what he had planned to illustrate God’s supernatural ability and faithfulness to fulfill all his promises. In fact, it is often through the disruption of our plans that God accomplishes his.

There are many things in life that we do not have control over. This can be difficult to accept, especially living in a wealthy society where we are free from many of the things that have historically upset people’s plans (war, plague, etc.). But even today, our control of our lives is much more limited than we often realize.

However, if we recognize that much of this lack of control is actually the hand of Providence, that can change our perspective. Many of us can point to things in our own lives where we have seen Providence work in the past. But we may also be able to point to situations where Providence did not work in a way that we might have hoped.

How do you respond when things spin out of your control? Job losses, disease, injury and much more can upend our plans and send us into a spiral of worry and anxiety. It takes our joy and peace, and sends us away from seeking and serving God as we are called to.

In those seasons, the challenge is to let go of the things of the world, let go of our control, and instead cling to the promises of God. We are, at Paul writes, sealed as God’s, with the Holy Spirit as a deposit of even greater things to come.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 21, 2017

2 Corinthians 1:12-24

All of us are the lead characters in our own story. Sometimes our stories are driven by our decisions, sometimes by things outside of our control. We want to control how our stories are told (see Facebook) but also don’t generally consider our own stories to be particularly interesting. We don’t usually have epic adventures or amazing, exotic encounters.

Paul could certainly be considered to have had an amazing story – but the most important parts were not his shipwrecks and great speeches or even his conversion on the road to Damascus. They were his relationships, created by the Providence of God.

Priscilla and Acquila, businesspeople who become leaders under Paul’s training, and who went on to train Apollos, a Egyptian who went on to become a great leader as well. Timothy, Paul’s fearful Turkish/Jewish intern who was trained up into a pastor and saint. Even Stephanas, Fortunatas and Achaicus, who we know nothing about except that they were key characters in the early Church.

The key parts of Paul’s life were not the cinematic high points, but the impact he had on the people he came in contact with.

Paul believed two things about how God works: God plans things in His providence, and that we need to take every opportunity available to do God’s work.

Paul also understood that the work of God was not just dependent on him, but on the work of many others throughout the world. Those who he led to Christ now in turn refresh him. Paul didn’t just minister to others, but he also received ministry from those he led to Christ. That’s the kingdom of God on Earth.
He had to stay in Ephesus, but knew that the work of God continued elsewhere.

God is always at work. Through Providence, he puts particular people in our lives at particular times with particular purposes. Do we use those relationships only for our own good and own purposes? Or do we take the opportunities we are given to demonstrate the love of God in all its various facets? If we pass up these opportunities, God will still work His plan, but we will not be a part of that story.

We need each other to do the work of God. Not just the 20% who naturally get involved and do 80% of the work in most churches, but everyone. The health of a church can be indicated by the proportion of people engaged in the work of the body.

The beauty of the conclusion of this letter to the Corinthians is seeing all the connections that Paul made within the early church, the networks of servanthood and grace that stretched around the world. That is the same beauty we can be a part of every day as we love and serve each other and the world around us.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

1 Corinthians 16:5-24