To Whom Do You Belong?
To Whom Do You Belong? by Rev. L. John Gable
June 4, 2023
I recently read an article in the December, 2022 edition of Christianity Today about a conversation between Bono, the front man for the band U2, one of the most popular bands on the planet, and Franklin Graham, the son of the late Billy Graham. Billy had invited Bono and the band to come to meet him and had sent Franklin to the airport to pick them up. Bono describes their conversation in the car in this way.
Apparently Franklin “wasn’t so sure of his cargo”, as Bono put it, so he asked, “You…you really love the Lord?” Bono answers, “Yep”.
“Okay, you do. Are you saved?”
“Yep, and saving.” Franklin doesn’t laugh. No laugh.
“Have you given your life? Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?”
“Oh, I know Jesus Christ, and I try not to use Him just as my personal Savior. But, you know, yes.”
“Why aren’t your songs, um, Christian songs?”
“They are!”
“Oh, well, some of them are” refutes Franklin.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, don’t they…Why don’t we know they are Christian songs?”
Bono answers, “They’re all coming from a place, Franklin. Look around you. Look at the creation, look at the trees, look at the sky, look at all the verdant hills. They don’t have a sign up that says ‘Praise the Lord’ or ‘I belong to Jesus’. They just give glory to Jesus.”
The article continues, “For four decades, Bono has found himself in conversations like this one, responding to Christians who aren’t quite sure what to make of him or of U2.” Now, I am not defending either of these men’s faith, but neither am I questioning it.
You don’t have to be the lead singer in a world famous rock band to have that question asked of you, or perhaps to find yourself asking the same of another. Franklin wanted to know if Bono really was a Christian, perhaps a fair question to ask, although which of us is in any position to judge another, particularly when the question becomes judgmental in tone or intent, a veiled asking of, “Are you a REAL Christian?”, with the unspoken implication, “like me.”
This is essentially the issue which prompted the Apostle Paul to write his first letter to the Corinthians. Recall, Paul had spent about a year and a half establishing the church in Corinth before moving on to Ephesus. When he left the church community was relatively harmonious, but now he learned that quarrels were splitting the church. These weren’t organized parties debating well-formulated issues, but more spontaneous dissentions and arguments among individuals who were rallying around names of various preachers and leaders, over issues less doctrinal or theological than personal and preferential. Knowing how threatening such dissentions can be to a church community, Paul called them out on it, saying, “It has been reported 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’. Their debates sound an awful lot like the conversation Franklin Graham and Bono had in the car. The one wanting to know if the other was really a Christian? Or at least if he was a REAL Christian, according to their standards? It is a subtle trap when we think we are more Christian than another because of a particular view we hold or leader we follow.
So Paul, in an attempt to nip that kind of thinking and debating in the bud, writes, “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 united in the same mind and the same purpose.” This becomes the central theme of Paul’s letter: Unity despite their differences. The Greek word for divisions is “schismata” from which we get our English word: schism, and the Greek word for unity might better be translated “restored or putting in to order something that has been torn or is in disarray”. It is the same word used to describe a fisherman who is mending his nets.
This is Paul’s greatest concern for the Corinthian Church, not that they had lost their faith, but that the unity of faith which they had enjoyed was being torn apart by dissention and disagreements and so needed to be mended together once again; not that they would all be in agreement with one another on all things but that they would be united under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, in the same mind and the same purpose.
Interestingly enough, I have never preached on this passage before, perhaps because I never felt I had to, and don’t necessarily think I need to now, but I have chosen to because this may be one of my greatest concerns for the Church at large, and Tab specifically, as we move in to an unknown and uncertain future. Given the environment we live in and our society’s apparent lack of ability to have any semblance of civil discourse, I have a concern that we might assume a similar posture regarding those who hold positions which differ from our own unless we make the conscious decision and the conscientious commitment to unity rather than division. Disagreement is one thing, division is yet another.
We are all aware of relationships which have become strained and damaged and broken in recent years, between family members, long-time friends, close neighbors, even fellow church members, over issues social, theological, political, and medical. Over issues of leadership, decision-making, personal preference, even as to how one came to faith, in which one has wondered about another, “Is he really a Christian? Is she a REAL Christian?” Ask yourself, do you think because of your stance on any of these issues that you are more Christian than anyone else who also professes faith in Jesus Christ?” If so, then Paul is writing this letter to us every bit as much as he was writing it to the church in Corinth.
You have long heard me say, “In the essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, in all things love.” My concern now, for the Body of Christ, is that we have allowed the non-essentials to divide us without regard for the essentials, and the Body of Christ is being damaged by it.
