A, Ash Wednesday - 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:1 "Sin & Grace"

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20bWe implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 6:1As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

1.0 The Church in Corinth

The church in Corinth is full of sin. In fact it is a church of much strife. Attempts to see this church as the perfect congregation joyfully serving God by loving the neighbour quickly reveals itself as nonsense. The Corinthians are sometimes touted today as ‘the’ early church – speaking in tongues, prophecy, a church of love, a church with much to give. But in fact Paul paints quite a different picture of this church and its members struggling to separate themselves from their past lives.

1.1 Immaturity in the Church

In this church Paul finds a myriad of problems. There are divisions, some claim to be followers of one leader while others followers of another. There is immorality so bad that it doesn’t even occur amongst the pagans. Believers—God’s body—taking each other to court over disputes which could have been resolved in house, making the church a laughing stock to unbelievers. They were lusting after others and yoking themselves with prostitutes while withholding themselves from their marriage partners. They were doing things which caused their weak neighbours to stumble and fall leading them from God’s grace. They turned the sacrament into an orgy, acting as selfish pigs, with their drunken snouts they desecrated Christ’s body and blood. In fact Paul doesn’t call them an upwardly mobile church, rather a church of babies, immature and worldly, barely able to digest the milk which he has fed them in the past. He says,

…brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? (I Cor 3:1-3)

1.2 Sinners & Saints

The Corinthians were a sinful lot. The shell of their beings, the flesh in which they dwelt was so fragile Paul likens them to clay jars. But into these jars a priceless treasure had been poured. Notice how Paul doesn’t cast them out as sinners but rather appeals to them and encourages them as ‘fellow workers’. These sinners Paul calls ‘the church of God in Corinth’. His letter is not addressed to the pagan or heathen, rather to Christians – Christians who are sinners.

Earlier I mentioned that some in the church look to the Corinthians as a model church of perfection. They see the church today as misguided and seek to get back to the basics of the early church, the good old days, a time when things were good in the church. They see the failings of the church over the past two thousand years and deem it void. But as we have just seen at the heart of Church in Corinth, and for that matter the heart of the early church, one finds a church tangled in controversy.

The church in Corinth is not an example of perfection for us. Although, what Paul says to the Corinthians is relevant for us now, if not even more so than then, because it tells us exactly what the reality of the church is yesterday, today, and every day this side of Christ’s return. The church in Corinth is a church of sinners but it is a church of God’s grace too.

2.0 The Universal Church

Just like the Corinthians, we belong to a church full of sinners. Crimes have been revealed in the church in recent years; things which don’t even occur amongst unbelievers. Ministers, priests and laity charged and convicted over many different sexual offences. Adultery is rife in the church, how many people do you know are having sex outside marriage in the church? Christians are mixed up in court battles, and so too is the church and its clergy.

Ah! Isn’t it good that we’re not a part of that! We can rest in the assurance that we are not that bad. Sure we are sinners, but our sins are only little insignificant ones. The real sinners are different to us; we do things a bit better than them. Right! So then what kinds of sin have you come to confess tonight? We see that when we underrate our sin, as a lesser sin we lessen the effectiveness of God’s grace, or worse, proclaim a fictitious or empty grace.

3.0 The Seriousness of Sin

Luther took sin very seriously. He says, ‘Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.’ And again, ‘God does not save people who are fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly but believe and rejoice even more boldly… As long as we are here in this world we have to sin.’ Luther is not telling us to go out and wilfully sin rather he is encouraging us not to take sin lightly but at the same time not to let it enslave us again. The reality being that sin is a part of every person’s life; we are the same as non-believers. Paul says in Romans 3: 23 that ‘all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.’ But now for a Christian sin has lost it power, and all sin tells us is that we were first in a state of sinfulness regardless of our sinning or not.

3.1 Grace & Sin

Paul says in the epistle text, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain (2 Cor 5:21-6:1). Here he tells us not to take sin lightly. God’s grace has come as a result of your sin. He calls us to focus on Jesus Christ crucified, the treasure inside the fragile clay jars of our bodies. The grace of God is Jesus’ atonement of our sin on the cross, a sinless man made to be sin for us. The grace of God is the great exchange of our sin for Christ’s righteousness. For Christ’s sake don’t receive it in vain!

3.2 Sin & Grace: A Lenten Response

So this is how a church like Corinth can be called the church of God, just as can the South Western Lutheran Parish can also be called the church of God. The nature of God’s grace for us depends on God’s gracious nature alone, not on whether we can or can’t stop sinning.

However, as we enter into lent we are called not to let God’s grace wash over us without effect. We are called not to trivialise our sin, excusing it, therefore cheapening the gracious actions of Christ on the cross. Let your hearts be open to his word so sins can be dealt with appropriately leading us to a deeper reliance on the hope that we have in Christ.

Let us now come before God, firstly to receive the imposition of ashes, acknowledging the gravity of our sin and its effect on our lives. And secondly, to receive the holy absolving body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, our one true hope. Amen.