Of the readings in the
Revised Common Lectionary for 26 January 2014 (Third Sunday after Epiphany), I chose to reflect on 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.
There are quarrels among you 1 Corinthians 1:11b
This passage is Paul's appeal to ecumenicalism. He writes to a church at Corinth that is badly divided. Some people are finding or inventing contradictions between what some of the evangelists of Christ have said, with some choosing to follow Paul, some Kephas (Peter), and some Apollos (I expect to say more about him on the 8th of August.). Others have chose to reject them all and interpret Christ on their own.
Paul is distressed by this and reminds the Corinthians (or at least those who look to him) that he isn't the one they worship and that he should not be the one who they venerate. I both agree and disagree with his sentiments. The Protestant in me agrees in that church leadership should not be centered around cults of personality. What matters is the message and not the messenger. Yet the Protestant in me disagrees for if I disagree over the message, then that disagreement cannot be papered over with a simple appeal to ecumenicalism. At most. if the two interpretations of the message are complementary then an agreement to disagree may be possible.
Of course, first one needs to reach agreement that they are complementary, and that has at times proven elusive. That is to be expected. We are human and lack the omniscience that would allow us to reach universal agreement on the basis of argument.
For instance, in my own faith I place no importance upon the divide between Unitarianism and Trinitarianism. I fail to see how it makes any impact upon the significance or message of the ministry of Jesus. Yet clearly there are those for whom this distinction is important. Indeed, even nuances within them such as the Filioque Clause have been a source of division.
