The brief introduction to the letter stands in marked contrast to the spanking the saints of Corinth will get through the balance of the letter.
The epistle lessons for Epiphany are from 1 Corinthians, in order over all three years (Series A starts with chapter 1, Series B picks up with chapter 6, and Series C starts with chapter 12). Church seasons in ordinary time (Epiphany and Pentecost seasons, the liturgically “green” seasons) take the opportunity to teach the Church through the epistles, which really do deserve to be read from beginning to end. This is ancient mail, and the churches who first received these letters from the apostles would read them in assembly, received as gifts from God Himself, not picking and choosing from them as proof texts or apologetic ammunition (as we might treat them today when doctrine divides). Breaking up a very lengthy letter over several weeks makes sense, though breaking it up over three years like we do with 1 Corinthians presents something of a challenge if the preacher had hoped for something approximating a comprehensive study of the entire epistle.
I have noted before how I am personally not an advocate or practitioner of the “sermon series.” I think most people who darken the doorstep or warm a pew are not tuning in because of a preacher’s cliffhangers from last week. Perhaps, this tracks with our contemporary penchant for bingeing our Netflix or Prime series? I guarantee the preacher’s perceived connections between weeks of readings and messages from the pulpit is a perception appreciated by the preacher alone, and at most a select one or two others. Most people do not care. They come to the diner to get their hash and eggs and go. They come to the trough to get fed. They are not judging the meal on the scale of a gourmand or critical review (nor are they coming to judge). They are coming to get fed! What they need is nutrition, and to finish the analogy, the nutrition in the case of the pulpit is the faithful delivery of the crucified Christ for the justification of your hearer. Rhetorical, rational, spiritual tools can all aid the delivery of the Word that kills and makes alive and can help season it with the kinds of stuff that makes it a salutary word to hear. But “sermon series,” a la teaching an extended seminar on a theme, is not necessary to do that.
Nevertheless, if sermon series are your thing, then the best the Three-Year Lectionary Series serves up for you is these extended seasons of whole (or at least chunks of whole) epistles! This year, because Ash Wednesday is February 18, the epistles of Epiphany embrace only 1 Corinthians 1-2. If Easter were a couple of weeks later, 1 Corinthians 3 and 4 would be on deck as well. But I can conceive of a series through the four weeks of those first two chapters that might pique a preacher’s interest. The “body” talk which permeates all of 1 Corinthians is already present in chapter 1. “Wisdom” is a major theme Paul weaves through the initial bits of the epistle as well. How about something like a few weeks of seeing different angles on and preaching different sermons on the strength and the power of God? A series could go something like this:
Sermon Series: “Where God Puts His Power”
The Great Reversal - How God Hides His Strength Where No One Would Think to Look
Week 1 (Epiphany 2: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9)
Title: Kept to the End
Theme: Christ calls the Church, Christ carries the Church, Christ keeps the Church.
Preaching Points:
– God’s power is revealed not in outward evidence of spiritual perfection and miraculous feats but in divine
faithfulness.
– Christ is at the center as the guarantor of the Church’s present and future.
Week 2 (Epiphany 3: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17):
Title: Power that Will Not Compete
Theme: Branding, favoritism, and cult of personality all shrivel in the shade of the One who will not be divided.
Preaching Points:
– The cross is the end of comparisons, rivalries, and division over doctrine or charisma.
– Christ is at the center as the Church’s unity flows from sharing in His death, not in preachers or personalities.
Week 3 (Epiphany 4: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31):
Title: Weakness that Wins
Theme: God saves the world through what the world laughs at; the dirty joke of history, the cross.
Preaching Points:
– The cross turns inside-out all of our notions of success and exposes the emptiness of all of our human boasting.
– Christ is at the center as the embodiment of weakness: The embodied of the wisdom and power of God.
Week 4 (Epiphany 5: 1 Corinthians 2.1-12):
Title: Received Not Achieved
Theme: You do not reason your way into the Gospel, it is revealed and received, not a matter of intellectual superiority.
Preaching Points:
– God the Holy Spirit reveals the mystery of Christ; faith is God’s gift and depends on God alone.
– Christ is at the center as the hidden (and now revealed) wisdom of God, made known by the Spirit.
Just a thought for the four weeks that start this Sunday. I could conceive of preaching something like this over several weeks, particularly if I felt I had a burst of creative energy at the end of a Christmas holiday season, a few days to recover from multiple church services, and a New Year resolution to work ahead on my sermon craft in a disciplined way, that then translated into a miniature writing retreat where I could knock a few sermons out in one swoop. I encourage writers retreats and artistic holidays for everyone whose professional calling demands creative work, but fortunate is the person who can afford such luxury! May our Lord bless you in this new year with the space, time, and other resources (including people) to hone your craft, attend to it, and practice the discipline of prayer, contemplation, study, reading, and writing, so that your hearers may in turn be blessed by the Word of God in Christ faithfully delivered!
