Divisiveness is a Diversion

Based on 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
First delivered Feb. 16, 2020
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            We are well into the primary season, as a number of Democratic candidates for president battle for votes with the hopes of becoming the party’s nominee. Meanwhile, President Trump keeps having his big rallies as he runs basically unopposed for his party’s nomination. All this is happening in the shadow of the impeachment trial that led to Trump’s acquittal on a straight party line vote. The whole impeachment process was partisan all the way through. In fact, the partisanship of that process reflected a partisan spirit that has held sway over our federal government for a long time. The divide is so deep. Every now and then congress does pass something significant and the president signs it in to law. But for the most part nothing of significance is getting done. The problems our nation is facing are not being adequately addressed because the political partisanship is so great that our elected leaders talk past each other, seeking to score cheap political points. Don’t you sometimes wish you could stand in front of the congress and the president and scream out, “Stop acting like children!”

            Paul wasn’t having to deal with a situation quite like this in Corinth. But there was a sort of partisan spirit in the church there. Church members were taking sides on who they liked better. Paul had fans and Apollos had fans. These two groups had an attitude toward each other. There was some pettiness back and forth. A little jealousy thrown in. People felt pressured to pick sides. They talked past each other, looked down on each other, sniped at each other. Paul wasn’t going to have it. If you look at 1 Cor. 3:1-2, you could restate what Paul is saying there by saying, “Stop acting like children!” Just as our nation is mired in our petty partisanship, blocking our nation from making progress, so the Corinthian church with their petty divisions over who followed who was blocking them from progressing in their growth as disciples.

            This divisiveness between the followers of Paul and the followers of Apollos was distracting everyone from their common purpose, which was to proclaim the gospel and demonstrate to the world the transforming power of God. Instead of focusing on their common purpose, these Corinthian Christians were focused on their own internal squabbles about who was better, Paul or Apollos. Their focus wasn’t on Jesus. It wasn’t on the mission. It was instead a focus on being on the right side. The more zealous Christians would decide who they liked better and then use their persuasion to get others to join them in their support of either Paul or Apollos. Everyone else felt pressured to pick a side. So, everyone was stewing over who to follow, even as I am sure there were many who didn’t want to pick a side. They liked Paul and Apollos. But they would say to themselves, “If I hang out with Paul’s crowd then the Apollos fans will look down on me. Same goes if I hang out with the supporters of Apollos. The fans of Paul will think less of me.” So, there was all this anxiety about trying to decide who you are going to go with, sorting everyone into camps. Meanwhile, those who didn’t belong to the Corinthian church went on about their business, unaware of all the inner turmoil going on among the Corinthian Christians. Very little proclamation of the gospel was happening. Not a lot of testimony about the transforming power of God. The outside community was ignored while the Christians fought and struggled with each other over who was worthy of being followed, Paul or Apollos. I also suspect the outside community was ignoring the Christians. If Paul had hair, I’m sure he would have been pulling it out.

