What A Rotten Text For Today
Stories
Scenes of Glory
Subplots of God's Long Story
Object:
Emphasis or special occasion: Church Conflict
Chapter 29
What A Rotten Text For Today
1 Corinthians 13
Note for reading aloud: The story is more convincing if two people read. One person reads the narration and the other is a middle-aged woman who reads what is printed in italics.
* * *
Esther Wright stood in front of the congregation with the Bible open before her. Her sweaty hands grasped the side of the lectern. She didn't know how she let things go so far. Usually, if she were angry or upset with anyone, even a church member, she would have settled it by now. But hers had been a full week: preparing flowers for two weddings (planned), and two funerals (unplanned), a friend in a bad car wreck, her son's basketball game out of town, and her first attempt at preparing the taxes for her own flower shop. Besides, she was just plain mad. She told herself a dozen times a day to drop it, but if she did drop it, she bent over, picked it up again, plunked it in her pocket, and by Sunday morning her pocket was beginning to smell pretty bad.
She'd waited too long. Yesterday afternoon at the shop she thought about it. By then the wedding flowers were safely in the brides' hands and the funeral flowers were wilting at the cemetery. She wasn't accomplishing anything more at work. Should have left right then, driven the eight miles to the Packen farm and tried to settle things with Linda -- should have. Buford wouldn't have been a problem. He'd have been pleased for someone to confront his wife about her bullying. But Esther waited too long, and here she stood in front of the congregation on Sunday morning, her stomach complaining with cramps. Stuck in the middle of worship, her breathing was fast and shallow. Linda, Buford, and their kids sat in front of her in their usual pew.
Esther was repulsed with anger again. More than that, she was almost paralyzed. She had endured the first twenty minutes of worship, made some of the announcements, listened to the prayers, sang the hymns, and smiled through Pastor Bud's children's sermon. Now she must read from this large book before Pastor Bud preached. She'd led the congregation's worship often enough that she could read aloud and think at the same time. But she didn't like what she was thinking, nor could she halt her thoughts.
She thought, I wish the pastor had chosen one of the psalms that pray for vindication from our enemies. Or something from Joshua about God's armies wiping out the Canaanites. At least he could have chosen Jesus' telling his opponents they were whitewashed tombs.
She cleared her throat and read aloud Pastor Bud's large sticky note. The reading this morning is from the apostle Paul's correspondence to the church at Corinth, the first extant letter, chapter 13. She hoped this introduction would clear her head, let her distance herself from her emotions, push the problem out of the personal category so that, despite her gnawing feelings, she could pronounce the Bible's words for the congregation's sake.
It didn't work. She encountered the first words and nearly choked. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Her mind raced as she read. If Linda Packen could ever settle for someone else's opinion about how to decorate the church or about appropriate furnishings, this congregation's life would be infinitely easier. If she allowed perfection to be something less than her opinion, we'd get more sleep, take less ulcer medicine, and certainly see more people attend worship.
Esther gulped and pushed the next words through her teeth. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
In a fraction of a second, she reviewed the previous three weeks after the board had agreed with her decoration committee that the church building, inside and out, needed repainting. For all the people who said, "I'd like this color here or that color there," for all those who listened to one another, added suggestions, asked questions, even laughed with one another, not Linda. "The outside of the church needs to be white-white-white," she said. "Same color on the trim. White is the color God made village churches." She offered her declaration like Queen Victoria nodding from the throne.
Esther uttered the words of the next verse with her brain on autopilot. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Did anyone have more gall than Linda P? Esther's life and faith had been riddled with doubts and uncertainties. She faced enough problems from males who didn't want her in their business club, or, when she became a member, who dumped all the work on her. She had bushels of difficulties as Jeremy's single mom. How was it possible for someone like Linda P to enjoy perfect confidence that she was always right?
Esther hovered above the large print lectern Bible, her eyes dutifully making contact with the congregation. She extruded a few more syllables. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
Was there nothing she could do? Esther's week ruined, along with that of many other church members' weeks, by one person who always got her way. Nothing the congregation can do? Can a dab of paint never be dropped on a board or a drip of stain to a chair without passing through the fire of Linda P's non-debatable opinions? She even chose the design for the church letterhead, yet my degree is in graphic design! Has any church ever put up with such an attitude? Has a congregation existed that included such a person without losing half its members?
She heard her staccato words. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. What a rotten text for today. Pastor Bud had picked some obtuse scriptures before, showing a preference for Proverbs, James, and Chronicles, but this one made so many profoundly questionable statements. Esther had heard chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians read at weddings, but she usually was examining and critiquing the flower arrangements instead of listening. Now she thought that, in order to read it at a wedding, people had to be deranged. Their eyes and their thinking must have been glazed over. Has anyone honestly considered how dangerous Paul's advice is, such as, It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Didn't Paul consider the consequences of what he suggests here? It's a license to let the wolves loose in the flock. It's a death sentence to fairness. Can't there be another way? Can't we be Christians and be strong, too? Can't we be Christians and stand for the right? Isn't our task also to point to human sin, describe it, and resist it? Can't we....
