A Call to Action & Connection

The Rev. Sara Warfield

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Paul’s first epistle to the church at Corinth in Greece is a letter to a struggling, divided community. This must have been particularly heartbreaking and not a little frustrating for the apostle. After all, he had spent a year and a half in Corinth, establishing a community dedicated to following Jesus, teaching them about his ministry and death, calling them to live Christ’s love.

But Paul’s call was not to lead an individual church but to launch more communities that embraced and lived the love of Jesus. He was a missionary sent to spread the good news of Christ throughout the Roman Empire. Which meant that once the church at Corinth had solid footing, it was time for Paul to move on and shine his light elsewhere.

But as soon as he left, the problems started. The community started to, as they say in the evangelical church, backslide. Some took more than their fair share at the eucharistic agape meals, some were pious whenever they were in the church community but then indulged in more self-serving behavior in other parts of their lives. Many also struggled with living their faith in a largely pagan community that held different values and whose customs dominated daily life.

On top of all that, after Paul left another slicker Christian teacher named Apollos came to Corinth. In Acts, Apollos is described as “an eloquent man.” Apollos was apparently very gifted at rhetoric, he was a smooth and compelling speaker, something particularly the elites of Corinth were drawn to.

So the church at Corinth became divided, some following Paul, some following Apollos. The leadership wasn’t sure what was right, what to believe, so they wrote Paul a letter asking for help. First Corinthians is Paul’s response to that letter. The scripture we heard today is the opening of that letter—a very standard opening for letters at that time: first a greeting, then a bolstering of the good characteristics of the recipients making them predisposed to whatever harder information might come later in the letter.

Now Paul was also a skilled orator and writer, maybe not as slick as Apollos, but he knew how to capture his audience’s attention. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind. Hey, the Corinthians might have exclaimed, he’s talking about us!. We do have grace! We do have gifts!

Now I do think that Paul was being sincere, AND it doesn’t hurt to butter his listeners up a bit. But I think what comes next is dead serious:

You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by God you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Whatever it is you are facing, Paul is saying, you have everything you need to face it. Jesus will strengthen you to the end. You’ve got this. It is a call to the community at Corinth: in the face of struggle, in the face of extreme division, you are called to step into your gifts, and you aren’t lacking in any spiritual gifts.

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I think we’re now in a similar situation to the church in Corinth. Our own country is divided, some following one political view staunchly, others following the opposite view staunchly, and most of us confused about what we can do. We’re living in a society whose current dominating beliefs are not in line with our values, and every day it’s hard to figure out how to live with integrity, with courage, with love. I know the violence and oppression that our brown and black neighbors are facing, particularly those who are immigrants, makes a lot of you angry. It makes me angry. I know that the assasination of a woman who was simply bearing witness to that violence in order to advocate for those neighbors has thrown a lot of us into despair.

At Bible Study on Tuesday, anger came up. Someone mentioned that you can’t get into heaven with anger in your heart, and someone else responded by mentioning the story of Jesus flipping over the tables in anger at what was going on in the temple. And then I shared what I was thinking: anger is neither a positive nor a negative thing. It’s a message, a signal telling us that injustice is present. Now listen, that injustice may be real or perceived or even imagined, but anger is always pointing us towards injustice.

Despair is similar. Despair is a message, a signal telling us that disconnection is present. We almost always, if not always, experience despair as negative because it’s often a disconnection we can’t do anything about: death or a break-up or a job lost or a friend or family member estranged. Disconnection can also be real or perceived or imagined, but despair is always pointing us to disconnection.

Now I want to acknowledge that there are unhealthy responses to anger, especially when the seeming injustice provoking it isn’t really there. There are unhealthy responses to despair, especially when the disconnection is more of a fear than a reality, or when people in despair stay isolated when they need connection. Those unhealthy responses are the cause of so much misunderstanding and hate and misery.

But what’s happening with ICE is making us angry because it is a real and powerful injustice. It is an injustice to see people about to obtain citizenship be detained at their naturalization ceremony. It is an injustice to separate children from their parents. It is an injustice to detain people simply because their skin is black or brown or they don’t speak English.

That anger is real, and it is warranted. It is a message, a signal, a call—to action, to solidarity, to change.

The murders of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis and Keith Porter in Los Angeles, and those dozens who have died in ICE detention make us despair because they cause us to question our connections to one another, our relationships, our interdependence. How can people treat others like this? Will they treat me like that? How can our care for the safety and dignity of other people make us targets for violence? If we can’t trust and depend on one another, and especially our armed authorities, what has become of our lives, of our society?

That despair is real, and it is warranted. It is a message, a signal, a call—to connection, to relationship.

Anger and despair are two ways, among many, that God calls us into love. When anger weighs on our hearts, only love through action can lighten it. When despair weighs on our hearts, only love through connection can lighten it.

Yes, in this moment God is calling you to action and connection. Not all of us in the same way. Let me remind you of one of my favorite Bible verses that just happens to come later in this first letter to the Corinthians: “To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

Some of us are called to bring our bodies to protests to shout and lament beside others, to show the world the breadth and depth of our anger and despair. But not all of us. Some of us are poets whose words slowly, beautifully, powerfully penetrate our community conscience. Some of us bring food and supplies to Zarephath and Snowcap who feed so many of the struggling immigrants in our community. Some of us have a gift for caring conversation–you’re the ones who can engage those with whom you disagree and bring love to the encounter. Some of us have a pulpit. Some of us can get trained to bear witness to ICE activity in our community.

“To each is given a different manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” What’s your manifestation? What’s your gift?

Because in this moment of injustice and disconnection, you are called to step into those gifts with boldness and courage, trusting, as Paul told the Corinthians, that You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end. Amen.