Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Bear with Me” 1 Cor. 1:10-18, Eph. 4:1-3
Wherever two or more are gathered, we can trust that there will likely be a quarrel. We may like one another well enough now, but this church has a uniquely fractious history. It dates to our earliest years. In July of 1890, Rev. Richard McCarthy and the seventeen original members, listed on that oak plaque on the back wall of the sanctuary, planted this church as a mission outreach of the Champlain Presbytery. It was a bold statement of unity in a gospel purpose. Yet three years later in a bitterly disputed meeting, the church voted to oust Rev. McCarthy. The meeting wasn’t pretty. One faction called for the pastor’s termination while the other rallied to his defense. One member called for the disallowance of some votes because those members had not attended church enough in the past year. The split was over different visions of mission. McCarthy and his supporters embraced their original purpose of outreach, planting churches from Saranac Lake all the way to Star Lake. But McCarthy’s opponents wanted a minister who spent less time on the road and more time ministering to this congregation.
Twenty-four years later in 1917, we were at it again. This time, we put up our dukes over whether our nation should be embroiled in the Great War in Europe. Our minister at the time was the youthful Rev. Roy Chamberlin. He was a Christian pacifist. When he passionately shared his non-violent views at a village gathering in the Harrietstown Hall, all you-know-what broke loose in the community. Some were ready to tar and feather the minister and ride him out of town on a rail. The church split down the middle on the future of their pastor. His job was preserved only through the advocacy of a few influential members, but that didn’t put out our fire. The crisis resolved the following year when Chamberlin enlisted in the war effort as a chaplain and sailed for Europe, leaving his wife and baby behind in the manse.
Even our peaceful times are often beset by conflict. The late Jan Bristol told me that Rev. Gurley, who served the church for twenty years, dealt with division. In fact, the session was once so angry at him that they changed the church locks and refused to give him a key. Later, Rev. Meacham, who served us during the expansion of our building to include the Great Hall and downstairs classrooms, would become so incensed at session meetings that he would stand up and walk out, leaving the elders to moderate themselves. Not long before I came, the pastorate of Rev. Monts sparked factions and deep divisions that threatened the very future of the church. Jesus promised that where two or more are gathered in his name, he is present. Boy, do we need his help.
We aren’t the only people to be prone to conflict. The Apostle Paul made a hopeful beginning when he planted a church in Corinth. His successor Apollos did his best to water that spiritual garden. Even so, the folks in Corinth couldn’t get along. They quarreled about whether it was better to have been evangelized by Paul or Apollos or Peter. They disputed which spiritual gifts were best. They couldn’t agree if it was appropriate to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols and purchased in pagan meat markets. They argued about whether people should wear head coverings in worship. They brought civil lawsuits against one another. They challenged Paul’s apostolic authority, questioning whether he had the right credentials to lead the church. They even fought about what we might presume would be their rite of greatest unity—the Lord’s Supper. It was so bad that Chloe’s people wrote to Paul, asking him to intercede and resolve their differences.
When Paul wrote his Corinthian friends in response, he reminded them of the unity they were called to in Christ. Afterall, Christ was not divided. Jesus had reached out and ministered to diverse neighbors without prejudice or exclusion. He sat at the dinner tables of pious Pharisees and the scandalous table of tax collector Zacchaeus. He healed the Jewish mother of his friend Peter, the daughter of a Canaanite enemy, the daughter of a synagogue leader, and even the slave of a Roman centurion. He preached amid the most prestigious rabbis of his day on the teaching steps of the Jerusalem Temple, and he preached on a mountainside, surrounded by poor peasants desperately seeking good news. Christ loved and welcomed all.
Paul saw in the cross the means of overcoming our deep divisions. On the cross, a Roman weapon of brutal execution and mass intimidation, God chose to die for us, praying even for those who tortured and murdered him. God took the cross and transformed it from a weapon of hate to a symbol of limitless love and reconciliation. Through Jesus’ choice to suffer and die on the cross, we learn of God’s infinite love for a broken world, a broken world where we would rather put up our dukes than sit down to the table of peace. Paul reminds the church that we are part of the body of Christ, and when we choose to fight and scratch, belittle and hate, ostracize and alienate, we wound the holy unity that Jesus died for.
We live in times that feel uniquely fractious, maybe even a little like the Corinthians squabbling about everything from leadership to the food we eat. This morning, Republican supporters are on the road between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid in tricked out trucks and patriotic cars tooting horns and championing the cause of their favorite candidates. On the seventeenth, folks who disagree with those convictions will rally in Riverside Park, waving signs, wearing inflatable costumes, and calling for a different agenda. We label one another: Libtards and Dumocrats, MAGA maniacs and fascists. We would rather put up our dukes than sit down to the table of peace. Paul speaks to us still. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.”
The healing of divisions in churches or society isn’t easy. In fact, it is the most courageous and dangerous calling of all. Just ask Jesus. The way forward is found not in the forming of factions and the insistence that we are right. The way forward is found in the words that the apostle spoke to the Ephesians, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Healing begins only when we truly accept God’s limitless love for all people. It begins when we follow in Jesus’s way of reaching out across difference to accept others as God-given neighbors. It begins with listening deeply, sharing gently and honestly, seeking the wholeness and healing of a hurting world. We at the Presbyterian Church, who are veterans scarred by the wounds of 136 years of conflicts overcome, have a special calling to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Can we dare to be leaders, not in division but in reconciliation and mutual respect?
If we go on to read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we learn that Paul’s argument about the unity that must be found in Christ and the power of the cross was convincing for the church. The Corinthian saints felt a “godly grief” and repented of their fractious ways. They forgave and consoled one another. They lived with the Spirit of the living God written upon the tablets of their hearts. They made room in those hearts for Paul and one another. They exceled in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in eagerness, and generosity to those in need. They found a renewed zeal for the gospel that made Paul proud. May the same be said of us.
Resources
Brian Peterson. “Commentary on Eph. 4:1-16” in Preaching This Week, August 5, 2018. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-2/commentary-on-ephesians-41-16-4
Sarah Henrich. “Commentary on Eph. 4:1-16” in Preaching This Week, August 2, 2015. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-2/commentary-on-ephesians-41-16-5
Bryan J. Whitfield. “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:10-18” in Preaching This Week, Jan. 25, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-1-corinthians-110-18-7
Jane Lancaster Patterson. “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:10-18” in Preaching This Week, Jan. 26, 2020. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-1-corinthians-110-18-5
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been made clear to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God[a] that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
