Compelling Community

Stephen Um, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, is speaking on reconciliation and equality within the church, gospel based and focused equality that flows from all that Christ has done for us. As he speaks on this topic, I believe that he makes a valid point when he is speaking on all that the Church ought to be:

Given our cultural moment, a community like this would be incredibly compelling. It is no secret that we live in a climate where inequality is a growing problem. But the thing is, every proposed solution misses this crucial point. Conservatives typically say that charity or philanthropy is the answer, that individuals should share. Liberals, on the other hand more or less go the welfare route -- the state, with our tax dollars in hand, should share. Now both of these are true -- individuals and the state should share!  But both also miss something absolutely crucial (which is why both charity and welfare come off clunky and arrogant, even offensive when you think about it). Both say, "Let me give you what I think you need without taking the time to get to know you, let alone share life with you, so I can just pat myself on the back and return to business as usual with my conscience clear." If reconciliation without justice is oppression ... then justice without friendship is just arrogance!  But we can avoid both dangers by sharing our goods and our lives.

Stephen Um (Commentary on 1 Corinthians: Preach the Word Series)

Not Without Pain

"It is naive to think one can function with the simple formula: People have problems and the gospel resolves them. The fact is, the gospel generates in individual lives and in society a new set of problems. One has only to love impartially and hatred is threatened and stirred to violence. One has only to speak the truth and falsehood takes the stand with pleasing lies. Invite persons of different social and economic backgrounds around the same table and the fellowship is strained, often breaking apart ... Plant the cross in a room and the upwardly mobile convert it into a ladder. Evil, by whatever name it is called, will not sit idly by and allow the gospel to transform a community ... Let the preacher, therefore, be encouraged ... when having to deal with those problems which clearly have their origin in the fact that the gospel has been released in the community. A difference is being made, and that is seldom without pain."

F.B. Craddock "Preaching to Corinthians" ~ As quoted by Ben Witherington III in his commentary on 1 Corinthians.

We All Need Each Other

At Edgewood Church, we are currently working our way through First Corinthians. The last two weeks we have been in Chapter 12. (Chapter 12 Sermon 1 & Chapter 12 Sermon 2) There have been several eye-opening moments for me as I have studied my way through this book, but some of the biggest ones, at least from my perspective, have happened in this chapter. As we finish up Chapter 12 this week, I came across a summary statement in one of my commentaries that left me nodding my head in agreement, and then typing the entire thing out. I then read it to my wife because I was marveling at its implications on they way we do church.

I have included the entire quote here... and I am obviously putting it here because I would like as many of my family and friends to read this as possible. You will see that I have included 6 paragraphs. They are the final 6 paragraphs from Ben Witherington III's chapter on 1 Corinthians 12.

If you don't have a ton of reading stamina... The important paragraphs are the last 3. If you read the whole thing... Pause after the second paragraph before you embark on the remainder. Focus in on the ideas in the last three paragraphs (especially paragraphs 4 and 5).

Note as well: ekklēsia is the Greek word for Church and apostoloi is the Greek word for Apostles (or messengers).

     Paul's use of the body metaphor to speak of the Christian Community in Corinth implies that he believes that God the Holy Spirit bequeaths to each Christian community all the gifts & graces it needs to be what it ought to be. In addition, the list of gifts in this chapter strongly suggest that God gives not only abilities but also persons as gifts to the community, weather apostoloi, prophets, teachers, or others.
     But does God still do all these things for the ekklēsia today? We can certainly affirm that God provides amply for the modern at Christian community, but in some ways the provision is different. For one thing, if we are to follow Paul's ideas on this matter, apostoloi were gifts given to the ekklēsia in its first two generations, but not since then. Paul assumes in 9:1 that an essential criterion for apostleship is to have seen the risen Lord during the period of his resurrection appearances at the beginning of the church age. Furthermore, Paul tells us that he was the last to see the risen Christ (15:8). While we can certainly talk about the passing down of the apostolic teaching through the ages of the ekklēsia, we cannot talk about the passing down of the apostolic office. “Apostolic succession,” in the sense of a continued apostolic presence through a church office, is a myth, since no one after the initial witnesses can meet the essential criterion. Apostoloi were God's temporary gift to found the community of Christ, and this was probably already recognized by the end of the NT period, as Rev. 21:14 suggests (cf. also Acts 1:22). Neither “the twelve” nor “the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:5,7) were a continual presence even in the first century.
     But nothing in the NT suggests that any of the other person's as gifts or gifts to persons ceased with the early ekklēsia. Indeed, there is a considerable evidence throughout the course of church history to the contrary. How might this conclusion be applied today?
Paul is apparently referring to all the Corinthian house congregations collectively as the body of Christ. This might well suggest that one particular local house church would not have all the gifts needed in that city to serve the purposes of Christ's body. Perhaps there is a lesson here for us. As many churches as we have in every city, none of them has all the gifts, graces, and human resources necessary to be the ekklēsia of God fully and adequately in that place. There is a warning here to every singular assembly that the “church” does not cease at its doorstep. Every local assembly needs every other local assembly to be complete. Just as gifted individuals cannot say to other Christians that they are unneeded it, since no Christian has all God's gifts, so, too, this is apparently true with congregations as well. It is not accidental that different Christian faith traditions have specialized in manifesting different gifts. For example, not all truly Christian congregations have prophets or tongues speakers in them, but some do. Or again, some churches have especially nurtured the role of elder or deacon(ess).
     My plea here is not just for tolerance or ecumenical cooperation and appreciation but also for recognizing that we all need each other. Paul is correcting abuses of various gifts in chs. 12-14, but to correct abuse of a gift is not to rule out its proper use. I suspect that Paul would tell us that just as “charismania,” the overemphasis on prophecy or tongues, is not healthy, neither is “charisphobia,” the anathematizing of all such gifts. We are not called to act in the chaotic and selfish fashion the Corinthians did, but we are also not called to quench the Spirit and arrange Christian worship so that there is no room for the spontaneous Word from above to be shared. There is a balance between Spirit and structure, order and spontaneity, that should be maintained in any local congregation.
     Finally, Paul’s word about giving more honor to the weaker members of the body of Christ, the less “presentable” ones, needs to be heeded. He believes that even these folks have essential gifts and functions to exercise. It is a mistake to bring the world’s evaluative system into the ekklēsia and to set up an honor roll that favors the more presentable and dignified, or those with the more outwardly showy or dramatic gifts. Paul believes that the body of Christ is only truly strong when it gives special honor and attention to its weakest members. The more presentable members do not need such attention. 