            How does such divisiveness affect the church today? I can’t help but think of the decades long struggle among United Methodists about which camp to be a part of. Lately we have it broken down into three parties: Traditionalist, Centrist, and Progressive. There is now a fourth party emerging, calling themselves Liberationists. This partisan spirit within the United Methodist Church really isn’t about choosing among a couple of powerful, charismatic leaders. What we are dealing with is not the same as picking a Paul or an Apollos. Nor is it necessarily petty. The beliefs held among these groups around matters of biblical interpretation, theological traditions, limitations to inclusion, they are deeply held beliefs that do matter. I would not say that the issues that are dividing the United Methodist Church are petty and are not driven by fits of jealousy. But representatives of these groups are talking past each other. The divides are deep. And, as we all know, it appears that come May there is a good chance that some amicable separation will occur. If we were to force our tribes into two camps, the Paul camp and the Apollos camp, we would say that the path is being laid for Paul’s camp and Apollos’ camp to separate and go their separate ways. Meanwhile, the mission of proclaiming the gospel and giving testimony to the transforming power of God is impacted, certainly for those who are investing their energy in staying in the camp they know is right, attempting to persuade others to join their camp, and disparaging those who are in another camp. Thank God not everyone is wrapped up in that fight! Otherwise, the United Methodist Church would have collapsed a long time ago. There are a lot of United Methodists who are not interested in choosing a side. They just want to tell others about Jesus and demonstrate God’s transforming love in the world. The work of the church continues. Yet, it is diminished when there are a lot of people, particularly those in positions of leadership, who are focused on maintaining their camps and insisting on the rightness of their positions. I personally have a stake in this. I have my camp that I’ve selected and sometimes hold back from hanging out with people in another camp for fear of what people in my camp might think of me. But it’s not something I’m spending a lot of energy around. And I don’t see you all doing that either. For that, I am grateful. I am not saying we are always focused on our mission. We sometimes get sidetracked by anxieties around the future viability of our congregation. We sometimes take a swipe at other churches, or maybe even feel a little jealousy about how well a particular church is doing while we struggle. There are things that distract us from our mission of proclaiming the gospel and demonstrating God’s transforming love in the world. It isn’t divisiveness that we struggle with among ourselves. But if we take a wider view of the United Methodist Church as a whole, the divisions that have riled us for decades has had an impact. Enough people are beginning to realize that for the sake of the mission, the bickering has to stop, and the camps need to take different paths.

            Let’s turn back to the church in Corinth who were clearly dealing with a divisive spirit that presented as bickering and jealousy between the followers of Paul and the followers of Apollos. As I have tried to put myself in the shoes of those Christians, it got me to wondering if the temptation to focus on choosing sides, feeling good about the righteousness of your choice and disparaging those in the other group is a way of avoiding personal responsibility to be engaged in mission. Let’s unpack this.

            You may remember we looked at how Paul shared with the Corinthians that he had some anxiety about sharing with them the message that Jesus, who was crucified, was actually the messiah. It is a quirky message. As Paul said, it was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. It is a message that doesn’t make rational sense. It is a message to which people would quite possibly ignore, or mock, or worse. I mean, Paul was rounding up Christians to be imprisoned because of this message he was now proclaiming. There was some danger in this message. It took courage, and the willingness to risk a lot, to share this message in those days. I bet there were a lot of people who had come to believe the message, but were fearful to share the message themselves. The idea of going out into the community to tell others about the crucified messiah may have caused a good deal of anxiety. So, instead of taking the bold step to make oneself vulnerable to ridicule, or worse, the temptation would be to align oneself with a leader and find comfort and assurance that they were ok because they were in the right crowd. It seemed less risky to choose sides and be a part of a tribe rather than get out into the community and be exposed as a believer of a crucified messiah. Focusing inward and choosing sides was easier than focusing on the common mission of telling others about Jesus who was crucified and demonstrating God’s transforming love. Focusing inward and choosing sides was a way to avoid responsibility for working toward the common mission. You would think to yourself, “I may not be out there telling others about Jesus but at least I’m on the right side. That’s good enough, right?” Paul would disagree. And I’m pretty sure Apollos would as well. Maybe they even saw this divisive spirit for what it was, a smokescreen to avoid participating in God’s work.

            When a common purpose is front and center and there is a sense of urgency, it is amazing how petty bickering and jealousy is overwhelmed by the immediate need to come together and respond. Many of us remember watching M.A.S.H. back in the 70s and 80s. We watched all the hijinks that went on in that MASH unit. Hawkeye and Trapper John would get Major Burns  and later Major Charles Emerson Winchester III all cranked up. Colonel Potter would be snapping at everybody. Klinger was always acting up with hopes of getting a medical discharge. Father Mulcahy always trying to keep things on an even keel. But, when injured warriors were being brought in, all the pettiness and bickering ended as the unit came together to treat their comrades and save as many lives as they could. The mission of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital took center stage with a great deal of urgency.

