This evening's sermon is taken from Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. You can find that on page 1755 in your Pew Bible. Please give your attention, congregation, for this is God's word. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sothis, our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by him and all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short and no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, I am a Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other, for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message we preach, rather through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. for Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are cold, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. so far the reading of God's word. Please join me in asking for God's blessing. Almighty God, we thank you for the various authorities that you have established for those of civil government, the workplace, educational institutions, our families. Lord, each has a place and a purpose in your great and glorious plan. Now we turn our attention to your word. We pray, O Lord, that it would be faithfully ministered by your church, all that you would have mercy upon this minister, for he is but a man. weak and vulnerable in himself. So may your Holy Spirit now come and bring to life and power your word into our very hearts and lives. Give faith tonight, we pray. Strengthen and mature that faith for our good and for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, beloved congregation, over the summer I had the privilege of traveling cross-country with my family from Portland through Vail, Colorado, to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and back again. Some of you may wonder why, having reached the Holy Land, we turned back and came over here, but it was, I assure you, the call of Jesus upon our lives. There was a lot of miles in that trip, and I found myself thinking a lot about our Well, at Grace Church, where I'm pastor, we've been having a series through the book of Genesis, and I understand that maybe you've been going through Genesis as well. Well, over the summer, we took a break from Genesis, but as we traveled, I found myself thinking a lot about Genesis, and I found myself thinking a lot about more recent studies in 1 Corinthians. Of course, there are a number of ways to make a trip like that. One way would be to drive from the light and excitement of one city to the next, but then if you do that, it leaves a lot of dark and seemingly boring places in between, doesn't it? And so, our course, my choice, maybe it's because I'm a pastor, probably because I'm a pastor. We were driving those miles, over 5,000 of them, and I find myself thinking again and again, about what we were seeing and experiencing in light of God's word. I know that may not seem very exciting. I don't think my kids would have thought that necessarily as exciting as I did, but I assure you, I tried to help them see and understand just how marvelous it was to drive through and cross country in light of God's word. As we would drive, we would see various cities and vast country then in light of Genesis, for example. We wouldn't just see the countryside. We would see the countryside in light of the word of God. And what did we see? But we saw his handiwork. We saw the created order that he has established. We saw expressions of common grace that continue to preserve what he has made. Common grace. Maybe Reverend Joling has talked with you a little of that as you've gone through Genesis. For my congregation, it's somewhat of a new thing, a new teaching of the Bible. Common grace, simply defined as the goodness of God, the goodness of God, that graciously preserves the created order of heaven and earth amongst a sinful undeserving people. Everything from sunrises in the morning and city lights at night, cows happily grazing in the fields, to men, women, and children in their homes. In fact, After leaving Portland and the Pacific Northwest, I actually, I don't remember, honestly, I don't remember seeing a single homeless person in all of those 5,000 miles. And that, you see, is common grace. The sovereign goodness of God that preserves the kingdoms of this world for an undeserving people. Kind of like the steel bars, those steel reinforcements that make the concrete of highways hold together. You can lay concrete, but it won't hold up on its own. You need to have steel reinforcement to ensure that that concrete, those roads, can withstand the many miles and coming and going of life. The same is true with the created order. There needs to be some steel reinforcement to hold it all together, and that is the common grace of our God, the sovereign goodness that preserves the kingdoms of this world. And so I saw a lot of Genesis on the trip, the created order, the common grace of our God. I saw a lot of 1 Corinthians as well. While the cities and countryside testified to the truths of Genesis, the countless churches that we saw along the way stood like beacons to the greater purpose of it all. Or did they? Did they speak to the greater purpose of it all? That's what I found myself wondering. If I could, if I had the time to go and knock on those doors and could ask their pastor or