Building a Solid Foundation
Sermon
Christmas Grace
Cycle A Second Lesson Sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany
Object:
The long-awaited dream would soon become a reality. Ground was broken for the family's new home. The ground was cleared and soon a foundation was dug; blocks and then cement were laid. Then masons came and carefully laid the bricks. Carpenters were next on the scene, nailing two-by-fours, framing the new house. After only a few weeks the house was beginning to take shape, which pleased the family. Roof trusses were carefully hoisted into place. Once the outside work was completed attention would be given to the interior of the house. Within a few short months the family would enjoy their new home. They could hardly wait.
What would happen if when the carpenters arrived they became jealous of the masons' work and in a fit of anger knocked down all the bricks? If when word reached the masons they too became enraged and destroyed all the carpenters' work, pulling down the frame of the house. Not only would the completion of the house be delayed, and the family would be disappointed, but in fact, the durability of the house would be in question. Who would want to live in such a house? The workers would have to return to redo the work they had already completed; it would cost them their time and any additional materials that were needed. What would happen if both offending parties would arrive at the same time to make repairs? It would not be inconceivable to see fist fights breaking out among the workers.
In effect, the Corinthians were experiencing that same sense of destruction within their congregation. Sides were drawn, harsh words were spoken, and the work and mission of the church came to a grinding halt. Paul's goal was always to build up the church and never tear it apart. When Paul heard what was taking place in the church, it must have broken his heart. He loved the Corinthians and certainly wanted the very best for the church that he founded. Paul's immediate goal was to restore order in the church so that the church could continue to be a beacon of hope and light in their community.
Paul claims, "Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it." During the eighteen months to two years that Paul was in Corinth, he purposefully set out to lay a solid foundation, knowing that others would come and build on what he started. Paul did not rely on his own knowledge as much as he rested on the grace of God to build a solid foundation, which he says, "is Jesus Christ."
Care along with maturity must be exhibited when attempting to build on that solid foundation. It was interesting that Paul never said anything negative about the people who followed him in leadership roles in the church. "Each builder must choose with care how to build on it," Paul wrote. The people within the church began making comparisons between Paul and Apollos. Some sided with Apollos, claiming that he was a better preacher, while others remained loyal to Paul. Such nonsense could not continue in the church. Paul simply laid the foundation in Jesus Christ, allowing others to come and build on what he began. Paul knew that divisive attitudes and behavior would harm the church.
The way we live our lives and how we conduct ourselves on a day-to-day basis says much of our faith. If people have trouble getting along with others in the church how can they ever hope to attract others into the fellowship? Unfortunately there are churches that have a reputation of fighting with each other or running their pastors out. When churches find themselves in that awkward position they fail to attract new people.
Paul wanted the people within that church to work together as a team. Each person possessed a different yet complementary gift that when used together would build up the church. We are incorporated into the body of Christ. Paul asks, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" The way we live should be markedly different from the rest of the world. Further, the church is more than brick and mortar; it is also people. We are the church together! We are God's temple with the Spirit dwelling in us.
A small rural church with an average worship attendance of only thirty people received a visitor one Sunday, a mother with a young child. It was evident that the child had special needs that required round-the-clock medical care. At first some of the members were put off by the depth of this family's need. Others found the situation disruptive to their worship experience.
Slowly church members were trained to help care for the child. The mother was grateful for the help and could run errands or get some much needed rest. The few children in the church would talk to the child and mother. The men helped alleviate accessibility issues in the family's home. The caring of the congregation completely changed the mother's life.
These acts of kindness also transformed the congregation. Worship attendance began to increase, the spirit of the congregation became more positive, and soon other families with young children began attending that church. Congregations that learn to treat others with the love of Christ attract people searching for a genuine sense of community.1
Living out our faith as part of the church makes us accountable to each other. When we see a sister or brother in the Lord acting in destructive ways we have a responsibility to confront the person "in Christian love." Paul was dead serious about this, "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person." We must confront someone with the hope that the person will see the error of their ways and change their behavior. It is never easy but Jesus promises that in such situations he is present with us. In the context of a conflicted situation Jesus states, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20).
