Brent Kuhlman

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Fifth Sunday after Epiphany “C”                                             
7 February 2010           

1 Corinthians 14:12b-20

Are you ready for this sermon?  Do I dare preach from 1 Cor. 14?  I’ve got to ask.  Because today’s sermon may just be the straw that breaks the camels back for you if you’re not prepared to hear God’s Word.  Or you may receive great comfort and joy.  Either way be warned.  Paul is going to blow your minds today.

About what?  About everything that we believe to be so important about going to church on a Sunday.  We Lutherans are so Corinthian! That is to say:  we are so selfish! So self-serving!  Self-indulgent!  Self-absorbed!  Self-centered!  Narcissistic!  So immature!  Church is all about --- ME!  To borrow from Toby Keith this is why we Corinthians go to church on Sunday:  “I wanna talk about me.  Wanna talk about I.  Wanna talk about number one.  Oh my me my!  What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see!”  That’s so, so Corinthian! 

Go to church like a Corinthian (all the emphasis on me!) and I guarantee you will tear down the church.  Sunday morning Corinthians – with all the focus on me – are quick to criticize and complain rather than be constructive.  In Corinth this is how it went:  “I’m more spiritual than he is.  She obviously isn’t spiritual at all!”  They played favorites among the pastors.  Neglected the poor.  Tolerated gross immorality.  Even boasted about it.  Constant arguing.  Disruptive services where everyone talked at the same time – and some in languages no one understood.  Came to the Lord’s Supper drunk – unexamined – unprepared.  Total chaos.  Building up the self at the expense of the congregation!

Nothing expressed this building up of the self at Corinth than speaking in tongues in the service.  Super spirituals these tongues speakers were.  “I’m more spiritual than you!”  “No, I am!”  “No, I am!”  And on and on it went with everyone trying to outdo each other with babbling in a language no one could understand.  No interpretation.  Just chaotic tongue speaking one up-man-ship!  A complete checking in one’s rational mind at the church door.  All for the sake of building up the self!  Having a whiz bang worship experience! Who cares about the person sitting in the pew next to me!  Who cares if he or she or anyone else in the congregation understands what I’m spouting.  Speaking in tongues were only drawing attention to the self.  It was like losing your mind.  And that’s precisely why this babbling is a lesser gift.      

And then Paul drops a huge bombshell!  “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you!”  Who knew Paul spoke in tongues?  We didn’t know!  Of course you didn’t know.  Paul wasn’t about building himself up.  Showing off.  Or tearing down.  He was all about edifying the church.  So he probably did his tongue speaking at home.  And that’s why he says:  “But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”   Five words like:  Jesus Christ died for you!  Or five words like:  Jesus Christ rose for you!  That’s what edifies.

“Zealous for spiritual stuff are you?  Well then, try to excel – try to be zealous for things THAT BUILD UP THE CHURCH!”

Did you hear that?  Pastor Paul exhorts us and the Corinthians to be zealous for the things that build up the church – not what tears the church down. 

Enough of going to church only for you!  Only for what you can get out of it for yourself!  For your own selfish desires.  For your own personal religious experience. Time to stop thinking only about yourself!  It’s time to grow up.  “Stop thinking like whiney snotty-nosed spoiled children who only live for themselves!  Their feelings.  Their gratification!  It’s time to be adults.”

Use you mind properly.  Put it to good use.  Like an adult.  Jesus redeemed you for this very purpose.  And that’s all about two things.  First, listening to the Word of God.  Better to hear those five words:  “Jesus died for you” OR “Jesus rose for you” rather than all the selfish warm fuzzies or ecstatic tongues speaking.  Second, edification for others.  Or to put it another way:  love for others.  That was chapter 13.  Check it out.

And one of the ways that you show love for your fellow Christians and build up the body of Christ here at Trinity is quite simple but rarely mentioned.  But I will.  I will dare to.  And it’s this:  come to church.  When you come to church you come to receive Christ’s gifts of forgiveness in Word and Sacrament.  You need it.  I need it.  We can’t live without such giving from Jesus. 

But there’s something else going on.  When you come to the divine service you bring great joy to all of us.  You build us up.  You show great love to the members of the congregation here.  With you the thanksgiving, praise, and prayers of this congregation are edified and built up.  The congregation’s “Amen” is stronger.  Christ’s Word has its way with you.  Christ’s Word dwells in you.  So that as you sing the hymns, the various parts of the liturgy, and psalms, you build up – you edify -- your brothers and sisters here at Trinity.   

I’ll bet you never thought you’d ever hear a sermon like this today did you?  That’s what I thought.  And so for Christ’s sake – remember those five words (“Christ died for you” or “Christ rose for you”) – try to excel in gifts that build up the church.  What joy when we’re all living for each other and come to church for the edification of each other.  In the Name of Jesus.