All We Need
1 Corinthians 1:1-9[1]
I’m not sure which is harder: renovating an existing
building or starting from scratch. I’ve had some experience with both. Those of
you do-it-yourself-er’s out there know what happens when you try to renovate an
older home. There’s always something underneath what you can see that makes the
project take three times longer than you expected. The home in Houston where I
lived was a mid-1960’s Ranch style home that had been “redone” by the previous
owners. Unfortunately, they had cut a lot of corners in the process. A lot
of corners. It seemed like every time we started a project, we had to spend a
significant amount of time undoing what the previous owners had done. It was
frustrating at times, but the end result was satisfying.
Building a new structure from scratch presents its own
challenges. If you’ve never had the pleasure, let me assure you that all the
delays—from permits to suppliers to contractors—can make it just as frustrating
a process. Maybe more so. As some of you know, one of the churches I served in
Houston was destroyed by fire in 2010. This was a congregation with maybe 40
members. We had a great insurance policy, so we were able to hire architects to
design a beautiful building. And with a little bit of “value engineering,” we
were able to build that beautiful building with very little money out of
pocket. But it wasn’t an easy process. We had to spend $300,000 just on moving
dirt around to comply with the new flood plain policy. I guess I’d say building
something new took only twice as long as expected, so maybe it was a little
easier. Maybe.
There are people who would debate whether it’s easier to
lead an existing congregation to thrive, or to build a new congregation from
scratch. An existing congregation typically has the “critical mass” of
resources needed to thrive. But with those resources come established
traditions, and traditions are slow to adapt to the times. With a new
congregation, you have a “blank slate,” so to speak. You can come up with new
“traditions” that seem to work best for the specific time and place you’re
trying to serve. But all that takes time and a whole lot of energy on the part
of a few people, maybe primarily one person. I think how you approach this
question depends on your gifts. Some people have the gift of coming into a new
situation, seeing exactly what the needs are, and organizing a group of people
to meet those needs. They have a knack for the work of planting a new church.
Others have the gift of working with an established congregation to lead them
forward. In both cases, as a friend of mine put it years ago, leadership is
essentially about listening. You listen for the needs and try to respond
appropriately.
Two of our scripture lessons deal with communities facing
challenging situations, almost like “rebuilding.” In our lesson from Isaiah,
the prophet was addressing people living in exile. Everything they had known—at
least those who could remember it—had been taken from them. They had been
uprooted and dropped in a place that was strange and seemed very far away from
God. Their greatest challenge was maintaining their faith. In that place where
they all felt displaced the Lord spoke through the prophet to change their
focus. The people of Israel had focused all their attention on restoring what
they had lost from their past. But through his “Servant,” the Lord God
commissioned them to something much bigger than they had imagined. They were
going to be “a light to the Gentiles,” to “bring my salvation to the ends of
the earth” (Isa 49:6, NLT).
I think the believers
in Corinth had some similar doubts about what they were doing. They were a new
congregation. The Apostle Paul had started the church in Corinth during an
18-month ministry there. But they had become confused about how they were
supposed to live their lives together in Christian community. They were
divided, and the factions were pulling the congregation in very different
directions—some closer to their Jewish heritage, some away from it. One of the
fundamental challenges they faced was how Jewish Christians and Christians from
other nations could live together in one community of faith. And I would
imagine the people in Corinth saw the task of trying to integrate people of
such different backgrounds as next to impossible. It might have been similar to
trying to build a congregation from two groups of people who speak completely
different languages.
But the Apostle began his instructions with the assurance
that they already had everything they needed to accomplish the task. He
reminded them that everything they did was built on “the grace of God that has
been given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:4). That’s a pretty good foundation. More
specifically, he told them that they had already been fully equipped by the
Spirit to carry out their work: “in every way you have been enriched in him, in
speech and knowledge of every kind ... so that you are not lacking in any
gift” (1 Cor 1:5, 7). He’s talking about the “gifts” of the Spirit they
needed to do the work of ministry and build up the body of Christ. And just in
case they had any lingering doubts, Paul encouraged them that their faithful
God would strengthen them to the end (1 Cor 1:8).
We’re living through a time of sweeping changes: changes in
culture, changes in family structures, changes in our economy, and also changes
in the church. Many of us may feel like the people of Israel: we may feel like
refugees living in a strange land! We may find ourselves grieving that what was
so familiar in the past is gone. Others among us may see ourselves more like
the people at Corinth. We may be eager for the future to come, so eager that
we’re not willing to practice patience and understanding toward those who may
seem to be “dragging their feet.” We may be thinking that it’s impossible to
forge a true community from people who have such deep differences in the way
they look at life.
I think in both cases, the challenge of our Scriptures for
today is to re-direct our focus toward what God is doing among us. It’s often
called a “new thing” in Scripture, something unexpected, something we can’t
even imagine. I know that it’s hard to see the past and things that we have cherished
for decades seemingly slipping away. Instead of wringing our hands about the
way church “used to be,” I would say that perhaps the way to move forward
positively is to always be open to the possibility that our God is calling us
on to something new, something bigger than we can even imagine. That means
having the courage to let God lead us into the future that he’s planned for us.
At the same time, some of us may feel stuck in frustration that things aren’t
changing fast enough. I think it’s important for us to remember that God’s timing
isn’t our timing. It’s also important to remember that the Spirit has fully
equipped us with all we need to carry out our mission.
Life has changed so much, just in the course of my lifetime.
It can be hard to look back on what worked so well for so long and see that
they’re not working now. We struggle with not understanding why they’re not
working. We struggle with trying to re-energize those programs, trying to
figure out a way to rebuild them. It’s a little bit like renovating an existing
building. It’s also hard and scary to think about what new things God may be
doing among us, because we’re used to the way things have been. But if God is
the one who is sovereign, and if we’re trusting God with our lives, then that
always means recognizing that while we may not know what God is doing in and
through us, we place our hope and faith in God to lead us. At the end of the
day, Scripture reminds us that our faithful God will complete the work he is
doing among us. It seems to me that’s where our faith is rooted: in the
promises of our faithful God. He will always be with us. He will always guide
us. He will always give us all that we need to accomplish our work. And he will
complete the work he is doing among us. May we trust him as we seek to be
faithful in completing the work he’s called us to do.
[1] ©
2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 1/18/2026 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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