"Does Anyone Care About Christian Unity Anymore?"

I Corinthians 12:12-27

October 2, 2011 + World Communion Sunday

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

When I was a kid growing up in the Otsego Methodist Church, I saw my Grandmother Brown every Sunday in Sunday School and worship. She and about a dozen older ladies were in what was called the Corinthian Class, a name I assume they chose for themselves. Years later when I was in seminary and actually read and studied Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians, I was more than a little surprised to learn from Paul’s description of that church that sexual immorality was rampant there with one fellow living with his father’s wife. The church was also bitterly divided into four factions. One group identified themselves as followers of Paul, the founder of the church. Another group said they were followers of Peter and believed in “tradition.” A third group said they followed the teachings of Apollos, a gifted preacher and philosopher. A fourth group said, with some spiritual pride, “We are followers of Christ.” Rodney Branton my New Testament professor said that last group was probably the most troublesome of the bunch.

The Corinthian Church had other serious problems. There was the question of what kind of meat to serve at church dinners. In those days worship always included a meal followed by communion. Some of the wealthier members got to church early and ate most of the food leaving little or nothing for the poor folks who could only come to church after they had finished their day’s work.

And then there were the women. Women always played an important leadership role in the churches Paul founded, but here in Corinth something had gone badly wrong, A group of women – we would probably call them “New Age” Christians today – had taken over worship and were encouraging members to speak in tongues, in other words, Pentecostal worship. While there was a lot of enthusiasm, no one could understand a word being said.

“Wow,” I said to myself. “My quiet, staid, pious grandmother and her friends must have been a lot more exciting than I thought they were!” Now, of course, the dear ladies didn’t identify with that part of the Corinthian Church but the latter parts of Paul’s letter those parts where he speaks so movingly about seeing oneself as part of the body of Christ. Most of all, showing the kind of love in the Church which he so beautifully describes in I Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter which is often read at weddings. Actually, Paul meant the love chapter to be read at church meetings. That was Paul’s way of saying, “This is the kind of loving unity the Church should have.”

That’s a wonderful spiritual truth, but no church I have ever known lives together that way all the time. Why? Because the Church is made up of every kind of human being. The Church welcomes or, at least, should welcome, all people without exception. At Pilgrim we say, “Y’all come!” and we meant it. So people do, people in all their blessed and (sometimes) cussed variety. We come to Pilgrim Church which welcomes us no matter who we are or what we believe about the Christian faith. That’s fine. That’s what makes us a Liberal Church. Yes, we have a right to believe as we wish in this Church but we don’t have a right to do whatever we wish. That’s not how we do things around here. We have to be sensitive to the feelings of other members. We offer our thoughts, ideas and suggestions and, as the comic said, we “talk among ourselves.” We discuss things in our Commissions and make decisions in our Church Council and, if necessary, in a congregational meeting.

Of course, congregations can make serious and occasionally silly decisions. One of the silly decisions is illustrated by a joke I once heard about a little country church. One of their members went off to the big city. When he died he left a special bequest to the church. In his will he left money to be used to buy a chandelier for the sanctuary. The members met together to decide what to do. One leader stepped up and said, “Friends, I am absolutely opposed to buying a chandelier for the sanctuary and there are three reasons I am against it. First, none of us can spell chandelier. Second, nobody in the church knows how to play a chandelier. Finally, what we really need is more light in this sanctuary!”

That was a silly decision and sometimes churches do make silly, foolish or even unChristian decisions. But we make those decisions together. A more serious decision was made by the Congregational Church of San Mateo, California which I once had the privilege of serving. At the time of the deportation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast to internment camps, those deported could bring only a few belongings with them. They had to leave the rest behind. The pastor at that time, Sidney Buckham, urged that the Church store in the church as much as possible of their fellow citizens’ belongings until they returned. The night the Church was to make their decision; Dr. Buckham came to the meeting with his resignation in his pocket. But that wasn’t necessary. The Church voted to store the belongings of the Japanese Americans. I understand that other Japanese Americans in other communities lost everything they left behind due to theft or vandalism. For myself I believe Sidney Buckham and the Congregational Church of San Mateo made the right decision. They made it together even though some people in the community called them traitors for doing it. After those deported folks returned to San Mateo after the war and retrieved their belongings, they planted a Japanese maple tree next to the front door of the church so that no one would forget what had been done for them.

Friends, that’s the way churches should make decisions: thoughtfully, prayerfully, and together. We do it that way because we realize we are not simply a collection of individuals in this place, free to say or do whatever we please. No, we are members of a congregation, working together to show our love for God and one another.

Paul has a wonderful way of describing this dynamic unity of the Church. He asks us to think of ourselves as members of one body, a human body. Years ago, the Reader’s Digest had a series of monthly articles describing the various parts of the body. They had a catchy title for this. “I am Joe’s kidney,” I am Mary’s adrenal gland.” “I am Bill’s heart.” Each part of the body had its own role to play, but if one part went wrong it could cause serious problems for the rest of the body.

The church is like a human body, says Paul. We’re all in this together. Every part of the body is important. What does that mean in practice? Well, for starters, it means that none of us should do something which could hurt or offend other members. For example, you can’t come to Church wearing a neo-Nazi uniform or packing a pistol. We don’t do things like that here. And no one can jump up in the middle of worship and start speaking in tongues. That kind of disruption would ruin worship for the rest of us. In this and so many other ways we consider the feelings and wishes of others. That is what makes us a Church.

Why should we live together as a Church this way? Paul must have asked himself the same question. Coming to the end of his argument, true as it was then and now, the answer came to him. He ends the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians by saying, “Let me show you a more excellent way.” Then he goes on to write some of the most wonderful words in all the Bible: “If I speak in the tongues of human beings and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol”. And on and on until those last words that we never forget: “Now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” And there’s nothing more to say if truly we care about Christian unity.

Amen.