Epiphany A3
1 Corinthians
1:10-18
January 26, 2020
Our church belongs to the denomination, the United
Church of Christ, probably the most progressive mainline Christian Church. I became sold on the UCC not so much because
of the work we do in this country, but because of the work we do
internationally, choosing not to build our own churches, but working with
existing churches who are already doing great work. Those of you who have been around for a
while, know that my primary global relationships have been with the Roman
Catholic Church in Chiapas, Mexico.
Imagine that. We defer to the
Roman Catholic Diocese in Chiapas because of the work they already do with and
on behalf of the people.
After going on a delegation to a small community
just outside the rain forest in Chiapas, Mexico, with youth to adults from my
small rural church in Illinois, I received an e-mail from Rev. Paula Bidle, the
United Church of Christ missionary who, with her husband, developed a
partnership with the Roman Catholic church in Chiapas, Mexico, to help build
the peace in an area where religion is often used an excuse for hurting and
harming one another. Paula wrote about
the Catholic sister who returned to the community where our youth worked and
related her perspective on what our young people did there.
I was moved to know that our
delegation really was more important to the community than we had even
thought. Prior to our proposal to build the herbal medicine clinic, the
community had been divided and disorganized. Sister Mary said that she
really had no hope of their ever coming together around a common goal, much
less having anyone be trained in herbal medicines. Part of this was the
demoralizing effect of the military base and their having to deal with
prostitution and drugs in San Quintin. So she was very surprised when the
community of Emiliano Zapata said that they wanted to do the project. And
then when they came together in such a powerful way, she was deeply
moved. This really is the work of God in our midst.
This really is the work of God in our midst. As a United Church of Christ, we often refer
to ourselves as a united and uniting church.
We do not necessarily have to take the lead in any project but we bring
diverse people together in a way that produces healing and wholeness and
goodness.
This is in in contrast to the story found in George
Orwell’s book, Animal Farm. In
George Orwell’s classic book, Animal Farm,
the farmer, Mr. Jones, begins as the chief villain. Mr. Jones is the plantation owner. And the animals on the plantation all decide
Mr. Jones has to go—in favor of a more just and fair and egalitarian
society. The barnyard animals truly
believe that humankind is the only creature which consumes without producing
anything of value, and, that once humankind is out of the way, the dream of an
ideal society, the beloved community, will be had by the whole barnyard. To accompany the promise of a liberated
barnyard, the animals put forward seven commandments.
Among those commandments were: 1) No
animal shall sleep in a bed; 2) No animal shall drink alcohol; 3) No animal
shall kill any other animal; and, finally, 4) All animals are equal.
Once the war of revolution is complete and Farmer
Jones is expelled from the farm, the animals revel in their hard work and
egalitarian abundance. The beloved
community, however, does not last for long.
The never-elected Napoleon the pig becomes the unofficial leader of the
animal farm. A leader, it turns out, who
sought the revolution not so much for the animal masses as for the role he
might play as the new Farmer Jones. The
story turns when the pigs justify keeping all the milk and apples for
themselves. One after another, the
commandments to keep life flourishing and relationships mutual and egalitarian
are modified to justify porcine-like practice.
All animals sleep on a bed of sorts, as in a bed of
hay, so pigs sleeping on human beds is not so outlandish. The commandment was about not drinking
alcohol, but, as the pigs divvy up the liquor, they decide the spirit of the
law is found in not drinking alcohol to excess.
Also, after Napoleon slaughters disloyal comrades, the other animals are
surprised to find that the commandment did allow for the killing of another
animal “with just cause.”
The oppressed become the oppressor. The revolutionaries become the entrenched
dictators. The laws and rights the
animals willed for themselves under Farmer Jones cannot find justification when
some of their own rise to power. We can
always play with different words to pretend we are fulfilling the spirit of the
law while we justify the breaking of that law.
But that does not necessarily make the vesting of right or compliance
with law a reality. On this Ecumenical
Sunday, during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we might turn the
mirror on ourselves to say that no nation becomes wholly just in name only, no
gathering of people is a Christian Church just because we wish it to be or say
it to be so.
The first church I served was Atkinson
Congregational United Church of Christ.
Only a generation removed from my pastorate in Atkinson, Illinois, Belgian
Catholics and mongrel Protestants, in the form of Congregationalists, could not
walk on the same side of the street. In
fact, the Knights of Columbus became an exclusive and powerful group within the
community. The local Congregational
Church took exception and had been instrumental in starting the local chapter
of the Ku Klux Klan to oppose the Knights of Columbus. A side note, the much beloved pastor of
Atkinson Congregational Church was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Now when I arrived in Atkinson, those
tensions had lessened to an extent.