Paul wanted the people to take a good, hard look at themselves and what they were doing. Were they encouraging one another in the faith or were they fighting with each other? Were they building one another up or tearing each other apart? According to Paul God does not take lightly destructive behavior within the church. People who cause damage will be answerable to God. "For God's temple is holy," Paul writes, "and you are that temple."
Elsewhere in his writing Paul asserts that believers need contact with other believers. We cannot be good Christians in isolation. We are called to live in community, to live a certain way, a holy way. We are to encourage one another in the faith. Being a part of the church of Jesus Christ entails responsibility. We are no longer free spirits who come and do as we please.
The bickering Corinthians thought they were wise, which Paul calls into question when he writes, "If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise." We live out our faith not elevating ourselves, or making ourselves out to be better than other people, but rather as fools for Christ. Time and time again Paul modeled humility in how he related to the Corinthians.
Finally, all that we do, and all that we have belongs to God. Paul states, "All belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." Everything we do we do for the glory of God as Paul claims later in his letter, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Richard Foster has written several popular books on prayer and spirituality. In one of them he recalled an experience he had as a teenager. He spent one summer with the Eskimo people in Alaska. "The Eskimo Christians I met there had a deep sense of the wholeness of life," he wrote, "with no break between their prayer and their work."
Richard had come with the attitude of adventure, of building the first high school above the Arctic Circle. However, it was hard work and far from the adventure he thought it would be. It was hard, backbreaking labor. One day he was digging a trench for a sewer line that he claimed was no small task in a world of frozen tundra. An Eskimo man whose face and hands displayed the leathery toughness of many winters watched him as he dug. "You are digging a ditch to the glory of God," he told the young man. Richard knew he said it to encourage him; he has never forgotten this man's words. "Beyond my Eskimo friend no human being ever knew or cared whether I dug that ditch well or poorly," Richard explained. "In time it was to be covered up and forgotten. But because of my friend's words, I dug with all my might, for every shovelful of dirt was a prayer to God.2
All of our activities, everything we do, needs to be evaluated using these terms. Paul teaches us, "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ." We order our personal lives and our corporate life in the church on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Amen.
__________
1. Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), p. 93.
2. Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), p. 172.
What would happen if when the carpenters arrived they became jealous of the masons' work and in a fit of anger knocked down all the bricks? If when word reached the masons they too became enraged and destroyed all the carpenters' work, pulling down the frame of the house. Not only would the completion of the house be delayed, and the family would be disappointed, but in fact, the durability of the house would be in question. Who would want to live in such a house? The workers would have to return to redo the work they had already completed; it would cost them their time and any additional materials that were needed. What would happen if both offending parties would arrive at the same time to make repairs? It would not be inconceivable to see fist fights breaking out among the workers.
In effect, the Corinthians were experiencing that same sense of destruction within their congregation. Sides were drawn, harsh words were spoken, and the work and mission of the church came to a grinding halt. Paul's goal was always to build up the church and never tear it apart. When Paul heard what was taking place in the church, it must have broken his heart. He loved the Corinthians and certainly wanted the very best for the church that he founded. Paul's immediate goal was to restore order in the church so that the church could continue to be a beacon of hope and light in their community.
Paul claims, "Like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it." During the eighteen months to two years that Paul was in Corinth, he purposefully set out to lay a solid foundation, knowing that others would come and build on what he started. Paul did not rely on his own knowledge as much as he rested on the grace of God to build a solid foundation, which he says, "is Jesus Christ."
Care along with maturity must be exhibited when attempting to build on that solid foundation. It was interesting that Paul never said anything negative about the people who followed him in leadership roles in the church. "Each builder must choose with care how to build on it," Paul wrote. The people within the church began making comparisons between Paul and Apollos. Some sided with Apollos, claiming that he was a better preacher, while others remained loyal to Paul. Such nonsense could not continue in the church. Paul simply laid the foundation in Jesus Christ, allowing others to come and build on what he began. Paul knew that divisive attitudes and behavior would harm the church.
