As some of you know, I get to speak about once-a-month here at the little church I grew up in in Hartford. In January of this year (2007) one of our patriarchs passed away unexpectedly, and it chanced that my turn was the week after. Using that as a start, I wrote what turned into a series of four sermons, each interconnected with the previous ones. To those who don’t know the specific people, just imagine someone you Do know like them (We ALL have people like this in our lives, somewhere!)

Since school is out for the summer, I will try to post one-or-two of these each week in the order that I gave them. This is the first, and was given on January 28, 2007… 

 

Oh, yeah… those of you familier with any of the speeches I wrote for Speech Class last fall might recognize parts of this…

 

Let me read something to you and see if you can guess when it was written… and maybe even who wrote it…

 

I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

 

Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

 

Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

 

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

 

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

 

Any thoughts?… Paul wrote this first letter to the church at Corinth around 55 AD… but by reading it from the New Living Translation, which puts these old thoughts into new words, one could easily get the impression that they were written in this country at anytime in the last 50 years or so! Kinda’ scary, ain’t it?

Now, Barnes’ Notes tell us that…

 

… the city of Corinth became eminent among all ancient cities for wealth, and luxury, and dissipation. It was the mart of the world. Wealth flowed into it from all quarters. Luxury, amusement, and dissipation, were the natural consequents, until it became the most gay and dissolute city of its times, – the Paris of antiquity.

 

There was another cause which contributed to its character of dissoluteness and corruption. I refer to its religion. The principal deity worshipped in the city was Venus; as Diana was the principal deity worshipped at Ephesus; Minerva at Athens, etc. Ancient cities were devoted usually to some particular god or goddess, and were supposed to be under their peculiar protection. Corinth was devoted, or dedicated thus to the goddess of love, or licentious passion; and the effect may be easily conceived

….

Her shrine appeared above those of the other gods; and it was enjoined by law, that 1,000 beautiful females should officiate as courtesans, or public prostitutes, before the altar of the goddess of love. In a time of public calamity and imminent danger, these women attended at the sacrifices, and walked with the other citizens singing sacred hymns. When Xerxes invaded Greece, recourse was had to their intercession to avert the impending calamity. They were supported chiefly by foreigners; and from the avails of their vice a copious revenue was derived to the city. Individuals, in order to ensure success in their undertakings, vowed to present to Venus a certain number of courtesans, which they obtained by sending to distant countries. Foreign merchants were attracted in this way to Corinth; and, in a few days, would be stripped of all their property. It thus became a proverb, “It is not for everyone to go to Corinth,” – (ou pantas andros eis Korinthon estin plous).

 

The effect of this on the morals of the city can be easily understood. It became the most frivolous, dissipated, corrupt, and ultimately the most effeminate and feeble portion of Greece. It is necessary to make these statements, because they go to show the exceeding grace of God in collecting a church in such a city, the power of the gospel in overcoming the strongest and most polluted passions of our nature; and because no small part of the irregularities which arose in the church at Corinth, and which gave the apostle occasion to write this Epistle, were produced by this prevailing licentiousness of the people; and by the fact, that gross and licentious passions had received the countenance of law and the patronage of public opinion.

 

 

Let me use a little poetic license and rewrite and reread that last paragraph…

 

The effect of this on the morals of the United Statescan be easily understood. It became the most frivolous, dissipated, corrupt, and ultimately the most effeminate and feeble country in the world. It is necessary to make these statements, because they go to show the exceeding grace of God in collecting a church in such a country, the power of the gospel in overcoming the strongest and most polluted passions of our nature; and because no small part of the irregularities which arose in the churches of the United States, and which would give the apostle occasion to write this Epistle to us instead of the Corinthians, were produced by this prevailing licentiousness of the people; and by the fact, that gross and licentious passions had received the countenance of law and the patronage of public opinion.

 

“…That gross and licentious passions had received the countenance of law and the patronage of public opinion.” Does that sound like this country to you?

America! The land of freedom and opportunity! And over the years, many have interpreted that freedom as the freedom to express themselves in everyway, including sexuality. Indeed, the whole concept of ‘Playboy’ magazine was to address and encourage what it considered the sexual freedoms of all men and all women! And each succeeding generation has loosened up a little more and a little more until many of today’s parents can find no evil in their children’s activities, or, at best, find it difficult to address them because of the ‘sins’ in their own lives. Let me explain that…

A friend of mine in high school was teaching his girlfriend how to drive. His first instructions to her were to “Drive like I tell you, not like I do!” That doesn’t work!

Let’s look at some numbers… According to the National center for Health Statistics, in the year 2003 alone, there were more than 34,000 new cases of syphilis, 877,478 new cases of Chlamydia, and well over 300,000 new cases of gonorrhea! The Illinois Dept of Public Health statistics for 2001 and 2002 record almost 40,000 teenagers having babies just in Illinois! And I didn’t even look up any numbers for Aids and HIV!