Nikki Gumble of the Alpha program tells this wonderful story. I wish I could tell it with his charming British accent. Assuming himself to be the teller of the story, he says, one day I was standing in the middle of the Golden Gate Bidge admiring the view when another tourist came up alongside me also to admire the view. I heard him say, under his breath, “What an awesome God!” I turned to him and said “Oh, are you a Christian?” “Yes, I am a Christian” he answered, and I said “So am I”, so we shook hands.
I said, “Are you a liberal Christian or a fundamental Christian?” He said, “I am a fundamental Christian”, and I said “So am I”, so we smiled and nodded to one another.
I said “Are you a covenant or a dispensational fundamental Christian?” He said, “I am a dispensational, fundamental Christian.” I said “So am I” and we slapped one another on the back.
I said “Are you an early Acts, mid Acts or late Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?” He said, “I am an Acts 9, mid Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” I said “So am I”, and we agreed to exchange Christmas cards each year.
I said “Are you a pre-trib or post-trib, Acts 9, mid Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” He said, I am a pre-trib, Acts 9, mid Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” I said, “So am I” and we agreed to exchange our kids for the summer.
I said “Are you a 12 in or 12 out, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?” He said “I am a 12 in, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” I said, “You heretic!” and pushed him off the bridge.
I’ll confess I don’t even know what some of those things mean, but this has been the history of the church. We have argued and debated and divided over nuances and incidentals under the guise of our desire for purity and truth and it has only been accelerated in recent years and I fear will continue to divide us unless we, individually and collectively, make the conscientious decision not to let it.
Recognizing the incredible damage it is doing, the Apostle Paul appeals for unity among members of the church, not agreement on all matters, but unity particularly when there are matters of disagreement. This is why I have given you the bulletin insert this morning. He stresses this rhetorically, almost saracastically, when he asks, “Was Paul crucified for you?” Absolutely not. The basis for the church’s unity is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Some were saying, “I belong to Cephas, I belong to Apollos, I belong to Paul”, and still others, “Well, I belong to Christ” which by implication means “if you don’t agree with me you don’t agree with Him, or that I am a better, or more of a, Christian than you are.” As one commentator has put it, “When “I belong to Christ” becomes the rallying cry of one contentious faction within the church Christ is defacto reduced to the status of one more leader hustling for adherents. Paul says this is scandalous. Is Christ divided? Divided up and parceled out like a commodity or possession to be haggled over, fragmented in to interest groups? This must not be, for the Church is birthed, saved and sustained only in the name of Jesus.”
Of course there are disagreements within any body of people, even within the Body of Christ. I know not all of you agree with me, much less with one another, even on which are the essentials and which are the non-essentials of our faith. I think you’d be rather surprised to know the preferences and positions held by the person sitting next to you or those sitting around you, but those differences don’t seem to matter when we come in here, do they? Why? Because when we gather here we seem to be in agreement that the One who unites us is greater than anything which seeks to divide us. But that principle only works if we are all firmly committed to remaining firmly committed to the One who unites us and so not allowing those things which seek to divide to divide us.
Walking out of worship last week one of you said to me, “You’re just preparing us, aren’t you?” I smiled and said, “I am.” I can almost guarantee you that the person who succeeds me as your pastor will not do things the way I do things, say things the way I say things, preach or teach or lead the way I have done any of those things, all ways you’ve grown accustomed to. One day you may find yourself saying, “John never…or John always….” In those moments I encourage you to reread this opening chapter of First Corinthians. You don’t belong to John, you never have and you never will, you belong to Christ and Christ is not divided.
The kick is, you don’t actually know how I vote or the positions I hold on many issues; perhaps you suspect you do, but you don’t really know because I haven’t told you. And why haven’t I? Because I believe there is something, or rather Some One, who holds us together that is more important than any of those myriad of things that could ever tear us apart. I have chosen to keep Christ at the center of my preaching and teaching, believing that as long as that center holds we can move in many different directions without tearing the fabric of our unity. “When this truth (of the centrality of Christ) is kept clearly in focus then petty rivalries and disagreements, preferences for particular preachers and practices, are seen in their true light, as being simply ridiculous.”
I have a friend who is active in the AA community. One day someone wore a tee shirt to a meeting supporting a particular political candidate. After the meeting, one of the more senior members of the group took the individual aside and kindly asked that he not wear that particular kind of shirt to a meeting again, stressing not because of the particular candidate they were promoting or that there even was a dress code at a meeting, but because the sole purpose of AA is sobriety and they don’t want anyone to do anything to distract anyone else from that central purpose.
That I believe was Paul’s point. So he writes, to them then and to us 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 united in the same mind and the same purpose.”
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN