Division

There is a method to my madness like 75% of the time. Okay, maybe that’s generous. We’ll say there’s a method to my madness like 60% of the time. At least half of the time there’s a reason I do what I do. I bring this up because I realized recently that the readings we spend time with together, the readings I preach on might seem totally random - like I’m winging it.

I promise I’m not. Before I came here, I sat down with an Excel spreadsheet and I populated it with every Sunday for the next four years. Each Sunday got a reading from the Gospel, a chapter from one of the other books in the New Testament, and three or four chapters from the Old Testament. So by the end of my first four years here, if you were to be in service every week you will have heard every verse from each of the four Gospels (four Gospels, four years - I told you there was a method to the madness). And I will have had the chance to preach on every single text in the entire Bible. So when I preach, I don’t just grab texts out of the air - I have these three options before me and I read and pray about the text before selecting the one that I think is most relevant, most interesting, or most powerful.

All of this to say, we just finished going through Romans and we’re starting 1st Corinthians today - so buckle up - because I like 1st Corinthians a lot. I think that it speaks, maybe more than any other book, very directly to the society, the culture we live in, we are a part of, today. Corinth was a religiously plural society that idolized information and philosophy and wisdom. The city was influential, wealthy, and powerful. The parallels we can draw to 21st century America are crazy.

And, much like American churches today, one of the biggest problems facing the Corinthian church was division and arguments. In our reading today, Paul starts to address these divisions and encourages the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:10 to

1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

A Division in the Church

And we still struggle with divisions. In fact, that might be the only thing we can all agree on.

Let’s just do this simple exercise and demonstrate this a little bit. Raise your hand if you like football. We don’t all agree on that? Now raise your hand if you like real futbol. I suspect not everyone agrees with me now, feeling a little division? How about this, it’s Halloween, raise your hand if you like scary movies. I know I don’t, we don’t agree on that either. How about this one - this will make or break us - does pineapple belong on pizza? No! The answer was no, this was supposed to be our big point of righteous agreement!

I’ll admit these things are a little pointless, I don’t think Paul was talking about sports or movies or pizza when he addressed divisions in the church. But our division isn’t limited to these silly little things. There are things we cannot agree on that are much more serious. Things we cannot agree on that our faith and our theology has something to say about. These are the kinds of things that Paul tells us to be united in the same mind and the same judgement on. Issues like LGBT, like abortion, like immigration, like welfare, like vaccinations, like justice. And I know for a fact that on some of these issues, we are divided. I’ve heard your different opinions, I’ve heard your heated discussions on the issues.

The temptation with these divisions is to blame the other person, to say “they need to change, they need to get right.” If as I’ve been talking, a difference of opinion came up in your head or a discussion you’ve had with someone else, and you start to think something along those lines - STOP IT! Divisions aren’t overcome by two people standing in their corners insisting they’re right! It starts with two people with the humility to approach the situation open to the possibility that they were wrong, it starts with submission to the will of God.

To help demonstrate this, I’m going to describe a hypothetical situation and then we’re going to stop and spend time on different perspectives that interact with the argument. So here’s the situation. Picture two Christians talking together after church parking lot. They’re talking about the church budget and they stand on opposing sides of the issue. One is adamant that the church should be spending money one way and the other is equally resolute that they should be spending money another way. After some back and forth, it becomes clear that neither one is willing to consider backing down. Reaching an impasse, they go their separate ways and drive home.

Now stop. Can everyone picture this scenario? Everyone imagine an argument like this happening? Now we’re going to stop, we’re going to freeze with each of these brothers or sisters in their individual vehicles heading home after church and look at four different perspectives on what just happened.

Perspective: A Christian in Conflict

Let’s start with the perspective of one of the two individuals who were directly involved in the conflict. What are some emotion words that they might be feeling?

Indignant? Angry? Hurt? Insecure? Scared? Alone? Unsure? Disconnected?

Perspective: A Christian Witnessing Conflict

Now let’s shift to another perspective. Let’s shift to a perspective of another Christian who witnessed or overheard the argument. It’s very similar to a friend who is in the room when two other friends start fighting. Picture it like this, three guys sitting around a TV and one of them says something controversial. We’re going to go back and use the pineapple on pizza example. One of the other guys hesitantly says something to disagree with him and the argument slowly escalates to the point that they’re almost yelling at one another. Now that third friend started to sense the tension and made a distracting joke out of his discomfort, that didn’t help. The more heated the argument gets, the more uncomfortable he feels. He’s sitting there thinking “are you guys sure you’re friends with each other?” When one of them leaves, the other tries to recruit the neutral guy to his side, which only makes the discomfort worse. And the next time they are all invited to hang out, that neutral guy is thinking - “do I really want to spend time with those guys again?”

That’s how Christians outside the argument can feel when brothers and sisters in Christ start to divide and argue. Discomfort, awkwardness, maybe a little bit of shame, and it can be something that makes them hesitant to join in the community.

Perspective: An Outsider Witnessing Conflict

Now let’s shift to another perspective, a visitor to the church happened to witness or overhear that parking lot argument. Maybe they meet the Christian that invited them for coffee and the experience comes up. I’d imagine that conversation would go something like this.

“What did you think of church on Sunday?”

“It was fine.”

“The worship service was powerful wasn’t it?!”

“Yeah, the music and the service were incredible.”

“The message was life changing wasn’t it?”

“I guess it was solid - the preacher is kinda a weird guy.”

“Yeah, he is. The suit still throws me off. What’s wrong, you don’t seem very excited?”

“It’s just, I heard two of the church members arguing in the parking lot. They weren’t showing love or kindness or understanding to each other at all. They were at each others’ throats. The preacher talked about how Christian community is supposed to be different, but you’re just like the rest of the world - divided and argumentative.”

Christ is not divided, and His people shouldn’t be either.

Perspective: Christ Over Conflict

Each of these perspectives showcases how harmful division and conflict can be. And Paul calls the Corinthians, calls us to “be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” And we have something, someone that overcomes all of our conflicts and our divisions. He asks “was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

So was “blank” crucified for you? Wrong answers only.

Vaccines, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Trump, Biden, the environment, healthcare, taxes, we can fill in the blank with all these things that divide us. But they’re all wrong answers.

Christ was crucified for us, we were baptized in the name of Christ. His life, death, and resurrection overcome all of our divisions. We are united because we are all loved by Him, we are united because we are all forgiven and saved by Him. And those divisions pale in comparison. We talk about them, not to prove we are right, but to faithfully seek His will for His people - not with an argumentative stance, but with the humility to acknowledge that sometimes we are wrong, sometimes we will have to change how we think and live and act. And even that is enabled by His grace, because there is forgiveness - and when we come together in unity, there is never any shame in what we used to be, because we are new creations in Christ. Amen.