This quote comes from pg. 262-263 from Conflict and Community in Corninth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians by Ben Witherington III

Rampant Individualism

Stephen Um on Discipline…

“There is a cultural aversion to discipline. We’re comfortable with the idea of self-discipline. -- bringing ourselves into line with a certain standard in order to reach a long-term goal like weight loss, eating healthily, or earning an additional degree. We even refer to different branches of knowledge or fields of study as ‘disciplines’ because we understand that it takes sustained focus, hard work, and self-discipline to grasp them. However, we are uncomfortable with the idea of being disciplined by an external force -- someone or something outside ourselves.  And the reason for this is rampant individualism. Jonathan Leeman says, ‘[for] the average person in Western culture today: every attachment is negotiable. We are all free agents, and every relationship and life station is a contract that can be renegotiated or canceled, whether we are dealing with the prince, the parents, the spouse, the salesman, the boss, the ballot box, the courtroom judge, or, of course, the local church. I am principally obligated to myself and maximizing my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness… I retain the power to veto everything.’”

Stephen Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross (Preaching the Word)

power and love

"Like life itself, power is nothing --- worse than nothing --- without love.  But love without power is less than it was meant to be. Love without the capacity to make something of the world, without the ability to respond to and make room for the beloved's flourishing, is frustrated love. This is why the love that is the heartbeat of the Christian story --- the Father's love for the Son and, through the Son, the world --- is not simply a sentimental feeling or a distant, ethereal theological truth, but has been signed and sealed by the most audacious act of true power in the history of the world, the resurrection of the Son from the dead. Power at its best is resurrection to full life, to full humanity. Whenever human beings become what they were meant to be, when even death cannot finally hold its prisoners, then we can truly speak of power."

Andy Crouch, as quoted from Playing God by Stephen Um in his commentary on 1 Corinthians

Authority

Stephen Um on authority...

"Authority is not authoritarianism. Authority is the ability to influence others -- the right to give orders and make commands with the good of others in view. Authoritarianism is enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.  It is 'showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others; domineering; dictatorial.'  Authority is having a supervisor who seeks his or her staff's good in harmony with the good of others, leading to personal and social flourishing. Authoritarianism, however, is having a supervisor who demands strict obedience and crushes both individual and social flourishing for the purpose of maintaining control. The problem is that all of the uneasy feelings associated with authoritarianism (which are good and proper!) have been imported into the conception of authority."

Stephen Um (1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, Preaching the Word Commentary Series)

A Personal God.

From Stephen Um's commentary on 1 Corinthians:

“The idea of a personal God would have been almost impossible for the Corinthians to understand. In a sense it is equally difficult for us. And it is much easier to keep God at a safe distance. If he is just a set of data or a perceived lack of data, then we can treat him like an impersonal force. God becomes a decision that I need to make (“Do I believe in God or not?”) rather than a personal reality with whom I need to reckon.”

1 Corinthians: The WORD of the CROSS by Stephen T. Um

Preaching Jesus Christ... Crucified

“His task had been plain, his purpose definite; he determined to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ, and to know and proclaim him in a way least acceptable to the wisdom of the world, namely, as reduced to the deep disgrace of death by the cross. It was Christ and his atoning work and not any human philosophy of human salvation that formed the sum and substance of Paul’s message.”

Charles Erdman (The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: An Exposition)

patronage

You ever read something in a book that leaves you sitting there, mind spinning? It is usually followed by an audible "hmm..."  I will then usually look up from the book and slightly to the left. (I'm not sure if that means anything, but that is how it happens for me. I love it when that happens, and I am usually grateful, because this occurrence goes along with my sermon study as I am preparing for Sunday.

This happened a couple of days ago as I was reading my commentaries for my 1 Corinthians study. This one came from Stephen Um's commentary in 1 Corinthians.