2020.02.16 | Grow Up
The term “exegesis” is a fancy word that preachers use for the explanation or interpretation of scripture texts. Great tomes have been written about the Judeo Christian scriptures. Step into any of the pastors’ offices on our campus or step into the church library, and you will find numerous examples--some including several volumes the size of encyclopedias. So trust me when I say, exegeting biblical texts can be quite an involved process, especially if one is dealing with a complicated text, and has a fancy education and an appetite for detail.
Despite having the opportunity to offer an elaborate exegesis of today’s text, I have discerned that I can sum up this passage with two words. Simply put, Paul’s says, “Grow up!”
The Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthian church while he was on a mission in Ephesus between 53-57 AD. In his letter, Paul likened the behavior of the Corinthians to infants who had not yet been weaned, and he implored them to grow up and behave like mature Christians. Specifically, Paul said, challenged the Corinthians get over your jealousies and jockeying for position, and get on with the mission of the Church in their city.
Corinth had a lot of qualities similar to those associated with any major city in the western world today. It had a very stratified society, and people were very status conscious and often jealous of others property, positions, and power.
In reading today’s text, we learn that some Church members thought that they were better than others, because they helped Paul found the congregation in their community. Meanwhile, others thought that they were special because they had joined the community when Apollos, Paul’s successor, was leading the Church. Rather than rallying the troops to affirm his superiority over Apollos or defer to his successor, Paul encourages the Corinthians to give their primary allegiance to God.
In addition to leadership disputes, there were conflicts over whose spiritual gifts were superior, and therefore more important. Some argued that they were superior because they could speak in tongues, but Paul taught that the greatest gifts--and the members who should be most revered--were the gifts that and members who contributed to the unity of the Church.
A further challenge that Paul encountered in Corinth was that some members misunderstood his teachings on grace. Some members thought that by receiving God’s grace they were no longer accountable for their behavior. But Paul vehemently disagreed. Rather than promoting a theology of “cheap grace,” Paul argued that mature Christians should behave in ways that bring others to Christ, that emulate his example, and that strengthened the Church. (1 Cor. 6:12 and 10:23)
II
I agree with Paul’s assertions in general, and I have also found the work of contemporary theologian, Dr. Frank A. Thomas, helpful in relating Paul’s teachings to 21st Century communities.
Dr. Thomas is now Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary (a seminary related to the Disciples of Christ) located in Indianapolis, and a long-time pastor in the greater Chicago area, where he served two large congregations for many years.
I was fortunate to take a class with Dr. Thomas in Chicago back in the early 1990s when I was working on my Doctor of Ministry degree in homiletics. He has since gone on to be a full-time professor and consultant and published a couple of books.
In his most recent book, Spiritual Maturity: Preserving Congregational Health and Balance, Dr. Thomas offers coaching for congregants. He asserts that spiritually mature Christians take responsibility for their relationship with God, and their lives, decisions, choices and actions that flow from that relationship. [1]
He goes on to explain that spiritually mature Christians don’t play the victim by blaming others for their feelings [2], and they don’t play the savior by doing for others what they can and should be doing for themselves [3].
To avoid the victim role, Thomas says, Christians must claim our own power in the face of a challenge, handle our pain in constructive ways, and take responsibility for our own healing.” [4]
Helping professionals know, for example, that the patients who recover quickest from injuries and illness are those who identify as “survivors” rather than “victims,” and who follow doctor’s guidance, participate in recommended therapies, and go in for their follow-up appointments.
Thomas goes on to say that the key to avoiding the savior role is allowing others to notice their own pain and work through it. Sometimes their pain is due to unjust circumstances and sometimes it’s due to a person’s inertia or their poor choices. Unless friends and family avoid playing the savior role, their loved one never discovers their own agency. They never develop their own ability to cope with challenges. And, they never heal from any of their hardships. [5]
Dr. Thomas offers the example of bicycle riding for those who are vulnerable to playing savior roles. Every person who has taught a child to ride a bicycle knows that the training wheels have to come off, the grownups have to let go of the bicycle, and the child has to pedal and figure out--by trial and error--how to balance their weight or they will never learn to ride a two-wheeled bike on their own. Learning to ride a bicycle typically involves a few scrapes and bruises along the way, but there is no other way to learn than through trial and error.
