Sermon:(Re)CreatingChurch: Unity
May 10th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: 1 Corinthians 1:1-18, John 17:22-23 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Have you ever laughed so hard that you were doubled over, holding your sides with tears running down your face? I remember one occasion when I enjoyed that kind of laughter – it was on a camping trip with students from Kodaikanal International School in India. The school had a wilderness campus for outdoor education, which was a wonderful thing for the kids who had never experienced camp before. One of those kids decided he was going to set up the tent for his group of classmates. It was a simple, old-fashioned army style tent – you know the kind with the single ridge pole supported by an upright pole at each end, covered by the canvas tent that get staked out on all the corners. The kid got the ridge pole onto the two uprights and stood them up. He then let go to reach for the canvas to toss it over the poles and of course the poles went crashing down. He figured out he needed to put the tent over the poles first and managed to wrestle it into place and pulled it upright. As I sat with a couple other teachers on the hill, we knew exactly what would happen next. The boy looked around for the stakes and rope, letting go of the poles to retrieve them, and you guessed it – the whole thing pitched over again. This scene repeated itself several times, with a few classmates offering to help, but the boy insisting on doing it himself. But every time he got the poles upright and balanced, then moved to try to stake one corner or another, then tent toppled over. He was trying so hard to offer a labor of love to his friends, but it just wasn’t a one-person job! It needed a team, a community, working together.
The First Church of Corinth
Last week we learned from the Thessalonian congregation, how our labor of love, the work of our faith, is so important to our being the church. In contrast to that congregation, where Paul and his companions spent just 3 weeks preaching and teaching and modeling a Christ-transformed life, Paul invested 18 months building and discipling the congregation in Corinth. When Paul left Corinth, others came to lead that congregation. One was a man named Apollos who was a fabulous preacher, engaging and convincing, people loved to listen to him and his message was very effective. When Apollos leftto travel on, they had a few other leaders, but each time a leader left it was like a tent that kept threatening to topple over. One family in the church, Chloe’s family, sent word to Paul about the quarrels the church was having. Others in the church wrote a letter to Paul to ask his advice about some of the things they couldn’t agree on –particularly forguidance on family life and behavior for believers.
The people of Corinth had a reputation for free living, hard drinking and loose loving. Their culture emphasized enjoying oneself, grabbing at pleasures and food, being entertained by articulate debaters and orators. That culture had seeped into the church with the new believers. Surprise, surprise, they didn’t magically change their manners and morals the moment they accepted Christ. They actually had to be taught, to recognize the things in their culture that were keeping them from living Christ-shaped lives, things that were getting in the way of being a church. The continued sickness in their souls needed to be diagnosed and treated. That is the reason Paulwrites this letter.
The Infection: Divisive and Disparate
The infection in the church had a number of symptoms. They are divided – there is factionalism, competitiveness, self-centeredness, and great disparity between the members of the church. They have divided themselves up into this group and that group, each thinking they are right and the others are wrong. Paul isn’t hesitant to expose the main symptom of the infection – it’s heard in their claims, “I’m on Paul’s side,” or “I’m for Apollos,” or “Peter’s my man,” or “I’m in the Jesus group.”
Does this kind of infection sound familiar? I don’t necessarily mean our church (though there may be some of those kinds of allegiances or loyalties about previous pastors over the years). I mean the divisions within our community, within our nation and our world. How divided is our community between whites and Hispanics? How divided is the world over who has the right to flee war or gang violence or famine to find asylum for their family? How divided are we as we manage the demand for financial resources or natural resources? Who should get more assistance, big companies that create jobs or people unable to find jobs? Whose voice is more important, the miner who wants what is in the land or the native people living on the land? How divided are we as we take up sides politically, claiming allegiance to this leader or that leader? Will humanity ever be able to choose what is best for everyone over what might be most advantageous for their particular community or tribe or business?
