2010.01.31: Dr. George A. Purnell

			Dr. George A. Purnell January 31, 2010 “What Finally Matters” 1 Corinthians 13 I had lunch this week with the superintendent of the new Southeast District, where Bloomington First now resides. When the South and North Indiana Conferences of the Indiana Area of United Methodism became one conference rather than two, each district essentially doubled in size, and the number of district superintendents went from 18 to 10. So, each superintendent now oversees roughly twice as many churches. I wanted to ask him how it was going in this new alignment, but I resisted because I know from conversations with district superintendents over the years that one of their main duties is dealing with conflict that churches in their districts are experiencing. So, doubling the number of churches in his district would probably mean a commensurate increase in opportunities to deal with conflict...with churches unhappy with their pastor, or pastors unhappy with their churches…so I steered the conversation to happier topics. Now I know that for many of you this comes as a total surprise. Churches in conflict? Really! Churches are supposed to be where we gather to praise God and to love and support one another. They are supposed to be places where we learn how to be more like Christ, and to then go out and share the love of Christ with the world. But the truth is that churches are as prone to conflict as any other human organization. Indeed, since people have strong feelings about their religious faith, churches can be hotbeds of controversy and conflict. The words today are among the best known in the entire Bible. Even someone who goes to church only for weddings has almost certainly heard 1 Corinthians 13 read during the wedding service. This passage is poetic in eloquence and beauty as it describes the essential nature of love. It fits like a glove for weddings in some ways, because the love embodied in this chapter is a love that abides; a love that will endure, and will remain when all else has ended. But Paul did not write this chapter in a sweet setting like a wedding, where a couple is ready to say: “I take thee to be my wife/husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.” Instead, Paul wrote these words to a church in conflict. Paul founded the church in Corinth, but he was not its resident pastor, because he was on the road starting other churches. Something like a district superintendent, Paul provided oversight for his churches from a distance. He learned about conflicts in the churches he had launched from messages he received as he traveled. He then addressed the conflicts he heard about, and offered advice and encouragement to his churches by letter. In today’s first letter to the church in Corinth, for example, Paul addresses divisions and conflicts one by one throughout the chapters. At the very beginning of the letter in chapter 1, for example, Paul writes to say: “it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ’” (1:11-12) So, as long ago first century churches were breaking up into factions, Paul scolds the church members, asking them if any were baptized in his name…or whether Christ was divided…as he appeals for them to put divisions behind them. He writes about some members bringing lawsuits against each other, instead of resolving their grievances within the church. (chapter 6) He writes about some members feeling superior to others about dietary matters. “Now concerning food sacrificed to idols…” Some believed that this food could be eaten, while others believed it was a sin. Paul knew in his heart that it was okay to eat this meat. However, he writes: “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” So, he writes that he will “never eat meat” if so doing would cause others to sin against their conscience. (Chapter 8) He writes in chapter 11 about factions that formed around the taking of the Lord’s Supper, with some richer members taking it in advance, others being left with none, and still others getting drunk. (Chapter 11) In chapter 12 Paul writes about spiritual gifts, and contests the claim that speaking in tongues is the highest gift, as some members claim. In fact, he ends chapter 12 with these words: “I will show you a still more excellent way.” (12:31) Love, Paul writes in chapter 13, is this more excellent way. Love is more than speaking in tongues, because no matter if I speak in the tongues of angels, if I do not have love, I am merely a noisy nuisance. Love is more than faith, for I can "have all faith, so as to remove mountains," but if I do not have love, it means nothing. Love is more than generosity, because "If I give away all my possissions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." Love is more than prophecies, which will end when the complete knowledge of God is known. Love is more than knowledge, for there is no complete knowledge in this life. Love is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. Love rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Christians in the twenty-firstcentury, no less than our first century counterparts,’ fight over things that don’t matter much, and we often forget what finally matters to God. Some believers in the Corinthian church then believed that speaking in tongues was evidence of one’s closeness to God. If a person could speak in tongues, this revealed that one had superior knowledge of God. In our day, Christians continue to divide over one thing or the other. It is a sad thing to watch and listen as Christians try to best each other regarding who has the “real” truth about God, or on who worships God in the “right” way, or whom God favors among the peoples of the world. When a Christian challenges the legitimacy of my faith because of how I interpret the Bible, I am angry initially. I decide that anyone is arrogant to believe they know the mind of God. Then I realize that my reaction reveals my own guilt – that I am holding my position up as being closer to the mind of God than the position they hold – and I must ask God to forgive me. When one group of church people believes they know the right way to do church, and that others do it wrong, it makes me weary; because that argument is as old as the church itself. Peter and James and the Jerusalem crowd had issues with Paul and his friends regarding their inclusion of Gentiles at the table, for example. Congregations and individual beliefs are different in terms of how we prefer to worship God. We differ among ourselves, even in the same congregation, about how we conceive of God and other matters of faith. And that is okay. We are all working out our faith as we walk with each other on this path. John Wesley once wrote – “In essentials, unity; in non essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” St. Paul wrote – “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” What finally matters to God is love. Nothing else matters without it. Amen.