Please, Don't Go There!
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been made clear 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.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
1 Corinthians 1:10–15
Celebrity has always been a two-edged sword. If you watch any talk show interviews of today’s big stars, you may see the celebrity guests speak of the advantages and disadvantages of celebrity. Harrison Ford, of Indiana Jones and Hans Solo fame, is one famous person who hates his celebrity. He hates that he can’t go anywhere at all without being recognized and harassed. He came to hate it so much that he finally purchase an expansive 800-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming…800 ACRES OF ISOLATION AND PRIVACY. It must be nice. It certainly is lonely.
By the time Paul reached Corinth in the Greek Isthmus of Corinth, he was already famous…and infamous…from his exploits in Asia Minor and the Judea. He had become what we might call a “Rock Star”! And he worked very hard to create and build a Christian community in the hostile environment of Corinth. Given the very nature of the culture of Corinth, that was quite an accomplishment. If you don’t know much about Corinth, it was like mixing everything good and evil about New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles together but going heavy on the evil. For someone in ministry, it was what my District Superintendent would have called an “Opportunity.” To put that in perspective, come Appointment Time, the only thing worse than a “challenge” was an “opportunity.” So Paul’s creation of a solid Christian community there would have really been something to be proud of…and he was.
But once the word got out that Paul had moved on to other cities in Greece like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, it created a void, attracting any number of other celebrity preachers. Neither Apollos nor Cephas (the Aramaic form of St Peter’s name) were bad men. Nor were they attention seekers. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria and was considered a powerful preacher, credited with bringing Priscilla and Aquila into the the early church fold. He often traveled with Paul as well. Paul described himself as not the best of orators, yet here is no hint of jealousy of Apollos by Paul.
Cephas (Peter) was the most famous all three of them, yet he was not known as a great speaker either. People would flock to hear him tell his stories of his time with Jesus as an apostle and disciple. But celebrity’s dark side often crises from followers…the fans rather than the foes. In Corinth, there were those who had been baptized by Paul, but there were apparently a greater number of Christians who had been baptized by Apollos or Peter who were then lording that fact over other Corinthian Christians. I don’t know about you, but if I hade been baptized by Peter, I would have had T-shirts, hats and bumper stickers displayed to let everyone know.
Word of this division among the Christians in Corinth had reach Paul and it wounded him to the core. In this first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul lays into them loaded for bear. I always knew I was in trouble when my parents used all three of my names to call me. And if they added, “the third,” at the end, I figured that it was time to make out my will. That is the tone of these word from Paul to the Corinthians…stern, yet still loving. What’s more is that Paul did so with the full knowledge that Apollos and Peter would have seconded his admonition.
As Christians, many wonderful things have been gifted to us in our lives by the Holy Spirit. But to then proclaim that this wonderful thing bestowed upon of them marked that person as being a better Christian than any other Christian was wrong on multiple levels. As Paul would later write to the Roman church, “ALL have fallen short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23). That puts each and every one of us on an equal footing when it comes to receiving God’s Grace and favor.
Unfortunately, we live in a time of deep divisions in our country. But our disagreements are simply that. Although we often see them as grounds to condemn one another, it is never the case that our beliefs and opinions make us better or worse than any other human being on the planet. “All” means all, not some. Someone once asked me what I thought we could be certain of when it comes to the nature of Heaven. I responded, “I know with certainty that whatever anybody thinks that they know about the details of the hereafter, that they are probably wrong! Myself included” I loved the admonition from the Talmud, “Where there are three Rabbis, there are four opinions.”
The last thing that Christ commanded His disciples to do in service to Him and His Kingdom was simply to “Love One Another!” After 2,000 years of trying, arguing and theologizing about it, we still fail to follow that simple three-word commandment. We seek to be first instead of last. We want to lord over instead of serve the Lord by serving one another. We love being “right” instead of loving being together.
My prayer this day, my partners in grinding the milestone of life, is that we open our hearts and seek to discover what it is inside the person I think is worthless that Christ saw as so valuable that He came to die for that person too. Let us help one another to take up that cross. Lord Jesus, please help me to lift it high above my ego.
Amen and Amen,
Rev Dr Jim McGrath