Though the Catholic priest still tried to convert me at the post office
one day. The UCC pastor before me had
worked hard to begin joint services with the Roman Catholic church on
Ecumenical Sundays like this one. I am
also sure a few Romeo and Juliet stories helped to lessen tensions. You know, “I hear that Catholic Schehl boy is
going to marry Laureen, and she goes to that Congregational Church.” Or “That
Alan Van De Woestyne (notice the Belgian derivative) is a good Catholic
boy. I wonder why he wants to marry
Jerilyn?” And then the
Congregationalists and Catholics alike found out that these marriages worked
themselves out, and that the two people did right by each other, and everybody
loves everbodies’ grandkids. It’s a
little hard to burn a cross in someone’s yard who is now part of the
family. Maybe some of that fledgling
unity began happening in Atkinson as people realized that the other side had
some gifts to bring to the community as well.
Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s because
people make faith less important in their lives when faith represents hatred,
fear, superstition, and division. As a
Christian pastor, I grieve that sometimes people choose to remain “unchurched”
because they see all the damage done in the name of God.
But, it should be noted, the lack of
Christian unity did not begin or end with Atkinson ,
Illinois Corinth
“I was baptized by Apollos. Well, I was baptized by Cephas. Hmmmph, well, I was baptized by Paul.” The Corinthians had divided themselves up
into convenient little camps by getting all puffy-chested over the person who
baptized them. Back in those times, if
you were baptized by a particular person, it usually meant that that person had
taught you the Christian faith as well.
Twenty years after Christ’s death, and already Christ’s baptism is about
competition and division, about who has power over.
Though Paul could have taken his
little faction with him and proclaimed his baptism to be the true teaching, he
does not. He does not invest in the
power plays that are before him.
Instead, Paul continues Christ’s baptism by reminding that it is about
power with one another, by not valuing people based on their teaching,
morality, tradition, or competency, but based on their ability
to walk the hard road of love and work together as one in their diversity. If the message of Christianity were really
about having a true tradition and teaching a morality and competency and power
that conquered all others, then the cross is simply foolishness. Jesus would have been lifted off the cross in
some grand display of earthly power.
When your power is Christ crucified,
what remains? What remains? Not a power to conquer all those who
crucified him, but the memory of a mutuality and egalitarianism which radically
changed things around the old barnyard.
It is not about one power over replacing another. It is a power to stand with the most hurting
folk in the world, the crucified and downtrodden, when all of the world is
shattered. At the very least, it is a
power to come together as Christians to work on the real issues, the perennial
issues that face the world.
The great spiritual leader, Richard Rohr, wrote of
his vision of the future church as “much flatter and much more inclusive. We either see Christ in everyone, or we
hardly see Christ in anyone. Either we
are Christ to everyone, or we cannot be Christ to anyone.”[1] As we are all baptized in Christ alone
and preach the emptying of power over in the crucified Christ, this is the
church to which we are called.
It is to be a part of a church where
Dan and Penny Struckman lead us out in caring for homeless families. Or how we have great volunteers who join with
two other faith communities to care for the overflow of our homeless sisters
and brothers, siblings and cousins from the Community Crisis Center in My
Backyard. It is to be a part of a faith
community that cares less who gets the credit when Roman Catholic sisters,
Native elders, Roman Catholic junior high students, a two-spirit Native writer,
a Jesuit volunteer, members of Eco-Angela’s, an Americorps VISTA volunteer, a
Jewish rabbi, and two doctors from Hardin all come together to wake us up to
climate change. It is to be part of a
congregation that has the Mayflower Circle, a collection of our female elders,
make bean soup mix to raise money for . . . our children.
This is the congregation that regularly hosts big worship celebrations
like World AIDS Day, the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration,
and the Big Sky Pride worship service with a Jewish leader, an African American
Muslim leader, and our own Angie and Marci McLean Pollock speaking. .It is a congregation that hosts, midwives,
and facilitates so many Native events, ministries, and community efforts that
when a Native person was told there was a group working on building a Native
American Cultural Center in Billings, he said, “I thought this was the
Native American Cultural Center.” It is
to be part of a congregation where parents and grandparents provide a serious
lane in leadership but also a sense of humor in grace to mentor our children
and youth into leadership.
This really is the work of God in our
midst. And joining with God, Billings
First Congregational Church, a local United Church of Christ church, cares little
about having the best or the right teaching.
No, this community of faith has developed a spiritual practice where we
join with the crucified and downtrodden people of the world and in this local
community, we join our power with others to remember our mutual
baptism in Christ.
Napoleon
the pig, in Orwell’s Animal Farm,
declared his addition to the seventh and last commandment intended to give all
animals in the barnyard a sense of power and self-determination: “All animals are equal,” Napoleon decreed,
“but some animals are more equal than others.”
In contrast, Billings First Congregational Church declares that when all
the gifts of God’s garden are available to us through these mutual
relationships, why would we want a place of power with the pigs? There is glory in being a rutabaga, I tell
you! Glory!
“Now,
I appeal to you, sisters and brothers, siblings and cousins, by the name of our
Ruler Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no
divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same
purpose.” At Billings First
Congregational Church, many gifts, one Spirit, as we join with others in our
community and halfway around the world.
This . . . this really is the work of God in our midst. Thanks be to God! Amen.
[1] Richard Rohr, “Powering
Down: The Future of Institutions,” Onening: An Alternative Orthodoxy, Vol. 7, No. 2,
pp. 46-47.
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