Although we may recognize the roles of victim and savior, and we may hope to avoid them, Dr. Thomas observes that many Christians have difficulty doing so, because these roles are so familiar and because we can achieve some relief from our own pain by playing these roles.
Think about Thomas’ argument for a moment. If we’re really honest with ourselves, we likely agree that it’s easier to blame our problems on someone else, rather than to take responsibility for our own mistakes, and we may find it easier to focus on someone else’s pain than to deal with our own. Nevertheless, playing the victim or playing the savior in order to ignore our own pain won’t ever resolve the root causes of our suffering or that of others. [6]
“Pain,” says Thomas, “is what God uses to move us from victims or saviors to human beings who accept the finite limits of our time, knowledge and power.” [7]
When we dare to look deeply into our psychic pain, we find that it is based on our lack of acceptance of our limits, including time, knowledge, and power limits. It is human to be frustrated with our limits, but unrealistic to deny them or to think that we should be able to fix things or do things that are beyond our power, or that are rightly someone else's responsibility. [8]
Being a grown up Christian involves accepting that others have to do their own work. We can’t do it for them. And, it means that we accept and face our own pain, and learn from it. When we accept and act on these principles, Dr. Thomas concludes, it becomes possible for us and others to heal and mature. [9]
III
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that spiritual growth often flows from experiences of pain, given that intellectual and physical growth often involve pain. I still remember being handed a journal article on the first day of my college orientation. The paper was titled: “Introduction to the Pain of Learning.” I don’t remember anything that the author wrote other than the title. But I do know that I got my college diploma because I went to class, did the homework, and prepared for and passed the exams--not because I daydreamed in the library or partied all the time.
Similarly, we know that one does not become physically fit by being a “couch potato.” We get in shape by exercising, maintaining a healthy diet, and getting a decent amount of sleep. As one of my high school coaches was fond of saying, “No pain, no gain.”
So why would spiritual growth be any different? True spiritual growth is often a result of experiencing pain. Another theologian and preacher whom I have studied with, Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor shared the following thoughts about the role of pain in spiritual growth in her book titled An Altar in the World. BBT writes:
Pain pushes people to the edge, causing them to ask fundamental questions such as “Why is this happening?” and “How can this be fixed?” Pain brings out the best in people along with the worst. Pain strips away all the illusions required to maintain the status quo. Pain begs for change, and when those in its grip find no release on earth, plenty of them look to heaven--including some whose formal belief systems preclude such wishful thinking. Pain makes theologians of us all. If you have spent even one night in real physical pain, then you know what that can do to your faith in God, not to mention your faith in your own ability to manage your life. [10]
IV
I doubt that BBT’s observation surprises you. Think about your own life for a moment. Imagine having a large blank piece of paper in front of you and being asked to diagram the highs and the lows. Consider what spiritual growth you may have achieved over the years. I suspect that the occasions that prompted your growth were—more often than not—the result of pain.
Perhaps you have been taken to task by a personal crisis—like a debilitating injury, a life-threatening diagnosis, the demise of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one. Or perhaps you found yourself mired in a web of social and economic hardships that you did not create and that you cannot fix by yourself.
Perhaps such occasions have required that you did more than backup 10 yards and punt. Perhaps you had to deconstruct and reconstruct your entire game plan and create a new playbook for your game of life.
The list of painful circumstances that may have tested our faith is likely long and varied, and the temptation may be great to blame others or try to ignore our pain by focusing on others, but we have a third option. This option has to do with noticing our pain, naming it, and working through it. This option also involves accompanying others who are in pain, rather than trying to “save” them from the spiritual work that only they can do for themselves.
My hope for all of us is that we may embrace this third option by claiming our agency and doing our own work, and by affirming the agency of others and accompanying them while they do the work that only they can do. Amen.
Footnotes:
Thomas, Loc 223.
Thomas, Loc 290.
Thomas, Loc 321.
Thomas, Loc 320.
Thomas, Loc 330.
Thomas, Loc 330.
Thomas, Loc 341.
Thomas, Loc 353.
Ibid.