Has Christ's Body Been Divided? (1 Corinthians 10-18)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 1/26/14

image courtesy of iphotostock.com

Over the past few years here in America we have seen one of  the most divided, most dysfunctional United States Congress in recent memory, maybe even since the Civil War. A massive polarization has swept across the Congress, so now many times instead of voting on the issues, members of congress are simply voting for their party, or against the other. The polarization is widespread, Democrats and Republicans alike stubbornly and blindly follow their party lines, looking for political victories for their party, and downfalls for the other, instead of trying to come together and work out a compromise for the good of the nation. The height of this polarization, or at least I hope it was the height, came last fall when instead of working out a new budget for the nation, congress caused a government shutdown, causing countless Americans to be without jobs for weeks.  As all of the nation looked on,  most Americans became fed up. I remember hearing multiple people suggest we should get rid of all the members of congress and just start over.  In fact according to a Gallup poll taken in November of last year, only 9% of Americans said that they approved of the way that Congress was handling it’s job, 9%.  As Americans we are finally tired of all of the polarization, we are ready for people who are willing to come together and work issues out; we look at Congress and say that their behavior is unacceptable.

            So why then do we allow that same behavior in our churches? Not only do we allow that behavior, but we are often the ones propagating it. When there is a theological or societal or moral disagreement, instead of coming together as people with the love of Christ in their hearts, ready to talk about why we believe what we believe and listen to why someone believes something different,  we instead hunker down on our position, attack the other for their beliefs and then say it is all in the name of Jesus Christ. Maybe even more pressing than ideological differences, so often we are polarized, and divided in our local churches because of claims of authority and power, yet if we remember from last week, Paul reminds us that the real authority and power of the body of Christ rests with Christ, for Christ is the head of the body. So what then does our quarreling and division do to the body of Christ? This is the issue at hand for this week’s portion of our sermon series.

            Once again we will look to the first chapter of 1^st Corinthians to see how Paul addresses this issue. As we noted last week,  Paul starts off his letter with the typical salutation found in a letter at that time, and he also provides the framework that everything that will be discussed later in the letter will revolve around; the fact that authority belongs to God and that what we have is God given. It is amazing though how quickly Paul moves into the heart of the matter at hand.  Often times letters, kind of like sermons, will lead the reader through a series of premises and ideas, stories and analogies, until finally towards the end it all comes together as a complete argument and the reader is fully able to understand the point the author is trying to address. This is not the case for 1 Corinthians, After a brief salutation, Paul smacks the Corinthians in face with the heart of the matter, “ 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.” It is harder to be much clearer than Paul was there.  Do not let there be divisions among you, be united in the same mind and the same purpose. Paul’s message for the church of Corinth is unity. I must stop to make sure that when we here this we do not confuse unity with uniformity. It is for this reason that Paul’s analogy of the body is so crucial. We are called to be united, but like a body we can be different and yet united as one body. We can even have some differing beliefs and opinions on some things, but with Christ as the head of the body we can still be united in the same mind and the same purpose; we strive to follow the will of God and to make disciples of all people for the transformation of the world.   Out of all the messages that Paul could have picked for this, one of his longest letters to a church, Paul begins with unity. We should note this, as it may reflect the importance of this issue if we are to live as the body of Christ.

            So what was going on in Corinth that caused Paul to write these words?  Well, to answer this, maybe we should try to get a little better understanding of the city of Corinth at that time. Corinth was a city in between two seas,  so many traveler passed through the city going from one sea to the other. For this reason Corinth became a hub for merchants and with it brought a diversity to the city. There were both Jew and Gentiles, both rich and poor and everything in between. There were people who had grown up there as well as many who had moved there from their travels, bringing with them other cultural norms, other tastes, other knowledge. The church in Corinth most likely reflected this diversity, and so as you can imagine there was the opportunity for much division.  Add to that fact that the church was relatively new, and that not only had Paul visited, but other leaders like Apollos had as well, and with all the different people that traveled in and out of the city, the church had also heard about the work that Peter had been doing as well.  This created divisions of who to follow.  Some claimed they belonged to Apollos, others claimed they belonged Paul, others still claimed they belonged to Peter.  Whether it be ideological differences, who it was that baptized them,  or simply the personality they preferred the most, the people of Corinth were sharply divided.  But Paul reminds them that they were not baptized in the name of Paul or Apollos, but in the name of Christ, and that it was not Paul who died on the cross for our behalf, but that it was Jesus. Paul reminds the Corinthians once again that at the head of the body of Christ, is Christ.

