Our Faith Is Built on the Foundation of the Apostles

In this last week of the Church year, we hear from Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth.  Paul writes:

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’, and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.’

So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1 Cor. 3: 10-23).

All of us as Christians have received our faith from others.  This is part of the apostolic succession. Our faith is built first upon Christ as its foundation which as its first layer has the faith as transmitted by the apostles, and then the next layer by those who came after them, and so on to the present day.  There is a great cloud of witnesses who have handed down the faith through the centuries.  Paul reminds us that through the centuries, the temple of God, the Church, is made up of people, those who came before us and now us.  The head of the Church is Christ himself and we should not put our faith in, or “boast about human leaders” as Paul reminds us. 

Let us pray:  Almighty God and Father, your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the head of the Church, as we are sanctified as the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit.  Renew your Church in all things, keep it leaders ever mindful of who they serve.  Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

RBC Kids: Jillian and Jo want to thank our St. Aug's family for adopting the Rainbow Connection as your Christmas outreach this year. The Rainbow Connection is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to serving children living with cancer or blood disorders, and their families. Activities include: The Rainbow Connection Camp, community education, holiday parties, parent support activities, quarterly newsletters, and outings. We have a Christmas party for them each year, with a Santa shop where the children may choose a few gifts. As mentioned in Church, we are most in need of gift cards and gifts for teenagers. If you'd prefer, you can give a cash donation to Jillian. We will be shopping for gifts on December 12, and would appreciate having all donations in hand by then.

Advent begins on Sunday, 2 December, as well as our new Adult Christian Education series from Kerygma on Handel’s Messiah where we will explore:

         Comfort, Comfort My People

         Who shall Abide the Day of His Coming?

         For Unto Us a Child is Born

         Glory to God in the Highest

PRAYER LIST: Please remember everyone on our Prayer List, especially Caleb Boyer who is having surgery today, all of those who are unemployed, all of those serving in the Armed Forces, Izzola Collins, Gladys, Patricia and Betty.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550