Epiphany - 7 - Celebrating Calling

2/16/2025

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 NIV

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Special Music

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Week 3: Special Music

Joane Weathers and Debbie Daugherty

Opening Prayer:

Loving God, you have called forth disciples and prophets to live and speak your word. Give us ears to hear, lives to respond, and voices to proclaim the good news of salvation, which we know in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Celebrating Calling

Shame

We are taught to protect the honor of any group we identify with and avoid shame at all costs.

I say we are taught this because young children don’t do this naturally. I’ve seen parents and grandparents terrified of what their young children might say if anyone asked them honest questions about their family. Those too young to know differently often default to answering honestly. They haven’t been taught that we value limited honesty. That means there are some things you can share in church, some things you can share around the dinner table, some things you only share with those closest to you one-on-one, and some things you don’t ever share.

This notion of protecting your people from shame is not a Christian value. It’s not an American value. It was one of the most important values of the entire Roman empire, and they didn’t invent it either. Shame goes back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve have one famous moment of shame when they are kicked out of the garden, and our story begins. I wonder how they talked about that moment in the following years. Did they still argue about whose fault it was? Did little Cain and Abel overhear those conversations between their parents and find themselves trying to side with one parent or the other? Or did they do like many of us would do and try to never speak of it in front of their kids? After all, what good would it do to tell your children that they could have grown up in paradise, but you couldn’t follow the rules faithfully and messed it up for everyone?

Shame is a tool of the devil. We don’t know how Adam and Eve passed on their story, but we know the generations after them forgot about God. So, because of shame, God’s goodness, mercy, and power were kept away from people along with his judgment.

To understand Paul’s life and how he understood his calling, we need a sense of the power of shame in our lives and our world and how the power of God interacts with that. Most religions fill their histories with heroes from their families. It has always struck me odd that our scriptures do the opposite. We are not here today because our ancestors were so good. We are here today today because our ancestors messed up. So did their children, grandchildren, and every family member after them, including us, and whatever good we have done could never make up for our sins.

Our calling is tied to our beliefs, but like a shadow cast by the light, it is also often tied to our shame because as much as we will stand for our beliefs, we will stand up more to protect our family, our church, our nation, and whoever else we identify with from shame. Today, we will see how Paul clarified that understanding of what it means to be called by Jesus. He showed us that we each have a calling to serve Christ and that calling is not about what we do for Christ, but instead, it is what He does through us.

Gospel

Our calling begins with the gospel. When Paul talks about the gospel, he’s not talking about a style of music. He doesn’t use the word to make things seem more churchy. In fact, he’s not even talking about the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote about Jesus. To Paul, the gospel is simply the good news of Jesus.

We have simplified, codified, and summarized that gospel in many ways. Some have become the creeds we recite or the liturgies we share in worship. Others have become catchphrases or bumper sticker slogans. I’m thankful for all of them because they all point us back to the truth and the power we find in Jesus.

But the gospel also points out our shame. We wouldn’t need a savior if we could live right on our own. We wouldn’t need forgiveness if we could fully make amends for our wrongdoings. In Romans 6:23, Paul wrote that the punishment for sin is death. The consequence of sin is also death. A punishment usually reflects back on the person who acted wrongly. But the death consequence of sin can affect everyone else around them. The wrongs we do and the right deeds we fail to do cause harm and eventually death in the lives of those around us, even if indirectly. And once it’s done, we cannot fix it. True repentance comes when we stop trying to fix it and turn to Jesus to save us.

People have different opinions on the most important thing Jesus did for us. We often say that his resurrection was the most important thing and that we wouldn’t be here without it. Around Christmas time, we say that he had to be born to do any of the things he did, and that’s the most important thing. In our passage today, Paul says the most important thing Jesus did was die for our sins. Lazarus and others were raised from the dead, and we will all have a resurrection someday. And while everybody dies at some point, no one has ever been able to die for our sins. That is one thing only Jesus could do for us.

Receive

According to the scriptures, Jesus died for our sins. He was buried, and three days later, he rose from the dead just as the scriptures said. That is the primary foundation of our belief. If we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.

Then Paul describes a series of people, starting with Cephas, the Greek name for Peter, and the 12 disciples that Jesus appeared to after he rose from the dead. All these people who came to believe that Jesus died for their sins and rose from the dead met him personally. They didn’t just like the idea of a savior or no about Jesus; they knew him. If he passed by them on the street, they would recognize him. It might take them a minute, and they might not recognize him exactly by his appearance. But they would know him in the sound of his voice as he said their name and how he treated them and other people around him. They heard about Jesus, and then they met him and received him.

When we talk in church about receiving Jesus into our hearts, it seems like a strange phrase, but we are trying to describe a relationship like we hope you have with your mom or dad. There’s a way that we carry our parents and those who love us best in our hearts all the time. They remind us who we are, and they shape how we live.

