4 September: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5: Homily

(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)

“I do not have to put with this.  I do not answer to you.  You did not send me or hire me.  Someone else did that.  I am not answerable to you or even to myself.  Only the one who sent me can do this.  I am not my own boss; I am simply a servant of someone else.”

If I were to say this in my own name, you would probably turn me off and stop reading these homilies.  It was St Paul, however, who dared to speak in much this way to the Corinthians. 

He was conscious that it was God who had appointed him and sent him to Corinth.  He had not come on his own, nor had he come because the Corinthians had asked him to come.  He had come as a messenger and agent from God.  He had spoken the word of God to them and they had come to believe in God and the word of God that St Paul had spoken to them.

Paul would also have asserted that he was not in competition with Apollos, Peter or any other apostle.  He had come because God sent him.  He had laid a foundation on which Apollos and others could build.  He had preached Christ Jesus, crucified (and risen), a scandal to some and foolishness to others, but to those saved, the source of salvation.  He was answerable to God for delivering the message to the Corinthians, not to the Corinthians because they had received it.

In our day and at this time in our history, we have many politicians wooing us for our vote in November.  Some of these may think that they come in the name of God to continue the accomplishments of the last four years or to correct the mistakes of the last four years.  They do not, however, speak in the name of God and the God has not sent them.  God does not campaign for candidates for public office.

For that matter, although I preach in the Church and write blog homilies, only in so far as I speak the truth of the Word of God can I claim that God sent me.  I am responsible for proclaiming the word of God.  I have no right to proclaim my own word as the word of God.  You have every right to expect to hear the word of God, not my word, from me.

I cannot judge you and my judgment of myself is contingent because only the Lord knows the hearts of each of us.  Those who have authority over others have the task of guiding, directing and leading them to the fullness of truth, which is only found in Christ Jesus the Lord.  May God enable us to speak and hear the word of God and do it.