1 Corinthians 3:10,11,16-23.                         One lasting foundation!!              23/2/14

 {10}  By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. {11} For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 {16} Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? {17} If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. {18} Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. {19} For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; {20} and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." {21} So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, {22} whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours, {23} and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

 Here again Paul is building on his call for us all to be careful and certain about what lies at the very basis of our life. There are many who are thinking and even claiming that they are pretty smart in their approach to life, but in fact are utter fools. They boast about what humanity is doing, but failing to realize what is truly important. This is a huge issue for most people in this country today; and it has crept into all of our churches and lives to a greater or lesser degree.

 Now in this reading Paul begins by liking what is happening to the building of some big structure. In many ways the picture is this: one person comes along and puts down a very good and suitable foundation that is capable of holding up this structure, no matter how big it gets. However, the next person comes along and only uses a part of the foundation, while also extending beyond that foundation onto nothing but clay.

 Now it all looks good and functional and in fact looks quite grand, even though it is not an essential part of the true intent of the building. Then another person comes and adds out in another direction doing much the same thing. Soon there is this grand structure that is a mish-mash of additions, that while looking good, has become somewhat dysfunctional and already starting to fall apart at the seams.

 Yet each of the different groups claim that their part of the building is what is truly special and better. All the while, the central foundation and its importance is neglected and overlooked. Instead of the strength coming from that foundation, the focus was on their part of the structure and what they thought was important.

 Now we know that if the foundation does not undergird the whole building; and in fact more of the building is simply sitting on the ground, there will very quickly be enormous structural damage as time goes on. It is basic common sense, yet in our day and age we too often only go by what looks good, rather than the substance and basis of it.

 This same thinking, all too often, carries over into our spiritual and church life. Here also much of the same thinking goes on. We have our Christian faith, but we also add to it all kinds of thinking that are not based on the Christian faith. Often this is done to the point where much of our thinking is not Christian at all. In our own eyes and in the eyes of the world around us, it all seems good and grand – we might even call it ‘christian’. However, because it is not based on Jesus Christ and the centrality of his death on the cross, it places that person on shaky ground. It looks and sounds good, but it has little to do with that which is important.

 Is it any wonder then when many Christian lives come crumbling down? Is it any wonder that many have dropped out of the church in recent years? For too long now we have built our faith only partially on Jesus Christ and the cross, but then much of our thinking outside of that; for which now the results are there for all to see.

  Just as in Corinth at the time, so also today, as we look to entertaining worship, smooth talking leaders, elevating women’s role in the church, homosexuality, and many other things, we start to think that this is what the church is all about. We don’t talk about sin and hell, because we think that this will put people off. We talk very little about Jesus and his death on the cross, but when questioned, we say, ‘that is a given’.

So in order to win and keep people in the faith we try to build a church that looks good, but we are spending all our time and effort painting over the cracks and fractures in the community. We are trying to give the people what makes them feel good, rather than what they need to make them good. We foolishly think that this will build the church, yet in the end it does the opposite.

It is not a lasting structure because much of this is building alongside the central foundation and is based on the wisdom and thinking of our world around us. Jesus and the cross is no longer central, and the structure of their faith is based on feelings and all kinds of other things, which will let us down when we need them most of all.

So here we need to listen to what Paul is saying: Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. Instead of trying to build the church using the wisdom of the world, he is saying that we need to hold fast to that which is ‘foolish’ in the eyes of the world: That is Jesus Christ and the centrality of his death on the cross. Stay firm on that foundation and you will not go wrong.

 He goes on by saying: "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So remember, God knows what is at the heart of our thinking. We can make things look good in our own eyes and the eyes of the world, but God knows what is really going on. So we must be careful that: If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

 Yes this church is God’s temple; not some human structure, where we do what we think is good. Here we remember that it is Christ and what he says that is what is to be the basis of our life. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. He, not we is first and foremost what the church is all about.

 After all he is God almighty himself come into our world to rescue us from the mess that we have made for ourselves. Because we have chosen to not listen to God and instead do what we think is good in our own eyes, we have brought death and destruction on ourselves and our world. When we build our lives and our society on what humanity thinks, rather than on what God says we have brought nothing but trouble and hell on ourselves. This has happened over and over again throughout history. Yet we don’t learn!

 However, God sends his Son to not only give us a way out of this death and destruction: He dies on the cross, taking the punishment that we deserve on himself, so that we might be forgiven and once again be a part of that which is life as it was meant to be and which is ultimately good for us.

 Through our baptisms and our faith in him we are incorporated into him and his church. We are built into his temple; a place where we are sustained through Word and Sacrament so that we can continue to be a part of that which is good and lasting, both here and in heaven.  As long as we stay on that foundation and do not try to build our own little worlds and kingdoms, we have a sure and certain life ahead of us, which will not fall apart when the going gets tough.

 As we stay on that foundation we have the assurance that:  All things are ours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. We are all interlocked together so that we can stand firm and strong in the face of a world that is crumbling around us. With Christ and the cross as the basis of everything that we do, we know that we will not be shaken. We also are held together in a unity that enables us to stand firm in the midst of the shifting sands of time. We are all then giving glory and honour to Christ and see the cross as central to not only our salvation , but also to our life as his people in a sinful and fallen world.

 All this takes our focus away from ourselves and the ‘foolish’ thinking of world around about. It helps to keep grounded in that which gives life, strength and hope in the midst of the falling apart that is going on in the world around about us. In him and the cross alone we find all that we truly need for this life and the next.

 So may our Lord, through Word and Sacrament, keep us grounded on the foundation that will keep us standing firm and strong. Let us not boast in or look to the foolishness of human thinking which takes the focus of that which is basic to our existence – Jesus Christ and the cross – and place it on what we do, think, or feel. Even though it looks good in the eyes of many around, it easily leads us to place our trust on a different foundation, which is no foundation at all.

 No, by the grace God has given us we have a foundation that has been laid by an expert builder. Let us remember that no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. To him be all glory and honour, now and always. Amen.

Pastor Roger

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish