The Church
Texts: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
March 24, 2024 Palm Sunday
We should have known that first holy week. We should have got a clue when crowds praised Jesus and shouted hosanna one day, and were calling for the Romans to crucify him by the end of the week. That’s how we religious people are. One day we are with God and the next we have left the faith. One week we are in this church and the next we are in that one. We like to go where things are positive, inspirational, and give us a lift. A parade with Palm branches! That’s our type of thing. A cross? I think I’ll stay home. There is a good documentary on the History channel I want to watch. People say, “I really like the positivity in that church. Great pastor. Super programs.” And then they might say about another place, “That church? Moves a little slow for me, plus the coffee isn’t great. Sorry, not my thing.” And we are as fickle as that first crowd on that day in Jerusalem when the Lord came through on a donkey.
In John’ Gospel it says when people saw all the signs Jesus was doing they were real enthusiastic. But John writes, “But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people…he knew what was in them.” What does Jesus know about us? That we are fickle? Tend to want our way more than God’s way? That sure was on full display that last week of Jesus’ life.
During Lent we have been hearing that the circle of God’s children is not made of perfect people, but people who were fallible, broken, and had problems. Moses wasn’t a good speaker yet the Lord used him. Rahab came from a morally problematic profession but the Lord used her. Samuel had trouble with his sons, but God worked through him. David went off the rails morally but God brought him back. Paul was a major reclamation project but God did it. God isn’t looking for the perfect – who don’t exist anyway – he is looking for those who will walk with him.
Some people think the church should be place of no problems. Sometimes we hear people say, “We need to get back to the New Testament church. We need to be like they were in the Bible.”
Really? The New Testament church? It isn’t long after Jesus rises from the dead that the church is birthed, and people are lying. In Acts 5 we read about a married couple named Ananias and Sapphira who lie about their financial giving.
Paul writes this in the beginning of his first letter to the church of the Corinthians,
“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.”
Be in agreement? No divisions? Quarrels? Why does he need to say that? Well, because…
Things weren’t all rosy in Corinth.
Not only this, but people were getting caught up in personalities. There were cliques based on different leaders. Some liked Apollos. Others liked Cephas. Some preferred Paul. They were more into the leader than the Lord. Paul told them to knock that off.
It actually gets worse in 1 Corinthians. We read on and we find out these Christians were immature. People within the church were having lawsuits against other church members. That made fellowship times fun. Men were having affairs outside of their marriage. There was even a case of a man being with his father’s wife. And people thought this was great.
Then there was the problem of their just plain lack of love. That is why 1 Corinthians 13, that great passage on love, had to be written. It is there because these Christians were flunking out in the “love one another” department. They were arrogant, unkind, kept track of wrongs, and the greatest of these was, well, a “me-first” attitude.
So, should we go to church in Corinth?
Or how about Galatia where Paul says they have abandoned the gospel. They are all about rules. The Galatians were selling out to legalism. Paul has to write an angry letter.
Or how about the Philippians. True, they were a pretty good church and had a good relationship with Paul. But read on and we find out there were a couple of women who weren’t getting along.
Or the church of the Thessalonians where some were being lazy and others disruptive.[1] Can you imagine?
Or those churches Timothy was leading, where people were spreading myths and getting involved in nonsensical controversies and spreading false info about God.[2]
Or the churches James wrote to, who were good at talking the faith but bad at living it; who hurt one another with their words; where there were fights and quarrels; people judging one another; and believers getting rich by hoarding wealth.
You need to read your New Testament, folks.
In Revelation there are seven letters from Jesus to seven of the early churches. He points out where they are faithful, but also where they need to get their acts together. Not perfect.
Those were the foundational days of churches. That’s what we find in our New Testament. And we still have all of those issues. Because the church is not perfect. No, the church is a fellowship of broken, problematic, sinful folk. Even pastors. But we all live by the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Churches are imperfect because the people that fill them are imperfect. We humans can have emotions that get out of hand. Sometimes we say things we shouldn’t or don’t say what we should. We let our pride out rule our love. I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about those other people.
Some people have left churches because they have been hurt. They have been frustrated with hypocrisy. Or maybe they were under the illusion that every Sunday should be a spiritual high. The pastor wasn’t engaging enough, or the music wasn’t lively enough, or there wasn’t enough for kids or ministry with the poor or too many old people.
One of the things on that first Palm Sunday was expectations. The crowds who shouted “Hosanna” – which means “Save us, Lord” - had expectations about how things should work. When they shouted for Jesus to save them they meant “fix our political and social system.” And when Jesus didn’t end up fulfilling those expectations, well, they turned on him.
To expect absolute purity, efficiency and love in a church is unrealistic. People who become part of a church and never expect to find something they dislike are going to be disappointed. That’s not to make excuses. The standards are still to love one another and glorify Christ. We should have high and holy expectations of our churches – but also realize we can’t be too high or too holy.
There are plenty of things I can say I don’t like in churches. But I don’t think God wants me to always be criticizing the church. He wants me to love it, nurture it, build it up. That’s the same for all of us.
Sometimes we glamorize the church. Sometimes we romanticize it. I could literally fill your day with stories of churches that blew up in conflict. Or stories in church history that show the dark side of Christianity. I can also fill your day with wonderful stories of churches that have and are doing tremendous ministry, where you really experience the presence of God, Scripture is loved, people minister to one another and their community. These places aren’t perfect either, but they also know how to live with grace, forgiveness and patience.
