6 Epiphany, Year A

Deuteronomy 30: 15 – 20
Psalm 119: 1 – 8
I Corinthians 3: 1 – 9
Matthew 5: 21 – 27

A homily by: Fr. Gene Tucker
Given at: Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, February 13, 2011

“MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES”

Let’s talk a little bit this morning about ministers and ministries….

After all, as we hear St. Paul admonish the Corinthian church’s members, saying that they are “babes in Christ,” not ready for solid food, Paul is getting after those early Corinthian believers. The reason? They have misplaced their attentions, forgetting about the ministry that was done on their behalf. Instead, they have begun to identify with the ministers who did that ministry among them.

By devoting their energies to favoring one minister over another, saying “I belong to Paul”, or “I belong to Apol’los”, they are engaging in “party spirit”.

No, I don’t mean the sort of “party spirit” that says “let’s-have-a-party”. I mean that “party spirit” that says “My guy is better than your guy,”, and therefore, “We are better Christians that you are!”

That sort of an attitude seems to sum up the Corinthians’ attitudes.

Notice that this isn’t the first time St. Paul has mentioned this “party spirit” attitude in his first letter to the church in Corinth. No, it is the second time he’s used exactly the same words, talking about the misplaced allegiances that had taken root in the Corinthian church. He mentions this “party spirit” at the beginning of his letter, in chapter one.

“I belong to Paul!”

“I belong to Apol’los!”

Paul responds to this misguided attitude by asking “What then is Apol’los? What then is Paul?”

It doesn’t take Paul very long to straighten these wayward Corinthians out.

He spells out exactly what role a minister has: He says a minister is like a worker in a field, planting and watering the sown seed. We who minister are “servants”, Paul concludes, agents through whom the Corinthians had come to believe. Nothing more than a farm hand, a servant, that’s what a minister is.

But God gives the growth to the sown seed of the Word of God, Paul reminds his readers.

Indeed!

“Party spirit” is alive and well in the body of Christ, which is the Church.

I believe one reason the Holy Spirit prompted the early Church to include the two Corinthian letters in the books of the New Testament is just so that we can be on our guard against the ills into which the Corinthians had fallen,

For in God’s infinite wisdom, it is clear that the Church can fall, again and again over time, into those very same ills that the Corinthians were so prone to embrace.

“Party spirit” is one of the worst of those ills.

One way we can see party spirit at work in the Church is by the adoration that can be directed toward clergy. As a person enters the discernment process, one aspect of the scrutiny which is applied to a person seeking ordination as a priest or a deacon is to ascertain what the response might be to the positive attentions that can be directed toward an ordained person.

Specifically, we ask what the reaction would be to being called “Father”. How would a person react to having the title “Father”, which often carries with it associations of honor and esteem. (OK, I realize that that isn’t always the case!)

For another, how would a person feel about wearing a clerical collar? What is the motivation behind seeking ordination? Is it to receive accolades or the distinction of wearing special clothing?

Jesus had some stern words for those who would seek ordination for the wrong reasons. Luke records those words, which serve as a warning to those who seek ordination. Hear them as we read them from Luke (20: 46): Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and love salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts….”

Why is misguided motivation for being ordained such a danger? Because it encourages to focus on the minister, at the expense of the ministry.

St. Paul would remind us that the minister is merely a servant. The proper focus, he would most likely tell us, ought to be on the God who gives the growth, and upon those who are the field in which the seed of God’s truth is sown.

If the proper focus is on God, and on those ministered to, then the minister is little more than a person who makes the connection between God and God’s people.

So it’s important, as we work with a person seeking ordination, to make sure that their words, their lives and their actions all point toward the God that they serve, for the benefit of the people they are called to serve.

Another way we can see “party spirit” at work in the Church is in the formation of factions. Often, some issue or another becomes the energizing force which causes fractures within the body of Christ. Some of the causes of such fracturing include: changes to the church’s physical plant, or a dispute over music or liturgical choices. Fractures can grow out of a personal dispute between members, who then seek allies in the matter being disputed.

When these things happen, the focus of the congregation is shifted away from the God we serve, and the people who seek to be served, onto the dispute itself.

A third way we can see “party spirit” at work is in a misguided sense that a minister owns a ministry, treating a work that has been entrusted to them as a ministry as a personal possession. When this happens, a minister begins to treat the responsibilities they carry as their personal “turf”. Trying to take possession of “turf” can happen to anyone engaged in ministry, lay or ordained.

Some final thoughts are in order:

• The Church, and those who make up the Church, are called to show the difference that God makes in a person’s life. Engaging in “party spirit” undercuts that witness to the power of God to change lives.

• Making a connection between God and God’s people is the task of everyone who takes up a ministry (lay and ordained). The focus, therefore, for the minister, is on God, first of all, and then on the people who are being served, second of all.

• It’s God’s ministry, and the people of God are God’s people. These two principles must guide everyone engaged in ministry.

We belong to God!

AMEN.