Focal Passages: 1
Corinthians 1:10-15, 26-29; 3:1-4
Remember Rodney King?
Whether that name jolts your memory to scenes of lawlessness or police
brutality, and at some point each is appropriate, most any of us over a certain
age do have some memory of King.
We may not remember
specifics on either side; like the fact that he was more than two times the
legal limit for blood alcohol level while driving when he led officers on a
high speed chase. Or like 7 officers dished out more than 56 blows to King,
many of which came after he was handcuffed.
But perhaps what King is
most remembered for is what he said after the whole deal.
“People, I just want to say,
you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?
“Can we stop making it,
making it horrible for the older people and the kids?… It’s just not right.
It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything.
“We’ll, we’ll get our
justice. … Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re
all stuck here for a while.
“Let’s try to work it out.
Let’s try to beat it.
“Let’s try to beat it. Let’s
try to work it out.”
King was speaking in the
face of race riots, street looting, and a nearly martial law state.
And sadly, he could have
been talking about the church.
Maybe we aren’t looting the
church buildings, but many of the issues that are breaking up churches are just
as charged as Los Angeles in the wake of the King mess.
Church people need to learn
to get along.
It made me cringe when I
heard a friend say, “The worst I’ve ever been hurt emotionally was in the
church by church people.”
Paul reminded the Corinthian
church that they should not be divided.
He called for same mind and
same judgment. He called for Christians to “just get along.”
The world is watching. There
is enough turmoil and conflict outside the church that people won’t go if there
is no difference inside.