Post-Pandemic Church
After the pandemic Americans are
not the same. The church can’t be either. The Barna Research Group found that a
third of practicing Christians had dropped out of church at some point and 29
percent of senior pastors said they “seriously considered” quitting in the past
year. According to the Pew Research Center, during the first months of the
year, fewer than half of regular churchgoers in the US made it to an in-person
service, though more than three-quarters said their churches had reopened.
Across the country, the churches and their leaders have ushered weary
congregants through virtual worship setups, lonely hospital stays, funerals, strained
marriages, mental health struggles, job losses, intense political tensions, racial
trauma, and relentless debates over pandemic precautions. Today we, as a
church, still carry the burden of trauma and divides built up over more than a
year.
Although it’s a challenging and disturbing time for the church, it can be also a great opportunity for us to live up to our calling and to glorify God in our suffering. At the end of today’s passage 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” As we navigate next steps in the midst of the pandemic, how may we bring healing and help people to go forward and look forward instead of going back? How can we?
Choose Love
Today’s scripture gives us two
guidelines. The first one is, “Choose to be
loving, rather than to be right.” Paul says, “All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are beneficial”
(v. 12). In other words, don’t ask, “What is right?” “What do I have to
do?” Instead ask, “What is love?” “What is the most loving thing for me
to do in this situation?”
In Corinthian church there was a dispute. Paul had to face the unpleasant issue of one Christian going to court against another one. Paul’s advice is like this, “If you must go to law against another Christian, allow the church to choose people who are godly and competent to try cases” (vv. 2-6). Then, he gives an even more challenging advice that it would be better that Christians didn’t go to law against one another at all (vv. 7-8). Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible interprets these verses as follows:
These court
cases are an ugly blot on your community. Wouldn't it be far better to just
take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you're doing is
providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people
of your own spiritual family (vv. 7-8).
Here the point of Paul’s message is
to choose love instead of being right.
We can be right all the time and still be a horrible human being. We can “win”
an argument and push people further away from Jesus. I share this from my own
experience. When I was a sophomore in high school, there was one classmate who
was very critical of Christianity. Since I was a pastor’s kid, I took it
personally. One day he and I entered into intense debate, and I won an
argument. But the result was that I pushed him further away from the church.
Yes we can be right and show the opposite of God’s love for them. And we can do
that in Jesus’ name.
We don’t have to choose love at the
cost of truth. Truth and love can go together. Truth and love must go together,
because Christian love rejoices in the truth (1 Cor 13:6). I
think Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, can be a good example. He believes
marriage is designed for a man and a woman. Because of his stance, his business
was boycotted by many. In response to the boycott, scores of Cathy’s supporters
rallied for “Chick-fill-A Appreciation Day,” buying millions of chicken
sandwiches in a show of solidarity – a protest against the protest. Dan Cathy
did not personally affirm or join in the protest against the protest. Instead,
he quietly reached out to one of this strongest critics, gay activist Shane
Windmeyer, who eventually shared these words in the Huffington Post[i]:
Never once did
Dan or anyone from Chick-fil-A ask for Campus Pride to stop protesting
Chick-fil-A. On the contrary, Dan listened intently to our concerns and
. . . [he] sought first to understand, not to be understood.
. . . Dan and I shared respectful, enduring communication and built
trust. His demeanor has always been one of kindness and openness.
. . . Dan expressed regret and genuine sadness when he heard of
people being treated unkindly in the name of Chick-fil-A—but he offered no
apologies for his genuine beliefs about marriage.
Compassion without compromise. Love
and truth. At the same time. In this weary and divided world we can glorify God
as we choose to be loving rather than to be right.
Choose Freedom
The second guideline from today’s
scripture is, “Choose freedom in Christ.” Paul says in 6:12, “All things
are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything” (ESV). In
other words, don’t ask, “Am I permitted to do this?” Instead ask, “Am I a slave
to this act?” “Is this food or drink or sex or hobby or work or money becoming
my master instead of my servant?”
In our culture many believe that freedom is to be able to do whatever we want. Freedom is the ability to adopt any lifestyle that we like, to choose any sexual partner, to escape any obligation. The more choices we have, the freer we are assumed to be. Some in Corinthian church believed they can eat and drink and have sex any way they like because the body is morally irrelevant. They believed the body will be destroyed in the end. For them, what matters is what they know and think and believe (8:1-3). But Paul proclaims the truth by the Spirit, “The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. The body is not just going to be destroyed; it is going to be raised. The body is not morally indifferent. It is for the glory of God. So glorify God in your body.”
How can we glorify God in our body? We can glorify God by not being enslaved by anything (negatively), by choosing freedom in Christ (positively). The Bible says we were all slaves to sin, the root of which is self-centeredness. But Christ Jesus set us free from the dark prison of our own self-centeredness. Not only that, but Jesus gave us freedom to be our true selves. John Stott rightly said, “True freedom is the ability to be who we are made to be — people made to love God and to love others.”
Just as love and truth go together, so love and freedom must go together. Christian freedom must be guided by Christian love. In 8:1 Paul says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” Some Christians in Corinth used to eat any food, including food offered to idols, because they knew that an idol is nothing at all and that there is no God but one. They had that knowledge. But the thing is because of that, some who didn’t have that knowledge saw them eat food scarified to idols and thought of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences were violated. So Paul said to the church, “You must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble” (8:9 NLT). Then, he concluded this way, “So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live – for I don't want to cause another believer to stumble” (v. 13). We are free when we live under the lordship of Christ. We are free when we see ourselves as servants of others. And we glorify God as we choose freedom guided and shaped by agape love.
Perfect in Love
God is glorified when we savor his
love and freely serve others. Probably many of you know the hymn, “When I
Survey the Wondrous Cross” written by Isaac Watts. Charles Wesley said that he
would give up all the hymns he had penned if he could have written this hymn.
In this great hymn Isaac Watts invites us to join him at the foot of the cross
and witness the pain and shock of Jesus’ death:
“See,
from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow
and love flow mingled down.
Did
e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or
thorns compose so rich a crown?”
For us who were cleansed and
forgiven, who were set free from fear, self, and addiction, who were given
freedom and power to live a new life of love and service by the blood of Jesus,
this Calvary story becomes so real, so powerful, so personal, so transforming,
and we cannot but join Isaac Watts in singing:
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.”
We just want to love God, give
ourselves to God and in service to others with undivided heart. John Wesley
calls it “Christian perfection.” It doesn’t mean sinless perfection. But it
does mean perfect in love – the heart undivided in its love for God and
others. Let me give you an illustration. Robert Coleman, my seminary professor,
once shared his story. He was working in the garden on a hot summer day, and
sweat was pouring off his body. His little son saw him working hard outside,
and decided to bring him a glass of water. He went down to the kitchen, pulled
up a stool, and managed to reach up to sink. He picked up a dirty glass laying
in the sink, filled with lukewarm water, and brought it out to his dad. Robert
commented, “The glass was dirty, and the water warm, but it was brought to me in
perfect love.”
Our life might be broken and stained with all kinds of sins like dirty glass, and our best efforts like lukewarm water. But when we bring it to the Lord with love, he takes it, and calls it “perfect love.” The difficult times and issues we have to face as a church are ahead of us – different political visions, racial justice, human sexuality, just to name a few. But as Christians, as we choose to be loving and kind and to freely love and serve others, people will see it and ask, “Why are Christians so loving? They are different. I want what they have.” They will be drawn to God, and God will be glorified in our lives. Amen.
[i]
Scott Sauls, Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way
Forward for Those Who Are Tired of Taking Sides (Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc.), Kindle Edition. Location 386 of 3622.
