Early Church July 8, 2012 Proper 9, Year B

For Readings:

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp9_RCL.html

Paul, a man who loved Jesus, started a lot of churches. This was in the time right after Jesus died. He was one of the first people to go around and try to start churches. Since this was such a new thing, people weren't too sure what it meant to be a part of a church or what it meant to be a christian. He would start one church and then he would go off and start another one. Since this was a long time ago, when his churches had problems they couldn't call him, or email him or send him a text message. How do you think Paul's churches tried to talk to him when he wasn't there? That's right Paul's churches wrote letters to ask about the rules of being a church.

A lot of the troubles that the churches had were about how to get along with each other. Church is a little different than most other types of communities you are in. We are in all in school communities because kids have to go to school, we might have a neighborhood that we live in and we are a part of that community because we live there. But the church community has people who live in lots of different neighborhoods, and who might go to lots of different schools. The thing that makes us a community is that we have some kind of faith in God and that we think the best way to show our faith and give thanks to God is by going to church.

When you are a kid, it is usually your parents or grandparents that decide that going to church is what your family does. But kids are a very special part of the church community.

Back to Paul: Paul started a church in a place called Corinth. But the church in Corinth had a lot of problems. The letters that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth are filled with his answers about how to get a long with each other and how to make the church community. In today's letter we hear some rules that Paul is telling the church: He tells them Don't brag, boast or show off about how strong you are. When Paul is talking about strength he isn't just talking about muscles and our bodies: I think he means other sorts of ways of being strong too: some examples of being strong might be bragging about having the best of a toy or a game or a book. It might be bragging about being the best student at math in your class. This rule makes a lot of sense for a community, right? If some people are bragging too much they would think that they are better than other people and it is very hard to get along when some people think they are better than other people.

This part of the rule is sort of easy to understand, but then Paul keeps writing his letter, and he tells the church community that there is more to it than just not bragging and showing off--he says: If you feel like showing off remember that it is when you are weak that you are strong.

That is a very confusing thing to say! When you are weak, you are strong. I have been thinking about this a long time, and I think I know what Paul means. When you are feeling weak, you have to depend on your mom, or your dad, your brother or sister, your friends or cousins, your teachers and babysitters. When you are feeling weak you have to reach out to other people to feel better. That reaching out to other people is what Paul wanted the people in the church to do. When they reach out they are showing their love for their family members, and that love is like the love that God has for each of us. I think the other reason that Paul says that when we are weak we are strong is because when we feel most like we are not able to do something, we can call on God to help us out. When we feel weak like we don't know if we can do something, or maybe it is weak like having trouble making new friends, or just feeling a little down--that's when we can call on God and ask for God's help and then we will be strong.

When we are weak, we are strong because we reach out to people in our lives, and we reach out to God. We are reminded of God's love for us.