Disagreement without Division – sermon on April 24, 2016
Acts 18: 1-4 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
1 Cor 1: 10-18 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Sermon: Disagreement Without Division by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Our readings through this Easter season are focused on the early church, as told through the Acts of the apostles, and in Paul’s letters. First we heard about one of Paul’s trips to Corinth, where he met up with Priscilla and Aquila, tentmakers, like he was. He stayed with them and they worked together on their tents, and on the Sabbath they would go to the synagogue, telling people about Jesus, evangelizing, reasoning with the people there that Jesus was the Messiah they were waiting for. He stayed with them for about 18 months, and the three became very close. They set off with him when Paul went on to Syria, though they stopped in Ephasus, and spread the gospel there. Paul’s time with them in Corinth must have been a wonderful memory for him, and he must have felt good about his ministry there as he left to bring the good news to other places.
So it must have been terribly distressing for him to receive reports and letters from this church in Corinth reporting conflicts. It is thought that Paul wrote this letter about five years after the founding of the church, when he was in Ephesus. He takes them to task for identifying themselves by who baptized them, or which teacher they followed. He appeals to them to be in agreement with one another, to have no divisions among them. I wonder if he was thinking about how it had been with Aquila and Priscilla – their minds so well-aligned, their priorities the same, their mutual admiration and appreciation. Why can’t they all just be like that?
As I read and pondered these texts, I found myself wanting to challenge Paul a bit. I don’t really agree that agreement ought to be the goal. I realize it is pleasant and satisfying when people agree with you, but I’m not sure agreement always moves communities forward. In fact, it might hold them back. And if agreement is the goal, this might actually be unhealthy for a community, even a church community.
Research on what it means to be true community – a community of unconditional love – suggests that a focus on agreement is the early and most superficial stage of community building. People just want to get along, and cover up their differences, or pretend that differences don’t exist. You can never go too deep with people who have formed this type of community. It is hard to be honest and open. But if a community shifts from a goal of agreement to goals of maintaining open communication and accepting – even celebrating – diversity, it can move into this place of unconditional love. It comes at a cost though. Because once differences are acknowledged and people start getting honest, you go through a few other stages before the love flows. You go through chaos, with hurt feelings and defensiveness and anger. Everything looks like it is falling apart. If a group can hang in through that, they hit the stage of emptiness, where you start letting go of the ego attachments that interfere with deep connection. You lose a sense of identity. The group doesn’t know who they are and what they are about anymore. But if they can hang together through that, what is built up from there is a community of deep connection and unconditional love.
And isn’t that the only fitting goal for Church? Aren’t we, the body of Christ, called to be a community of unconditional love? I wonder if Paul could have even imagined how wide-spread the Christian church as become. And it has certainly not been without disagreements. From Paul’s time straight on through to our times, Christians have disagreed about matters of faith. There were disagreements about the substance of Jesus – was it the same as God’s substance, or different? Was Jesus a little more human, or a little more divine. There have been disagreements about whether church buildings should be simple or ornate, how many times Communion is served, whether organ music should be allowed, whether a priest should mediate between God and the people, or whether people could go to God directly for forgiveness. There have been disagreements about when people should be baptized – in infancy or at an age of understanding. What else… (role of women, clergy celibacy, vows of poverty, divorce, virginity of Mary). The reason there are so many denominations is because of all the disagreement.
Do you think these disagreements interfere with our mission in the world? Do they make it hard for us to share the good news? I don’t know. Maybe. But I don’t know that differences necessarily mean division. And separation doesn’t necessarily mean division. My children live on their own now, but we are not divided. We don’t agree on everything, and we do lots of things differently, but we are not divided. So what is it that causes division?
There’s a saying dating from the 1600s, which the UCC has taken to heart – In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity (kindness). Now we may not even agree about what the essentials are, but the key, I think, is that last bit – in all things, charity. Hold a generous heart for all, whether they agree with you or disagree with you. The other parts are important though. A community, a church, probably ought to have some shared sense of what is essential. And hopefully all Christian churches see Jesus Christ as essential – the model of his life, his self-sacrificing death, and his living presence in the world. And in other essentials – essentials to your personal faith and growth, it probably makes sense to seek out a community that prioritizes the same things. But hopefully, in the non-essentials you will celebrate diversity, maybe be willing to empty yourself some, strive for open communication, speaking truth in love, with the goal of the upbuilding of God’s body.
I have always been impressed by the sense of community here at FCC. You have gone through times of chaos, of emptiness, plenty of disagreement, and even times of division. Some people have not hung in through the chaos, have not been able to tolerate the emptiness, preferring to move to temporarily more comfortable superficial “niceness.” Some are present who have been through all of it, and found that deep connection which will not be broken. Others are newer, maybe have heard about disagreements, or experienced them yourself and are not sure what to make of it. If not, well, we are facing some big questions about who we are and what we stand for, and what our priorities will be. There is sure to be disagreement, and that is a good thing. I believe that the Holy Spirit works best by bringing forth all kinds of ideas, inviting us to consider them, really sit with them and see what resonates. Because maybe a different idea stretches you, encourages you to grow, widens your view, see possibilities you hadn’t seen. I think we can do it – have the disagreements without the division. We can continue to be a true community built on the unconditional love that is God’s abundant gift. Let’s do it, for the glory of God. May it be so.
