PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
Part IV

FAITH THAT RESTS ON THE POWER OF GOD
February 8, 2014
Westmount Park United Church

We are now at the fourth in a series of six sermons based on our epistle readings from the opening chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. I have chosen to focus on these lessons because as Paul begins this letter he lays out the very fundamentals of our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. We began three weeks ago with Paul’s declaration that Christian communities are churches of God because God has called them into the fellowship of Jesus Christ. Our relationship to God in Jesus Christ is by God’s grace. Two weeks ago we noticed that the very first concern Paul raises with the Christians in Corinth is that their quarreling with one another has led to divisions and a lack of unity in their fellowship. By a happy coincidence that reading fell at the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. One week ago, as we read further into chapter one of First Corinthians, we heard Paul assert that we proclaim a gospel which is foolishness by human standards because at the heart of the gospel is Christ crucified. Now we move into the second chapter of First Corinthians where Paul urges the Christians in Corinth to ground their faith, not in any eloquent evangelism, but in the power of God.

 Epistle Reading – I Corinthians 2: 1 12

This is a vitally important message from Paul that the foundation of our faith in Jesus Christ is not our own wisdom or will but the power of God [I Corinthians 2:5].
I would love to bring Paul’s words breathtakingly to life and declare as forcefully and as eloquently as I can that our faith in Jesus is not something that depends on us but that rests on God’s power at work within us. But I’ve got a problem. My problem is not just the limitations of my ability to be breathtakingly eloquent and persuasive. My problem mainly is Paul’s point that our faith does not rest on being moved by eloquent oratory but on God’s power at work within us. “When I came to you, brothers and sisters,” writes Paul, “I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom… I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom… so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” [I Corinthians 2:1,3 5]
At the very end of the sermon on the mount Jesus says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!” [Matthew 7:24 27] We must build our lives on the example and teachings of Jesus. But what will enable us to commit ourselves to living in Jesus’ way? We commit ourselves to building lives on Jesus Christ because we have faith in him, because we believe that God was in Jesus showing us the way and the truth and the life that leads to God. That’s the foundation of a life lived with Jesus, with our words and our actions grounded in what he taught and how he lived. We are willing to follow in his way because we believe that his life and teachings hold the key to authentic human living, and that faith, that trust, rests not on human wisdom or human will or human power but on the power of God. There is no other place to turn for faith that is truly alive and that will endure.
There is a well known hymn which begins, “Faith of our fathers living still.” Unfortunately the “faith of our fathers” is sometimes just a faith that is inherited from previous generations and perpetuated only by tradition and custom. Customs and traditions are not the basis of secure and enduring faith for they do not give us faith which rests securely in the power of God. Sometimes faith is an intellectual pursuit, a subject to study and discuss and thereby hold at arms length. Instead of faith which rests on the power of the living God it is faith that rests on philosophical propositions like the classical proofs of God’s existence. Or we might fool ourselves into thinking that the pursuit of knowledge will create a faith to live by. The pursuit of truth is a noble enterprise, but it does not create faith because, as the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1] Faith cannot be quantified or controlled and it certainly cannot be manufactured by studying and discussing it, because it rests, not on our human intellects, but on the power of God. Paul was careful not to use high flown oratory to win over the people of Corinth lest their faith be grounded in an emotional appeal. Not all evangelistic missions have been as careful as Paul was. Churches get drawn into cheap theatrics and special effects, not only thinking that our faith in God can be grounded in emotional cathartic experiences but also that those experiences can be orchestrated and controlled.
Faith that rests on customs passed from generation to generation, faith that rests on philosophical propositions, faith that rests on the pursuit of knowledge, faith that rests on emotional manipulation, none of these are real faith that will endure, that will sustain us, that will ground our lives and the life of our church firmly on Jesus Christ. Our faith must rest not on human wisdom or emotion or any other human endeavor. Our faith must rest on the power of God alone. The health of the church in Corinth rested on the power of God, the health of any church anywhere any time rests on the power of God, a truth which has been known for thousands of years but which keeps eluding us as we try to lay other foundations. We are often beguiled by the temptation of thinking that the foundation of a church is a healthy financial position, or we might get drawn into looking to friendliness and sociability as the foundation of our church, or efficiency in organizational structure, or attractive and engaging programmes, or spell binding oratory in worship. Paul knew better. He did not risk having his personal appeal or his grand eloquence stand as a substitute for real faith which rests on the power of God. Paul already said this back in the first chapter of this letter where he asserts that Christ has sent him to preach the gospel but, “not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” [I Corinthians 1:17]
Faith that rests on the power of God does not depend on any human agency therefore it does not fear. Faith that rests on the power of God rises above any and all misfortune because it is anchored in the cross of Christ which is the eternal cosmic place where the very worst of human villainy is conquered by the God of love. In the cross of Christ forgiveness triumphs over revenge, love triumphs over hate, life triumphs over death for all time, and it is that victory which is the foundation of our faith, faith that rests on the power of God.