Churches need to be healthy. But even healthy churches are not perfect. I like to preach on this every so often because we live in a time of consumer mentality when it comes to churches. We see churches like restaurants in that we want them to serve what we like. Or like a grocery store where we come to get not to give, and we want the best deal and the best quality. Or a theater where we want to be entertained. Churches are none of these things.
Maybe we come to be known, and that certainly isn’t bad. Churches need to be places where we know one another. Sometimes people come to not be known. A woman talked about her habit of church-hopping, sometimes visiting as many as three churches on a single Sunday. She came up with good reasons never to return to any of them. But she confessed that the real reason was it was easier to stay anonymous and aloof than to do the hard, intimate work of actually becoming part of a church.[3]
I pointed out some of the issues those first New Testament churches had. But they also had areas of faithfulness to Jesus. Those Corinthians had been blessed with many gifts of the Spirit. The church in Rome was generous. The church of the Colossians were praised by Paul for their faith and love. The Thessalonians received the word of God, looked into it, and were an example for other churches throughout the region. The Philippians, despite some people who couldn’t agree, stood with Paul and took care of him when he was in prison.
In those times you get frustrated with the imperfections of your church – whether this one or one you might be a part of somewhere else down the road – ask yourself if you are making it healthier. Do you come with a prepared heart? Do you come only to receive or also to give? Do you come ready to reach out to someone who might be lonely or hurting and need encouragement? To learn a new name? To help that struggling pastor? To sing with those weary musicians? To give thanks for what God is doing in that place. To give thanks that you can even be in such a place at all. There are Christians who live in places in our world that cannot do what we are doing. They are not allowed to meet like this or have a church building. They would love to have this gift and privilege.
Why do we go to church.[4] Do you ever think about that? Why do we gather here, with these people? Maybe out of habit, but I would bet there’s more. The late writer and Presbyterian pastor Frederick Buechner asked, “For those of us who are in the habit of putting on our best clothes and going to church from time to time, maybe it is a good idea to consider what a church is, of all things. What are all these churches we keep coming to, year in and year out?
Well, some things happened thousands of years ago. Abraham, Moses, and then Jesus. However we try to explain it, whatever we understand or don’t understand, something extraordinary took place a long time ago in ancient Mesopotamia and Israel and Palestine and other parts of the ancient world. Our presence in churches “and the presence of millions like us, is evidence that the reverberations of that event are felt to this day.”
God moved in this world and in people’s lives. People felt this, believed this, experienced this. Once upon a time some people put up these old church walls and old church roof and did it with faith that if God is present anywhere in the world, then surely he is present here on this plot of land in American Fork, too. These little patches of ground where churches stand are holy.
Churches are holy. But they also are places with real people. And the only way we can come and be a part of this church is if we come as we are. Somedays we come and we are well and somedays we come a little less ourselves than we would like to be. We come…with the dust of our lives upon us, our failures, our deceits, our hypocrisies. We come to love others that they might find their lives worth living. We come to bless and receive a blessing. We come to encounter the One who made us for himself.
And every once in a while some word in a sermon will catch us. Some prayer request or prayer will move us. Some moment of silence will settle us. Seeing some other person or couple or family will fill our heart with love. Some stranger you welcome will edify you. Some song, or maybe even a line in a song, will touch your heart. Some story will give you strength or soften you a bit.
I think churches are places where we come because we know there is something more to life than us and the name of Jesus rings in our hearts. That he is the God we seek. He is the God we are made for.
In one of his letters, Paul calls the church “the household of God.” You know how households are: different members, all sharing space and living under the same roof, with our foibles and beauty, our good times and our times of struggle. But in households the people belong to one another and figure out how to do it. The best households are those who know how to have peace, love, and unity with one another even as there might be tensions or challenges.
You know, one of the great things about churches is that they are great places to learn how to love, be patient, merciful, give and receive. They are places to spiritually grow up and become mature. People who go from church to church because it doesn’t meet their holy expectations never spiritually grow up.
The thing is despite our imperfections, dark moments, and failings, the church rolls on. Because Christ’s Spirit is always working. He can take all the broken pieces and make something beautiful. He can take our imperfections and make something holy. When the people in a church live with grace and love, God can do marvelous things. We trust he is doing that here.
And I love the church. I was born and bred in it. Have served it. I love it because Christ loves it and gave his life for it. That’s where the value and beauty of a churches comes from.
It’s holy week. And the events that we honor this week are about how God came in Christ to draw near to us in our sin and imperfection. Not rejecting us but loving us. Never believe you are outside of God’s love. This is the week to embrace that. Not perfect? Don’t let that stop you. Come and gather with other imperfect people and give glory to God.
Prayer: Gracious God how amazing that you gather people with all kinds of sins and blemishes, and put them together in churches all over this world, and you are present there with them.
Have mercy on churches that struggle. Continue to work through churches that are doing well. Humble those that are filled with pride. Bless those that don’t know how rich they really are.
Help us all to be gracious and loving with each other so that every part of your body may be joined together with strength.
Bless this week. Make us thankful. Open our hearts again to the message of the cross and the empty tomb. Amen.
[1] 1 Thessalonians 5:14
[2] 1 Timothy 1:4, 2 Timothy 2:17,18
[3] Lauren Winner in “Girl Meets God,” p.30
[4] From “A Room Called Remember.” I quote, adapt, and draw from.