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United in Mind and Purpose                        I Corinthians 1:10-18                       Jan 27, 2008

In this season of the Oscars, I always find myself thinking about movies I've enjoyed in the past. One of my favorites, My Big, Fat Greek Wedding, was one of the hit movies of 2002. You may remember it as a delightful love story, the story of the transformation of Toula, the lead character, or a laugh-out-loud comedy, which is definitely was, on all three counts.

What I remember most from the movie, however, was Toula's father, Gus - wonderfully played by Michael Constantine - and his love and devotion to his Greek heritage, his Greek culture and, by reference, his wonderful Greek language. He also loved Windex, you may recall, but that is a subject for a different discussion.

Gus's "father of the bride" speech at his daughter's wedding reception, affirming, at last, her marriage to - horror of horrors, Ian Miller, a non-Greek - is a classic.

Gus believes that all English words can be traced back to a Greek root word, and so he analyzes his daughter's new name, "Miller," in his speech, proclaiming it as having come from the Greek "milo", meaning "apple". He then proudly declares that, since his own last name "Portokalos" means "orange", the two families are "apples and oranges." "We're different," he says, smiling broadly, "but, in the end, we're all fruit."

I doubt very much if Nia Vardalos, the screenwriter - and star - of My Big, Fat Greek Wedding was attempting to make a theological statement when she wrote those lines for her on-screen father. Most likely, she was just trying to be funny.

She succeeds, however, in describing a decidedly Christian view of the world.

Gus, in his funny wedding speech, is essentially telling the two diametrically opposite parts of his new extended-family whole that their differences are unimportant. What matters, going forward, is the love that Toula and Ian have for one another. "We're different," he tells his WASP in-laws and his decidedly un-WASP-y relatives, but in the end, we're of one mind and one purpose. We are all here today because we all love these two newlyweds. We all want them to be happy. "In the end, we may be apples and oranges, but we're all fruit."

Our Epistle Lesson for this morning - a perfect text for a Church Council Sunday, by the way - is not about a Greek Wedding - fat or otherwise. It is, however, about a Greek Church. The first century Church in the city of Corinth.

Corinth was a prosperous, cosmopolitan city when Paul visited there, with a population of more than three quarters of a million people. It also had a horrible reputation as a city with lax morals. Loose living, scandalous sensuality and public drunkenness were pretty much the order of the day.

Corinth had actually become a metaphor. Other Greeks would use the phrase "lives like a Corinthian" to refer to someone who today we might call a "low life."

In the face of all of this, it is clear that the Corinthian Church - the church Paul addresses in his letter - had a remarkable opportunity to have a major impact on their city.

If, that is - and as it turns out it was a big "if" - if they could keep it together and focus themselves on the main point - which was the preaching of the cross as the transforming power of God.

The people of the Corinthian church were a diverse bunch. Some were actually slaves, others were poverty-stricken wage earners, and, at the other end of the spectrum, there were also members who were people of wealth and social influence. One member was evidently the city treasurer.

So it is not particularly surprising that the Church was tangled up in petty divisions and that cliques were forming in which each group thought of itself as spiritually superior to the others.

And - again as we might expect - these divisions brought about a diversion from the main purpose of this early Church. Instead of seeing the power of God at work in the Corinthian Christian church, there was a great danger, because of the division among the believers, that the Corinthian community around them would see nothing but familiar-sounding patterns: squabbling, pride and parochialism.

There was a real danger that the Church and its members would indistinguishable from the world around them.

Paul is very concerned about this when he writes to his friends in Corinth. The message of the cross, "foolishness to the world," as Paul describes it, would not be spread if the people of faith were not united in mind and purpose.

This Corinthian congregation was being challenged, by its founder, to "get its act together" so that others would have the opportunity to choose the message of the cross.

And it would be difficult, if not impossible, for others to choose this message if they could not see it lived out in the Church.

The implication for us, fortunately, is as plain as could be: One of the central ways that the Gospel is shared with others is through our behavior as a congregation.

If we - like the Corinthians - miss the main point of being the Church, we make it more difficult, or perhaps even impossible, for the message of the cross to be received by others. We make it more likely that others will dismiss the message of the cross as foolishness!

The apostle's words are as powerful for us today as they were for the church at Corinth two thousand years ago.

Paul looked at the diverse body that was the Church at Corinth and delivered a message. If he were to look at us today, he would undoubtedly be astounded by our diversity. Eight year-olds and eighty-plus year-olds in the same congregation! Such breadth would have been inconceivable to Paul, who lived in a world where the average life expectancy was roughly thirty years. Yet, I'm sure his message would be the same:

"I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul writes, "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."

Or, to paraphrase the words of Gus Portokalos: We may be different, with different points of view. We may be apples and oranges, but, in the end, we're all fruit. We're all here today because we all care about the same thing.

In a few minutes we will adjourn to Hahle Hall and convene our Annual Church Council. In many respects, this is our annual opportunity to demonstrate that we are able to act like the Church. Our annual opportunity to see if we have heard Paul's words to those Corinthian Christians.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that we can't have differing opinions on the issues that face us. Debate is a very healthy thing. What I am suggesting, though, is that as we debate - particularly as we debate that issue that has dogged this congregation for years - converting Hahle Hall into a space that is accessible to all of our members, young and old, eight year-olds and eighty-plus year-olds - we remember that the Gospel often requires boldness and always requires that we remember why we're here.

We're here because we all care about the same thing - the message of the cross.

That message is the lens that focuses our attention and makes it possible for us to be united, in mind and purpose, as we worship and as we convene do the business of the church.

May God's Spirit be with us.

                                                                             AMEN