H. Michael Brewer
Crescent Springs Presbyterian
22 February 2004
ACCEPT DIFFERENCES, REJECT DIVISIONS
1 Corinthians 3:1-4
Now, dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ to
stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so there won't be divisions in the
church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. 1 Corinthians 4:10
NLT
Last May, the Associated Press carried a heart-breaking human-interest story about a small
Lutheran Church in Maine. One Sunday following services, fifteen people got sick from drinking
coffee poisoned with arsenic. One person died. Investigators were certain the poisoning was not
accidental. It appears that someone was trying to poison the church council who had a meeting that
afternoon.
I never heard the outcome of the investigation, but at the time police were convinced that at least
two church members had conspired to poison the council. Investigators weren’t sure of the motive,
but there were a couple of theories. The church council was considering a merger with a neighboring
church and some members were angry about this. Another possibility was hard feelings that arose
after one family donated a Communion table that sat unused for several weeks.
If you’re waiting for the punch line, I’m sorry to tell you there’s not one. As much as I wish this
story were a joke, it’s not. In a little Lutheran Church in New Sweden, Maine, the divisions in the
body of Christ grew so deep that some Christians set out to poison other Christians. It is an
admittedly extreme example of a problem that has plagued Christianity since New Testament days,
namely, When you get this many sinners in one place, how are they supposed to get along with each
other?
I am happy to report that I never have a qualm about drinking coffee at church functions, and I’m
pretty sure that you can serve on our Session without raising the rates on your life insurance. Even so,
every congregation must occasionally struggle to maintain a sense of spiritual unity and Christian
community. But even when it is a struggle, we dare not surrender the ties that bind us together.
Praying for his followers, Jesus said, “I pray that they may be one, Father, even as you and I are one.”
The mandate of the church is very clear. First, we are called to accept one another even when we
don’t think and act alike. God didn’t use the same cookie-cutter for each of us. We are different in so
many ways, and nowhere does the NT teach that belonging to Christ will make our differences go
away.
But differences notwithstanding, Christ has no patience for dividing lines that turn one Christian
against another. There is plenty of room in the body of Christ for disagreements and differences, but
not for divisions. The church is plainly called to accept differences and to reject divisions.
Easy to put into words, but not always so easy to put into practice. Fortunately, Paul has four
nuggets of advice that probably made a difference in Corinth and might have made a difference in the
New Sweden Lutheran Church. To the church that wishes to be united, Paul says you must do four
things to heal division in the church.
First, Grow up. Congregational quarreling and jealousy are sure signs that the members of that
church are still babies in Christ, still sucking on a bottle and not ready yet for solid food. Of course,
becoming grown-up disciples doesn’t mean simply logging in years on a church roll. It doesn’t work
that way.
We mature as Christians when we immerse ourselves in God’s word and commit ourselves to a
diet of daily prayer. We grow up into Christ when we give up our prideful independence, and accept
that in the church we are interdependent, answerable and accountable to each other. We become
mature Christians when we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit instead of behaving by worldly
standards.
The Holy Spirit is a gatherer, not a scatterer. The more we open ourselves to the flow of God’s
Spirit, the more we will bridge our divisions and heal our quarrels. But that level of peace, the peace
that only Christ gives, that peace is not available to dabblers or the lukewarm or the half-hearted or
the barely committed. Unity is a gift of Christ, a gift Christ gives freely to those who are mature
enough to receive it.
To be united, first grow up. Second, Have a shared mission. I plead with you, says Paul, to be
united in purpose. Have a common goal. Let there be something that you can work for side by side.
As long as we are focused on ourselves, we will magnify every difference and dwell on every
disagreement. When we have a common calling, we look beyond ourselves. The importance of our
differences diminishes and we are drawn together in a shared vision.
Two psychologists did a study of eleven symphony orchestras. They wanted to find out how the
musicians thought about each other. They discovered that orchestras are full of prejudices. Here are
the stereotypes musicians have about one another. Percussionists are insensitive and unintelligent, but
fun-loving. String players are arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. Brass players are too loud. Woodwind
players are quiet, meticulous and egotistical.
Yet despite what these musicians think of each other, they can come together in harmony because
they share a compelling mission, a calling bigger than any one of them, a mission to create something
of beauty and worth by bringing together their individual gifts and moving beyond their differences. A
church in mission is a united church.
Grow up. Have a shared mission. Third, Love one another. Surely you don’t think it’s a
coincidence that Paul’s longest and most poetic writing on love is found in this letter to a
dysfunctional, argumentative, divided congregation. Love is a gift of God’s Spirit, and where love has
its way envy, rudeness, resentment, and arrogance hit the road. And in place of those dividers, God
gives patience, kindness, gentleness, and forbearance—the mortar that binds us together in Christ.
This week I was visiting Georgia Gravens who’s in a retirement home out in Florence. At one point, I
said, “Georgia, you like it here, don’t you?”
She said, “Oh, yes, it’s great here.” And then she told me why, and she didn’t mention the food or
the security or the activities or the facilities. She said, “It’s great here, because we all love each
other.” I can’t think of anything I could add to that.
Grow up. Have a shared mission. Love one another. Fourth and finally, Share the mind of Christ.
Let there be real harmony, Paul urges the Corinthians, so there won't be divisions in the church. I
plead with you to be of one mind.
What mind is that? The mind of Christ, of course. In another letter, Paul spells this out more
plainly: “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing
from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of
you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 2:2-5).
How can believers be deeply divided from one another if we have the same mind, the mind of
Christ? If you tune one hundred pianos to the same tuning fork, those pianos are automatically tuned
to each other. By the same token, one hundred Christians who are earnestly seeking the mind of
Christ will find their unity not within themselves but within their Lord. As long as we are each of us
looking to Christ, we will be nearer to other in heart than if we focused one other and tried to find
ways of making better fellowship. Christ-like people will have no trouble finding common ground with
other Christ-like people.
That’s it. That’s Paul’s formula. Grow up. Have a common mission. Love one another. Share the
mind of Christ. The result is a unified church, and a unified church is mighty in the hands of God.
Together, God can do things with us that we could never do separately.
I just read about a wonderful school project. Virginia Polytech recently created a computer with
immense power, a so-called super-computer. These super-computers usually take years to assemble;
the students at Virginia Polytech did it in one month. Super-computers usually cost somewhere in the
range of $100-200 million; the engineering students built theirs for $5 million. They simply bought
1,100 off-the-shelf Apple Macintosh computers and they tied them together. They estimate that there
are probably only three computers in the world that are faster than their cobbled-together Apple
Macs.
Isn’t it amazing what can happen when divisions are replaced by unity?
Soli Deo Gloria!