"WHERE WE STAND TOGETHER"
(1 Corinthians 1:10-18)
Introduction:
LET THERE BE NO DIVISIONS AMONG YOU Paul says)
Let All of You Agree With One Another Paul says)
Be perfectly united and of one mind! In other words, Paul is saying that the church should stand together ,agree with each other, never disagree,
Because the church should be of one mind!
Let there be no divisions among you! Good friends, Paul, is wrong! Or at the very least he is extremely disillusioned
There was a certain pastor who, during his Children’s time, was speaking to the children about unity. He said to the children, "God wants us to be one"
At which point one of the youngest children
immediately protested. He stood up and crossed his arms and said, "I don’t want to be one" There were tears in his eyes, I mean this young man was upset.
The pastor said, "What’s the matter? Why don’t you want to be one like the rest of us?" Little boy said, "Cause I’ve already been one, I’m four now and I want to be five!"
The Thing Is We Never Can And Never Will Be Totally United. We will always disagree because like the little boy in the story, we have come from different perspectives in life. It’s hard enough for us to speak the same language, much less agree all the time
If you don’t believe me then let’s take a little test:
Are you ready?!
Hoobastank, Papa Roach, Smashmouth.
Now raise your hand if you have any idea who these people are. Keep your hand raised if you like them. Let’s try it again!
Perry Como, Nat King Cole, Glenn Miller
Raise your hands if you know who these people are. Keep your hands raised if you’ve ever listened to their music. If we aren’t even of one mind in music, what makes us think we can be of one mind on other things.
Let’s Take It Up A Notch, Shall We? Democrats raise your hands. Republicans raise your hands. See what I mean! Already some of you are looking around the church and you’re saying to yourself, "O.K. now that explains it!, that’s why he’s so messed up!"
And an even larger group of you are wanting desperately for the preacher to raise his hand, just so you know what side of the fence he’s on. And we haven’t really gotten to the controversial stuff yet, not really. I could start asking you to raise your hands on topics like, abortion, gun control, the death penalty, same sex marriages, the War in Iraq, and before we ever reached the hymn of sending forth we could very well start a riot
Body:
WE ARE NOT OF ONE MIND AND WE NEVER WILL BE
There Will Always Be Divisions Because When God Created Human Beings We Were Already Divided
As soon as God created Adam and then created Eve and made her different then Adam,you had division. And friends if you don’t think there are major differences between men and women, not just physically but emotionally and even spiritually, then you’ve obviously not been to Venus.
The book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is right on the money. Men if you’ve ever been to Venus then you know, that’s a strange place. They’re different there! Not only do they not look or act like we look and act on Mars, but they think differently then we Martians think. The very concept of getting all the men and all the women to agree; that concept alone is proof that Paul was just asking for too much. It will never happen! Because I for one have no intention of moving to Venus,and I gave up the battle a long time ago of trying to get the women to move to Mars; and think like I think
And This Division Is Represented In Virtually Every Strata of Our Society. We are divided by social class and economics. We are divided by age and generational differences. We are divided along the lines of race and ethnicity. We are divided geographically, and if you don’t believe me then travel to Minnesota or New York, and you will realize those Yankees are different. And it’s not only the fact that they have no idea what good Mexican food is, but they can’t speak English
You travel too far up North and you say to them
"Yawl go over yonder I’m fixin to be there in a minute!" They will look at you like you’re on drugs!
Then they might say something strange like "You’s guys" or tell you that they’re from Maaanhaten and your English is raaten
And You Might Say To Yourself That This Is Not What Paul Is Talking About. Paul is not wrong because he’s not talking about the world, or about being black or white or brown, male or female, but Paul is talking about being the church. And if you said that then you would be partly right. But you would be mostly wrong!
Because for one thing Paul must be talking about
gender and race and even social status, because when he wrote to the church of Galations he said "for in Christ there is neither Greek or Jew, slave or free, male of female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus"
Then You Say, "O.K. But What Paul Means Is That In The Church There Is No Division! We All Agree! Did you know that there are over 322 different Christian denominations or expressions of the Christian faith throughout the US, and that the large majority of these churches do not agree. In fact that is the reason why there are so many different churches, because they cannot agree! Would you believe that there are many Christian churches and denominations that will point to several other Christian churches and say to it’s members: "You’re going to hell! Why? Because you don’t think like us!" Churches disagree on baptism, communion, marriage, divorce, salvation, heaven, hell, and even Jesus.
Now we are the United Methodist Church, which
suggests that we, at least, are United. As much as I would like to say that is true, I would be as wrong as Paul if I did. In many ways the United Methodist church is becoming the Untied Methodist church. We often focus more on our differences, then on where we agree, and it’s very hard for us to come to place
where we can agree to disagree. Yes, it should be abundantly clear to everyone that Paul is wrong!
BUT THEN AGAIN, PAUL IS ALSO RIGHT!
I Know That You Know That He’s Right
Right now you just don’t know why you know he’s right
,but you just know! Because he’s Paul! He wrote much of the book! He better be right! right?
Paul is wrong if he believes that people can agree all the time. Paul is wrong if he believes that we will all stand together. We can’t all stand together because we are different people. Or at least we can’t all stand together on most things. But you see there is one place where we do stand together. There is one place where we will always stand together. It is the one place in the church where we are all one.
We stand together at the cross of Christ!
When Paul finishes his tirade about division and unity in the church he qualifies it with this statement: "For the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God"
The Cross Of Christ Is The Great Equalizer. Because in the light of that cross not one of us is worthy, but we have been made worthy because of that cross.
There is a power in the message of the cross and we don’t have to fully understand it, we don’t have to completely agree on exactly what that cross means. But still is has that power. The power to heal divisions, The power to bring different people of different gender, different race and social status
to the same place. I have been in churches and conferences where people have disagreed and you point to the cros, you remind them again of the message of the cross, and all of the sudden the differences don’t seem so important anymore! Not as important as that cross!
And good friends that’s what Paul is really saying. We need to gather as God’s people around that cross
and we need to recognize that it is that cross that can bring us unity and make us one. Right there at the cross is where all people stand together. It does not matter who you are or where you’re from. In truth, it doesn’t really matter if you even believe or not, because the bible tells us that there will come a day when all of creation comes together at that cross. That every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
Conclusion:
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS DEFINES WHO WE ARE
As Individuals And As The Church United
We need to remember and never forget that the cross is why we are here in the first place, to worship the one who died on that cross. To share the message of salvation that is a result of that cross to all the world. That is why we are here.
If you get to the root of it all, that is the one place where we are one and where we stand together!
We are called as the church and as individuals to
proclaim and to live the message of that cross!
That message that is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved is the very power of God
So I Say To You, Go Ahead and Disagree! Let the republicans remain republicans. Let the democrats continue to vote the democratic ticket! Let Hoobstank and Papa Roach and Nat King Cole and Glenn Miller continue to sell records! Let the women live in harmony on Venus while the men wrestle with each other on Mars! But as the church and as the people of God who are being saved, let us always and everywhere come back to the cross. The place of power. The place of our salvation. The one place where we all stand together!
**Rev. Fred Craddock used this tool of Paul being wrong and right in his sermon, "How Loud Should You Preach" This sermonic tool was borrowed with the greatest respect for Rev. Craddock.
