United [Epiphany 3A - 1 Corinthians 1:10-18]
The Rev. Jeremiah
Williamson
Epiphany 3A
1-26-20
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
United
You should know this:
these 1st century churches were not large. Paul writes most of his letters in the 50’s –
not the 1950’s, the just 50’s – a mere twenty years after the death and resurrection
of Jesus. The Church was still brand new.
And so we’re not talking hundreds of people in congregation, probably
more like a couple dozen. We will have
more people stay for the Parish Annual Meeting today than there were Christians
in the city of Corinth during Paul’s life.
When Paul writes his letters to the Corinthians, he is writing to the
Church is Corinth. When he is writing to
the Church is Corinth, he is really writing to a handful of people who are
trying to figure out how to follow Jesus in the days before anyone had even transcribed
a Gospel.
It is important that
you understand this. Because if you do
not, you will not be able to appreciate the absurdity of today’s epistle
portion. Paul is writing to a church
that is divided; there are factions.
Some of the people claim to belong to Paul, some to Apollos, some to
Cephas (better known as Simon Peter), and some to Christ. That there were divisions within a church probably
does not surprise you; factions within the Church are so common it might be
what the Church is best known for. We
live in a country in which there are more than 200 Christian denominations, not
to mention the thousands of churches that exist outside of the denominational
system. But to Paul this is news because
it is new; it was all new.
So, remember, there
are merely a couple dozen people in the church to which Paul is writing, and
they have already, in a short time, broken into four denominations. Paul learns of this splintered mess,
ironically, from Chloe’s people. So
maybe there are actually five denominations in this small church because
apparently there is also a group that belongs to Chloe. Evidently mitosis is in our ecclesiastical
DNA.
And really, that’s a
shame. It makes you wonder: what could
that church have accomplished if the energy expended on bickering, on petty
disputes and ego issues, had instead been focused on spreading the Gospel? I have worked in five Episcopal Churches –
two as a lay minister and three since being ordained to the priesthood. Every church I’ve served has been a really good
church – great people, great ministries.
And still I have thought about that very question quite a lot.
It is easy to read
today’s passage and dismiss its author as naïve or conflict-adverse – as if
Paul’s plea was, “Why can’t we all just get along?” It’s just that, if you’ve read Paul, you know
that he is anything but conflict-adverse.
He can actually be quite confrontational – most especially in his letter
to the Galatians, a letter in which he calls out some fools – his words, not
mine.
In fact, the issue of
allegiance is not the only issue on which he challenges the Corinthians in this
letter. It seems this is only one of
many divisive issues within this church.
The same small group of Christians is also busy arguing about worship,
sex, social and economic status, spiritual gifts, and educational
pedigree. It is a good thing that Paul
put a rest to those specific areas of contention in the first century. Could imagine if churches still argued over
worship styles or sex?
Paul appeals to this
first century congregation to convince them to be in agreement. Not because conflict made Paul uncomfortable,
but because the conflict was killing the cause.
It is hard to be about the work of the Gospel when there are so many other
distractions keeping the people busy.
And so Paul charges
them to “be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” That purpose, of course, being the Gospel of
Jesus. Sharing that Gospel, proclaiming
the Good News of Christ, living out the radical love of God in the world,
making this world more like Heaven, is, after all, the only reason the Church
even exists. We are here to grow the
Kingdom of God. We exist to carry on the
mission we inherited from Jesus, continue the work that he began 2000 years
ago. That is why Paul says to the
Corinthians later in this same letter, “You are the Body of Christ.” You are the Jesus in this world.
We’re not ever going
to agree on everything in the Church. Although,
if everyone in this church did agree with me on everything, that would make job
easier. But Paul is not calling for some
mindless uniformity. If he was, he would
have never used his Body of Christ metaphor.
That image celebrates the diversity of the Church – of its members and
their gifts. Paul is not looking for
uniformity; he is begging for unity. You
see, we need all of the different body parts, but if they are not connected, we
still do not have a body. The parts don’t
get you anywhere unless they are united, unless there is unity.
Paul’s frustration was
inflamed because he understood how much more Gospel work that church could
accomplish if only they could unite around the purpose to which God was calling
them. But their divisions, their shattered
allegiances, were undermining their potential.
I read an article
recently in which the author argued that if all of the world’s spiders united
around the cause, they could theoretically eat every human being on earth in
just one year.[1] That is the power of unity. That is what is possible when a group shares
a united purpose. Now, we don’t want
that. That would be a horrible, and
unexpected, means of human extinction.
But it is a reminder of what we, creatures made in the image of God,
could accomplish if we did not allow our divisions to sabotage us.
Our nation and our
world are facing significant challenges: climate change, violence, war, food
shortages, disease, and poverty. They
are crises that threaten the safety and future of our planet and its people. They are quandaries that beg for our best
efforts. But rather than unite around possible
solutions, we more easily, more commonly, retreat into our camps and rehash
partisan talking points.
And while we, as a
church, might not be able to end the division that plagues our nation and our
world, we can set a better example. The
Church has been, it seems, an icon of division since its very beginning. That is probably because it is full of
humans. But that cannot be our excuse. We must set a better example. We are not just people; we are a people
possessed by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. The Church should be an example of what is
possible when love is the highest value of a community. To be anything less harms our witness to the
reconciling love of Jesus.
In this church you
will find a plethora of opinions, a variety of theologies, a solid
representation of the many political ideologies that color this nation. We are Episcopalians and uniformity is not
really our thing. That is one of the
gifts of the Episcopal Church, in fact.
We really take seriously that one body, many parts thing.
But just as unity does
not require uniformity, difference does not have to mean division. Though we are many parts, we are one
body. And though we embody many
differences, we are united by a holy purpose.
Our Presiding Bishop says, "Being a
Christian is…about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings
seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing
helping to change the world from our nightmare into God’s dream."[2]
Following in the footsteps of Jesus
means walking together. If we hope to be
the Church that displaces the nightmares of this world with the dream of God,
that helps usher in thy Kingdom come, we will have to work together.
Divisions and
distractions and shattered allegiances will seek to undermine the purpose to
which God is calling us, to which God is calling this church. They have been trying since the very
beginning. But they do not have to succeed. In fact, I say, they will not succeed. Because we are the Church and we know that we
have work to do, holy work, Jesus’ work: to banish cruelty with kindness, to
beat back despair with hope, to defy evil in the name of love. This is our Gospel work. And we’re going to do that Gospel work together.
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