Love never ends, she read. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
Esther shifted from one foot to another. If God is sending us into life's meat grinder, do we never defend against aggression, against the super-sized egos, against the hunger for power, not to mention disbelief? Must Christians just smile and take it, no matter what? Does God grant any guarantees that love will accomplish anything in the end? She let her thoughts mingle slightly with her reading, For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
So what is this, God, a test -- having to look at Linda P's cherubic face, Linda P, who seems to have no awareness of how she grates upon everyone's patience, nor concern for those whose opinions she stomps upon? If I must undergo a test, I'd rather a pop-quiz on the tax codes for small businesses or even on color schemes for a convention of professional wrestlers. Or dump me on a deserted island with a Swiss army knife and a roll of duct tape and let me try to survive alone for a couple decades. But to face this woman is almost more than I can bear. I'd like to punch Linda P in the nose.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
Esther's knees were shaking, her throat was dry, and those last words were hard to trip off her tongue. As were Paul's next sentences. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
What are we left with, the hope that something good will issue because we live Christ's way? You're asking a lot, God. Can I expect anyone in this congregation to wait for Linda P to change, although it has never seemed a possibility that Jesus' way of life will soon prove invincible? God, do you offer anything more, any qualifiers, any codas to compose on the end of your church's difficult song of obedience, a codicil to tack onto the advice you certify for your desperate servants? Do you have nothing more to recommend even in a church fight?
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Discussion Questions
1. What immediate responses do you have to the story?
2. Do you identify with a character in the story? If yes, how and why do you identify with the person? If no, why don't you identify with anyone in the story?
3. Would you like to have a conversation with a character in the story? What would you say, ask, or suggest to the person? Why?
4. How does the story bring the biblical text into a clearer focus for you?
5. How would you improve or modify the story? Why?
6. Without mentioning names or being too specific, what kind of conflict have you experienced in churches?
7. Have you been part of or witness to church conflict that was dealt with in a reasonable and Christian manner?
8. What is your style of handling conflict, especially in church? How does your style of handling conflict need to mature?
9. What further depths of meaning, symbols, connections with, or applications of the biblical faith do you find in the story?
10. Since Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is alive among us through his Holy Spirit, what of this story would you like Christ to activate in your life?
Chapter 29
What A Rotten Text For Today
1 Corinthians 13
Note for reading aloud: The story is more convincing if two people read. One person reads the narration and the other is a middle-aged woman who reads what is printed in italics.
* * *
Esther Wright stood in front of the congregation with the Bible open before her. Her sweaty hands grasped the side of the lectern. She didn't know how she let things go so far. Usually, if she were angry or upset with anyone, even a church member, she would have settled it by now. But hers had been a full week: preparing flowers for two weddings (planned), and two funerals (unplanned), a friend in a bad car wreck, her son's basketball game out of town, and her first attempt at preparing the taxes for her own flower shop. Besides, she was just plain mad. She told herself a dozen times a day to drop it, but if she did drop it, she bent over, picked it up again, plunked it in her pocket, and by Sunday morning her pocket was beginning to smell pretty bad.
She'd waited too long. Yesterday afternoon at the shop she thought about it. By then the wedding flowers were safely in the brides' hands and the funeral flowers were wilting at the cemetery. She wasn't accomplishing anything more at work. Should have left right then, driven the eight miles to the Packen farm and tried to settle things with Linda -- should have. Buford wouldn't have been a problem. He'd have been pleased for someone to confront his wife about her bullying. But Esther waited too long, and here she stood in front of the congregation on Sunday morning, her stomach complaining with cramps. Stuck in the middle of worship, her breathing was fast and shallow. Linda, Buford, and their kids sat in front of her in their usual pew.
Esther was repulsed with anger again. More than that, she was almost paralyzed. She had endured the first twenty minutes of worship, made some of the announcements, listened to the prayers, sang the hymns, and smiled through Pastor Bud's children's sermon. Now she must read from this large book before Pastor Bud preached. She'd led the congregation's worship often enough that she could read aloud and think at the same time. But she didn't like what she was thinking, nor could she halt her thoughts.
She thought, I wish the pastor had chosen one of the psalms that pray for vindication from our enemies. Or something from Joshua about God's armies wiping out the Canaanites. At least he could have chosen Jesus' telling his opponents they were whitewashed tombs.
She cleared her throat and read aloud Pastor Bud's large sticky note. The reading this morning is from the apostle Paul's correspondence to the church at Corinth, the first extant letter, chapter 13. She hoped this introduction would clear her head, let her distance herself from her emotions, push the problem out of the personal category so that, despite her gnawing feelings, she could pronounce the Bible's words for the congregation's sake.
