Theme: Called to be One (1 Corinthians 1: 10-18)

Epiphany 3 (23^rd January 2011)

A story was told about a man who visited a mental hospital for inmates who had committed serious crimes.  The visitor was shocked to see that only 3 guards were supervising more than 100 dangerous inmates. He asked the guide, “Don’t you fear these people will plot an escape and overpower the guards?”  

“Don’t worry about that,” The guard assured him. “Lunatics never unite.”

That story makes me wonder whether the Church is indeed full of lunatics.  If you know about the history of the Church, you will see that the church has been struggling with the issue of unity. You just search it in the internet, and there you see the various types of Anglican Churches – most are within the Anglican Communion and some identify themselves as catholic or Independent; you have various types of Baptist Churches; You have Free Lutheran, Evangelical Lutheran, Apostolic Lutheran Churches; Free Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian and United Presbyterian Churches, and there thousands of Evangelical Churches and Charismatic Churches.  You add to that the fact that even within our own little sub-groups, we keep on hearing cases of people bickering, backbiting, and quarrelling with one another.  

Before I go further I just want to bring to your attention the list of sins the God most detests: In proverbs 6: 16-19 it says: There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,  feet that are quick to rush into evil,  ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

As we look at our epistle reading for this morning we hear we find that at least one of the sins that God hates the most was being committed in the Church in Corinth.  Paul writes in verses 11and 12: “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹² What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”   So in the Church of Corinth there were false witnesses who pour out lies and persons who stir up conflict in the community.  They were committing not one sin, but two.

The divisions in the Church of Corinth were caused by believers following different leaders of the church. They formed cliques around certain leaders. One group considered themselves followers of Paul; another considered themselves as admirers of Apollos; and there were some who like Peter, or Cephas.  

Division in Church is not something natural.  When Paul addressed the Corinthians in the first chapter, he called them saints. The Church is called to be holy wherever it is located.  It is meant to be different from the rest of the world. And one way they can be noticeably different is by the way they live: there must be oneness.  That was what Jesus has designed it to be - to be a functional unity that works together. But why do we tend to disunite? 

Before I go further, I want you to see that it is not always the bad things that cause people to disunite.  In the case of the Corinthian Church, it was the 3 leaders - all with strong personalities and good leadership qualities.  If you have strong and good leadership in Church and there is disunity – I can only ascribe it to one thing.  It must be the work of the Devil. Satan does not want us to be united in Christ, and he will do whatever he can to break that unity, and he will try to use anyone of us to create disunity.  So whenever Satan sees greed, envy, selfishness, discontentment or anger being expressed from our hearts, he will use it to destroy the unity of the Church.  Paul, Apollos and Peter did not cause disunity in the Church of Corinth: it was their followers, who had hidden agenda, or selfish ambitions, or envy in their hearts.  It may be true also that some of them might behave that way out of ignorance.  

It is oversimplification if I am to blame Satan for the whole problem.  He, nevertheless, plays a part in it but it is us who allowed ourselves to be used by him to break the unity.  It was God who created us, and he created each one of us differently.  We are meant to be different from one another, but we are called to be one.  (i) We are to be one when it comes to doctrine.  (ii) We are to be one when it comes to our concern and care for one another.  (iii) We are to be one when it comes to our attitudes. These are areas that have no room for compromise.  But this oneness is not necessarily about ideas.  We are allowed and encouraged to think.  When we exercise out thoughts, we can only exercise them to a certain extent, because of our limitations.  Even if God is to reveal to us the truth, very often that revelation is not in its complete form.  That is why we have meetings and discussions – to complement each other’s shortcomings.

Unity or oneness is also not about everyone doing the same thing.  Paul in the same letter argues about how we are all designed differently and have different strengths.  God intends it to be that way.  So whenever you see there is uniformity, very often it is enforced upon us.   So you may abide by it either hypocritically or grudgingly.  Therefore, when we talk about unity or oneness, we are not called to have the same ideas and to do things uniformly.

What is it that can cause us to lose our unity?   The one point I mentioned just now is: it is the work of Satan.  Another possible reason is that we as believers very often still carry around our old nature. We may have received Christ and been born again, but we still have the ability to do what is wrong. We still sin. As we look deeper into our epistle reading for today, we can see three areas of failure that can cause us to lose our oneness.

Our first failure is that we lose our composure (vs. 11-12).  We can lose our temper easily and get into a fight – if not physically, verbally.  And unfortunately also, quarrels are a part of life.  We have all experienced them in our family, with our friends or colleagues. We can also easily agitate ourselves into factions. The division in the Corinthians Church centred around four characters: Paul, Apollos, Peter and Christ.

