William Loader
Pentecost 2: 25 May 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Paul has not won the popularity contest. He has not even won the kind of awe and respect one might expect towards the founder of a community. No one has made a plaque, certainly not the combined allegiance of house churches. Apollos is apparently more impressive. Cephas (Peter) has greater credentials. The locals include impressive people some of whom will be at least as well educated as Paul and will have the usual skills of rhetoric and public speaking, enough to see Paul's limitations. It is not going to get better. By the time Paul writes 2 Corinthians the problems have escalated to the level of accusation an innuendo. Paul's collection may just be his subtle way of making something for himself on the side. Paul is not able to muster impressive support or present an impressive cv. Miracles and big spiritual experiences don't appear among his achievements.
The beginnings of dissatisfaction are very evident in the opening chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul's way of dealing with it is in part to say I won't compete and I don't really care how many I baptised. He does not try to argue that he is eloquent after all - though he shows it. He starts by focusing on Jesus, in particular, his life of self giving, which seemed stupid and weak according to usual standards of success. That weakness and foolishness confronts human aspirations to greatness and provides a different model which is life-transforming. He does that already back in chapter one. Then he exposes the folly of playing games of "better-than-you". Paul's ambition is to be like Christ, which is something much more than pious. It is a style of being, including a style of leadership.
So, faced with these judgmental people, he cautions them to let God judge and declares that he is quite happy for God to be his judge. In other words, Paul does not embark on a strategy to win a place for ego. He explains himself, but ultimately his being and well-being is grounded in God. That is his stability and the basis for his identity. He doesn't even depend on his own self-justification to himself - let alone whether he "feels good". He might remind us of the fallibility of human self-assessment and the variability of feelings, including guilt in its authentic and pseudo-manifestations, in a way that predates our post Freudian perspectives. Paul does not depend on introspection and "a sense of peace" useful as it can be, because it is fallible and variable as the chemical interactions in our brains.
At the same time he doesn't run away from the conflict and the criticism. Probably precisely because he find his centredness in God and not in the instability of his stake in the favour of the Corinthians he is free not to try to manipulate or hate them in other ways, but to engage them. He does so in this letter in which we see his wisdom and his foibles, but in a way that shows how to address issues by going back to square one.
In describing himself and others as stewards of the mysteries of God, he employs religious language which for some would remind them of people who can cults and mysteries. In the previous chapter he plays with such ideas, as though there is a mystery, a special process or procedure, to be led to the rich food of a sacred rite. He contrasts rich fare with baby food. Behind such play is a call to maturity which consists not in inviting people to become elites or intellectuals, nor to aspire to impressive oratory or self-presentation, but to be nourished by the paradox of an execution used for slaves, the cross. Confronting the ambitious claims of those who play the game of grandeur Paul seeks to reassert the subversive message of the cross which says: love in brokenness is true power; being willing to enter death is the way to true resurrection. Openness and trust toward God is the foundation of all relationships, including with oneself and others. There lies our accountability.
Gospel Pentecost 2: 25 May Matthew 6:24-34
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