Resetting Relationships

1 Corinthians 1:10-18, NRSVue

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

INTRO

At the start of a new year, many of us feel the urge to make changes, to reset goals, habits, and even parts of ourselves. But the good news of our faith is that God offers a deeper kind of reset. This is not just about self-improvement; it is about Spirit-led transformation. In Christ, we are given a new identity, a renewed sense of belonging, and a reoriented purpose in the world. Throughout this series, we are exploring how God's grace resets different areas of our lives. Not just for our sake, but so that our lives might more fully reflect the love, justice, and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Last week, we began by resetting our identity. In doing so, we remember that our being, who we are, is not defined by our flaws, our labels, or even our successes, but by the God who calls us, claims us, and equips us through grace. We were reminded that in Christ, we are already saints, not because we have earned it, but because we belong to the One who has named us and placed us in community. This week, we continue to talk through this spirit lead transformation as we work on Resetting Relationships.

During Paul’s day, the city of Corinth ranked among the most beautiful, modern, and industrious cities of its size in Greece. It had large temples, new markets, and improved water systems, numerous public gathering spaces, including an amphitheater that could seat 14,000 people. It was also a melting pot where Greeks, Romans, and Eastern peoples gathered, lived, and worshiped. In fact, religion pervaded the city's social life, with religious feasts providing communal meals and often the only opportunity to eat meat. It was also a place of competition, an athletic competition second only to the Olympics, which was held every two years and attracted massive crowds. This made Corinth a cultural hub that drew visitors and merchants from across the Mediterranean world.

Paul writes to the Church of Corinth, which has a dynamic life surrounding it. It is filled with different cultures, different religions, different languages, and different views on everything under the sun. It was a church full of life, but also full of tension. Corinth wasn’t just a melting pot; it was a spiritual battleground, where different backgrounds, perspectives, and loyalties created conflicts among those who professed the Christian faith. 

If we are honest, we know what it is like to draw battle lines in our relationships with one another. Sometimes it's over theology, sometimes leadership, and other times it's worship styles and generational preferences. We too like to divide ourselves. We have seen over the years how quickly a community can fracture and forget who and what holds us together, in case you were wondering: it's not the pastor, the lay leader, the leadership, or those of us gathered here or online, it is God!. Even on a broader level, we like to divide ourselves, saying, “I’m United Methodist,” or “I’m Presbyterian,” or “I’m Baptist,” as if these traditions are the owners of our salvation. 

It is in this space of forgetting that Paul speaks! “Has Christ been divided?” A more precise translation of what Paul is asking is, “Has Christ been divided up and parceled out?” The conflict in Corinth has reached such a level of absurdity that the people are treating Christ like a commodity, like a thing they can divide. They believe that unity is something that they can build and orchestrate. In doing so, the body of Christ is broken. 

That’s why Paul says “I belong to Christ” in his list of admonitions. It is not because we should not believe we all belong to Christ. We do. But sometimes we claim to belong to Christ as a way to strengthen our position or show how Christian we are, while saying others are less than. In other words, some believe that Christ is more with them than with others, as if they somehow have a larger share of Christ. When we do this, we further divide the body of Christ, as Christ is never someone to possess, control, or divide up. 

Despite our human tendency toward divisiveness, Paul reminds us that we are to be united in Christ. Paul starts this section off in this way, writing, “that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.” The verb katērtismenoi (kah-tayr-tis-meh-noy), translated in this verse, actually implies that the unity Paul describes is done to the Corinthians, not by them. In other words, the unity is not about uniformity in doctrine, polity, or many theological understandings. Instead, the unity, the samemindedness that Paul is calling the Corinthians to, is something done to them by God. It is not about which Church leader you identify with. It is not about the denomination that you belong to. It is not about the local church where your membership is held. It is not about theological oneness. Instead, it is about the cross of Jesus Christ. 

