{"id":4449,"date":"2015-09-01T16:27:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/roadsfromemmaus\/?p=4449"},"modified":"2015-09-01T16:27:23","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T20:27:23","slug":"the-first-fruits-of-achaia-setting-ourselves-for-the-ministry-of-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/asd\/2015\/09\/01\/the-first-fruits-of-achaia-setting-ourselves-for-the-ministry-of-the-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Fruits of Achaia: Setting Ourselves for the Ministry of the Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Map
Map of Corinthia, Sicyonia and Achaia in Ancient Greece
(From Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost \/ Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, August 30, 2015
\nI Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:33-42
\nRev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick<\/i><\/p>\n

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.<\/p>\n

M<\/span>any times when we\u2019re reading something, we come across a phrase or two in parentheses, and we might skip over that part because it\u2019s not really that important. Today I would like us to focus on what in our translation of the reading from First Corinthians is a parenthetical aside. Of course, when Paul wrote it in Greek, he didn\u2019t use parentheses. He didn\u2019t use lower case letters or even spaces between words\u2014at the time, no one did. So the parentheses is just a best guess on the part of our translator. But far from being an unimportant side comment, this is where I would like us to spend our time in this morning\u2019s homily.<\/p>\n

Of course, most of this passage is stuff we might be tempted to skip over. Why? It\u2019s mostly just a series of greetings. He says some good things about certain people who helped him along the way, and he also passes on greetings to the Corinthian Christians from people they might know. But there\u2019s something beautiful lurking in that part between the parentheses.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s that part again: \u201csince you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have set themselves for the ministry of the saints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now this is not the first time that Paul mentions this \u201chouse of Stephanas.\u201d Earlier in this epistle, in 1 Corinthians 1:16, he says that he had baptized the whole household of Stephanas. So this is a family Paul knows well, people whom he brought into the Church himself.<\/p>\n

And here, he calls this family \u201cthe first fruits of Achaia.\u201d Where is that? Achaia is in Greece, down in the southwest region, in the Peleponnesos. The capital these days is Patras, though in those days, the Romans had made Corinth the capital. And just as an interesting note, this is where the wine we use for Holy Communion comes from. So this household is the first to be converted to Christ in that region.<\/p>\n

Paul doesn\u2019t talk about this, but try to imagine what that would have been like. This family were the first Christians there. They were the first to be brought into the Church, the first to commit themselves to the worship and service of the one true God, in the midst of pagans. They did not have a Christian society to support them in any way. They probably didn\u2019t know any other Christians when Paul converted them.<\/p>\n

This context is important for what I\u2019m about to say next. We have to remember that this household is, as Paul says, the \u201cfirst fruits of Achaia.\u201d They were not just new Church members, but they were the very first in their whole region.<\/p>\n

How do we normally think of new church members? If that were me, how would I see myself? They didn\u2019t have much of a Christian support system. They didn\u2019t have a family tradition of being Christian. When they were baptized, that one family was literally the whole church in that region. Paul created a new congregation by baptizing Stephanas and his family.<\/p>\n

Normally, we would think of people like this as needing a lot of help. We might not expect much of them. They\u2019re new. They\u2019re the only Christians out there. They\u2019ve abandoned an ancient family heritage in paganism for this new religion of Jesus Christ. So we shouldn\u2019t expect them to make any big contribution at this point, right?<\/p>\n

Well, not Stephanas and his family. That was not them. Paul says that they \u201chave set themselves for the ministry of the saints.\u201d They have set themselves to give to the Church. They have set themselves to minister both to the saints and to those who are not yet saints.<\/p>\n

And saints<\/i> here does not mean what we usually mean by that word nowadays. There are no canonized saints yet. Paul is referring to Christians in general. In that sense, we are all \u201csaints.\u201d Saint<\/i> is a word meaning \u201cone who is set apart.\u201d So Stephanas and his family had set themselves to do the work appropriate to those who have been set apart. And we can read this the other way, too\u2014they are ministering to those who are also set apart. They are working both as<\/i> saints and <\/i>for<\/i> saints.<\/p>\n

