A divided church

17/24 June                    1 Corinthians 3

World cup fever has broken out again, and people choose their sides. The real fans get even more picky in their support, naming players and coaches that they follow. It happens in all sports and indeed in every sphere of life. Children at school consider which teacher is the one they like best. Music fans express preferences for particular bands or composers. You’ll even find vicars discussing their preferred theologians. We take sides and follow personalities, styles or opinions that appeal to us. Sometimes the sides we take lead us into disagreement and even into conflict with others. The way that others with differing views express themselves can feel oppressive or threatening. I recall attending a rugby match not long ago and sitting among a group of fans of the opposing team. Normally that is a pleasure at rugby matches, but this group of away fans were vocally aggressive towards my team and to the fans supporting my team. Which meant me. In the end the experience was so unpleasant that I left the game early, feeling pretty ruffled and very disappointed, because that just wasn’t how watching rugby is supposed to be.

That ruffled and disappointed feeling is magnified considerably when a lack of unity and an outbreak of bad behaviour towards others turns up in a church. The church of Christ is the body of Christ. Jesus has only one body, so if parts of the body start turning on each other, that’s a sign of very poor health. Jesus prayed for his body, his followers, to be united - to be one – in the same way that Jesus and the Father are one. That is a profound, deep, inseparable unity. We are called as Christians to pray for that depth of unity, and it follows that we are to work for unity amongst ourselves. To work to ensure that the body of Christ is a healthy body, with all the parts working together for the good of the whole.

So when Paul heard that the people in the church in Corinth were arguing among themselves, he was deeply disappointed. And to make matters worse, the church members were setting up Paul, his old friend Peter and his new friend Apollos as if they were the cause of the divisions. When the Corinthians argued and created party groups under the notional leadership of Paul, Peter and Apollos, none of the three of them were even in town. So as Paul wrote to them, he wanted the Corinthians to stop taking the names of the apostles in vain and to look properly at their own behaviour. And as he wrote, he effectively said to them: you are behaving childishly. You are blaming Paul, Apollos, Peter and even Jesus for your divisions. Grow up and consider who is really important!

Paul gave examples. He compared the Corinthians to plants in a garden. Neither he nor Apollos was responsible for their growth. They were a pair of gardeners working for God, who makes the plants grow. Then he compares the Corinthians to a building site -specifically, given the materials he describes, the Temple in Jerusalem. Paul is a worker on the site, the Corinthians are the building, the Temple. But Jesus is the foundation, and like the Temple in Jerusalem, God – in the form of the Holy Spirit – lives in the Temple. The Temple is God’s home, and so it is holy. And yet the same people who are the home of God, the Temple or church of God, spoil it by arguing and behaving selfishly, perhaps forgetting that God is there. And so the Temple is spoiled, and that spoiling is self-inflicted.

The church in Corinth consisted of a number of groups meeting in people’s homes who occasionally came together as a larger group for special occasions. Even on those occasions they were still meeting in a private home, possibly that of Titius Justus next to the synagogue, as they did when Paul was in town. One of the house churches met at Gaius’s house. Another met at Phoebe’s in Cenchrae. There were probably a couple of others too. When they all came together there were probably no more than forty or fifty people -no more than could fit into a largish house. So Paul was writing to a group of people that was a bit smaller than the Living Brook Benefice’s total of regular worshippers.

There’s not as much difference between that first century church and this twenty-first century church as you might imagine. Living Brook too is full of human beings who forget that each of us is a temple of God. We too forget that since we are the body of Christ we should work hard for unity instead of nursing the disagreements we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We too damage the church, and make it ugly and unattractive to others, by allowing our opinions to become more important than the shared vision. We too forget that the foundation is Jesus,that the growth comes from Jesus. We too get caught up in who we follow:

 ‘I’m in the pro-pews party’.

‘I’m in the anti-pews party’.      

‘I’m in the ‘fill our church with children’ party’.

‘I’m in the ‘church is not a place for children’ party’.

‘I’m in the ‘every service should be a communion led by the vicar’ party’.

‘I’m in the ‘only lay-led services lead to growth’ party’.

Worst of all, even those who proclaim that they follow me, or some other member of the clergy. My heart sinks.

We live in the same danger as the Corinthians church. We risk putting our own ideas and assumptions ahead of God’s wisdom. We risk putting our disagreements with others in our churches ahead of what God wants to do, and then we get in God’s way. And all too often we disguise our behaviour by labelling it as following some respected person, whether it’s the Rector or some other leader.

There is only one person we should be following, now as then, and that is Jesus. And if following Jesus feels like a foolish option compared to the way that you would do it, well so be it. If what is best for the health of Jesus’s body isn’t the way you wanted to go, and doesn’t feel like the option you preferred, that’s the way that God’s wisdom goes. Sometimes it looks foolish compared to the world’s opinions. Sometimes it looks foolish compared to our own opinions.

If I took a long hard look at my own prospects from a worldly wisdom point of view – what I earn, where I have to live, the moves I have had to make, dragging my poor family with me – well, I could have done much better for myself and for them in a number of the other career paths I could have tried. Perhaps the same is true for you. And whoever thought being crucified was a good idea? Seriously? But the truth is, that particular crucifixion was the best thing that ever happened for us. And that for me and for my family no other option was acceptable or joyful, however much more I might have earned, or however much more time off I might have had. Our foolishness in the eyes of the world is God’s wisdom and it is very, very good.

So why do we allow our foolishness, our take on things, to get in the way of God’s wisdom within the church so often? Why do we allow our disagreements to colour the way that our churches feel, and to prevent the churches from flourishing? The Corinthian churches, by their behaviour, broke Paul’s heart. He loved them so much, and wanted to see them united in love, not broken by pointless squabbles. I want the same for Living Brook. A church that puts unity ahead of our own ideas. A church that puts love for one another ahead of self. A church that sets aside ego, and pride, and worldly self-esteem, in order to listen to Jesus. To follow Jesus. To seek the will of Jesus. To do the will of Jesus, together.

So let’s keep our taking of sides to the team we follow in the world cup, or the tennis player we want to win Wimbledon – and keep it out of the church.