Paul describes hundreds of people who saw the resurrected Jesus and ends this list with himself. He put himself last because he wasn’t a follower of Jesus before the crucifixion. Right after the crucifixion and resurrection, Paul was actively persecuting the disciples of Jesus. He calls himself abnormally born because he sees himself as one of the worst possible choices for Jesus to call as a disciple. But Jesus did. He appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, knocked him off his horse, and blinded him by simply asking a question. Paul changed his mind about Jesus, although he couldn’t take back all the terrible things he did to the other disciples before that day. That is how Paul first learned about grace from Jesus.

Take a Stand / Follow Jesus

Paul was a leading officer at the highest leadership level in the Jewish community. Paul was on track to become the next president of the Jewish Council. His mentor, Gamaliel, was already one of the highest leaders among the Pharisees. Paul was celebrated for his zealous fervor in disciplining the Jewish people. He had dedicated his life to helping them live according to the law, the whole law, and nothing but the law to the best of his ability. When these Christians started talking about worshiping God outside of the Temple in Jerusalem and finding forgiveness without bringing sacrifices, Paul went to put a stop to that. He didn’t just have beliefs; he took a stand and did something about those beliefs.

Then, he met Jesus and discovered how wrong he was in those beliefs. After meeting Jesus, Paul could have hidden away in shame, praying daily for forgiveness and leaving it at that. But Paul did something about his beliefs and stood for something, even though it would cost him everything. For him, stepping out in faith and following Jesus cost him the career he and his family had worked for generations to give him. It cost him the relationships with his family, who were committed to the Jewish ways. It cost him these things because sharing the truth of Jesus brought shame upon his family, his people, and his former faith in God because they also persecuted Jesus and His followers.

To make matters worse, he knew he would not be welcomed into the church with open arms. He had hunted, persecuted, imprisoned, and killed some of the very people whose help he now needed just to make it through the day. When he was blind, it was a Christian who cared for him, prayed for him, and brought him healing from Jesus so that he could see again. When Paul was persecuted by his former allies in the Jewish council, Christians rescued him and helped him escape. When he was put in prison for disrupting the Roman standard of living with his preaching about Jesus, it was Christians who came to visit him and make sure he was cared for there. Paul’s entire life was spent receiving love, care, and help from the very people he had made his enemies before he met Jesus. And so Paul says he worked harder than any of the other disciples to make sure that the grace given to him was not given in vain because He believed his debt was greater than any of theirs.

We could stop there, which would make for a beautiful Hollywood ending. Wrongs are being made right, and lives are transformed for the good. But Paul adds a correction to that statement about how hard he worked for Jesus. He says:

“…yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Faced with the depth of our sin and the grace presented to us by Jesus, it is easy for us to follow our easily deceived hearts and spend our lives trying to correct the wrongs we have done. Paul could have spent his life trying to care for the families of those whose lives were ruined by his sinful actions. But he did not because that was not his calling. He found his calling by following Jesus rather than listening to his own shame, and Jesus led him to the Gentiles. He started the church with people who never knew any of the laws that Paul was raised with and trained so long to understand. Jesus led him to serve in a place of his weakness rather than in the place of his strength, and so Paul recognized that all the good he accomplished in following his calling came from Jesus, not from his own hard work.

I came across a new hymn not long ago that illustrates what it means to find your call in the Gospel we receive and then stand upon it as we answer the call to follow Jesus and serve Him. I have to admit. I was turned off by it at first because it had a weird title, like some of those really old hymns from the 1500s that never make it on the radio. But as I listened to it, the tune did not get in the way of the words, and it turned a slightly awkward phrase into a prayer I could come to own and claim for myself. It is called “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me.” Here are a few lines from it.

Song: Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me (vs 2 and 3)  

No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven

The future's sure, the price, it has been paid

For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon

And He was raised to overthrow the grave

To this I hold, my sin has been defeated

Jesus, now and ever is my plea

Oh, the chains are released, I can sing, "I am free"

Yet not I, but through Christ in me

With every breath, I long to follow Jesus

For He has said that He will bring me home

And day by day, I know He will renew me

Until I stand with joy before the throne

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus

All the glory evermore to Him

When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat

"Yet not I, but through Christ in me"

Follow Jesus

You will know you are following your calling when you can look at the work and say, that’s not me. That’s Jesus at work. At our best when we are serving Christ, we are not going around doing things for Him as if He cannot do them himself. No, at our best, we are making room for Him to do the work in and through us that we could never accomplish ourselves.

What shame is holding you back from believing the gospel and receiving Jesus as the Lord and Leader of your life?

As you follow Jesus each day, what other influences try to steer you in different directions, maybe even with good intentions?

Where do you see Jesus, pure and simply, working in your life today?

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, we humbly come to You today and thank You for giving Your life for us and redeeming us from the punishment and consequences we make for ourselves and one another. We cannot do right without grace to forgive us, cleanse us, and lead us through our lives. You owe us nothing, and yet You give us everything. Lord, we hear Your voice calling us to follow You and serve with the gifts You give us. Help us to hear you clearly and not be turned aside by shame, guilt, temptation, doubt, fear, or frustration. Help us to see You working in our lives the same way You saw Your Father working and always following Him faithfully. We want to follow You faithfully, too. We know we could never do that on our own, but we claim the promise of scripture that through Your power and guidance, you can accomplish that in us through Your grace. Do it again, Lord. Please do it again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.