"Team or League?" - February 16, 2014

I Corinthians 3:1-9

The windows on the side walls of this sanctuary were carefully planned and have some unusual elements.  On the pulpit side, they all refer to the teaching and miracles of Christ.  On the lectern side, they tell about the spread of the Church, from the moment that Jesus sent his disciples out into the world up until just before the time that this building was constructed.  You might want to take some time to read the pages from the booklet whose pages are copied and laminated and spread out on the windowsills.  Today, though, I want to call attention to the one at the back, nearest the bell tower.  I doubt there are more than two or three windows anywhere that depict these events. The guidebook reads: 

“‘WE ARE LABORERS TOGETHER’

The ship of the Church is seen again at the bottom of this window. The word OIKOUMENE denotes the ecumenical church.  At the top of this window is the World Council of Faith and Order, which took place at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1927.  A variety of crosses in the background refers to the Christians of many denominations who gathered there.  In the center is the unifying conference which joined three branches of Methodism in 1939.  At the bottom is the organization of the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1948.”

This building went up in 1964, at a time when there was great confidence in the ecumenical movement.  After roughly five centuries of infighting and arguments among Protestants and Catholics and about a thousand years of a sniping between Catholics and Orthodox, we finally were realizing that we were never going to agree on everything and that it was about time that we focused instead on what we could achieve if we worked together.  

In some ways, what it meant was that we were learning to do on a worldwide basis what we had – at least in some places – learned to do locally.  Within local churches there has always been and will always be tension among people with different visions, and often they will gather around different leaders who express them.  The book of Acts focuses on Paul’s experiences so closely that we forget that there were others involved in planting and leading the earliest churches. Some of them do get mentioned, though, as when 

“…there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus… And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who through grace had become believers, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.” [Acts 18:24-25, 27-28]

When there was conflict among the Corinthians, some of them identified themselves as adherents of either Paul or Apollos, which often happens in such cases.  If the leaders are strongly invested in the conflict, they may accept that.  It can really get in the way.

            Paul was wise enough, and I suspect (since he and Apollos continued to work together in Ephesus as well) that Apollos was wise enough not to get drawn into the fight.  He was also wise enough to point out what we so often lose track of: that the Church is not ours.  We are part of it, but it is the Body of Christ, not the Body of Paul nor the Body of Calvin nor the Body of Wesley. 

When the World Council of Churches was organized, as celebrated in the top and bottom panels of our window, it was on the basis of what we have in common.



“According to the WCC constitution,‘agreement with the basis upon which the Council is founded’ is a precondition for membership. Adopted by the inaugural assembly (Amsterdam, 1948), the original basis read simply, ‘The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.’”[1]

That’s a wise way to go about our ministry as Christians, regardless of our denominational loyalties.

Our differences have often arisen for good and genuine reasons that have historically been mixed up with not so good reasons.  Sincere theological differences influenced the split between the Lutherans and the Catholics, but they were also mixed up with the fact that in the 1500s the Germans and Italians didn’t care for one another very much.  The split between the English church and Rome had to do with a genuine belief that people should worship in their own language and be able to read the Bible for themselves, but it also had to do with Henry VIII’s desire for a male heir and the nobility’s desire to transfer control of land from the church to themselves.  The split between the Church of England and the Methodists had to do with the American Revolution, more than anything doctrinal.  I could go on and on.



If, though, we look at what God has done with our brokenness instead of wallowing in it, we would see how even that endless Apollos/Paul pattern has been turned to good.  So many different families within the larger Christian people has led to the growth and even flourishing of different gifts among us.  Lutherans
are really good at focusing on core doctrines and keeping us all aware of the centrality of God’s grace.  Presbyterians are very good at emphasizing the importance of the ministry of the whole body, and developing lay leadership.  The Episcopalians remind us of the important role of the sacraments and the role of the community at worship.  Methodists put a high value on sharing the word of God through preaching and song.  Baptists have historically been the ones to take the lead in maintaining the Church’s independence from political interference or the claims of Caesar.  Quakers and Pentecostals each in their way remind us all to listen to and obey the Holy Spirit when we are touched by its quiet prompting or by its fire.  The Orthodox insist that we honor our deep roots in the witness of two thousand years of people made holy by that same Spirit.

We do a disservice to one another when we run down our own particularity, or denigrate anyone else’s, because we each have something to contribute.


“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God’s servants, working together.” [I Corinthians 3:7-9]



And, he might have added, there is plenty of work to do.




[1] Noted in the “Theological and Historical Background of the WCC Basis“ of the World Council of Church’s web site at  http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/other/theological-and-historical-background-of-the-wcc-basis
.