Right now the whole world is facing a common enemy – the novel coronavirus. It seems like a perfect opportunity to set aside our divisions, our factions, to fight that threat with a singleness of mind and purpose. Unfortunately, the hope of that seems to be dwindling as nations and regions point fingers to assign blame. Even in the face of a virus that does not know if the person it is infecting is poor or rich, white or black, speaks English or Spanish or Chinese, we seem to be unable to let go of those differences ourselves. And it breaks my heart! Our nation has managed to make mitigation and treatment of COVID-19 a partisan issue, to pit individual rights against the right of a community to stop the virus’ spread and protect essential workers.
That infection, of divisiveness and disparity, threatens to infect us all. It threatens the church for we are exposed to it on every side. We desperately need a treatment for that infection.
The Cure: The Message of the Cross
Paul is the doctor who has discovered the cure! He spreads on the salve in the first lines of his letter, even before he’s exposed the sore. Nine times in the first nine verses of this letter, Paul names the name of Jesus Christ, and refers to Jesus several more times by using ‘he’ or ‘him’ or ‘his’. Jesus! Jesus is the answer, Jesus is the solution, Jesus is the treatment. Listen to just verse 2, as translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message: I’m sending this letter to you in God’s church at Corinth, Christians cleaned up by Jesus and set apart by Jesus for a God-filled life. I include in my greeting all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. Jesus is their Master as well as ours!
Jesus and the message of the cross is the only cure for a world torn apart, for a people who feel the need to compete with one another, to take sides, to jockey for advantage. In verse 18, Paul writes, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” What is the message of the cross that has the power to save us from an infection that threatens to destroy us?
The message of the cross is about Jesus putting others, putting you and me and all people everywhere, before himself. The message of the cross is about self-emptying for the sake of a greater good, for the sake of God’s larger purpose and plan. The message of the cross is about God using that terrible event to bring reconciliation and peace. The message of the cross is about love being stronger than hate.
Unity in Christ
Paul asks the congregation in Corinth to find unity, to have the same mind/purpose. That mind is the mind of Jesus Christ, and that purpose is to live by powerful message of the cross. I invite you to apply that salve liberally whenever you are exposed to divisive rhetoric or partisan posts. It’s not easy; I know I’ve had to catch myself a couple times this week. In addition, I want to invite all of you to join me in 2 practical ways to demonstrate the message of the cross in your community and to demonstrate unity within our church to reaffirm an essential characteristic of our being a church.
The face mask seems to have become a symbol of all the divisiveness around coronavirus mitigation. It seems to have become a symbol of the right of an individual to do whatever s/he pleases or to do what we are told is in the best interest of the whole. What I understand frompublished studies is that the face mask (not N95s, but the common fabric or surgical mask) is not very effective for protecting oneself against the virus. However, it is quite effective for protecting others. So wearing a face mask isn’t about me. It is about you. It is an act of love and concern thatI can undertake for others. It is an act that when everyone is willing to lay down personal rights for the sake of the community, then we are all protected. Wearing a mask is an opportunity to share the message of the cross.
The other way I hope that our church will demonstrate unity is by creating a single piece of art to commemorate this time of Together-Apart. In the church news insert of the bulletin is the explanation for why you received a square of white canvas this week. When all the squares have been decorated and returned, they will be joined together to make a wall-hanging with the words: One Church – One Heart, Together or Apart. To give you an idea, Linda Weckel is filling in the heart on her square with buttons. This project is going to require a unity of purpose for I don’t have lots of extra squares in case someone just decides not to participate – I have just enough squares and will need to get every single square back for the project to be complete. I pray it will be a symbol of our unity, of our community – our unity around what we have in common – Jesus.
I ask you to bow your head for a moment and hear Jesus’ prayer for all believers as he spoke to his Father in heaven: “I have given them the glory that You gave me, Father, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and You in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved me.”(John 17:22-23)Amen.
Closing Song: “Bind Us Together” led by Lisa Reshkus
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