Personally, I will likely not be crafting sermons for a series this Epiphany. There are a couple of festival field trips to enjoy in January. The Confession of Saint Peter and the Conversion of Saint Paul are a week apart from each other, and they fall on Sundays this year. So, I want to stay flexible through this brief season before an earlyish Lent. For this Sunday, the 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 text, the theme is sanctification (in the wide sense). It is God setting apart His own, God at work “holying” His Church, God making the miracle (in spite of what human eyes may see). The brief introduction to the letter stands in marked contrast to the spanking the saints of Corinth will get through the balance of the letter. Paul takes issue with lots of stuff, of course, and gets right down to in the very next breath as he points out the schisms (and schismatics) in the Corinthian congregation. These people have problems! They have problems being one body of Christ (1 Corinthians 1, 3), problems with their bodies sexually (1 Corinthians 5, 7), problems as the body of Christ competing as parts (1 Corinthians 12), problems with the body of Christ in the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 10, 11), and the list goes on; lots of body problems in this body of Christ! Yet, notice how in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 the Church, the assembly, ekklēsia (literally, the “called-out”), together with others everywhere who are called (klētoi) to be saints, are those who are calling upon (epikaloumenoi) Christ’s name. This “called…called…calling” anaphora identifies the saints of Corinth as elect and dependent, as having their origin and their goal, their sum and their substance in the grace of God in Christ.
In other words, this is all from God. Whatever they look like, they still belong to God in Christ. Whatever they appear to be (indeed, if they speak in tongues of angels or have faith to move mountains – 1 Corinthians 13 – or if they suffer the consequences of correction against behaviors that reflect debasement and shame – 1 Corinthians 5), from the start they are God’s people. He is the one who has set and is setting them apart. The bookends for this truth are at 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 1:9. They are “holied” and called holy (1:2, hēgiasmenoi, hagioi klētoi – note the passive forms here, as these are blessings received by the people Paul addresses; God is agent, God is acting, and God is running this show). This is confirmed as Paul concludes God is the faithful one, God is the one who called you into fellowship with His son, our Lord Jesus Christ (1:9).
This is what we mean by sanctification (“sanctified,” 1 Corinthians 1:2) in the wide sense (not the narrow sense by which theologians are usually talking about the Christian life of good works in the temporal kingdom). God is doing the “holying,” God is doing the setting apart, and God is calling Himself a people. But how can Paul say this about a body that in other respects looks like it is at risk of rotting? Active sin! Arrogance! Personalities! Messy, messy people work! By the way, if this sounds like your modern, contemporary congregation, then stay tuned; there is good news for you. If this does not sound like your congregation, it may be that you need to spend more time talking to your people.
God is doing the “holying,” God is doing the setting apart, and God is calling Himself a people.
The answer lies most poignantly in the grace and gift language of 1 Corinthians 1:4, underscored by Paul’s parenthetical clause at 1 Corinthians 1:6. “The grace of God was given you in Christ Jesus... even as the witness regarding Christ was confirmed among you.” The status of the Corinthians, the status of your own congregation, the status of each and every individual saint, does not depend on how spiritual they appear to be. Prophecies will pass away, tongues will cease, and knowledge will pass away (1 Corinthians 13:8). Standing before God does not depend on human effort, nor rightness on enumerating the many sins God could mark against us (Psalm 130:3-4). No, the status of every believer, the status of every Christian congregation, from Corinth to your own, depends solely on the grace of God in Christ. They rest in His favorable attitude towards sinful human beings, all in light of the person and work of Christ. It is, namely, His incarnation, passion, sinless life, atoning, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, session at the right hand of God, and coming again for final judgment. All of the notes of the Creed resound in Paul’s “witness of Christ” parenthesis (1 Corinthians 1:6).
In other words, your hearer’s sanctification, your hearers’ holiness, depends on Christ dead and raised, Christ delivered and received, Christ presented and believed. He is the one who will sustain them to the end, guiltless (anenklētos, unaccusable) on judgment day. He is the faithful one (1 Corinthians 1:9) who “holies” his holy ones (1:2), and there is a wide variety of ways He does so in practical, real, material, and bodily ways to apply to your hearers. Think sacramentally, and you will move to the body and blood, you will underscore baptism. Think of the Word in all of its forms, and you will encourage the Word preached, sung, studied, and prayed.
Above all, deliver the gift of Christ, faithfully proclaimed as dead and risen, and you will have done precisely what Paul did for the Corinthian Christians: Confirmed your hearers in their calling and given them the good news of their status before God that depends solely on His work for them in Christ.
God bless you in your sermon craft this week!
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