Paul started the church three years earlier and he had lived with them for 18 months. So for those who were closed to him, Paul was truly there spiritual father and leader.  Others had affection for Apollos.  He had followed Paul at Corinth with his blessing. He was known as a very good speaker and teacher.  So some people liked his style of leadership.  There were some that had affection for Peter.  He was the primary spokesman of the early church and the first of the apostles.  Those who loved Peter felt that he must be listened to and followed.  The last group sounds like it might be the one that had got it right.  They followed Christ.  Indeed they had the right name, but they have the wrong spirit.  These so-called followers of Christ were nothing more than self-righteous believers, and because they claimed to believe in Christ, they were not going to listen to any of the church leaders.

What these followers failed to realize was the selfishness and pride in them.  Each group was angry at one another because none of them was getting what it wanted.  I remember taking a course conducted by Selwyn Hughes many years ago.  He said that our anger is the result of a blocked goal. We want something but we don’t get it; so we become angry.  Anger, pride and selfishness never bring people together: they only drive people apart.  The amazing when this thing happen is that everybody starts to become spiritual, and each one claims to speak for the Lord. 

The remedy to such situation is not to speak louder or claim to be more spiritual. Instead, when there is disunity everyone needs to repent and be reconciled.  We need to remember that factionalism does not have a place in the church for Christ did not design His body to work in a divided manner.

Our second failure that causes disunity is when we lose our understanding of the truth (vs. 13-16). When we lose our unity, it is so often because we have lost sight of the big picture.  Being the body of Christ, it is essential that we be one.  Jesus has said that he is the Vine and we are the branches.  Second, we are never to forget that it was Christ who was crucified for us all.  So we must never make an attempt to make a name for ourselves.  Instead we must remember under what name we have been baptized, which is Jesus Christ.  So if you are a just a cell group or fellowship, you cannot consider yourselves to be bigger and be more important than a parish.  Likewise, we as a parish cannot be more important than the diocese.  And the Diocese cannot be more important that the Anglican Communion.  We also need to maintain the unity between parishes and churches – and not just within a local church.  It is important to see the big picture, otherwise we forget what the church is really all about.  When we see the big picture, we remember that the Church is the Body of Christ.

Our third failure that often causes disunity is losing our Commission (v.17).  When we forget what we are called to do, we can end up doing what we are not supposed to be doing.   We need to know our mission.  Paul said, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…”  God has chosen us for a purpose – to proclaim the gospel.  It is not about how good the speaker is or how well he use clever words. It was not about how persuasive or logical his argument is.  The important thing is Christ is preached!

When we forget our mission, we end up doing something that God doesn’t intend us to do.  If we are spending too much time criticizing one another, it is a sign that we have gone astray from our mission.   Our mission is to reach out to the lost and bring them to Jesus Christ.  To enable us to do that, we must have unity within our congregation. The devil doesn’t want us to unite, so he keeps on instigating us to anger, jealousy, fear, suspicion – so that we forget what our mission is. That makes it easier for him destroy the ministry of this church.

We not only need to know our purpose and mission, we need to be in a position to do it.  So we need to recognize the distractions that keep us from fulfilling God’s calling on our lives. Paul, had baptized many followers, but for Paul being a baptizer was not his primary responsibility.  It was a distraction to him. He would prefer someone else to do the job, so that he could continue preaching the word.

We must remember this too in the church.  Our mission is not to pit our opinions against others.  This is not a place where we try win arguments at all costs, and put others in to shame.   God called us to be here because he has a mission for us, which is to proclaim the Good News of Christ.  We must never forget this.

Remember that we are different from the rest of the world because God called us to be different.  When we look at the world, we see divisions – in terms of politics, social status, nationalities, races, sexuality, and class.  So if we want to be different from the world we must seek unity or oneness.  It is possible to be one because of the cross of Jesus has broken all barriers that are in the world.

So here is what we must remember and practice. Unity is a decision of the will.  We must make an effort to stay united, by showing mutual concern for one another; by resolving to live peacefully with one another; and by exercising consistent acts of love.  These are all positive antidotes to disunity.

Unity is important not just because it benefits us: unity also brings God glory.  When we work toward unity, we show that we care more about what God thinks than what we think.  If we are always at odd with each other, our actions grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and we fail to bring him glory.  It is not an easy task to keep peace and maintain unity in Church.  It is hard work but it is honorable work. 

Unity is important because we represent God to the world.  People are watching us and they listen to what we are saying about one another.  When we become angry and divisive, we are not only robbed of our joy, we are robbed of our effectiveness.  When we lack unity, we also lack credibility.  And this becomes a barrier between unbelievers and the gospel.  You see, when we argue and fight, it is not Good News.

Finally, unity is important because it is a testimony of the power of the cross. Jesus died on the cross out of his love for us and his obedience to will of the Father. Unity is the way of the cross. So when you are willing to give up your rights or give way for the sake of others, you are walking on the way of the cross.  You have chosen to live differently from the people of the world, who always demands their rights or who want things done their ways.

Let us pray:

We pray Lord that may our love abound more and more

 in knowledge and depth of insight,

so that we may be able to discern what is best;

and that we may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

to the glory and praise of God. Amen.