It didn't work. She encountered the first words and nearly choked. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Her mind raced as she read. If Linda Packen could ever settle for someone else's opinion about how to decorate the church or about appropriate furnishings, this congregation's life would be infinitely easier. If she allowed perfection to be something less than her opinion, we'd get more sleep, take less ulcer medicine, and certainly see more people attend worship.
Esther gulped and pushed the next words through her teeth. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
In a fraction of a second, she reviewed the previous three weeks after the board had agreed with her decoration committee that the church building, inside and out, needed repainting. For all the people who said, "I'd like this color here or that color there," for all those who listened to one another, added suggestions, asked questions, even laughed with one another, not Linda. "The outside of the church needs to be white-white-white," she said. "Same color on the trim. White is the color God made village churches." She offered her declaration like Queen Victoria nodding from the throne.
Esther uttered the words of the next verse with her brain on autopilot. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Did anyone have more gall than Linda P? Esther's life and faith had been riddled with doubts and uncertainties. She faced enough problems from males who didn't want her in their business club, or, when she became a member, who dumped all the work on her. She had bushels of difficulties as Jeremy's single mom. How was it possible for someone like Linda P to enjoy perfect confidence that she was always right?
Esther hovered above the large print lectern Bible, her eyes dutifully making contact with the congregation. She extruded a few more syllables. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
Was there nothing she could do? Esther's week ruined, along with that of many other church members' weeks, by one person who always got her way. Nothing the congregation can do? Can a dab of paint never be dropped on a board or a drip of stain to a chair without passing through the fire of Linda P's non-debatable opinions? She even chose the design for the church letterhead, yet my degree is in graphic design! Has any church ever put up with such an attitude? Has a congregation existed that included such a person without losing half its members?
She heard her staccato words. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. What a rotten text for today. Pastor Bud had picked some obtuse scriptures before, showing a preference for Proverbs, James, and Chronicles, but this one made so many profoundly questionable statements. Esther had heard chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians read at weddings, but she usually was examining and critiquing the flower arrangements instead of listening. Now she thought that, in order to read it at a wedding, people had to be deranged. Their eyes and their thinking must have been glazed over. Has anyone honestly considered how dangerous Paul's advice is, such as, It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Didn't Paul consider the consequences of what he suggests here? It's a license to let the wolves loose in the flock. It's a death sentence to fairness. Can't there be another way? Can't we be Christians and be strong, too? Can't we be Christians and stand for the right? Isn't our task also to point to human sin, describe it, and resist it? Can't we....
Love never ends, she read. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
Esther shifted from one foot to another. If God is sending us into life's meat grinder, do we never defend against aggression, against the super-sized egos, against the hunger for power, not to mention disbelief? Must Christians just smile and take it, no matter what? Does God grant any guarantees that love will accomplish anything in the end? She let her thoughts mingle slightly with her reading, For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
So what is this, God, a test -- having to look at Linda P's cherubic face, Linda P, who seems to have no awareness of how she grates upon everyone's patience, nor concern for those whose opinions she stomps upon? If I must undergo a test, I'd rather a pop-quiz on the tax codes for small businesses or even on color schemes for a convention of professional wrestlers. Or dump me on a deserted island with a Swiss army knife and a roll of duct tape and let me try to survive alone for a couple decades. But to face this woman is almost more than I can bear. I'd like to punch Linda P in the nose.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
Esther's knees were shaking, her throat was dry, and those last words were hard to trip off her tongue. As were Paul's next sentences. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
What are we left with, the hope that something good will issue because we live Christ's way? You're asking a lot, God. Can I expect anyone in this congregation to wait for Linda P to change, although it has never seemed a possibility that Jesus' way of life will soon prove invincible? God, do you offer anything more, any qualifiers, any codas to compose on the end of your church's difficult song of obedience, a codicil to tack onto the advice you certify for your desperate servants? Do you have nothing more to recommend even in a church fight?
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Discussion Questions
1. What immediate responses do you have to the story?
2. Do you identify with a character in the story? If yes, how and why do you identify with the person? If no, why don't you identify with anyone in the story?
3. Would you like to have a conversation with a character in the story? What would you say, ask, or suggest to the person? Why?
4. How does the story bring the biblical text into a clearer focus for you?
5. How would you improve or modify the story? Why?
6. Without mentioning names or being too specific, what kind of conflict have you experienced in churches?
7. Have you been part of or witness to church conflict that was dealt with in a reasonable and Christian manner?
8. What is your style of handling conflict, especially in church? How does your style of handling conflict need to mature?
9. What further depths of meaning, symbols, connections with, or applications of the biblical faith do you find in the story?
10. Since Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is alive among us through his Holy Spirit, what of this story would you like Christ to activate in your life?
