"We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions – but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all."
Not so long ago I was shopping at Whole Foods. A young boy about seven or eight came running up to his parents excited about something. I saw him jumping with joy, proclaiming to his parents: "Guess what!? I got what you asked from the shelf and there was someone in the way … but I was aware of the effect I was having on that person so I didn't get in his way." I got a chuckle our of this young boy's words … they were so precise you just knew it was a phrase his parent's had been teaching him. At the same time I was also aware of what a profound lesson his parent's were teaching this young person – to be aware of how his behavior could impact on another's, to stop and think: "Ok, if I do this, what will that do to another person?"
Thousands of years ago, the apostle Paul tried to reach out to a church that very same lesson. It was a church he dearly loved and one that was suffering greatly from internal strife. Their external surroundings contributed to their problems. The city of Corinth was a major port city of the region. It was also the land route across the peninsula. Ships could dock in Corinth, their goods would then be off loaded for land transport to the next port, where they would then continue the sea journey. The city was also a major art center. All this traffic meant the city was exposed to ideas and cultures and religions. The church that Paul had founded in the city was suffering from too much of a good thing. They had turned the church into a kind of three ring circus, each person bringing in their ideas of how things should be going, their flavor of theology, their idea of order and was now trying to impose it as THE WAY. Rather than use their diversity to strengthen, they were using it to divide. And so Paul did what he often did when he couldn't make a personal visit … he wrote and he wrote some more. All in the hopes of getting this once vibrant church back on track so they could remember why they were a church in the first place. He wrote to the Corinthians about baptism, Communion … about their claim to knowledge … and in today's pericope, about food … about how those who felt superior in faith and knowledge were lording that over others. He wrote that it doesn't matter much whether it is right or wrong to eat food that has been sacrificed by idols. If your doing so hurts another person, it's wrong. Remember that young boy: "Guess what!? I got what you asked from the shelf and there was someone in the way … but I was aware of the effect I was having on that person so I didn't get in his way." Paul said it a bit differently, but you get the idea.
How did it get so that Corinth became the setting for "Church Behaving Badly?" I doubt they planned it that way … I doubt that those on various sides had gotten up in the morning saying, let's divide the church today between people on our side and people not … nor did they set out to be deliberately mean to one another. They were after all Christian and in their heart of hearts really believed the song – they'll know we are Christians by our love. No, I think what happened is that they had forgotten a few things along the way and had let their fears and anxieties get in the way.
We find ourselves in not such a different time and place than the Corinthian Christians. We live in a diverse, multi-cultural place … we know all kinds of people, we are stretched by the faith of others, we are exposed to different schools of thinking. And we live in very anxious times … will we be able to pay the bills, will we have a job tomorrow, what is to become of us? In the midst of it we want the security of our belief system, we want to preserve our church and we want others to join us.
Did you ever watch a baby that really, really needed to go to sleep? What do they do? … usually anything but relax and close their eyes. They fret, they move around, they cry, and they get really grouchy. Parents rock them, walk them, sing to them, make sure their diapers are changed, that they're fed and burped. Finally something clicks with the baby and one second they're screaming, the next they are sound asleep with that angelic look on their faces. We are often like that in "Corinthian" times … we get anxious and fretful and we don't do the very thing we need to do in order to find peace for our restless hearts and souls. Instead we behave like the Corinthians. We lash out at one another in our hopes to preserve something, we point fingers and blame another for our predicament, we feel like we have the knowledge above all others that will put things back on track. We forget the lesson that little boy was learning … what are we doing to each other by our behavior?
Like an infant so tired they forget to go to sleep, we forget to do the very thing that will soothe our restless, anxious stirrings. And what does God do? God comes along beside us, walks with us, offers us a rest and is safe and secure … and every so often gives us a good pat on the back to give us a good burp to get all the stuff out of the way so we can find our way back.
Yes, the times are anxious and distressing … yes, we have a lot of input to give in order to help. But, if we forget the center of our being, the source of all of our knowledge, then, as Paul says elsewhere in the Corinthian letters: "we have nothing."
We have been called together in the love of Christ. Never forget that … let it be the source of your actions and being in this world … behaving in such a way that what you do and say will lead another to the love of Christ.
"We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions – but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all."
Our prayer hymn is our reminder of the claim of God's love upon us: "Do not be afraid I am with you, I have called you each by name … come and follow me, I will bring you home. I love you and you are mine. As we gather for prayer this morning, let us bring to God our burdens and anxieties … lest we take them out on one another. Let us bring to God our hopes and concerns for our future … lest in our desire for direction we inflict our solutions on others without consulting God. Let share our prayers for others, let us come to the altar rail to give ourselves anew to the healing love of God in Jesus Christ.
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