to speak to their congregation, ask, why are you here? There are government agencies, there are all kinds of businesses, there are schools, there are families, Christian, church, why are you here? No doubt there would have been quite a number of answers. And I want to be an optimistic person, so I'm going to assume there would probably have been a lot of good answers. But there would have been many different answers suggesting a lack of unity and their understanding of purpose, their understanding of the greater purpose of it all. The Apostle Paul was concerned that the Church of Corinth had lost its fundamental sense of why it was there as well. He was concerned that they had lost their fundamental sense of mission and vision as a congregation. It's clear in reading through the first chapter. The church was being divided, wasn't it? Began well, filled with so many wonderful gifts. He reaffirms again and again their place in Jesus, doesn't he? And yet, he appeals to them about the divisions that were growing within. The Church of Corinth was not united. It was becoming divided. I saw a lot of First Corinthians then on the trip as well as we went from one congregation to the next. Observations that I think also relate to the URC. to our own classes, for example. Pastor Jolene and I were together with the other ministers of our area, meeting together as a group of classes. And the purpose, of course, is to hold each other accountable, to share in the joys of the opportunities we face, and also the burdens and the troubles and the trials that we face. And one issue in particular came up. It's a public issue. I won't do the name now, I don't want to distract anybody, but a public issue that's facing a church of our classes and it's a deeply concerning one. It's one that has to deal with a faithful expression of church discipline, what that looks like and what that feels like. And that trouble is really a trial of our unity, certainly for the local church facing it, but also for our classes and how we respond. And you know, we got Synod coming up. And you can imagine the opportunities and challenges present at classes are only magnified at Synod, along with those things which will test our unity. Tested not only by the trials, the challenges, tested also by the good things that we often find ourselves looking at and praying for. Are those good things God's things? Are those things God's purpose for us? The truth is that the last two years have been really hard on our federation. We've all experienced it. And I know at my church over in Portland, we're pretty eager to move on from all of that. But as we do, we need to do so not as individuals, each of us going about our own thing. We need to move on as those who share a fundamental unity and the faith and union we have in Jesus Christ. We are the United Reformed Churches, huh? And we need to move forward then in that unity, a unity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that includes a clear sense of why we are here. We need to grow then as a body of believers united in Jesus. How then does that happen? One of the ways is to remember why Jesus himself has said we are here, to remember why Jesus, the purpose statement that he has given. Kids, you may remember it in Matthew 28. And what Jesus says there is that we are not here, we are not here to take or make as much as we can from creation. We are not here to make or take as much as we can from creation as Christians, nor are we here as a church to compete with other authorities of government agencies, businesses, or schools. They all have their purpose. What is ours? Well, Jesus says our purpose is to make disciples, isn't it? To make disciples of Jesus Christ among all the nations, among all the peoples of the world. And I know that even in saying that to my congregation, and I'm sure to this congregation, that we are subtly thinking to ourselves, well, we've heard that before, Pastor, we know, but surely there's something more than simply making disciples, baptizing, teaching what Christ has commanded. It doesn't sound very exciting, but tonight, I want to make a case for what we might call ordinary Christianity. Ordinary Christianity, along with the ordinary purpose that Christ has given. Let's begin with the word ordinary. About 10 years ago, one of my friends and former professors, Dr. Horton, wrote a book titled Ordinary. And by ordinary, he refers to the ordinary things of Christian faith, the ordinary things of Christian churches. Faith and ministry that is constantly challenged by the restless spirit of our world. This restless spirit constantly looking for something new, more, different, exciting. He writes this, given the dominance of the next big thing in our society, it is not at all surprising that the Christian subculture is passionate about superlatives like radical, epic, revolutionary, transformative, life changing. Otherwise, folks say, life in the church would simply be too ordinary. Like every other area of life, we have come to believe that growth in Christ can and should be programmed. Horton goes on to say that we want big results sooner than later. We've forgotten that God showers his extraordinary gifts through ordinary means of grace. Let me say that again, I think that's exactly right. We can often