PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
PART V

ONLY GOD GIVES THE GROWTH
February 15, 2014
Westmount Park United Church

We are now at the fifth in a series of six epistle readings from the opening chapters of Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians. Paul begins this letter with the declaration that it is God’s grace which makes it possible for the Christians in Corinth to be a Church of God. That was the theme of my first sermon in this series, that as Christians our relationship to God and to each other is a gift from God. That basic tenet of our faith undergirds everything else Paul has to say about our life in Christ. Because it is God who has called us into the fellowship of the Church of Jesus Christ we overcome disunity through our God given unity in Christ. That was the theme of our second week in this series. The theme of the third week was the foolishness of the gospel, foolish from the point of view of human wisdom, human values, but truly life giving because it is the good news of God’s gracious act of redemption in Jesus Christ. Then last week, as we read on into chapter two of First Corinthians, we found Paul proclaiming that our faith rests not on intellectual pursuits or emotional manipulation or a preacher’s spell binding oratory but on the power of God. Which brings us to today’s epistle reading where we can trace once again Paul’s underlying theme that it is God’s Spirit at work in our midst which gives life and health to any Christian fellowship.

Epistle Reading – I Corinthians 3: 1‑9

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” [I Corinthians 3:6&7]
This is a very good lesson to have before us at this particular time in the life of Westmount Park United Church because with my impending retirement at the end of June we are now engaged with the presbytery in first drawing up a needs assessment report and then searching for a new minister. I have served on both needs assessment and search committees for various churches in this presbytery and so I know something of the sorts of hopes and expectations congregations have when first clarifying the job they hope a minister will do and then looking for a person to fill the position.
I remember sitting with a committee in a downtown congregation which still had fond memories of a bygone era when crowds of people came out for both Sunday morning and Sunday evening services to hear the silver tongued orator whose preaching was renowned not only in Montreal but across the country. So they felt that the key to success in their church would be to find someone who could mount the pulpit and bring the crowds back with spell binding eloquence. It was in our reading from First Corinthians last week that Paul said his job as an apostle was to proclaim the gospel, but “not with eloquent wisdom.” [I Corinthians 2:4] The gospel has power and persuasiveness but does not need powerful oratory because it rests on the power of God
I was sitting with a search committee in another church when one of the members of the committee actually said, “We want to hire a minister who will grow the church.” There are two things wrong with that statement, one trivial and one very serious. The trivial point is that the verb “to grow” in the sense of “get bigger” is an intransitive verb that does not take an object. The serious problem with that statement is that to look for a minister who will grow the church (or, to be more grammatically correct, make the church grow) flies directly in the face of Paul’s fervent declaration that although he has laboured hard in bringing the gospel message to the people of Corinth, and although there have been other leaders like Apollos also working hard in the church, it is God and God alone who gives life and health to the Church. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” [I Corinthians 3: 6] Do you hear again Paul’s underlying theme: Our relationship to God in Jesus Christ, as Christians and as the Church, is by God’s grace. “Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,” says Paul, “but only God who gives the growth.” [I Corinthians 3:7]
We all long for the so called good old days. Was it the fifties? It certainly was in the church where I grew up, Knox United Church in Edmonton. Every Sunday morning in those days the church was full and every Sunday evening there was also a respectable crowd of people. Here’s a sign of what church going in Edmonton meant in those days. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra used to have its concerts on Sunday evenings, but they didn’t start till nine o’clock because they didn’t want to compete with seven o’clock evening worship. I dare say the churches in Montreal, including this one, were also prospering in the fifties. As for the nearly sixty years since then, well, Knox United Church in Edmonton has been gradually shrinking. It amalgamated with another church in the seventies, but then the combined congregation has continued to get smaller and smaller. Same sort of story here in Westmount Park. Same story all over the United Church of Canada. Same story in all mainline Christian Churches.
All of which leaves us with a very strong temptation. It’s the same temptation that Jesus faced in the wilderness. The temptation not to trust God. The devil tempted Jesus with the suggestion that since he is the messiah he should be turning stones into bread, and throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple to demonstrate his importance by having God rescue him, and commanding the armies of the kingdoms of the earth to fight for him and impose his reign. “Here’s how to grow your kingdom,” says the devil. (Right away we know he’s the devil because he’s using “grow” as a transitive verb). “Don’t wait for God; use your miraculous powers and make it happen now!” Jesus rejected the temptations of the devil. He went about his ministry with patience, with humility, and with absolute trust in and obedience to God. Where that led him was not to command the armies of the nations and impose his reign but to die on the cross so that his reign would be one of peace and forgiveness and love.
The followers of Jesus, who established a Church dedicated to extending Christ’s reign of peace and forgiveness and love, have not always been as successful as Jesus in rejecting the devil’s temptations to lose patience with God’s ways of establishing God’s kingdom. Three hundred years after the Church began the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, painted crosses on the shields of his soldiers, and marched off to defeat his rival Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge. It was not the last such battle fought in the name of Jesus but in the spirit of the devil, or the devilish side of our human nature, which is constantly tempting us not to trust God, not to trust and believe that the kingdom of God can only advance in God’s time and in God’s way.
We who are members of the Christian Church do have a role to play in labouring for God in the world that God loves. After declaring that although he planted and Apollos watered it is God who gives the growth, Paul goes on to say that “The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose… For we are God’s servants, working together.” [I Corinthians 3:8&9] We Christians, the Body of Christ on earth, are God’s servants, whose task is to live in Jesus’ way, labouring by God’s grace with patience and humility to establish God’s reign, and trusting that while we plant and water in God’s garden it is God who gives the growth.