God's Miracle-Gro (Feb 12, 2023) 1 Corinthians 3.1-9

According to the calendar Spring is not far off, only about a month away. To go by the weather the past week one would think that Spring is already here. And why not? Sunshine and warm weather bring out the feeling that winter is over and we have only nice weather to look forward to from now on. And with nice weather comes the questions of what to do with the gardens in our yards and the plants that we want to make those areas beautiful or the gardens where we grow produce that can be shared among people.

So, you go to the garden center at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or hardware store of your choice and look around. There are a bewildering number of plants and flowers that call you for your attention. You buy what you need and want and take them home. There you discover that if you want to plant these in planter or a pot, you need some potting soil. So, back you go to the store and look over a bewildering number of potting soils and wonder which is the best to use. Then, one catches your eye. It is advertised on TV and other venues so it must be good. It is Miracle-Gro, a soil that claims that anything can grow when this product is used. When you get it home, you place it in the pot and start the process of watering and caring for the plants and seeds you have purchased and wait for them to start growing. You might even think of yourself as quite the gardener, especially when the seeds begin to some up and sprout or when the plants start to bloom. Where would this plant be without you? Where indeed.

Paul has a problem. It is the church that he founded in Corinth, a cosmopolitan port that did a massive amount of trade. There, one could find whatever one wanted, could find whatever languages were spoken in the Roman empire and could find whatever religion one wanted to follow. Into this mix of people and religions Paul had begun a church that was based on the Jesus and him crucified. He stayed there for about a year and a half and then moved on to other places to spread the Good News of Jesus.

While at another city, Paul receives news of the Corinthian church and is not pleased by what he hears. There is division in the church. There are those claiming that they follow the teachings of certain leaders, those who are using their political and social influence to make a name for themselves in the church, and those who are claiming that they are more spiritually mature than other believers, that they have the answers and that the others should listen to them.

Upon hearing this, Paul is appalled. Here was a church he founded on Jesus Christ forgetting who they were to worship and follow. This church was to be founded upon Jesus, not other persons, or the ideas of others. So, Paul writes a letter and it is a wonder the letter survived and was not put in what we would call the shredder. Paul is blunt and calls out the Corinthians about what they have been doing. He abhors the divisions that have occurred and the teachings that are so adverse to what he was teaching. And so, after telling the Corinthians just what he is thinking, Paul launches into another discussion about what is wrong with the church.

He tells them that he could not speak to them as spiritual people but rather as the flesh or on a natural plane, one where they follow human desires. They believe that they are spiritually mature and have reached the heights of spirituality. Not so, says Paul. They are not mature, but rather babies. This is sarcasm 101 here. It would be comical if it were not so true. Paul’s words are shocking and hard to take. He is telling them that he gave them milk when he first came, the Gospel in simple, easy to understand terms. Now they have shown no growth. They are still only ready for milk and not solid food. One wonders what those hearing this (for it was read aloud) thought. “Surely Paul is not talking about me. Look at how wise I am and how much I have done for the church.” This notion of spiritual maturity is precisely about what Paul is writing. There is jealousy and infighting, one upmanship and the desire to be seen as better than others. Paul’s letter speaks to us today as well.

See, when Paul is speaking of flesh, he is not speaking of the body we have. Charles L. Campbell states it this way: “Paul is not denigrating human creatureliness or fleshly human existence, much less focusing on human sexuality. Rather, sarxis an image for life that is captive to the powers of death.”[1]

What is one way that they are showing their fleshy, carnal, or human nature? By arguing over who they follow. Some are saying that they are or belong to Paul or the preacher Apollos. Both did work in Corinth and it seems that there are those who put them above Jesus. After all, they saw Paul and Apollos. This Jesus was one they did not know because they never saw or heard him. An equivalent would be for people to say here that they belong to Jim Blackwelder or to Sherri Collins or (God forbid) to Travis Milam. These are people whom you have seen and heard. You know what they teach and how they are passionate about it. But all of them would say that persons should say that they belong to Jesus, not to any human. And this is what is happening in Corinth. The Corinthians are showing their spiritual immaturity, that they are abiding by the flesh by claiming that they are of these men.

Paul then takes another tact. He asks “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?”[2] If you are going to follow humans, you should know what they are. Paul says that they are diakonos, or servants, through whom the Lord worked that the people might believe. We get the word deacon from diakonos. This is different from slave as the deacon voluntarily serves, not under compulsion.

How have they served? As Campbell puts it, they have served as common farmhands, ones who get their hands dirty in the work that they are doing. Paul was the one who planted the seeds that became the church and Apollos watered the seeds. Both are vital for things to grow. But the people in Corinth, status hungry as they were, would have been shocked at the image. Here’s why: “In Greco-Roman society, all these folks were low-class people whom the elites mocked and degraded. There were even plays in the Roman theater making fun of buffoons in the various crafts. Poking fun at such “low” characters made for a good laugh from the rich and powerful folks in the audience. No eloquent and respectable leader would ever want to be compared to such folks.”[3] Paul is telling them that status is no good when one is working for God. Not only are they getting their hands dirty but they have nothing to do with the growth of the church. That is God’s doing and God’s alone. While Paul and the others might be leaders who do some of the work, the growth is from God; “God is the one who calls the workers, the one who gives the growth in the field…”[4] NT Wright says that the leaders would be akin to waiters in a restaurant: “Paul and Apollos are simply the people who serve the food, while God is responsible for choosing it and cooking it. You shouldn’t make a fuss about which waiter brings the food to your table. What matters is that God is in charge in the kitchen.”[5]

Paul says that those who do the labor are not anything in comparison to God. The Holy Spirit is who gives the growth though the laborers will get their wages when the time comes. But right now, they work with a common purpose to the glory of God who, again, through the Holy Spirit, gives the growth. The leaders are the servants but the Church is God’s garden.

We are too often like the Church in Corinth. We quarrel and seek status. We think that we are something that we are not. We have heroes of the faith whom we hold up as people to follow. All the while we forget that we are to be servants who use the gifts given to us by God. We are to use those gifts as pertains to the growth of the Church. And the building up or growth is not done individually but is rather done by the Church working together using the gifts given. But remember it is not us who causes the growth but rather God through the Holy Spirit. God is the one who causes the growth. The Holy Spirit is like God’s Miracle-Gro. Like our plants at the beginning, we do some of the work that helps the Church: planting seeds, watering, weeding. We are to be servants who get our hands dirty. We are to remember that status is nothing with God, that when we think big of ourselves, the Spirit is not in us but rather we are filled with the flesh. The Holy Spirit does the work that changes us and causes us to grow. It is the work of God and there is nothing we can do to help the growth. We can just see it and give thanks. Amen.

[1]Campbell, Charles L. 1 Corinthians. Ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018. Print. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [3]Campbell, Charles L. 1 Corinthians. Ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018. Print. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. [4]Campbell, Charles L. 1 Corinthians. Ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018. Print. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. [5]Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004. Print.