The way we live our lives and how we conduct ourselves on a day-to-day basis says much of our faith. If people have trouble getting along with others in the church how can they ever hope to attract others into the fellowship? Unfortunately there are churches that have a reputation of fighting with each other or running their pastors out. When churches find themselves in that awkward position they fail to attract new people.
Paul wanted the people within that church to work together as a team. Each person possessed a different yet complementary gift that when used together would build up the church. We are incorporated into the body of Christ. Paul asks, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" The way we live should be markedly different from the rest of the world. Further, the church is more than brick and mortar; it is also people. We are the church together! We are God's temple with the Spirit dwelling in us.
A small rural church with an average worship attendance of only thirty people received a visitor one Sunday, a mother with a young child. It was evident that the child had special needs that required round-the-clock medical care. At first some of the members were put off by the depth of this family's need. Others found the situation disruptive to their worship experience.
Slowly church members were trained to help care for the child. The mother was grateful for the help and could run errands or get some much needed rest. The few children in the church would talk to the child and mother. The men helped alleviate accessibility issues in the family's home. The caring of the congregation completely changed the mother's life.
These acts of kindness also transformed the congregation. Worship attendance began to increase, the spirit of the congregation became more positive, and soon other families with young children began attending that church. Congregations that learn to treat others with the love of Christ attract people searching for a genuine sense of community.1
Living out our faith as part of the church makes us accountable to each other. When we see a sister or brother in the Lord acting in destructive ways we have a responsibility to confront the person "in Christian love." Paul was dead serious about this, "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person." We must confront someone with the hope that the person will see the error of their ways and change their behavior. It is never easy but Jesus promises that in such situations he is present with us. In the context of a conflicted situation Jesus states, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matthew 18:20).
Paul wanted the people to take a good, hard look at themselves and what they were doing. Were they encouraging one another in the faith or were they fighting with each other? Were they building one another up or tearing each other apart? According to Paul God does not take lightly destructive behavior within the church. People who cause damage will be answerable to God. "For God's temple is holy," Paul writes, "and you are that temple."
Elsewhere in his writing Paul asserts that believers need contact with other believers. We cannot be good Christians in isolation. We are called to live in community, to live a certain way, a holy way. We are to encourage one another in the faith. Being a part of the church of Jesus Christ entails responsibility. We are no longer free spirits who come and do as we please.
The bickering Corinthians thought they were wise, which Paul calls into question when he writes, "If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise." We live out our faith not elevating ourselves, or making ourselves out to be better than other people, but rather as fools for Christ. Time and time again Paul modeled humility in how he related to the Corinthians.
Finally, all that we do, and all that we have belongs to God. Paul states, "All belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." Everything we do we do for the glory of God as Paul claims later in his letter, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Richard Foster has written several popular books on prayer and spirituality. In one of them he recalled an experience he had as a teenager. He spent one summer with the Eskimo people in Alaska. "The Eskimo Christians I met there had a deep sense of the wholeness of life," he wrote, "with no break between their prayer and their work."
Richard had come with the attitude of adventure, of building the first high school above the Arctic Circle. However, it was hard work and far from the adventure he thought it would be. It was hard, backbreaking labor. One day he was digging a trench for a sewer line that he claimed was no small task in a world of frozen tundra. An Eskimo man whose face and hands displayed the leathery toughness of many winters watched him as he dug. "You are digging a ditch to the glory of God," he told the young man. Richard knew he said it to encourage him; he has never forgotten this man's words. "Beyond my Eskimo friend no human being ever knew or cared whether I dug that ditch well or poorly," Richard explained. "In time it was to be covered up and forgotten. But because of my friend's words, I dug with all my might, for every shovelful of dirt was a prayer to God.2
All of our activities, everything we do, needs to be evaluated using these terms. Paul teaches us, "For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ." We order our personal lives and our corporate life in the church on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Amen.
__________
1. Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), p. 93.
2. Richard J. Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), p. 172.