Another friend of mine in high school found herself pregnant shortly into college, knew her family would disown her, and flew to New York to have an abortion. (Remember, this was 1971 or 2… It was illegal in Illinois, at the time.) She has since had three wonderful kids, the two youngest of which are now in college. She has never told any of them about her earlier experience… and indeed, has become a very staunch anti-abortionist… which is another story for another day… yet, somehow, they knew! And so, when the middle girl came to tell her mother last fall that she was pregnant, she knew that ‘mom’ would accept and forgive her… as she did, most lovingly. But my point is that each generation has become more accepting of such things… and so each succeeding generation has been allowed still more ‘freedoms’… and next, more… and the next, still more! Just as an example, in an article in ‘The Sunday Oregonian’, from Portland, Oregon, Dr. James Allen states, “If there are 40 episodes (of ‘Sex and the City) a year, how many sexual partners do the characters in that show have? If you multiply that by the number of years the show’s been on, the number is astounding.” Is it any wonder that our concept of what is acceptable behavior and what is not has become distorted?

I still keep in touch with some of my old high school friends, and whenever this one I mentioned would start ‘beating herself up’ for past sins, I tried to say that we had been indoctrinated from youth to accept that whole concept of individuality, sexual freedoms, and, yes, even abortion, as being modern normality… and that because of that indoctrination, we weren’t responsible for our actions at that time… and yet, she very pointedly tells me that, yes, we were! We had been brought up in the church, and should have known… indeed, DID know, but chose to ignore… right from wrong! I can’t argue that point! Which leads me to my main point…

Last Sunday, those of us here sat in a circle downstairs and shared our thoughts, experiences, and insights into the life and Theology of Clint, and how much he would be missed. I sat there sorta’ feeling like the ‘odd-man-out’ since I had not had much time to update my childhood memories of him… but I found myself thinking how powerful an image of what a ‘good’ man was supposed to be he had always been to me… and how much I failed to live up to that image in my own life. And yet… there is a danger in thinking that… let me explain…

John Wesley was a very ‘good’ man, and became very strong in his faith, and worked hard to help others understand and believe as he did… and was so successful at it that the movement he founded… the Methodists… continues today! However… one of my biggest problems with the Methodist was that they were too prone to go back to Wesley for their teachings and understandings of Theology and ideals… instead of to the original source… the Bible! Last Sunday, I’m sure that each of us here were comparing our lives to that of Clint’s and considered ourselves as ‘coming up wanting’… but it is NOT RIGHT… and we do him a great injustice in doing so! Each of us are to live our lives by God’s Word… each of us are solely accountable to Him for our actions… and each of us are to minister for Him in our daily lives to the best of our abilities! God will not compare us to how close we are like Clint… but to how close we are like Jesus! Which brings me back to these words of Paul’s to the Corinthians…

The Life Application Commentary tells us that…

 

Paul used the case of the incestuous relationship to confront the Corinthians with their obvious lack of true maturity. Although they claimed great spiritual health, he regarded this situation as a gangrenous limb. It was too late for preventive treatments or normal surgery. The disciplinary actions Paul directed were spiritual crisis intervention. They ought to be applied carefully in church discipline. Paul was dealing with a scandal, while at the same time making it clear that the Corinthian behavior had allowed incest to become acceptable. Even today, discipline of people within the church must begin with repentance by all the church.

 

I can stand up here this morning and tell you, quite unabashedly, that my life in no way compares to Clint’s… I am a sinner… I have sinned in the past… I sin today… and I think I can say I will probably sin in the future! Does that mean I shouldn’t be up here talking to you? I hope not! Indeed, I can sometimes truly feel God pulling and leading me to recognize and acknowledge my sins so that those who hear and see me might know how weak I am as a human… but how strong I can be with God! And the same is true of each and every one of you!

I know I’m out of time, and it seems as if I have opened up and just barely touched on a number of serious topics this morning… so I thing it is safe to assume that this will be another ‘Part One’ in a series… for now, let me close with what the Life Application Commentary actually uses as the introduction to 1 Corinthians…

 

Lawsuit.

Split.

Scandal.

Tragically, contemporary headlines often trumpet bad reports from local churches. News of leaders’ sexual escapades, disgruntled and disgraced members’ lawsuits, unethical and irresponsible fiscal practices, and blatant heresies seems to parade weekly across television screens. [In John 13:35], Jesus had told the Twelve that his followers would be known by their love.Yet, today, many who claim to follow him are marked by anything but love. Instead of standing apart from the world, the church has taken the appearance of other, secular institutions and has blended in.

 

What would God say to these errant believers, to churches and individuals who have strayed from obeying his commands? He said it nearly 2,000 years ago through Paul to Christians in decadent Corinth, a city similar to many communities today. Paul wrote letters, now known as 1 and 2 Corinthians, urging believers to focus on Christ, forsake immorality, settle their differences, reject false teachers, unify, and . . . love. As you read these personal and powerful epistles written first to ancient Greeks, know that the words and principles apply to this generation as well.

 

And remember this… ‘this generation’… means each one of you… it means me… it means all of our kids… and their kids… and so on… and so on…