Back when I was Dean of the Middle District, the Bishop asked me join a consultation committee
—to listen and make recommendations to a church that so conflicted that they needed outside mediation.
If there was any congregation in the ancient world in need of such a committee, it would be the Congregation in Corinth.
Paul’s relationship with this Church was never a smooth one; in fact, he almost dives into a depression by the time he gets to writing 2nd Corinthians.
Yet, these challenges he runs into make for rich theological fodder.
Doing the hard work of reconciliation and calling to account,
naming as precisely and pastorally as he can
the conflicts, misunderstandings, and mistakes,
makes for a timeless sort of letter.
The kinds of Church conflicts in Corinth, have for generations helped the whole church interpret who we are
and how we can be in relationship with each other and the wider world.
The opening chapter of 1st Corinthians addresses:
-divisions,
-the relationship between the -church and culture,
-the nature of Baptism,
-and the centrality of the cross.
Let us pray
When Paul writes that he wished there to be
“no divisions among you”
he does so with his tongue in his cheek…
after all he knows there is not simply two factions,
two divisions among the Corinthians
but, up to 20 different factions fighting, over 11 different issues…
and that’s just the stuff he gets around to addressing.
If you read the letter closely you might notice that there are two separate families who write letters to Paul explaining what’s wrong.
Corinth fights about everything from:
who can marry who,
to who manages the money…
Just in today’s portion of the letter, we hear of the community lining up in cliques based on who baptized them
and that they thought Paul spoke too plainly,
unlike Apollos
—a famed Christian rhetorician.
Now many of these divisions can be traced back to one particular place
—the Culture of the city of Corinth itself…
the Church was a new thing, especially to these Pagan converts…
And as such, they imported their categories of thought and ways of doing things into the church…
(This isn’t that hard to imagine, is it?
Even using Robert’s Rules of Order to run a meeting is importing a parliamentary system…
For that matter, it should come as no surprise that most protestants in the United States have some type of three-fold governance
—in our case the National Church, the Synod, and the Congregation,
mirroring the Federal, State, and Local governance of the United States of America)
-Why did the they assume Paul would speak with unparalleled eloquence?
Because Corinth was famous for a yearly speech and debate competition,
so no one was taken seriously in that city if they didn’t speak following the formula of Plato’s Rhetoric.
-Why did they assume the person who baptized them was the leader of their faction, a sort of guru?
Because that’s what traveling philosophers did,
they collected disciples and centered their own person and philosophy as the end all be all,
and encouraged vigorous, even over the top, debate between rival philosophical schools.
Questions of Church and Culture are always with us…
The church ought to try to speak the Gospel in ways our neighbors can hear and understand.
BUT there is also a danger of confusing the cultures around us with the message of Jesus.
The church always ought to struggle with the tension between
being relevant and contextual,
and selling out or losing our voice.
The good news is that Paul offers an example of how to navigate the tension between Christ and culture,
and division in the church, as well…
the lodestone,
our true north,
the measure of all things,
is Christ crucified.
Whose Death and Resurrection do we join in Baptism? Jesus Christs!
Does God want a debate society? No, God wants disciples.
Was God presented to us in fancy speech? No, God hung on a cross.
The power of Christianity is never that we’re the height of religion or culture, (we’re salt and light)
never that we’re the best of any generalized phenomena,
we should not be looking to be top of the heap.
Being cool, or outwardly successful,
allied with the politically or socially powerful,
those are not marks of the Church.
Ultimately the Church exists only because God wills us to.
The God we find enthroned on the cross.
The God whose cradle is a manger.
The God whose Wisdom is found not when King Solomon is at the height of his power,
but at the end of his life when he can no longer grasp it.
The God whose prophets included among them Ezekiel struggling with PTSD and Jeremiah, so young he worries he wouldn’t be taken seriously.
The God who spoke through stuttering Moses,
gave a child to Sarah and Abraham in their old age,
saved Hagar and Ishmael at the point of death in the desert...
Ultimately, at the very start, God creates from the formless void
—ex nillo
—out of nothing.
All that is, seen and unseen, an unparalleled gift from God!
All these examples assure us that it is God who acts.
Sarah, Ezekiel, Solomon
—none of them,
save by the Spirit’s action,
would be wise, prophetic, or mother of God’s people.
It is always by God’s grace that we are saved…
is a gift of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Yes, Paul’s relationship to Corinth can show us how to be faithful people of God. Grounded in God’s Grace,
the power of God clearly seen in the cross.
Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection,
united in one body,
telling the world of God’s love,
however we can.
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