The Kingdom of God is Like a Pizza
1 Corinthians 1:10-18

†  I.H.S †

May the grace, mercy and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you enjoy your role in others’ lives and their role in yours.

• The Kingdom of God is Like a Tripoli’s Pizza

Growing up, one of the great treats was going to the beach, and the best part of the trip was stopping at Tripoli’s Pizza. It was an incredible treat, so much better than the other pizzas that we would get back home.

Little 4-inch square simple cheese pizza.  Occasionally, if it had been a good week for my folks, there would be Pepperoni on top.  But there was something about it, the flavor was incredible, from the dough to the sauce, to the cheese. It was perfectly put together and it hit the spot. Always the same, always good, always hit the spot. Not sure what was in the recipe, or it was the salt air of the beach, or what it was.

It was good and right…and perfect, and nothing compared to it, heck nothing still compares to it.

The Kingdom of God is like that…

Until sin enters into the picture.

• Dividing the Pizza Up

And if we bought an entire pizza, as opposed to the normal 2 slices for a quarter, the battle royal between my brother, sister and cousins began. Everyone wants their particular slice, usually the corner with the extra pizza dough.

Or if we were blessed to get Pepperoni, there would always be one person who would count how many slices were on each piece, and if they didn’t get as many pieces as the others, oh my gosh, the battle that would ensue!

The world is like that, everyone wants what they want, everyone wants to make sure they get what they consider is their right, and what they consider is “just.” It’s not just the world though, it can happen in the church.

As it did in Paul’s day, as they compared who they followed, whose teaching, or who baptized them.  In Greek, it is even more divisive, as it reads, “I am Paul’s!”  “I am Peter’s!” “I am Apollos’s”, and some, even more, condescending said, “nana nana na na, I AM CHRIST’s”!

It wasn’t just then either, Martin Luther said it this way,

In the first place, I ask that men make no reference to my name; let them call themselves Christians, not Lutherans. What is Luther? After all, the teaching is not mine [John 7:16]. Neither was I crucified for anyone [1 Cor. 1:13]. St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, would not allow the Christians to call themselves Pauline or Petrine, but Christian. How then should I—poor stinking maggot-fodder that I am—come to have men call the children of Christ by my wretched name? Not so, my dear friends; let us abolish all party names and call ourselves Christians, after him whose teaching we hold.^[1]

That lasted until after he passed away – and then the Evangelical-Catholic church was renamed…. The Lutheran Church.

You see, what this is all about isn’t who we follow, not really.  It’s about me getting mine, it’s about my pride, my superiority.  It’s not about doctrine, most of the time, it’s about me getting the corner piece of pizza, the one with the extra half slice of Pepperoni!

• What if we are the pizzas

Here is here the sermon flips. I said the Kingdom of God was like a pizza, not like eating pizza. We aren’t the ones fighting for “our” piece, or for equal shares of pepperoni.  We aren’t in control of the church, or our community.

God is.

That’s a good thing!

Some of us are the dough, some of us are the sauce or the various spices in the sauce, some of us in this community are the cheese, others are the pineapple or anchovies.

O wait, Tripoli only made cheese pizza.

Again, God makes life – life, our lives, masterpieces. He’s the cook and the One who writes the recipes.  He pulls all the ingredients together, mixes us all up and makes it a masterpiece.

While those not focused on God think this is foolish, we realize it is something so much more. We see it as God at work, bringing us together, putting each of us into the mix in just the right place, at just the right time.

Sure we have to be cleaned, and cut up, some of us have to me squashed or grated or tossed about like Pizza dough, but that is where faith comes into play.  We trust in God’s work in our lives, knowing the incredible thing He is creating.

That what happens when we are brought into the faith, God puts us in just the right place.  You see, in my analogy, the Kingdom, the Body of Christ is the pizza. Christ is the pizza, and we have our place in Him, together.

We can count on His love and mercy, and His amazing wisdom when we don’t get what we want when we don’t think it is fair when someone else gets more.  Because He has promised at the end there is something amazing that He is preparing,

That is why Paul didn’t use all his 50 dollar words in writing these letters because the message of God bringing us back is so necessary for us not just to hear, but to understand.  What why the cleansing of our sin resembles washing, why our celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection is a feast, where again we are told this is where the relationship is defined, where we are welcome to be honored guests, part of the feast.

We have to get this – the love and care that God takes in making our lives, with the outcome in mind at all times.

For then, with the goal in sight, we can rejoice, and let Him do His work in our lives.

AMEN!

^[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 45 : The Christian in Society II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 45 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 70–71.