forget that God showers his extraordinary gifts through ordinary means of grace. Loves us through ordinary fellow image bearers. and that God sends us out then into the world to love and serve others in ordinary callings. In this appeal for the ordinary, what Horton is doing is he is contrasting the extraordinary excitement that comes through things being new or different or changing. Did you see that? He's not contrasting the the miraculous with the ordinary. That's not what he's doing. By talking about ordinary Christianity, he's contrasting the extraordinary excitement that comes when we have an experience in life, something new, something different, something fun. He's contrasting that extraordinary kind of excitement with the week-to-week routines of the ordinary means of grace, the week-to-week ministry of word and sacrament, the Old Testament parts of Scripture, as well as the New Testament parts of Scripture, along with the day-to-day routines of loving our neighbors at home, at school, at work in the world. If we go back to 1 Corinthians, reading through 1 Corinthians 1, it's clear that many of the congregation were growing tired of the ordinary. Did you hear that when we read? What they wanted was something new, something exciting. My interest was piqued to this theme when over the summer, I mentioned I was doing some studies in First Corinthians. One of the books recommended to me by a friend is titled Paul's Theology of Preaching. And in that book, the author focuses in on the early chapters of First Corinthians. And his goal in the book is to show that what the congregation was really looking for was a preaching or public communication that was familiar to them and their experience. Without getting in all to the nuances of the situation, let me put it like this. In Paul's time and place, in ancient Corinth, public communication was one of the great forms of entertainment. They didn't have TVs or movies or radios, right? Public communication was it, it was where they were going in order to have an experience. And there were forms of communicating in those public venues that Christians were thinking, I think that could work really well in the church. Hey, why don't we have preaching that sounds a whole lot more like the kinds of things we're hearing on the stage? And you see, that's why they're starting to say things like, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter, I follow Christ. Not so much a doctrinal dispute as much as a misunderstanding of how God has chosen to work in bringing about the kingdom of Christ through his church and the members of his body. I'd suggest to you it's still true today. For example, how many of our friends would roll their eyes at the idea of preaching through Genesis like your pastor's been doing? How many of our friends would give a big old sigh and they'd hear us singing the Psalms? The catechism? Are you kidding me? I remember shortly after moving to Portland in 2012, a friend from another church We were sitting down having coffee, and he was so concerned about the growing godlessness amongst our neighbors. And he said to me, Steve, what do we do? I mean, look at what's going on around us, much less the news, the headlines. What do we do? His earnestness was sincere. His passion, I could just feel it. It's so spot on. And I said to him, brother, I think my answer is going to disappoint you. I had gotten to know him well enough at the time, I knew of his Christian faith, I knew of his commitment to the church and I said to him, brother, you and I, we just need to keep doing what we're doing. We need to keep faithful to the word of God. the preaching of the word, the singing of the word, the praying of the word, the teaching, the catechesis of all that Christ has commanded and trusting that in those means, God will bring about his ends. I gave him books, Horton's book, Ordinary. It came out about that time. I gave it to him, a couple others, and well, you know what happened. It was quietly set aside. I mean, who writes a book and titles it ordinary? Hey, Steve, tell me about your wife. Oh, well, you know, she's kind of ordinary. How about your husband? Tell me about your husband. Well, my husband, yeah, let me tell you about my husband. He, my husband, well, he's kind of ordinary. We don't talk about that way of our spouses, do we? Or our houses, or our kids, or things we love and believe are important. Write a book entitled Ordinary, are you kidding me? It's often misunderstood, isn't it? Ordinary may be misunderstood as talking about that which is old or boring or comfortable, but that's not what ordinary means at all. It's not a reference to the old or boring or comfortable. Anybody who understands the truth of Christianity understands that it's not just something old and dusty. It's not something boring. It's not something that grants greater comfort, creaturely comforts in this life. Rather, when we talk about ordinary, what we're simply referring to is that which is biblical. Biblical, biblical Christianity. The thing of our faith which is defined by God's word, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, according to 1 Corinthians chapter one, that is the power of God. the gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully proclaim and ministered