1 Corinthians 1:4-9 GJW
I continually give thanks to my God always concerning you upon the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus because, in everything, you were enriched in him in every word and in every insight due to the fact the witness of Christ was established in you. Consequently you aren’t at all being made to come short in any anticipated gift with reference to the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ which also he shall establish you unto the end unblameable ones on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ, is faithful.
The story of Pandora’s Box is a silly little myth the Greeks thrust upon the western world. If not for Pandora and her craven curiosity the story goes, we would not have all the wearisome troubles we face. Plagues and diseases, holocausts and terrors all flew out into the world the instant Pandora took off the lid. Of course even the Greeks knew the tale was just a teaching vehicle used to warn against flippancy, against the casual disregard for the actions we take. We must think before we act is the moral; that even the most breezy wisp of a thought can reap a world of harm. Ten car pile-ups and lost political campaigns can both be initiated by a solitary decision that at the time seemed meaningless and trivial. It of course goes the other way too. Pandora’s Box could have the small pox inoculation, the chance meeting that turns a plumber into a world-class author, a happy discovery at a pawn shop of a Monet. We can wonder what might have been King David’s legacy if he hadn’t wandered out on the roof the fateful night he stumbled upon the lovely Bathsheba bathing but we can just as easily ponder the way history could have shifted if Moses had taken his sheep east rather than west and missed the burning bush. Both were a sort of Pandora’s Box.
There are findings in scripture that are a Pandora’s Box. As you gaze upon them, the consequences of opening these discoveries are monumental in ways we may not know at all. The realization that God is a Trinity is a Pandora’s Box. The finding that God is eternal and everything that is sprang not out of random evolutionary processes but rather from God’s specific word is a Pandora’s Box. Our passage today is a sizable and in ways baffling Pandora’s Box for by opening it, we can unleash an entirely undesirable fury. And yet, if the Gospel is good news, then you just might have something else altogether. The problem with the Bible is that despite what you may wish it say, it says what it does and we are left with the many consequences that spring from it.
Some could argue that the six verses found above are simply a minor introductory statement for the much more important body of instructions that follow in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians but if you look closely enough at it, you find within this little passage an extraordinary assertion. Now we can take one of two courses. We can heed the warning of Pandora and keep this risky portion of scripture closed or we can follow the example of Abraham Lincoln or Governor Palin and run for office anyway despite its risks or in our case, open the passage.
Paul marks out a quite straight path toward a revolutionary teaching. It all begins with verse four. Of course the verse may not sound like much. It is innocent enough. Paul gives thanks continually because of the grace given the church in Christ Jesus. This grace Paul notes is given all at once. It is completed in a moment. The verb translated “given” describes something finished, already accomplished. Of course grace is in Paul’s writings the total work of God in us. It is the death of Christ for our sins, the calling of God to receive our salvation found in Jesus, the transforming work of God in making us a new creation; or as Jesus puts it, “born again” and it is the eternal life we possess through faith. That says Paul is what has happened for us. We shall not receive grace at some later date; grace has already come our way and its work with us is finished and for that, Paul gives ongoing thanks.
To Be Continued
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