Holy Trinity Sunday John B. Valentine
1 Corinthians 1:1-18 May 31, 2026

THE GOSPEL FOR THOSE WHO HAVE EVERYTHING!

Okay ... folks. We’re going to begin a walk ... a sojourn even .... this morning ...

A journey of which ... at this point ... I don’t quite know the end.

I KNOW ... they say you should always “begin with the end in mind” ... but ... in this case ... I’m not so sure.

You see ... the journey we’re going to take is an educational one ... homiletical even.

For the next couple of months ... we’re going on a slow walk through one of the books of the Bible ...

Particularly that one that comes to us labeled “Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians” ...

And I’m not entirely sure just where exactly it all will lead us.

But I do know two things:

One .... time spent contemplating biblical texts is of significant value ... God promises us that ... so I’m not worried about this journey being less than worthwhile ... and

Two ... I know where the story ... the journey ... begins.

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Imagine with me ... if you can ... a city ... a city by a bay.

BIG CITY. Cosmopolitan and multi-cultural.

DIVERSE CITY. People from ethnic backgrounds of practically the whole known world.

A CENTER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. You can tell that just by looking at the number of docks and piers that ring the waterfront.

A CENTER OF THE SPORTS-ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. You can tell that by the big stadium not too far from the City Center.

A VIBRANT, BOOMING, ECONOMICALLY-VITAL CITY ... with products constantly being moved in and out.

And perhaps ... above all ... a city with a global reputation for HAVING ITS OWN PERSPECTIVE on moral ... or should I say ‘immoral’ ... behaviors.

Can you imagine such a place?

The name of the city I’m thinking about is CORINTH ... home to Ricardo Montalban’s “fine Corinthian leather” and a whole bunch of other stuff.

• Corinth was the second largest city in the Roman Empire ...

• Corinth was home to commerce, culture, arts, athletics ...

• Corinth was home to every possible permutation of religion, ethnicity, philosophy ...

• And Corinth was WELL known for its moral laxity,

It could easily be argued that Corinth was the first-century version of the Bay Area wherein we live in the twenty-first century ....

And thus this letter we call “First Corinthians” is Paul writing to people not unlike you and me.

That’s where our journey begins.

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But HOW does Paul begin?

With these words ....

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”

TO THE CHURCH ......

You know ... that word “church” has been with us for a long, long time .....

So long that we’ve maybe forgotten what it really means.

• “Church” doesn’t mean a building.
• It doesn’t mean a structure or a campus.
• It doesn’t mean a 501c3 corporation.
• It certainly doesn’t mean a denominational structure!
• It doesn’t even mean a ‘theological fraternity’ ... be it Orthodox or Lutheran or Catholic.

“Church” simply means “assembly” ... “gathering” ... a group of people who get together ... who ARE together ... in the awareness that they themselves are called to be God’s people.

Of all the things you may have thought about when you thought about coming here this morning ... is that one of them?

I mean ... let’s be honest. Even I ... who should know better ... when I use the word “church” ...

Most often use it to refer to a place ... as in “I’m going to church” ...

And sometimes use it to talk about the legal entity that is Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church ... as in “church council meetings” ...

And sometimes ... mostly in conversation with other pastors ... use it to refer to the denominational structure we call the ELCA ... as in “the larger church”.

But when Paul talks about a church ... he pictures a collection of people ... a community ... like you folks gathered here today.

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But then Paul makes two amazing assertions about what it means to be “church”.

The first of those assertions is that those who gather as “church” are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.”

“Sanctified” ... “set apart” ... “holy”.

Now I know that “sanctified” has a certain negative connotation attached to it these days ...

In a “holier than thou” ... “take the moral high ground” ... sort of a sense.

But “sanctified” really has to do with being “set aside for a special purpose.”

The basic nature of the church is to be different than the rest of the world around us.

• “In the world” ... but not “of the world.”
• “In the world” ... but not “above the world.”
• “In the world” for a purpose ... to be people of God.

We aren’t just “set aside” ... like that fancy set of dishes the got passed down from Grandma ... that sits locked away in a hutch in the dining room ... never to be used.

We are “set aside for a purpose” ...

• to DO things ...
• to BE things ...
• to be God’s people ... God’s witnesses ... God’s hands ... here in this community.

God gives us that “grace and peace” that Paul writes about SO THAT we can share that same grace and peace with others.

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Now the second of Paul’s two big assertions in this opening section is found in these words. Listen:

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Think back ... if you would ... to the last time you ever wandered through a new car lot.

You see a car ... you check it out ... then you look at that piece of paper affixed inside one of the side windows ... that long list of goodies.

Ever remember bending down to read more carefully that extensive, impressive list?

Those specially-identified items like:

• windshield wipers ...
• carpeting ...
• a radio ... and
• a horn.

Now granted ... the manufacturers come up with all sorts of flowery language to help you realize that those are just ANY wipers and carpeting and radio and horn ....

But VERY particular ... and EXCEEDINGLY special ones.

And it kind of begs the question “just what does it lack?” ... “What doesn’t it come with?” ... “What’s NOT on this list?”

Somehow ... most of us learned early in life that if small things are highlighted ... then something really BIG must be missing.

Trouble is ... our need for details, particulars and proof makes us demand always more information yet leaves us always feeling like we are still lacking something.

But Paul insists that ... IN CHRIST ... we have at our disposal all that we could ever possibly need to live a life filled with hope and strength and grace.

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I mean ... how many of you have ever said:

• If I just had more time ...
• If I just had more money ...
• If I just had more power ...
• If I just had more confidence ...
• If I just had more influence ...

Then I could really be something for God??? (Anybody ever said that besides me??)

But to all those “if onlys” ... Paul says “think again!”

The problem is not that we are lacking.

The problem is that we have things that we don’t know we have ... and that we don’t take advantage of.

The catch is that there is no catch ... and we don’t quite know how to live with that!

I mean ... think about the words that we sometimes use as part of our litany of Confession and Forgiveness:

Our God is a God of open hands! God opened his hands in the act of creation that we might know life. God opened his hands to the hopeless and hurting that we might learn how to love. God opened his hands and was nailed to a cross that we might receive forgiveness. We are alive and forgiven and enabled to love because of God's open hands.

What do we say in the face of that truth?

Giver of every good gift, we confess that we are people with clenched fists. We hold tightly to the things of this world and are unwilling to part with them. We hold in our grasp the brokenness of our past and yet are afraid to give it up. We feel life slipping through our fingers, but don’t know how to change. Forgive our sinfulness and our selfishness, the works of our hands.

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You know ... every once in a while ... when we speak those words together ... I find myself thinking of the legendary “monkey trap.”

You know about monkey traps?

Apparently ... somewheres on the Indian subcontinent ... there was a group of people who discovered an ingenious way to trap monkeys.

All they did was cut a small opening in one end of a coconut and chain the other end of the coconut to a tree. Then they’d put an orange or a mango or a banana inside the coconut.

The monkey would come by ... notice the fruit ... grab the fruit ... and not let go ... even though the monkey could get his fist ... now enlarged by the piece of fruit he was holding ... OUT of the hole.

But the monkey apparently was so obsessed by the fruit that it would allow itself to be caught ... because it couldn’t bring itself to let go of what it was holding.

Which all kind of begs the question:

WHAT IS IT THAT WE ARE HOLDING ONTO SO TIGHTLY THAT WE CAN’T EMBRACE THE GRACE AND THE PEACE AND THE LOVE AND THE ABUNDANCE AND THE GOODNESS ... OF GOD?