“GATHER ACROSS DIFFERENCES”

Decatur Presbyterian Church

 

 

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 united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported 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.

 

This passage begins a month-long reflection on ‘Living in Community’.  This week we look at how we work together in the face of factions and disagreements. Gathering across differences is one of the most demanding of spiritual disciplines.  The church has been in conflict for as long as there has been a church.   The church in Corinth was splintering around various leaders and the relative importance of various spiritual gifts.  Paul speaks to these conflicts by appealing to the church “that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” 

 

Paul reminds the congregants in Corinth that they have an allegiance to something greater—-We are accountable to Christ—not to any leader or doctrine.  As a general principle this makes a lot of sense but it doesn’t seem to help much in real life.  The church has a long history of division rather than unity.  In virtually every historical instance of division, leaving the church was justified as holding fast to Christ’s teaching.  A particular interpretation of doctrine becomes more important than the overreaching command to love one another. 

 

But the Christian faith itself evolved in exactly the same way, starting with Jesus’ repeatedly saying: “It has been written…., but I say unto you ….”  Jesus claimed authority over generations of biblical interpretation.  Among other things, Jesus insisted that the ten commandments were designed to help us live in relationship to our God and to each other.  But he would not tolerate the commandments becoming idols—objects of worship in themselves.  Yes, we should honor the Sabbath but not at the expense of life.  It was permissible for Jesus to work on the Sabbath if it meant relieving the suffering of an ox in a ditch or healing a disabled person.  Jesus taught that the spirit of the law superseded the letter of the law.  Following Christ means never forgetting that teaching.

 

Unfortunately, using the spirit of the law as our guide makes our faith infinitely more difficult.  We can measure obedience a lot easier than we can discern God’s intent in any given situation. The commandment  ‘Thou shall not kill’  seems plain enough but Dietrich Bonhoefer spent over a year trying to discern whether a Christian could kill a despot.  He finally decided yes and participated in the plot to kill Hitler.  He failed and was executed.   In our own congregation, two elders announced that they would leave the church if the session approved gay marriages.  For them, there was no room for people to read scripture differently and the discussions ended with their leaving the church. How can the church gather around differences like these?

 

Paul says:  “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 united in the same mind and the same purpose.  The fundamental principle is that we all belong to one body and regard for the community must be a value in the community.  He is not asking for agreement on doctrine, he is reminding us that Christ’s care extended to everyone—including his enemies.  He is saying that to follow Christ, we must create space for radically differing views.  If that is our ‘same mind and purpose’, we are obligated to consider the needs of the whole even as we disagree.  

 

In real life such regard is hard to come by.  The sheer number of splits in the church body testify to the difficulty—and perhaps the human impossibility of attaining such unity.  It is still, however,  a valuable spiritual discipline to move toward. Gathering around differences requires putting our own ego aside and deferring to God.  It means we must be humble enough to realize no matter how sure we are, we can never be sure we are ‘right’.  History is full of honest well meaning people who devoted their lives to causes and principles that later proved to be more harmful than helpful.  Bleeding people to rid them of ‘bad’ blood was commonplace a long time before new knowledge changed the practice. 

 

There are a number of practical practices that can help us gather around differences.  First, we must remember that certainty is the enemy of relationships. Certainty is the way we insist on our own way.  When we are sure we are right, there is no room for God. Certainty narrows the space that a community can live in.  

 

In contrast, humility widens that space.  Whether it is within a close relationship or in a public discussion, curiosity and humility go a long way toward creating space for differences.  Instead of ‘yes, but…’, we need to be saying, ‘That could be true.” or,  How did you come to that conclusion?’  

 

Prayer also helps. There are a lot of things we cannot do but we put our limitations into God’s hands. We are told to pray for our leaders whether or not we would vote for them.   One of the FIRL members said that she regularly prayed for leaders she could not stand.  Many of their ideas are abhorrent to her and she could not honestly imagine she would ever support these people.  But she does not have to agree with a word they say,  The advantage to such prayers is that our own limitations are exposed.  There are some people I will probably never be able to connect to but that does not mean they should not be part of the community.  It just means I am a limited person and I cannot open my heart that wide.  We ask God to offer care that we cannot. 

 

Either/or’, ‘black and white’, ‘right or wrong’ categories separate people.  Such thinking  leads away from God. In theological language, such thinking is sinful.  Relationships are reduced to agreement rather than regard and respect.  If you hear yourself using that kind of language, pause.  Resist the temptation to assume you know who fits where. Such language is an abdication of our responsibility to discern and ultimately an abdication of our responsibility to care for one another.

 

Building a community that gathers across differences requires a great deal of faith and trust. Our worth and our identity have to reside in God in order to see differences as descriptors rather than statements of comparative worth.  It is far more common to see differences as threats.