A Still More Excellent Way

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In 2001, a horse named Monarchos ran the Kentucky Derby in the third fastest time in the race’s history, becoming one of only three horses to break the elusive two minute mark, if only by a fraction of a second. But his time was slower than that of a blazing-fast horse named Sham, who 30 years earlier recorded the second-fastest time ever. Sham was an amazing horse, who also ended up in the top 5 in history of the Preakness speed record.

But you will not see Sham on the list of Kentucky Derby winners, nor the list of Preakness winners. Because as amazing as this horse is, he happened to be so amazing in the year of 1973. And if you know anything about horse racing history, you will know that 1973 is the year that the Derby was run by a big red horse named…Secretariat. Sham, one of the fastest horses in recorded history, was beat in all three of the Triple Crown races by Secretariat, who set records in all three races that still stand, including a 31-length win in the Belmont.

The point of this little historic artifact? It’s all about timing.

Paul knew this. As he visited various communities along the coast of Greece, he was all about timing. He didn’t stay long in Thessalonica, as he saw how his presence was contributing to violent abuse of members of the congregation. He didn’t stay long in Berea, mostly because they quickly accepted his message and he didn’t need to belabor the work. He didn’t stay long in Athens, because they didn’t warm to his message and he didn’t see the need to keep trying.

But Corinth was different. For a year and a half, Paul built relationships, cultivated trust, listened and learned and guided. And then continued for long afterwards corresponding with them, to continue his relationship with their faith community.

 

Last week, we started to look at Paul’s relation with the church in this diverse city of Corinth, helping them navigate that diversity. In fact, the first chapter of his letter could have been called “When Diversity Goes Bad!” His concern about reports of their diversity turned to division. It becomes an excuse for divisiveness. “I belong to Peter! I belong to Paul! I belong to Apollos!” Each person chooses which cult of personality to belong to, and Paul is infuriated.

But wait, there is more Angry Paul. Over the next several chapters, he continues this theme of “when diversity goes bad.”

• In the rest of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, he tackles intellectual division, naming the folly of those who think themselves smarter than others.

• In Chapter 6, Paul laments that a litigious division is causing church members to go as far as to sue each other and attack each other through the court system.

• In Chapters 8 and 9 and 10, he talks about a lifestyle division, with a personal dietary choice serving as a wedge issue in the church. “Don’t let what you eat divide you!” he says.

• In Chapter 11, he talks about class divisions caused around the church’s shared meal. It seems that some have enough money to bring their own food and drink to worship, while others do not. Some are going hungry, while others are literally getting drunk.

In summary, Paul spends a lot of time talking about how diversity can cause division. But wait, there is still more Angry Paul! He’s not done. For if the first 11 chapters could be titled, “When Diversity Goes Bad,” Chapter 12 could be titled, “When Homogeneity Goes Bad!”…”When a Lack of Diversity Causes Problems.”

Diversity itself isn’t the problem for Paul. In fact, he argues, if we are all the same, we have just as many problems. Chapter 12 is one of the famous passages from Paul using the metaphor of the Body of Christ. A human body needs different, diverse parts to properly work. If we were all eyes, we couldn’t hear anything. If we were all ears, we couldn’t see. Even the parts of the body that we don’t want to talk about in polite company…are absolutely indispensable to the functioning of the body. The same with the Church body, says Paul. If we all looked the same, talked the same, believed the same, had the same gifts, then we would be a pretty worthless Church. Even those parts that we think are less important, or even a little embarrassing, are indispensable to the life of the Church! If we insist on homogeneity, a sameness, a lack of diversity, it becomes a toxic place!

I would suggest that this is still true today. Unity is important, but it cannot be homogeneous, lock-step, “everyone the same” unity. It must be unity in diversity. It has to be a unification that recognizes and celebrates our differentness. But that is hard to do.

I talk with pride about our denomination, the American Baptist Churches, USA. It is one of the most diverse denominations ideologically and politically…there are as many Democrats as Republicans and vice versa. It is one of the most diverse denominations racially…there is no racial representation that is more than 51%, meaning we are a racial plurality. And it is diverse geographically, representing different cultural experiences around the county and Puerto Rico.

But before we pin a medal on our chests, we need to acknowledge that such diversity is in the macro, but not always in the micro. When you zoom in, a lot of churches are still pretty homogeneous. We are a diverse denomination, but in a lot of ways we are still a church full of eyes…across town from a church full of ears…across the country from a church full of elbows. And even in our own church, we can boast of our purpleness and our ideological diversity. But we have to be careful to not silo that diversity…put this group of people who agrees with each other in this room…and this group of people in that room across the hall. The Body of Christ metaphor that Paul uses doesn’t leave room for enclaves of homogeneity. In contrast, the Jesus way means sitting down in a room together by those with whom you happen to disagree, or who you are different from, or who represent a diverse life experience. Unity in diversity is the Jesus way.

