January 23, 2005 - Third Sunday After Epiphany - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Isaiah 9: 1-4
PSALM: Psalm 27: 1, 5-13
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 1: 10-18
GOSPEL: Matthew 4: 12-23

We didn't plan to have somebody not read that lesson this morning. Out of all the times that I preach, I usually preach on the Gospel; but, today, I am preaching from St. Paul!

I think it is interesting that Paul, in that early era in the first century of Christians, is immediately starting out with talking about divisions. It is the first chapter of his letter. Now, do you understand why Paul is writing this letter to the Church in Corinth? Because Chloe's people have gotten on the phone to him and have said, "Do you know what they're doing in this Church that you started, Paul?" Chloe's people are letting him know what is going on. Chloe's people are busy gossiping about what is going on in the Church, and it is giving Paul indigestion. So, he is writing them a letter, and he warms up throughout this letter. In addition to some very interesting parts, we have things that I am starting to identify with - his forgetfulness about who he actually baptized or not. "I'm not sure - maybe I baptized them; maybe I didn't; I am not sure. Go ask my secretary". Paul is starting out saying that we Christians must be united in the same mind and for the same purpose.

Does that sound familiar to you? At every service that we start here at St. Paul in the Desert, we read that common mission statement. Now, it is not like the Bible. It is not even like the Prayer Book, it is just something that was constructed here to talk about what our purpose was, what our mission was, and what mind we want to have as people who are working together for Christ in this place. But, as soon as Paul has said that, he begins to lay out the realities of the divisions that face him and face that Church in Corinth. "Is Christ divided?" Is there a little bit of Christ over here but a different kind of Christ over there? "Were you baptized in Paul's name?" "Were you baptized in Apollos's name?" Can you imagine what that is like? The divisions that Paul is talking about come from the realities of different kinds of people who have all been attracted into that particular congregation in Corinth. We figure that the kind of folks that Paul would have witnessed to and would have drawn in were probably working class or poor people. From the way that Apollos writes and the way that scholars believe that Apollos writes and preaches, folks feel that he is really appealing to a little more upper crust, a little more intellectual kind of person. Cephas is Peter, and we imagine that he is appealing to Jews who became Christians, but who are still really firm on keeping everything Jewish and looking down on anybody who is not Jewish and trying to be Christian. And then, Christ - "I belong to Christ". Well, there may still be some people who actually heard Jesus preach, but aren't apostles, but believe themselves to have heard all they need from Jesus and don't need anybody else teaching them anything else.

So, there are some interesting differences - differences that the people, themselves, believe are theological and crucially important, but, when you dig it out, you find it may have more to do with where they come from and how they talk and where they work than about what they really believe. Paul is trying to explain to them that it is not about who baptized you. I am excited here, because nobody that I have ever baptized was baptized as an Episcopalian. Everybody whom I have ever baptized or has ever been baptized in this Church was baptized as a Christian. They just happened to be in the Episcopal Church. It's an important thing to think about, because we should not let any of those little things be unique. Unique though they are about our encounter with Jesus and our coming to faith in a particular place and time, none of those should be allowed to be more important that the mission that we have as Christians.

Paul, in the place of that symbol of division, places another symbol in front of them, and that is the symbol of the Cross. For people who are busy thinking about all the reasons that they are better than, not as good as, thinking differently than, or holier than other people, the symbol that we need to be looking at is the Cross; because the Cross always reminds us about Jesus, and it reminds us, not necessarily about everything Jesus said, but about what Jesus did - about how He gave His life for us, about how He humbled Himself for us, about how He even allowed Himself to die on our behalf. The reason that we need to look at it is to remember Jesus, but also to remember what the cost is for those of us who follow Him.

I read a blog this week from a fellow who goes by POMO Pentecostal Christian - that is post-modern Pentecostal Christian - and he was talking about connecting this with the Gospel. Fishing is about killing fish by pulling them out of water, and making Christians, or fishing for people, is about killing people by putting them into the water. When we baptize folks, as I have said several times over the last few weeks, we are baptized into Christ's death. That is why that symbol of the Cross is so important to us, because that humility that it took for Christ to become our Savior is a humility that is demanded of us. The sacrifice that Christ gave of Himself is the sacrifice that is invited of us. All of those things, when they come together, are far more important than the little idiosyncrasies of how we came to be Christians. Paul is trying to explain to that group of people in Corinth - over the next few weeks, you are going to be reading and hearing more from the Church in Corinth - those folks had a group of people who believed they were more spiritual than the others. There were some who believed they were purer because they still followed all the Jewish laws, and there were others who believed that it really didn't matter what they did because they were part of Christ, and so anything they did in any part of their lives wasn't anybody else's business.

It is amazing how the same kinds of divisions that Paul details for us, even as he exhorts us to avoid them, are still a part of us, and I believe that the answer for us is still there. When we face division, we need to look at the Cross. When we face other Christians who are telling us that we are not faithful enough, rather than fighting about it, we need to look to the Cross, and we need to say, "You know, I am doing the best I can. We, as a Church, are doing the best we can. We are trying to be faithful - God bless you in your ability to be faithful". We need to look at the Cross and remember that the Cross is about a group of people who, in their baptisms, gave up their lives. Do you realize that? We all technically gave up our pride. We gave up the things that divide us when we were baptized and were made one with Christ and one with one another.

So, the challenge for us is this: How do we accomplish that? How do we keep our minds on the same mission? How do we focus on the same purpose? Because it is critical. If we are to go out and be effective at fishing for people, at bringing people to the love of God in Jesus Christ, what is the one thing that is the biggest obstacle to people getting that message? Us! Our divisions. All you have to do is walk down the street and talk to somebody about being a Christian, and they will say, "Yeah, well you know if you're a Christian, why are you guys fighting in your own Church?" "Well, if you're a Christian, why are there a thousand different Protestant denominations in California alone?" "If you're a Christian, why do Protestants and Catholics still try to kill each other?" The truth is that we Christians have a lot to undo about being Christians before many people are even ready to hear about Christ.

So, Paul's words to us are very important today. The words to the Church in Corinth are the words to us. "Is Christ divided?" No. Not one of us was baptized in the name of Andrew or Vern or, in the future, Stephanie, or anyone else. All of us were made a part of the one Body of Christ, and all of us have to focus on Christ's saving death and resurrection; and, if we can agree on that, then we should be able to tolerate one another with a wide range of other kinds of disagreements, even the kinds of disagreements like people sitting in your pew at Church, even the kinds of disagreements that are very personal and the kinds of things that you know the "Chloes" in his parish are just getting ready to call about.

If we can't get it together, and if we can't figure out how to acknowledge in one another the Cross of Christ that saves us, then we had better hang up our fishing poles.

AMEN