As both Christ the King and Living Hope prepare to hold annual congregational meetings next Sunday, today’s reading from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth offers encouragement and a powerful reminder that we’re not doing this on our own. In his greeting to the Corinthians, Paul reminds his readers (and us!) that God has given everything needed for the church to carry out its (our!) mission. Our strength as a church and as Christians in daily life comes from God, and God is faithful.
Today’s Scripture readings for this second Sunday after the Epiphany are 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Psalm 40:1-8, and John 1:29-42. Here’s the worship service livestream from Living Hope and the sermon podcast audio.
Powered by RedCircle
Before I get into today’s readings, I want to share with you one of my favorite Bible verses. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this verse in church before. Second Timothy chapter four, verse thirteen—and I quote: “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.” Amen
I love that verse not for any great spiritual significance, but because it reminds me that the great saints in the Bible are real people. God’s word comes addressed to real communities trying to figure out faith in their own time and place.
Real human beings writing, “Hey, next time you come this way, please bring the cloak and books I left behind.” I’ve sent that kind of message.
The first lesson Ron just read is another letter—not from Second Timothy, but from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. As we get ready for next Sunday’s our annual meeting, I think these opening verses of First Corinthians have some helpful encouragement for us as church in this time and place.
Verse one begins with a return address, identifying who’s sending the letter. Scholars debate who wrote some parts of the Bible, including whether or not Paul actually wrote Second Timothy, but First Corinthians is definitely a letter written by Paul.
Paul identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Apostle literally means a messenger, “one who is sent.” He is not doing this on his own; he’s a messenger doing God’s work. God has called him, and of course you can read the whole story of how that happened elsewhere in the book of Acts. And there’s somebody else with him named Sosthenes, about whom we know basically nothing.
“From Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth.”
Paul had started the church in Corinth, so the people reading this letter know him. According to Acts chapter 18, he’d spent about a year and a half in Corinth. He first spent time preaching in the synagogue, telling people Jesus was the messiah, the savior the prophets had spoken of, the one they’d been waiting for.
When he got kicked out of the synagogue, he switched gears and started preaching to Gentiles, non-Jewish folks. He builds up a community of believers there in Corinth, then leaves for Syria, where he grows a church community in Ephesus. But he stays in touch with the Corinthians by writing them letters.
The interesting part for us is Paul knows his letters are going to be passed around. He’s not necessarily thinking of what he’s writing as Holy Scripture, as God’s inspired Word, but his words are meant for more than just the Christian community in Corinth. He’s writing to the future church as well, which is us. This letter is addressed to you and me!
The challenges of being a church in 2026 Wisconsin are different than the problems in first-century Corinth, but so much of what Paul writes applies to us too. And I also think it’s encouraging that even the churches who personally knew Paul still wrestled with problems and disagreements.
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
There’s a tradition I often follow of starting sermons with that verse, that greeting. Here’s what to look for in the sermon. Here’s what’s in the letter: Grace and peace. A word of hope from God. With the authority of Jesus.
Not a word of judgment—or rather, if there’s judgment, it’s there out of love, with the intention of building up peace and sharing grace—not condemnation, but grace, peace, good news. Hope.
And it’s based on more than just some person’s opinion; it’s because of Jesus. Grace and peace from God.
“I give thanks to my God always for you.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Before I decided to preach verse by verse today, I thought about trying to write this sermon in the form of a letter expressing my thanks to you all. I am thankful for you all. Not just because you pay me, but because you’re here. You care about faith. You care about loving your neighbors, supporting each other, sharing hope. Showing up to make soup and hats, visiting people who can’t make it to worship.
You’ve made the choice to come here this morning to spend time in community together. You care that this church makes a difference in the world, that we make the world a better place in Jesus’ name.
Thank you for being part of this community, using your gifts here.
Paul says:
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
You are not lacking in any gift. As we get ready for the annual meeting next week, as we look at the mission statement and we put the goals we came up with this fall up against everything going on around us, I think it’s easy to get a bit discouraged. Hopefully excited too, because these are good things for us to be working on and we do a lot as a church, but there’s more than we can do on our own.
It’s easy to say if we only had another couple dozen people here, or if we only could get rid of the mortgage, or if we only had a large bequest come in, or a more articulate pastor, or a better location, or whatever, then we’d be good. Then we’d be able to really make a difference, really lock in and get going on Jesus’ mission.
And here comes Paul saying to the church, to us: “You are not lacking in any gift.” Not because we’re so great, but because God is.
“In every way you have been enriched in [Christ Jesus], in speech and knowledge of every kind.” You have what you need. It’s also encouraging that the church has struggled with feeling inadequate for about 2,000 years now. It’s hard to recognize the sufficiency—the abundance—God’s given us, rather than getting caught up in the scarcity, what’s missing.
Back in Lent, the week we met at Lighthouse—I know some of you were there—we talked about our inadequacy, how we need God for salvation, because we can’t save ourselves.
We gave out stickers at that service saying, “I am not enough. The world is not enough. Jesus is enough.” That’s true for our eternal salvation, and it’s also true for our earthly lives, for the work we do in this world, the mission we live out.
Take one of those stickers with you today after service as a reminder for when you feel overwhelmed, in church, but also out in the world, with everything on the news, everything happening to our neighbors, when you just feel inadequate to remember that no, you’re not enough on your own.
Your gifts, your talents, your skills are not enough. You can’t do it on your own. But you’re not on your own.
The Holy Spirit is with you, filling you, working through you. And Jesus is enough. “You are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul continues:
“He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Our strength is in Christ alone. Our strength as a church, our strength as Christians, our strength as neighbors all comes from God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
God provides the strength we need to answer the call to love our neighbor, to care for neighbors who might be unhoused, hungry, or undocumented, to encourage neighbors who might be grieving, fearful, lonely, overwhelmed.
That Psalm we read says, “We wait for the Lord, who lifts us out of the pit, from the miry clay, who sets our feet on solid ground.”
God gives us strength to shine the light of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this time, in this place. God gives the strength we need to keep proclaiming good news–good news in a world of tumult, a world that is in desperate need of grace and peace.
So dear church, be encouraged, for God is faithful. Thanks be to God. Amen