But that is really, really hard. And Paul gets that. Paul didn’t just breeze in and out of Corinth like he did Athens, or Thessalonica, or Berea. He stayed. Living the hard unity-in-diversity life with these folks for longer than he did any other community. And then when he left, he stayed in contact with them, leading and guiding and supporting and challenging them. He knew how hard it was to disagree with someone, and then live next door to them. How hard it was to not fall into the trap of “me vs. you,” “us vs. them,” while he was living in community with them. He knows this church thing is not easy.

To summarize, for 12 chapters, Paul has told us all of the ways that this church project can go wrong. Our differences can cause problems. Our similarities can cause problems. So, how is this supposed to work, Paul? We aren’t supposed to let our diversity divide us. And we aren’t supposed to let our lack of diversity blind us. How are we supposed to be church, then, Paul?

I’m glad you asked.

1 Corinthians 13.1–3

¹ If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

There was on the wall of the Calvary Baptist Church in Monticello, Illinois, a copy of the Church Covenant. I don’t mean a nice, little, framed 8.5 by 11. I mean a ten-foot-tall billboard (or at least it looked like it was that tall when my little brother and I sat in its shadow on the second pew.) It was written in Olde English script, as though it had been placed there by the hand of God! But I am not making fun of it. I actually think it is kind of awesome. Every Sunday, when we walked into that sanctuary, we were reminded how we wanted to be church. This is how we are church together. I don’t remember much from that covenant, but I remember that it must have mattered.

I would argue that this chapter is Paul’s ten-foot-tall billboard for how to be church together. In a world and a community and a church that lurches back and forth between unhealthy division and unhealthy sameness, here is what Paul calls “a still more excellent way.” He has suggested that a church that operates in the Jesus way has to be diverse, including those with different gifts and different life experiences. But for a church like that to stay together, to not tear each other apart in the way that a divided world continually tears itself apart, it has start and end with love.

• Instead of using the gift of powerful and impassioned speech to divide us, love unites us.

• Instead of using our wisdom and knowledge to create a hierarchy of who matters most, love unites us.

• Instead of making our faith a point of arrogant pride over others, love unites us.

• Instead of using our giving as a way to trumpet our own generosity greater than others, love unites us.

• Instead of impatient, unkind, envious, rude, irritable behavior with one another, love unites us.

• Instead of keeping record of wrongs, holding grudges against people for a thing they said or did “that one time,” love unites us.

• Instead of living the way that the world around us lives, divided and divisive, or hiding in our own “enclaves of rightness,” we are united in Christ…in love.

There was a writer in the Early Church named Tertullian. He wrote how nonbelievers interacted with early Christians. They looked at these Christian communities, and they just didn’t make any sense. Tertullian writes that they would proclaim with wonder, “See how they love one another!” Those who knew nothing about Jesus…saw Jesus in their love. They knew nothing of their theology or their Scripture, but they knew that these strange Jesus-followers were united in love. Would the world say the same thing about us today?

A couple of weeks ago, several of us got to go celebrate with Bethel Neighborhood Center in their dedication of their new activity space, which they have needed for some time. Bethel is on 7th St. in Kansas City, KS, a neighborhood that has changed through the years, but has always been diverse and open to new people, especially international refugees. A hundred years ago, it was European immigrants looking for a safe place to live. Then it was a lot of Spanish-speaking refugees, hoping that they could make a home. More recently, it has been the place where Asian refugees, including Burmese, Bhutanese, Nepalese, and others have found themselves.

The celebration a couple of weeks ago was such a beautiful picture of that diversity. The African-American mayor spoke. The Director, Mang Sonna, born in India, and helpful in welcoming many Asian Americans, was honored. The children, known as “Bethel Kids,” shared a song, a beautiful picture of diversity. And the senior adults who come to Bethel, many who only speak Spanish, did a liturgical interpretation to ABBA’s Dancing Queen. Because of course they did.

I always feel like I catch a glimpse of the Church that Paul had in mind when I go to Bethel. All of God’s children. Young and old. Every race is welcome. Theological division doesn’t matter. Class division doesn’t matter. Intellectual division doesn’t matter. All that matters is that God’s neighbors come together…in love.