            This leadership debate that Paul addresses was but one of a number of issues dividing the church in Corinth, and Paul finds it crucially important to start off his letter by urging for unity. Why is unity of the body of Christ so important, what is at stake? To answer this let me read to you a story of disunity at its worst from the book of Judges. I will warn you ahead of time the story is graphic and quite disturbing, and is probably why many of us have never heard it even though it is right here in our Bible. ⁶ Then at evening there was an old man coming from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was residing in Gibeah. (The people of the place were Benjaminites.) ¹⁷ When the old man looked up and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city, he said, “Where are you going and where do you come from?”¹⁸ He answered him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to my home.^[f] Nobody has offered to take me in. ¹⁹ We your servants have straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and the woman and the young man along with us. We need nothing more.” ²⁰ The old man said, “Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants; only do not spend the night in the square.” ²¹ So he brought him into his house, and fed the donkeys; they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.” ²³ And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. ²⁴ Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing.” ²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ As morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.

²⁷ In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ “Get up,” he said to her, “we are going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out for his home. ²⁹ When he had entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ³⁰ Then he commanded the men whom he sent, saying, “Thus shall you say to all the Israelites, ‘Has such a thing ever happened^[g] since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.

            This is a deeply disturbing and saddening story from the book of judges.  It is one that many Christians are afraid to touch, because they don’t know what to do with it. The story brings back recollection of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the lack of hospitality shown by the people of the city, and the desire to violate the alien and the outsider. Yet unlike the story at Sodom, there were no angels to rescue them this time; instead the guest’s concubine was sacrificed to the crowd.  This story shows the brokenness and despair that we humans have fallen into since our fall from Eden.  That even a people lead out of slavery from Egypt by the grace of God, who doubted God in the wilderness and yet God still brought them into the promised land, that the people of God could still stray so far from the fold.  And so as disgusting as the act of cutting up the body of the concubine may be, it is fitting, because it was sent to all the tribes of Israel of a sign of how far we have fallen. The perversion of the body of this concubine became a warning for the perversion of the people of God. Just as the body of that poor woman was divided, so too were the people of Israel.

            And yet the good news as Christians, is that we no longer have to live as a divided people. Our brokenness was and still is being made whole through the body of God incarnate, which was crucified on a cross, and rose again on the third day.  We know longer have to live as a people of despair, a people of division, for though we are still broken and fall short of the glory of God, our brokenness is made whole  through the body of Christ; in the literal since of God incarnate act of salvation through living, dying, and rising again as both God and human, but also in the metaphorical of this community, the body of Christ. That through this community we are drawn closer to God, to each other, and through the grace of God drawn closer a perfect love.

            And so we can see the importance for the unity of the body of Christ. That if members are divided then that precious community that has been created suffers. That opportunities for growth are destroyed, opportunities for healing and comfort are missed, and the opportunity for evangelism are lost because when others look at a divided church it resembles the scattered body of the concubine woman, a sign of our own brokenness, rather than resembling the body of Christ, God’s intervention with the world, God’s sign that he has not abandoned us, God’s sign that he will do anything for us. Today we must truly reflect upon which body we most truly resemble, and upon which body we want to look like.  This church can truly be a beacon to the world, showing that Christ’s love is extended to even those in the darkest circumstances, but that love must start with how we extend Christ love to each other. Will there be disagreements in the church, will there ever be hurt feelings, sure there will,  but what matters is how we extend love and forgiveness to each other in the midst of our disagreements. We must also recognize each members unique gifts and calls, and not only appreciate them if they are different than our own, but appreciate them because they are different than our own. Paul understands that Christian unity is paramount for a healthy body of Christ, that is why after address that Christ is head of the body, this is the first, and largest issue he tackles, and his words ring true for us just as much as they did for the people of Corinth. And so there comes a point where each church must decide which body we want to reflect. We could be the broken body torn in different parts for all to see and gasp at our miserable state; we could, but Paul asks Has Christ’s body been divided? The answer of course is no, and so let us live accordingly.