within the church, that is the power of God. As he says at the end of our chapter, Christ who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord. Ordinary Christianity then, a Christianity defined by the word, refers to the ordinary way that God has chosen to shower upon us the riches of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Pastor and teacher Hughes Oliphant Old simply puts it like this, when we are thus transformed by the word of God, we begin to reflect his glory in all of life. You see, ordinary Christianity then is passionate for the word of God and the glory of God and all of life. And yet it's at this point in all of life that we can develop some further confusions. Our second point briefly tonight. If we come and talk to our friends about ordinary Christianity, if they don't immediately think of something old, boring, or comfortable, they might think of it as common. The idea that the church is just another thing of this world. The church, another thing serving alongside of families or schools or businesses or government programs. And the idea then that comes along with that is if we all do better, we can solve the world's problems according to the world's means. He said again, if we start to think of Christianity in the church and common ways, just simply alongside of the family, the school, the businesses and government authorities, will begin to think that we can solve the world's problems the world's way. And Genesis, you may remember the families of Seth and Shem and Abraham, all of them tempted to think of the covenant in common ways. In Corinth, it's clear that Christians were tempted to think of the church in common ways as well, thinking that, well, the problems we face are clearly problems of this world, and so why not use the means of this world to address them? Why not dress up the word of God in ways that will embrace the powers of our entertainment industry, for example? We see this same misunderstanding today. Let me just put it in two ways for you. First, members of the church can become impatient with the ordinary ministry of God's word and try to make the church and her ministry into something more impactful. Or we might put it like this, rather than see and rejoice in the miraculous work of God through the Week-to-week routines of the preaching of the word, the catechesis of our children. What happens is we're inclined to think the church might be more effective if it would maybe minimize focus on those things and create more time for community engagement programs. More engagement and focus upon the issues of poverty And you can fill out the list. All of those good things, all of those need to be spoken to according to the authorities that God has established. But if the church becomes about those things, then what happens? But they all just start to revolve around you and me, myself and I. A second thing, a second way that this view of ordinary Christianity is evidence that is when we think of it in common ways, alongside of schools, businesses, and government, what happens then is that the church can very quickly begin to pale in comparison. I mean, think about that. Our statistics, our measurables will never compare to the University of Oregon or Intel or Nike or the US government. What we speak of always pales in comparison, doesn't it? Think about the biggest church in our federation. Consider their budget. It's just a small drop within the ocean of Oregon's educational system. If we start thinking about the church as a common institution, we're gonna throw up our hands and think, why in the world bother? Why would I carve out time on Sunday morning? Why would I carve out time on Sunday night when it's just such a small and insignificant thing? Horton quotes from a Christian who struggled with this for many years. Her name was Tish. And Tish was born into a conservative Christian family. And she writes that I began to yearn, as she goes through high school and towards college, I began to yearn for something more than a comfortable Christianity focused on saving souls and being generally respectable Republican Texans. And so what she did, like so many others, is said, phooey on all of this stuff, I'm gonna go overseas and I'm gonna do cross-cultural missions and I'm gonna really make an impact for Jesus. And after some years of doing that, She came back home. She writes, I was nearly 22 years old and had just returned. As I walked to my church in my weather worn in Chacos, I bumped into our new associate pastor and introduced myself. And he smiled and he said to me, oh, you, I've heard about you. You're the radical who wants to give your life away for Jesus. It was meant as a compliment and I took it as one but it also felt like a lot of pressure because in a new way I was tortuously uncertain about what being a radical and living for Jesus was supposed to mean for me. Here I was back in America needing a job and health insurance, toying with dating this new law student intellectual who wasn't all that radical at all and unsure about how to be faithful to Jesus in an ordinary life. I'm not sure I even knew if it was possible. Tish's story is quite a remarkable story, and yet it's actually more ordinary than we might initially think. In telling it, Dr. Horton says she could be speaking