You’ve got mail
1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Psalm 40:1-11
This morning – as I mentioned earlier – we are going to be doing a little letter writing! And at the end of the service we are going to slip off the front cover of our bulletins, fold it and ‘post’ it to someone else here in the service.
So! If you have jotted down something on that sheet, please write it to the inside! Of course, if you don’t want to participate in this letter writing exercise – don’t feel you have to – but I am going to adopt the 2 Thessalonians rule, when we come to ‘posting’ our mail (paraphrased) : “Anyone unwilling to write a letter, shall not receive a letter.”
Leading up to Christmas I was part of some conversations bemoaning the decline of the Christmas letter. Not its length! The correspondents who type up their 2010 diary seem to hang in there! (Sister Liz!) There just seem to be fewer people writing, though when I feel despondent about this I re-read an old Christmas letter from a friend called Paul.
Dear Aron and Belinda
Do you read countless Christmas letters each year wondering why your life is so dull compared to your friends? Do you wonder why your children didn’t win music awards, aren’t playing rugby for England (even if they are girls) and haven’t got a first class Oxbridge degree in Philosophy and Complicated Lego by the age of 6? Are you miffed you haven’t discovered a lost tribe of Amazonian Indians (and translated the important bits of the Bible into their language) while running an internet company employing the unemployed? Well, here is a list of the things we haven’t done this year, just to cheer you up.
We didn’t go skiing much to Paul’s relief. Not because he can’t ski. He could if he wanted to.
Paul didn’t pursue learning the saxophone much to everyone’s relief.
Liz didn’t give up teaching and become a researcher for travel books. Paul has assured her that commuting to school and a weekly trip to Tesco does constitute travel.
We had no sporting achievements. Paul gradually drifted down the leagues at his squash club in much the same way as a large lead weight drifts to the bottom of the sea. Finally he ended up playing elderly women who reach the court with a zimmer frame and read back issues of Women’s Weekly while waiting for him to get a serve in. One opponent knitted him a fairisle jumper and made a batch of marmalade whilst winning 9-0, 9-1, 9-0. The point Paul scored was when she went to the toilet. But he hasn’t given up – oh no.
The girls didn’t change schools. And we didn’t move house.
We hope to have some more exciting news next year, but to be honest it isn’t looking likely at the moment. Happy Christmas from us all.
Now my friend Paul may be the apostle Paul’s namesake in more than name! Throughout 1 Corinthians Paul makes full use of his literary arsenal, including irony, to correct the Corinthian position on a range of issues. But there is no evidence of that in the greeting and thanksgiving we have just read. We see Paul laying the groundwork for the difficult issues he needs to address; but he is genuine in his thanks to God for this church – in his belief that they are God’s church – and in wanting to encourage them.
And so, I’d encourage you to participate in this exercise in a desire to encourage others who are part of the church of God that is in Canberra.
First century letters begin by identifying the sender. Here Paul establishes his authority, reminding his readers that he was divinely appointed as an apostle – part of that small foundational group, including the disciples, - ‘by the will of God’. (A second reminder!)
There’s a general meaning of apostle, however, one we can all claim; that is ‘one who is sent’ ‘a messenger’. Each of us are messengers of God; and can write: From Belinda, sent to CBC and friends from the kids’ school…’called to work alongside Christ Jesus’ – and just in case I need (and you need) the second reminder; ‘by the will of God’.
(…Now, if you’re feeling uncomfortable about starting with your name – you can sign the end – as Paul does in 16:21 ‘in his own hand’. I love this reminder – along with the mention of Sosthenes name – that these letters were a team effort. Just as being the church is!)
Next Paul addresses the recipients, “To the church of God that is in Corinth…”, and describes them in two ways, two ways which are in theological tension.
We have seen this week the value of reminding people who they are – to encourage them to become what they already are. Anna Bligh saying, “Never forget we are Queenslanders.”
The last bit of Paul’s greeting is an interesting multicultural mix of Greek ‘Grace to you’ and Hebrew ‘Peace’; and a Christian understanding that the origin of all good things is God our Maker and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s a line there and an opportunity to come up with a greeting for us – acknowledging our cultural mix – or the Aboriginal custodians of this land – and our Christian world view...
Then Paul begins the thanksgiving, another feature of first century correspondence. Here, too, he picks up the idea of being holy and being made holy, of having and hoping.
His concern here is that the Corinthians will acknowledge where their gifts come from; and therefore how they are to be used.
It’s like the Christmas letters... Some, like those my friend Paul parodied, seem to be written by people whose children are academic geniuses, sporting legends and Master Chefs, (me!) and then there are others that know who to thank – as the psalmist does. As my sister wrote a few years ago: “We are not sure if we look back on this year as ‘The Year of the Move’ or as ‘The Year of the Appointment with some type of Medical Practitioner’ but however we remember it, it will be in the full recognition that it has been through God’s strength that we have been sustained.”
Canberra Baptist is also a church gifted “in speech and knowledge of every kind’. Early in my time here, going through the directory, I was overwhelmed by the number of doctors and reverends – and then, over these last two years, I’ve had the equally overwhelming privilege of meeting all of you! And alongside your secularly recognised abilities, is your history of spiritual wisdom and eloquence and knowledge – not just from the pulpit, but in small groups and individuals. For this is also a church where the message of Jesus is firmly established.
As a church, a group of people who have been made holy and showered with gifts we need to know who to thank…please fill in one thing you are most thankful for about CBC.
This might not sound so encouraging – and an odd thing to be thankful for. Yet Paul takes the word he used in verse 6 to say they had been ‘firmly established’ in faith and repeats it, in different form, in verse 8 to say God will also enable them to ‘walk firmly to the end’. God both firmly establishes us, and empowers us to walk firmly into the future. Amen!
The strengths we have as a church – our history, our accumulated knowledge – needn’t make us hidebound, for just as God firmly established us, God can firmly move us to new ministries (and new ministers!); new patterns of behaviour; and new expressions of our life together.
God will strengthen us till the end...perhaps you can add there one prayer you have for the future of Canberra Baptist Church ...
What is Paul’s final encouragement – and where we leave this letter? God is faithful.
On Friday there was a wedding here and the couple chose a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 for their reading that contained these words: “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love never fails.” They are beautiful words to describe God’s faithful love for us. Please add to your letter your own words of encouragement about the faithfulness of God…
And so, at the start of 2011, already aware of the uncertainty and difficulty and heartbreak that life can hold, I want to encourage you – that God sends us into the world, that God gifts us with grace and all we need, and though we are called to holiness and to wholeness as God’s people – God walks beside us all the way.
Let’s exchange our letters with those around us – and encourage each other!