The Tough Work of Unity

I Corinthians 1-3

“Divide and Conquer” (1:10-17, 3:1-23)
I don’t know a better parallel in the New Testament to the contemporary struggles of today’s church than Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. One of the questions I am often asked is, “Why are there so many different denominations? Don’t they worship the same Lord and aren’t they all going to the same place?” As of today’s date, in the United States alone there are 250 different kinds of Baptist Churches and at least 50 different kinds of Methodists. We seem to be attempting a “divide and conquer” strategy in winning the world for Christ. We divide and then we try to use those divisions to win new people to our cause. Regrettably, the percentage of those who regularly attend church in the USA is down about 6% over the past twenty years (from 42% to 36%). But here is the scarier statistic. For those in the 20-35 age group the number has declined from 15-18% to 4-9%, depending on what part of the country you live in. So much for “divide and conquer.”

The divisions in the Corinthian Church were according to three things: history, personality and style. Most of the denominations began as movements of God for renewal and reform within an already established church structure. For instance, Martin Luther never wanted to create a Protestant set of denominations, but rather wanted to “protest” the corruption he saw in the Church and stir it to “reform.” John and Charles Wesley died as Anglicans and were only dragged kicking and screaming into the creation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland in 1784. Just before Charles’ death in 1788, he sent for the rector of the nearby Anglican Church saying, "Sir, whatever the world may say of me, I have lived, and I die, a member of the Church of England. I want you to bury me in your churchyard." Yet established churches (including individual local churches) have a tendency to be change and reform resistant, which pushes these movements of God into becoming churches of their own. Three groups formed in the Corinthian Church, one around the ministry of Apollos (who must have been quite a dynamic personality), one around Paul, and one that claimed to be aligned only with Christ. But in their purest sense, they represented encounters with Christ that people were having.

But the divisions became more fixed around the personalities themselves. It is impossible to talk about the history of Christianity in America without talking about personalities: Roger Williams, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitfield, Dwight L. Moody, E. Stanley Jones, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Martin Luther King, Jr., and T. D. Jakes just to name a few. It is impossible to talk about the history of St. Luke’s apart from Leo Gee, Ed Robb and others who have served. The division between those who followed Apollos and those who followed Paul became counter-productive, so Paul calls on the image of different builders of a building to describe their valuable contributions to each other’s ministry.

Style differences will show more as the letter develops, but chapter 1, verses 4-9 give a hint as he begins to talk about imparting a “spiritual gift” to the Corinthians.

“Fool’s Wisdom” (1:18-2:16)
I will never forget my Music History professor who was teaching a class made up primarily of college sophomores. He was a very intellectual type who actually owned the Deutsche Grammaphone Store that sold classical recordings. He also had a strong background in English literature and tended to count off for misspellings or grammatical errors in our test answers. He won few friends by saying in one of his opening lectures, “You do know what sophomore means, don’t you? Fools wisdom.” Paul talks here of a wisdom of the Holy Spirit that looks like foolishness to the world. Human beings have always tended to call “stupid” what they don’t understand. Electricity, automotives, airplanes, personal computers, cellular phones and the internet were all called “stupid.” Paul argues that what the world calls “foolishness” is actually a dramatically higher wisdom. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’ strength (vs. 25).”

At the same time, this is a wisdom that is given to those who are not seen as the greatest or the wisest. So if we should want to exalt ourselves because God has chosen us, we should notice who the others are that he has chosen (wild eyed dreamers at the edge of mental illness, locust-eating eccentrics like Elijah and John the Baptist, dense and flakey disciples, etc). While it is indeed a special thing to be chosen, it is often in spite of us as much as because of us. When I see myself for who I am (warts and all), I am sometimes amazed that I was chosen at all. And the power of what we share is not based on our own wisdom either. I have 24 ½ years of formal education, but I am an absolute fool, if I think that is what will make me effective in ministry for Christ. My training is but a tool that must be informed by my growing relationship with Christ and empowered and liberated by the Holy Spirit. Ministry is never just about us, but rather it is a work of God in which we get the privilege of being a part.

Am I just participating in false modesty at this point, so that others will say, “But you really aren’t that stupid?” No, for even though we follow Christ based on grace, we are given the blessing of being part of wisdom that is astonishingly wonderful. Paul puts that privilege in a phrase, “the mind of Christ.” Through a growing relationship with God in Christ our ways of thinking are transformed so that we are enabled to “think with God.” Again, we must be careful. For thinking with God never leads us to self-superiority, but rather to humility. So this is our story. We are a people not considered wise by worldly standards, who end up participating in life at a level beyond our wildest dreams. It’s not always a “walk in the park,” but it is a place of very special privilege. I’m with Paul who rejoiced that he could be “a fool for Christ.” How about you?