"The Right Time"	January 24, 2010
Psalm 138, I Corinthians 15: 1-11	3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Colesville Presbyterian Church	Pastoral Associate Aaron D. Frank

When the Apostle Paul, wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he was writing to a community of early Christian believers who were trying to figure out what it meant to "BE" a Christian.  They found themselves arguing over all sorts of topics—dietary rituals, worship questions & spiritual gifts, to name a few.  This chapter is written to settle one of these disputes and remind the people of what exactly it was that they were claiming.  In these first verses, Paul attempts to instruct the Corinthian believers; they claim and proclaim Jesus' death and resurrection AND his appearance to many of his followers.  If we were to stop reading here, say after verse 7, there would be plenty of sermon material for us to consider.  And certainly a sermon on the power of the resurrection could be instructive.

 

Instead though, I want us to focus on the last few verses.  Paul humbly comments that Jesus appeared to him after his resurrection and that he felt unworthy of Christ's appearance.  And, that, "but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them - though it wasn’t me, but the grace of God working through me.  Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe."

 

Do you think that after Jesus appeared to him, that Paul said to himself, "I'm going to whip these guys into shape?  I'm going to take this group of Jews and Gentiles and make a real religion out of them.  I'm going to write long, complex letters so they'll know how to live as Christians." 

 

I, for one, don't think that's what happened.  The Book of Acts tells us just that. Paul began by proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God and his ministry grew from there. I think those last verses of this morning's lesson are further evidence of that.  To paraphrase, Paul is essentially saying, "I'm a vessel.  I work hard and God's grace has been given to me."  I think Paul's vision from the outset was to be a guide, to change one person, one way, in which the Corinthians looked at each other.  That obviously grew into something much larger, but at the outset, Paul simply sought to share his transformation in faith.

 

How often is it that way?  We set out to one thing and it becomes two.  Friends offer encouragement and suddenly we're changing our goals, broadening what we consider is possible.  On Monday, we, as a nation, celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.  I think there are some parallels between Paul's teachings and Dr. King's legacy.  In the way that Paul's Damascus Road experience came to remake religion in the Roman world and beyond, I think that Dr. King began with a goal of justice within his community and as he worked, he saw that gift of justice, or "somebodiness," as he called it, spread across the South and the nation.  This one thing, justice, that he first proclaimed as a young pastor grew into another larger thing day by day, transforming lives and today we are blessed with a nation that has been profoundly influenced and should continue to be challenged by his words and convictions.

 

Earlier this Fall, Charlie Harris taught a class where he displayed some of his father's work as a photographer in Pittsburgh.  I taught a class that same day and missed the opportunity to see the photos.  So, Charlie offered to let me look at the photos he used in his presentation of his father's work at on my own.  The collection provides an incredible snapshot of Pittsburgh, and particularly, black Pittsburgh, from the 1930's thru to the '70's.

 

Culling through the photos, I looked closely at a group that depicted picketers and protesters; they are dated from the 1960's thru the 70's.  On the Carnegie Museum website you can look at some of them, with captions.  In the photos there are men and women, black and white, and ministers, black and white, and all marching for a cause that had grown large in Pittsburgh from modest hopes in places like Atlanta and Montgomery.

 

One photo, stood out to me.  It captures two women raising picket signs in front of a store called, "Italy's [pronounced: Isley’s] Grocery."  The signs said, "Italy's Grocery Discriminates...," and "Shop where you can work in every department."  These women, to my thinking, weren't asking for the moon, but simply for the opportunity to work a good job.  But, at the time, their actions were courageous.  They must have felt incredibly empowered to have the confidence to make those statements.  That sense of "sombodiness" they were filled with, was their own expression of the work that began miles away and years before and was influenced by numerous academic, cultural and religious traditions.

 

Every day we encounter legacies.  Some possess an importance and complexity that would take hours if not days or years to interpret, others remain less intricately woven, but yet every bit as important for the people whose lives are affected by them.  The Souper Bowl of Caring which we heard about earlier in our Moment for Mission is one such legacy.  It began in 1990 as a way for the high school youth group of a church in SC to create a religious connection with their plans to watch the Super [SPELL] Bowl together.  It's now a nationwide event.  Empowered Women International, a group this church supports, likewise helps women displaced from their home countries to make a life for themselves using the skills they learned back home.  For those affected by these opportunities, their lives are transformed.  For the Lost Boys of the Sudan who remade their lives here in the US their lives have been transformed.  In Haiti, as devastation crippled the country, what opportunities await for transformation?  In each of these examples the organizers began with the hope of doing one thing, not knowing the incredible effect their efforts would have years later.

 

Here, for us today, I wonder how we can be agents of transformation?  What one thing can we do that will affect a second thing?  And a third, and before we know it, be something bigger than we would have ever expected.

 

I read recently that when people set goals they more often than not fail because they don't know how to get from today to the goal, far down the road.  They get caught up in defining the goal, as opposed to living the work that it takes to get to the goal.  Paul, for instance, likely didn't see Jesus and then the next morning decide, "Ok, I’m going to sail from one end of the Roman empire to the other spreading this Gospel, ensuring my place in history as a prince of the church."  Rather, I think, he asked himself, "How does a follower of Jesus behave?"  Likewise, Dr. King asked himself, "what can I do to work for justice?"  Daily, they each set goals to embody their faith. 

 

Paul says in the last verse of this morning's reading, "It's not about me, whoever it was that did the work, it is thanks to God's energy that it is being fulfilled."

 

I wonder, what one thing can each of us do today to change what OUR tomorrow will be?

 

By God's grace, let us do that thing.  Let us be that change.  Amen.