            We all remember what it was like after the 9/11 attacks. At the time our nation was pretty polarized. Not as much as now but there was still a lot of bickering between Democrats and Republicans and not the healthiest political discourse, fanned by the popularity of Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing radio personalities on one side and the left-leaning popular media on the other. But, then, the attack at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the thwarted attack that brought down a plane in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, brought the country together like I have never experienced in my life. The national solidarity was amazing. Everyone knew it wouldn’t last. These moments in time when the divisions in our politics are overcome with a common sense of purpose and the urgent need to pull together as one…these moments are few and far between and come at a great cost. It takes a lot to bring a divided people together. But when a people can come together with a sense of common purpose and with urgency, it is such a gratifying experience, even transformational. It is a glimpse of what is possible.

            Paul was completely focused on the mission of proclaiming the gospel and demonstrating the transforming power of God. Paul had a sense of urgency. He believed that in a short time the Lord was going to return and firmly establish the reign of God on earth. The mission was urgent. All of his focus was on that mission. To his dismay, the people of Corinth did not share that same sense of urgency. And it frustrated him to no end how the Corinthian Christians were getting sidetracked with petty squabbles about who was better, Paul or Apollos. As if that even mattered. How is deciding who was better have anything to do with proclaiming the gospel and demonstrating the transforming power of God? It was a diversion. And it detracted from the urgent mission at hand.

            Last week, I talked about the method Paul used to evangelize the Corinthians. He chose not to use fancy words or polished rhetoric. He wanted to make sure that the people were not putting their faith in Paul or Paul’s ideas. He wanted them to put their faith in God. He was just the humble messenger, speaking from the heart. I wonder if another reason why Paul decided to evangelize the way he did was to try to prevent the divisiveness that emerged in the church there. He was doing everything he knew to do to make the point that this mission he was engaged in was not about himself. It was all about God. He didn’t come to introduce a new philosophical school called Paulism. He wanted everyone to look to Jesus, not to him, so there would not be any divisiveness or jealousy. Again, this is all about God and Jesus, not about Paul and Apollos. So, Paul tried to present his message in a way that would hopefully get people to look to God and Jesus and not to him or Apollos. But I guess it didn’t work. Apparently, the people chose their favorites anyway.

            And that’s unfortunate. The truth was that every follower of Jesus had a responsibility to participate in the common mission. Paul and Apollos had their specific roles. Paul said he planted and Apollos watered. That may be another way of saying that Paul laid the foundation and Apollos nurtured the people to grow in the faith. But the responsibility of the people was not to get on board with Paul or get on board with Apollos. Their responsibility was to get on board with God’s mission of redemption. They all had a common mission to proclaim the gospel and demonstrate God’s transforming power. Choosing sides and staying in one’s preferred corner missed the mark. Every Christian had, and has, their own role, their own function, to serve the common mission.

            Having said all this, can we acknowledge that it is perfectly natural to have our favorites? ZNot everyone likes the same music. And not everyone enjoys the same bands. I like U2 and you like Brittney Spears. That’s ok. Not everyone likes the same sports teams. I like the Reds and you like the White Sox. That’s fine. Thinking back over the different pastors you have had, each of you have your favorites. No problem. In Corinth a few thousand years ago some people really liked Paul and others really liked Apollos. That’s just natural. But, for there to be unity in the body of believers, that unity had to be found somewhere other than choosing one leader, either Paul or Apollos. The unity of the church is not found in a favorite leader but is found in a common purpose and singular faith in God through Jesus Christ. Within that unity there can be a diversity of groups. There can be “Paulians” and “Apolloians.” There can be United Methodists and Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists. Our challenge is to keep our focus on our common mission and affirm that everyone, no matter what tribe they belong to, all are working toward the common mission, to proclaim Jesus Christ who was crucified, and to give witness to the transforming power of God.