Sermon
When Paul first arrived in Corinth, about 17 years after the death of Christ, he had already established churches in two major cities in the Roman province of Macedonia. The city of Corinth was not Paul's first rodeo. But it was certainly challenging.
Paul made several visits, and wrote several letters to Corinth. After Paul's first visit to Corinth, Paul heard that some of the leaders of the young house churches were bragging about one being more honorable than the other. First Corinthians then is a letter encouraging the Corinthians to be of one mind.
On a subsequent visit there was some trouble and Paul left under a cloud. He wrote a letter after that visit that has been called the lost letter of tears. We don't know what the trouble was, or what the letter said. Based on reference to it in other letters, it was a scathing letter. In addition, Paul decided that he wasn't going to make the next visit he had promised. Between that letter and reneging on his promise to visit, the Corinthians were unhappy with him and he stayed away. Paul was undependable, and he wasn't the only follower of Christ wanting to start churches in Corinth. These evangelists were competition for Paul.
2nd Corinthians was written after Paul heard from friends that things in Corinth had softened a bit. Paul was also getting a little nervous about the competition. Paul's message of Jesus Christ wasn't being questioned, but his authority was. For the next five weeks we will read through 2nd Corinthians, and hope to understand what Paul wrote to the church that he founded.
In this letter as a whole, Paul's primary concern was to win back the loyalty and fellowship of the house churches in Corinth. He also wanted to prove that he was dependable and that his authority was strong. In Paul's time, letter writers typically introduced the letter with credentials. Paul first aims to declare his authority. He declares that he is an apostle of who – of Jesus Christ – by who's will – by God's will, not his own. He is an apostle sent by God, which surely is greater authority than the other competition.
In the short reading for today Paul lays out themes of blessing God, suffering, and God's consolation. These are important things for Paul to bring up early on. Paul hopes that the hearers of the letter will come along side him again. He needs to show them he understands their suffering and need for comfort.
Paul doesn't refer to the blessings of God. Paul blesses God. He writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.” In Israelite scriptures one often evokes the formula of blessing God. The “Blessed be” formula is used 1) when one is in a moment of trouble and difficulty, 2) the speaker is thanking God for the steadfastness God shows us by being there to comfort us and offer us encouragement, and 3) the expectation is that others will join with us in the blessing with an “Amen.”
Paul begins this letter using the “Blessed be” formula as a strategy. With this formula hearers will understand that Paul recognizes the fractured nature of their relationship after the letter of tears. He is being conciliatory because he wants to win the Corinthians' confidence back. Paul's use of the formula brings the listeners the encouragement that comes from God's consolations. And thirdly, the expectation of an automatic “Amen” gives Paul hope that the Corinthians are well on their way to seeing him in a positive light again
“Amen” really just means ok, or me too, or yes. It's almost automatic. I had a friend who described it as an elbow nudge. I like ice cream! Me too! So by beginning with a statement of authority, and by employing the Blessed be formula, he has simultaneously recognized the trouble of the relationship and invited the Corinthians to come along with him.
Unlike Job's friends who suggested that suffering comes from sin, Paul believes that affliction and distress are expected in life, especially by those who claim to be alive in Christ. Paul believes that being associated with the gospel puts us in direct opposition to the ways of the world. The word translated as consolation, is repeated 10 times in just five lines. The consolation or comfort or encouragement from God is abundant. And that abundance is for everyone, but we're not allowed to keep it only for ourselves. The abundant comfort and encouragement we can depend on from God is ours to distribute as well. Comfort from God is not a feeling or a thing we have like a possession. It's more like a doorway through which we have a way out of our suffering. God's comfort becomes something for us to experience and in that experience we become the tool that God can use to spread that same comfort to others.
Now that we have finished six weeks of Job, it is nice to have a perspective on suffering from the Christian apologist Paul. Because we belong to God through Jesus Christ we are promised the comfort and encouragement of God. God is dependable and we can expect that consolation doorway. Paul describes the consolation we receive from God as something that will overflow onto others from us. The value then is greater when we consider community. When Paul refers to himself in the plural “we” or “our” he means to refer to himself as one of the community. By using plural, the individual and the community are interchangeable.
Being a Christian is both an individual pursuit and a communal pursuit. In this time of COVID-19 our inability to meet not only for in-person worship, but for most in person gatherings we might feel as if of our sense of community has been defeated. Being in community is not limited to being in close proximity to one another, although that's what we prefer. I invite us to find ways to do what we are missing, but in new ways. Our imaginations have been stretched these days, never having been able to imagine the situation we are in now. Let's use that stretch in our favor.
A few weeks ago I gave an example of flipping the question when I suggested that my friend who is a nun said she wasn't too worried about whether the Vatican would decide to ordain women as priests because she said it was only a matter of defining priest.
Let's flip the question ourselves. What is worship? What is community? Let's change the definition of worship. Let's find a broader definition of community. We might imagine a spring tea in another form. Let's give a Bethany Thanksgiving Dinner in another way. We can still do a talent show, but it will look different. Concerts, singing? That will have to wait. There are so many things that we are not able to do right now. We will grieve those things for a while. I hope that we can use Paul's words to us today to remind us that God's comfort and consolation is always ours. For us, instead of waiting for when we can meet again in-person, we can find all of the ways we can be community in spite of our physical distance. We can also absolutely depend on God for consolation. When we do, we will begin to recognize newness all around us.
We are community when we take part in a Black Lives Matter march however we feel safe; when we meet in small groups in safe conditions; when we share like-minded concerns with friends; when we have worship and meetings using technology; when we participate in a group challenge like the 21-day anti-racism challenge; when we pray for others when we are alone or at the online Zoom Prayer Service on Wednesdays.
We are a community whenever we do something to stay connected. Whether it's through a phone call, a visit to a patio, a safe walk in the park, a note, connecting through technology, visiting across the block, or even just thinking of a memory of someone.
For this first week of looking at 2nd Corinthians, Paul gives us hope. Paul reminds us of the faithfulness of God on our behalf. No matter what we go through, no matter how new and strange our world seems, God's consolations are for us.