Brand new church members\u2014diving right into ministry. Making new saints. Contributing to the existing ones. Paul says to the Corinthians that one of the things that Stephanas did, along with men named Fortunatos and Achaicos, is that they \u201csupplied\u201d whatever was \u201clacking\u201d on the part of the Corinthians, an act which \u201crefreshed\u201d Paul\u2019s spirit as well as the spirit of the Corinthians. These three men probably provided for Paul so that he could minister to the Corinthians, even while the Corinthians themselves were lacking something in that department. And Paul told the Corinthians to recognize what these men had done.<\/p>\n

So what should we take away from all this?<\/p>\n

First, we should take note of what kind of new Christians Stephanas and his family were. They were not<\/i> the kind that regarded the Church as existing to serve them<\/i>. Paul was not their entertainer or their minder. He baptized them and taught them. And they saw it as their duty to care for him and also for the Corinthians.<\/p>\n

They had \u201cset themselves for the ministry of the saints.\u201d They jumped right in and \u201cset themselves for the ministry.\u201d They did not see the Church as existing to provide them<\/i> with something, but that the Church was there for them to serve<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, see how Paul treats them. He doesn\u2019t coddle them. He holds them forth as examples to the Corinthians and even scolds the Corinthians a little because Stephanas and his family had to make up for what the Corinthians were lacking.<\/p>\n

This is a very different model from how many people treat the Church today. Many people regard the Church as existing to serve them<\/i> rather than as the place where they can serve<\/i>. The Church\u2019s leaders and workers need to keep them<\/i> happy, and if they\u2019re not happy, they will complain or gossip or make a scene or leave. The customer is always right. Some people think they\u2019re doing God or the Church a favor by coming here.<\/p>\n

One of the first pieces of advice I received when I became a pastor was that I need to keep people happy. But I reject that advice, not just because keeping everyone happy is pretty much impossible, but because keeping people happy is not the task of a priest. It is also not the task of the parish council, of the choir, of our church school, or of any of our ministries here at St. Paul\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Our task is to serve one another, and we serve one another not in the ways that are pleasing to you or me or anyone else, but in the ways that are pleasing to God. My task is to lead worship, to teach, to counsel, to minister the sacraments\u2014in ways that are pleasing to God. Our choir\u2019s task is to sing the services\u2014in a way that is pleasing to God. Our teachers\u2019 task is to teach the Orthodox faith\u2014the Gospel, the Scriptures, the theology, the lives of the saints, and so on. They are not babysitters but instructors in Christian faith\u2014in a way that is pleasing to God. The parish council\u2019s task is to manage the property of the parish so that it can be used for ministry\u2014in a way that is pleasing to God.<\/p>\n

But ministry does not stop there. I could name all the other groups and ministries of our parish, and it would not stop there, either. So many Christians have a very broken understanding of ministry in the Church. Ministry is not something just certain Christians do. We are all<\/i> ministers. There are no customers here. There is no one here \u201cwho is always right\u201d except for our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

My vision for myself and my vision for you is that we would be like Stephanas and his family, that we would set ourselves for the ministry of the saints. And if there are fellow ministers around us who are lacking, we make up for whatever they lack, so that we might refresh each other.<\/p>\n

People should look at St. Paul\u2019s in Emmaus and say, \u201cNow there is a parish where the people serve one another.\u201d It is something of a cliche that in most churches, 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Well, that\u2019s just wrong! We did not come here to be served but to serve. We come here to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), as Paul says elsewhere. No one else can work out your salvation for you. You have to do that for yourself. And the primary way that you do that is by doing what the house of Stephanas did: set yourself for the ministry of the saints.<\/p>\n

To the Holy Trinity therefore be all glory, honor and worship, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost \/ Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, August 30, 2015 I Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:33-42 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Many times when we\u2019re reading something, we come across a phrase or two in parentheses, and we might skip over that part because it\u2019s\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[867,582,583],"tags":[850,864,865,868],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","category-scripture","category-sermons","tag-ministry","tag-scripture","tag-sermons","tag-stephanas"],"yoast_head":"The First Fruits of Achaia: Setting Ourselves for the Ministry of the Saints — Fr. 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