Churches Behaving Badly (Friday's Reading)

I Corinthians 4-6

In the Apostle's Creed we say, "I believe in one holy catholic Church." Protestants seem to choke on this, but only out of misunderstanding. It means in our own language, "I believe in a unified, holy and universal Church." When Jesus said to Peter, "Upon the rock, I will build my Church," it was in the singular. We read similarly in Ephesians earlier, "There is only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism." That's the ideal unity we are called to work towards. But the Corinthian church was neither one, nor holy, nor catholic. It was divided, sinful and cliquish. Today's reading deals with the moral corruption in the Church.

The Problem of Spiritual and Personal Arrogance - I Corinthians 4

An individual sat in my office and said, "I'm closer to God than most people and I have seen and experienced things from God that most other people have not." At first I was surprised and then I was thankful. At least this person's arrogance was right out in the open. The tone of this chapter drips with irony and sarcasm. In divided churches, there is often a self-appointed group that will see it as better than others, because it thinks it is spiritually more mature, has a better angle on the truth, has been around a lot longer, or has more money and power. In chapter 1, verse 12, the Corinthian church was divided into three camps: one for Paul, one for Apollos, and a holier than thou group that was "for Christ."

What is the leader's role in such a situation? Paul begins by defining himself. He cannot be pulled into this divided and messed up situation by trying to please all the groups or choosing one of them. Nor is he going to allow the competing groups to determine his value (vs. Apollos or anyone else). He is called by God and he is accountable to God. Last night, we went to see the Cactus Theatre's production, "A Tribute to Michael Jackson", which featured our own Kasey Birchfield. One of the assistant leaders did a version of Michael Jackson's "The Man in the Mirror." Notice the words. They're actually quite true to scripture,
I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
In ministry, we are often called to wear many hats as God uses us to meet the needs of people. At the same time, we can be pulled in different directions at the same time because of the demands of people. In those moments, we must prayerfully define ourselves so that we can keep a clear picture of God's direction and a clear sense of who we are in Christ.

Paul, with mocking approval, takes on the self-superiority of the arrogant Corinthians. They are pronouncing judgments on his ministry without having to pay the price themselves for ministry. They are like people in the football crowd who question the quality of the play by players and the coaching by the coaches. None in the crowd are in the huddle dealing with the challenges of the moment. None in the crowd were in practice and endured the extraordinary difficult regimen of training. None are balancing the physical, emotional, relational, mental difficulties that the team may be facing at the moment. None are looking at the long time welfare of the team or the players involved. Yet, we all enjoy being experts in the stands. Bottom line: True Christian maturity is always marked by humility and the power of the Holy Spirit. Where there are power groups forming around personalities to do war with other groups, there can be no good thing come out of them. I am not saying that the Church should be "conflict free." There will always be different opinions because we see and experience things differently. Conflict can be healthy, but it is carried out in the context of holy and loving dialogue, not in arrogance and political wrangling.

Sexual Immorality in the Church - I Corinthians 5:1-13, 6:12-20

Because religion and sexual immorality were so linked in Greco-Roman pagan culture, it seems that the New Testament Church faced this issue more than we do. But the sexual behavior of Christians, clergy and laity alike, is still one of our dirty secrets. And when those secrets come into the open, the damage is huge and long-term. No accurate estimate can be given to the damage done by the sexual misconduct of clergy, Roman Catholic and Protestant, in this generation. The specific damage can be assessed to some degree in the hurt and pain that have come to individuals and churches, but the overall loss of credibility for witness and leadership in society cannot be fully assessed (it is too catastrophic). Nor can there be an accurate assessment of laity sexual misconduct in families, workplaces, and even, regrettably, in churches. Wherever there are human beings, sexual misconduct will happen. It's part of our sinful nature. The issue is that in the Church we often cover that misconduct up and it becomes a major block between us and God as well as better us and our field of ministry in the world. Paul chastises the Corinthians for looking the other way about the sexual misbehavior in their church.

Paul's strategy is two-fold. First, call the sin for what it is and call for repentance. While "no one knows what goes on behind closed doors," everybody can be hurt by it. Second, if there is no repentance, then we separate ourselves from them. That is indeed difficult. As a District Superintendent, I had to be part of asking for ministerial credentials of a pastor for sexual misconduct. The damage was horrible - in my relationship with that pastor, on that pastor's relationship with his family, and on that church. It is important to write here that such separation is not done out of self-superiority. We are all human beings and woe to the person who does not think he or she can be lured into this kind of sin. So we are not to be judgmental (we're above it and superior) but we are to make just judgments (holding true to our standards of faith and justice). As Paul says in 5:12, we are responsible for keeping the church as holy as possible for the sake of the gospel.

Paul finishes this emphasis in chapter 6, by appealing to the Corinthians according to their identity and their connection with Christ. We do not have to be led around and enslaved by our bodies. Our bodies can be temples of the Holy Spirit, where our bodies are used as vessels for God's glory and for the transformation of the world. The vivid illustration is that sexual relationships make us one with the other person. As Christians we have already declared ourselves to be in relationship with God. It is the basis of our unity together. We are one with God and one with each other (as our communion ritual says). When we participate in sexual immorality, we violate that oneness by becoming one with something or someone else. Notice, lest we see this passage as primarily about someone else, he adds to the list of sins by adding being greedy, idolatrous, gossiping, drunkenness and stealing. Shucks! It looks like we are all going to have to claim grace after all.

Lawsuits in the Church (I Corinthians 6:1-11)

Every time church members take each other to court there is great damage. We end up putting our Christ-formed relationships and challenges out as dirty laundry before the world and allowing the world to judge us. Usually, all parties involved end up leaving the church. Paul's encouragement is to be a fellowship where reconciliation is the rule. I'm not sure that the polarized 21st century Church gets this at all, but reconciliation is one of the core values of the Christian faith and being the Church. Some will see reconciliation as weak and a failure to hold people accountable for their behavior. The truth is that the multiplied pain and costs of non-reconciliation are much greater, and communities, churches and society all become weaker.