my own story. How many here can relate to this? She writes, Now I am 30-something with two kids living in a more or less ordinary life. And what I'm slowly realizing is that for me, being in the house all day with a baby and a two-year-old is a lot more scary and a lot harder than being in a war-torn African village. What I need courage for is the ordinary, the daily, everydayness of life. Caring for a homeless kid is a lot more thrilling to me than listening well to the people in my own home. And she goes on telling her story, a story that so many of us can relate to. I thought to myself, well, Tish, if you fought that with one child, I think if you asked my wife at number two and three and four and five, you know, ordinary life has a challenge to it, doesn't it? If we think of Christianity in just simple, ordinary ways, we can become discouraged in a hurry. And yet if we think of it in biblical ways, what we will come to see is the true power which animates, which Jesus intends to animate and inspire us, and it's a power then that that we shouldn't think it's just simply ordinary, certainly not common, and neither is it mediocre. A third and final point, even more briefly tonight, ordinary isn't suggesting mediocre. In fact, quite the opposite. Ordinary biblical Christianity is truly extraordinary. What we want to emphasize are the ordinary ways in which God brings miraculous heavenly realities into this present evil age. One of my favorite quotes is by someone named John Owen. In fact, it's a quote I like to return to frequently to remind myself and I've actually shared it with you once before at the ordination service of Reverend Todd Jolling some years ago. Maybe you'll remember it. Owen talks about the ministry of Christ this way, saying, what, what? The resurrected Christ gave us pastors and teachers? Indeed. There is greater glory in giving a minister to a poor congregation than there is in the installment and enthronement of all the popes and cardinals and civil rulers that were ever in the world. Let their glory be what it will. Christ is on his theater of glory in the communication of this office and this minister. Think of that when you see your pastor step into the pulpit. Of course, many will say, where is the glory? Because they see no beauty or majesty, no more did the unbelieving world in the person of Christ, nor in the ways of Christ. Was there not a great deal of glory in the setting apart of Aaron unto his service, and all of his majestic garments and ornaments, with all the solemnity of sacrifices that was then used? Yes, there was glory there. but it had no glory, no glory in comparison with the spirit. The reason we do not see this glory is because we are carnal. The ministry is spiritual. God himself presides over this day. Jesus is with us, together with the heavenly host of angels and the saints of all ages. Here then is the beauty and glory of ministry, not just a gift, a preeminent spiritual and eternal gift. Hallelujah and everything we do should reflect that, that glory and excellency of Jesus. You know it's not about how much money we spend is it? It's not about how big of a building we build, it's about our faithfulness to Jesus in doing it. Let me draw us then to a conclusion and just make a few remarks. First, when we think about the truth of Jesus' kingdom, so often we're tempted to think in physical and worldly terms. To be very practical, the truth of Jesus' kingdom is no more related to the constitution of England or France or the United States as it is to Japan or Indonesia. We might argue that one or another form of government has more light of the word shining upon within it. That's a good conversation to have, but you see, the truth of Christ and his kingdom is found in no other place than in the word of God itself. And we think about the power of Jesus' kingdom. You know, we're inclined to think it may be associated with money or military might, but no. The power of Jesus' kingdom comes through the gospel of his life, his death, and his resurrection. The beauty of Jesus' kingdom? Oh, it's not something that we build. It's not something we see with our eyes. The beauty of Jesus' kingdom is of the spirit. It's of the spirit, Jesus says. The beauty of Jesus' kingdom, you see, then, is proclaimed to us through the ministry of his word and reflected within our lives as we share in Christ's own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The truth is, this is going to pass away. This is going to pass away. But the things of Christ and his spirit never will. And you see, congregation, that's why we're here. We're here because Jesus has given us his Holy Spirit, new life. We're heirs of his heavenly kingdom, and he wants us to be those who bring that truth, that power, that beauty of his kingdom. And the word proclaimed, prayed, sung, and lived. Oh, that he would be so gracious that his word would then dwell in us even more richly. Amen. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the word that you've given. And we pray that it would come to us then only through the power of Christ in the spirit. Guard us from the errors of men. Guard us from the errors of my own heart and lips. May we grow only in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. In his name we ask, amen.