As Christians, we find our unity in the words of the Apostles’ Creed. These words that we use to confess or profess our faith remind us of the unity that occurs in Christ. These ancient words, spoken across centuries and cultures, remind us that our unity is rooted in what God has done and what God is doing, through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit, not in what we achieve, argue, or organize.  When we say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty… and in Jesus Christ… I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints…” we are professing that we are part of something far larger than ourselves. Additionally, it is something that can only come from outside ourselves. 

Don’t you see? This kind of unity is deeply relational, the kind that stretches across dividing lines in such a way that it literally requires something else to bond us together. We see this kind of deeply relational work in our liturgy. As part of our baptismal liturgy, we ask this question of the congregation. “Will you nurture one another in the Christian faith and life and include these persons now before you in your care?” The congregation responds, “With God's help, we will proclaim the good news and live according to the example of Christ. We will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God, and be found faithful in their service to others.” 

This kind of relationship is not natural to the community because it also calls us to a deeper level of accountability. As people with our own upbringings, cultural perspectives, and ways of living, we bring all these ideologies into this beloved community. In this, we are asking God to dispel the boundaries we set, especially those set by our upbringings, cultural views, and social location, so that we may love and affirm people where they are. This requires us to continually examine our biases and to put aside our judgment, looking to God as we strive to love all into the kingdom of God. Loving and accepting people where they are sometimes means we must work in different ways to include them in the full life of the community of faith. It means setting aside our own understandings of inclusion to live into God’s vision for the kingdom. 

This is precisely what Paul is getting at in verse 18 when he writes, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The world thinks it is foolish to set aside biases. The world thinks it is foolish to build a community where people with diverse perspectives, theological understandings, political beliefs, and socioeconomic backgrounds feel welcome, loved, and valued. The world says that we need to divide into groups to better protect ourselves. Yet, for those of us who follow Jesus Christ, we reset our relationships with one another and with the world around us. We embrace what the world says is foolish and use it as the power God gives us to build God’s kingdom here and now.

One commentary notes, "Precisely because Jesus was crucified, Christian faith should mirror what God revealed through the cross: power in the guise of foolishness. Paul’s statement about the cross of Christ being 'the power of God’….Because of the degradation and desecration that characterized Roman crucifixions, any suggestion that a crucified man might somehow possess a connection to the presence or power of a deity would have struck most of Paul’s contemporaries as laughable. In the eyes of both Jews and Gentiles, death on a cross would appear to rule out the possibility that a victim could be furthering the work and priorities of any god or somehow contributing to the good order of the universe at large. Paul perceives things differently. He detects divine power there.”

By choosing to be a place that embraces our differences and acknowledges the belovedness of God in everyone, we may be foolish to the world, but we embrace the unity and power Paul speaks of. We do this not because it is what we want, not because we are more Christian than others, but we do it because we allow God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify us and make us more and more like Jesus. For God’s power to build God’s kingdom cannot be overtaken by the world. 

I say this again: Striving for this unity is hard. It is hard because the kind of unity Paul is talking about can not be manufactured. If we attempt to manufacture this unity, then we divide the body of Christ. However, the unity Paul calls us to is already given to us in Christ.  If only we seek the Holy Spirit and allow her to reset our relationships, we begin to move from seeing division to seeing God in all. We begin to realize that those who believe differently from us aren’t that different after all. They are striving to follow Jesus as best they can. And, when we reflect on the Apostles’ Creed, we agree on more than we disagree on. We are united, not by perfect doctrine or practice, but by the grace of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who holds us together. 

As Paul writes in the letter to the Ephesians, “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Friends, unity is not something we have to create. It is already gifted to us in Christ. The cross has already done the work. Our calling is to live into it. 

This week, may we have the courage to be “foolish” in the eyes of the world as we forgive quickly, to listen deeply, reach beyond our comfort zone, and to stop measuring who belongs and start remembering who we all belong to. You are already part of the body. You are already held together by the Spirit. And you are already loved with a love strong enough to reset the way we live, move, and love as the church. May God reset your heart. May Christ guide your steps. May the Spirit bind us together until the world sees in us not division, but the power of a cross-shaped community.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.