“Best Foot Forward”
“Best Foot Forward”
I Corinthians 1:1-9
I Corinthians 1:1-9
Back in June of 1980, there was an article in the Boston Globe about a most unusual wedding banquet. Some months previously, a young lady and her fiancé made lavish preparations at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston. They planned for the best entrees, selected the china and silver along with flower arrangements they both liked. They had expensive tastes – the bill came to $13,000 – it would be over twice as much in today’s dollars – and after leaving a check for half the amount as a down payment, they went home to flip through samples of wedding announcements.
However, the day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet. “I’m just not sure. It’s a big commitment.” Very understandably so, his fiancée was enraged and returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet. To her credit, the Events Manager was very understanding saying that the same thing had happened to her, but about the refund, she had bad news. The contract was binding. She would be entitled to only 10% back – just $1,300. “Honey,” the Events Manager said, “you have two options: forfeit the rest of the down payment or go ahead with the banquet. I’m really sorry.”
And though it seemed crazy at first, the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead with the festivities. Why not put your best foot forward and have a big party? Ten years previously, the same lady had been living in a homeless shelter. She had gotten back on her feet, found a good job, and set aside a sizeable nest egg. And now she had the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down and outs of Boston to a night on the town.
So, she did! The Hyatt in Boston hosted a party such as never been seen before. The menu was changed to boneless chicken in honor of the spineless groom and invitations were sent to city rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d’oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the sidewalks outside and sipped champaign, ate chocolate cake, and danced to big band melodies into the night.
All this took place because this jilted woman decided to put her best foot forward in the face of rejection. In your life how have you dealt with rejection? Do you take it very well? No doubt you felt it as a child when someone was favored over you in friendships or in sports. Then later in life someone disses you or you are passed over in a relationship. There is a felt loss of love and acceptance. Over the course of my ministry, it always hurt me when people for one reason or another would walk away from the church. I’m oversensitive to a fault and would struggle in a tension between feeling hurt or angry.
No one wants to feel like a reject, and this sentiment well describes the emotional backdrop surrounding St. Paul’s painful letter to the believers in Corinth. He was the one being jilted. This is despite the fact that he had started the church from scratch – though he had poured out his heart and soul for nearly two years to get them in a good place. However, now Paul has been relegated to the role of a “has been” though he was its spiritual father. Instead, the Corinthians were holding so-called super apostles in higher esteem – men considered more sophisticated, more polished preachers than Paul. Besides, Paul seemed to be always ending up in jail – weak, poorly clothed, undistinguished, and often homeless.
But what had this super apostolic ministry gotten them? The church was in disarray – divided into four competing factions. Further, there was sexual immorality – a man sleeping with his father’s wife, believers filing lawsuits against each other in the pagan courts rather than working it out among themselves. There were conflicts between those who ate food sacrificed to pagan gods while others opposed it, there was drunkenness and feasting while celebrating the Lord's Supper, chaotic speaking of tongues and prophesizing in the worship services, and some were even doubting the truth of Christ’s resurrection.
Things were in shambles! Frankly, my fallen nature would want to first upbraid those blankety blank ingrates and then given up on them as a hopeless cause. Yet, Paul doesn’t. But where to start? Yes, there are huge problems to be addressed, but first the apostle gets to the root cause behind all the issues. It all came down to their failure to live under the lordship and authority of Christ, the head of His body, the Church. Indeed, in their rejection, the Corinthians resembled that fiancé of the woman in Boston who walked away from his commitment. Also, they were no better than the rebels in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet. The King sent servants to issue personal invitations but they made lame excuses – going off to do their own thing and were even abusive. This so enraged the king that he destroyed those who had rejected him, and like that lady in Boston, He then invited everyone on the streets to come.
Such was the danger facing the believers in Corinth. It was their failure to live under the Lordship of Christ and what that meant for their day-to-day living. So, how would this apostle so snubbed begin his letter to these people who had rejected him and the Lord? First, he reminded them that he was Christ’s apostle whose authority was being challenged. Yet he doesn’t do this in a heavy-handed way. Instead, with a loving heart he begins to first shine some epiphany light with the wayward church. He puts his best foot forward. Usually, he would begin praising a congregation for their accomplishments, but not here. Nevertheless, he does begin with those words you hear over fifty times a year in our worship services, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s the pastor’s opening greeting of the sermon. Aren’t those throw-away words for most of us? Like somebody walking the other way on the sidewalk? You say “hello” and they respond, “How are you?” but it’s only a formality. Yet not so for the Apostle who used these words. Through the Corinthians Paul experienced the harsh reality of the hard saying of our Lord Jesus: “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” That was the slap of insult. However, St. Paul did not respond in kind with a condemning, gruff voice: “Shame on you! How dare you call yourselves Christians! Who are you to dare to even think that God could ever consider you or care about you again? You’re no better than Israel that worshiped the Golden Calf.”
No, Paul’s extending of grace and peace exemplify his turning the other cheek. It’s that same grace that saved him, the chief of sinners. So, as that lady in Boston, the Apostle puts the best foot forward as he emphasizes the positives. They have been greatly enriched. The big issues regarding their eternal destiny have been resolved. They have been redeemed – forgiven through Christ’s atoning blood shed on the cross, and elected by that grace for all eternity. God is faithful. Despite their weaknesses, though guilty, God will renew them through the cleansing flow of His grace. Instead of laying on them inappropriate guilt that would undermine their status as saints and lead to humiliation and despair, Paul would bring them to the point of acknowledging appropriate guilt that would lead to humility, recognition of sin and repentance – so allowing the Gospel light of forgiveness to shine into their hearts.
Best foot forward. Despite insult, Paul responds with a pastoral spirit. He writes with tact and generosity even while laying down the law. The enriching will continue so that through the Spirit’s work, the Corinthians will be cleansed from their alien thinking – moving them from their contradictions and conflicts to a single loyalty and love. God’s amazing grace will get them home. No doubt, it would not be pretty in the short term, but God was working. In spite of terrible circumstances, they are not a lost cause. Paul does not let their many flaws blind them to the strengths in God they possess. Rather he envisions the Corinthians as God’s grace has envisioned him. The jilted St. Paul will stay for the long haul, expecting things to improve. God will find a way by His grace to enable them to be blameless at the end.
Best foot forward. Are you struggling with this regarding a son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter? Are you disappointed or even jilted by their behavior? Do you feel like writing them off? How easy to fall prey to the scourge of unforgiveness. Perhaps some of you remember the drama of personal forgiveness that captured the world’s fleeting attention back in the 1980s. Pope John Paul II went into the bowels of Rome’s Rebbibia prison to visit Mehmet Ali Agca, a hired assassin who had tried to kill him and almost succeeded. “I forgive you,” said the Pope. Lance Morrow of Time magazine wrote a cover story on it. He declared it a scene of symbolic splendor as John Paul proclaimed that great issues are determined by the elemental impulses of the human breast – hatred overcome by love and forgiveness through changed hearts.
The Pope, of course, was following the example of the One Who did not survive the attempt on His life. “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” We know, those of us who believe in the atonement, that Jesus had more than His executioners in mind when He spoke those words. He had us in mind so that we would have grace dwelling in us with peace. Yes, God’s peace where there is the great Someone looking out for us. God is always pulling the strings to make a positive impact on our lives, and may we in this church continue to pull the strings and enrich others with the touch of grace. It’s truly the way of our best foot forward into the New Year.