In the spirit and tradition of St. Paul, Clement (Bishop of Rome) wrote to the church at Corinth in order to deal with a problem. That problem? Schism. Some fifty years after Paul’s letters, in which he pleads with them to avoid party strife, Clement writes to exhort them for the exact same thing. Ouch! Imagine it: A whole generation lived and died in the Corinthian church, expe-riencing “church” as broken, full of strife and hostility. Hmm.
I’m thinking about Corinth because of General Conference. Delegations are meeting to get ready. In nine months they will gather in Ft. Worth, TX. The tension is already building. We are dealing with the scuttlebutt on various kinds of tactical and contentious matters: “What do you think of the Connectional Table?” “What will happen if the United States becomes a Central Conference?” “Will the homosexuality vote split the church?” What about the Commission on the Study of Ministry recommendation to go another four years?
While Paul and Clement both deal with schism, Paul spends a lot more time on the Resurrection and not an insigificant amount on sexual morality. Necessary in a society like Corinth where sex was everywhere (sounds familiar, doesn’t it)?
Also, one could infer from Paul’s letter that part of the schism is from people who approve of the “new” sexual teaching that there is no law and all you need is for two people to love each other. He gets angry, not only at the man in question, but at his supporters. I wonder what Paul would say to the Church at New York or New Hampshire?
YBIC,
Phil Snyder