“Disciples for a New Day” 1 Cor 4: 1-5

Psychologists have found that humans are constantly judging situations and each other. We may place a fancy word on it, such as discriminating, but we are still judging things and people, even unconsciously to see if they are worth our attention. We live in a day and age when we are on sensory overload, so we judge even more frequently. We have become poisoned by the judgment epidemic, to the point where we do not even realize that we are judging anymore. 

And surely there are times when judging is fruitful, preventing us from being caught up in situations we should rather stay away from. But the Apostle Paul reminds us in today’s scripture lesson that we are first and foremost to see ourselves as servant of Christ, not the judge of others, or even the judge of ourselves. 

Why would Paul even take time to talk about judging versus not judging? Isn’t that a no-brainer, God is the judge of all, not us? Perhaps we think this lesson is easily learned, yet even today we struggle with judgmental attitudes inside of the Church. Paul takes time to write to the Church at Corinth about this issue because judging has its roots in an even bigger heart issue, which is largely hidden. Issues such as insecurity with ourselves, bigotry, racism, classism, agism - the list goes on and on. When our hearts become infected with these intolerances, we find ourselves judging a group of people more quickly than we should, or making sweeping generalities based off of what people look like, instead of getting to know who they truly are. Perhaps this is why God alone is judge, because God alone knows what is going on inside of each of us.

The Church at Corinth wasn’t just having a problem with judging those outside of their fellowship, they were judging those on the inside as well. A few chapters later, Paul needs to remind them what communion is truly about, as it has become a time to separate the classes. The wealthy ate first and had their fill, while the poor were left with the scraps, if not disclosed entirely. This was not the vision of community that God had in mind.

Further, the people of Corinth were struggling with their own insecurities over their identity as well. They didn’t know who they were to be. So many different people were placing labels on them, some positive and some negative, that they began to see themselves through the lens of others instead of the eyes of God. They had to come face to face with the competing expectations they were being saddled with, and throw out those which were not of God - a hard task to say the least - that left them feeling vulnerable and questioning who they were. 

Perhaps we can have a bit more sympathy with the church at Corinth when we start to examine our own situations. We live in a world that has much to say about the Church. In fact, in a study conducted by the Barna Group, the chief religious research institution, people under the age of 40 say that above all they see the church as judgmental. Further they think the Church is self-serving and irrelevant. We, like the Corinthians, need to stop and examine just how we got saddled with these labels and if this has become our identity over and above being servants of God. 

Sometimes the labels others place on us are spot on. Other times, they come from mis-perceptions. In a world that is faced with an over-whelming amount of choices, sometimes what Christians choose, under the banner of following Christ, results in them being mis-understood. And sometimes our choices are a result of mis-understanding the command of Christ as the Church and factions result. 

So what exactly is Jesus calling us to do? To make disciples. He is remarkably clear in what we call the great commission in the Gospel of Matthew - go to the very ends of the earth to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, this commission has been carried out in harmful ways over the years - including baptism following the threat of death, fire and brimstone preaching, and even removing children from parents who refuse to raise them as Christians. But we have also made disciples in incredibly beautiful and nurturing ways. The question we need to ask ourselves, is how are we being called to make disciples in a new day?

First off, we need to remember our place. We are called to be servants of Christ, not judges. God has that covered. We are simply to go forth and live out our Christian vocation, not discriminating between who we feel is worthy to hear this message or not. We need not judge people by our standards, but rather are called to look at them with the eyes of God. 

Second, we need to be adaptable. I’ve heard time and time again that we need young people to come into the Church. But we simply think that offering an invitation, or even worse, not offering an invitation at all, will result in young adults flocking to the church in droves. Young people today want to be invested in something that is making a difference in this world that they can see and experience. Do we have places like this in our parish? If not, what do we need to change in order to make this a place that is known for ministries of healing and justice? If we aren’t living into our vocation of a shared life of mission and service, we are missing a valuable opportunity to make disciples in this new day and age, where the focus is transforming the world, not membership. 

Third, we need to live our lives in such a way that people want to know what is different about us. If the best we’ve got going for us Church is that we are judgmental, we have a problem. If that is what we are known for, what do we need to change in order to be experienced as a place where God’s grace is freely given to all and where Spirits are awakened to that grace? Why aren’t people witnessing God’s transforming power through our words and actions? Why aren’t we heard as the place proclaiming love for God and our neighbor?

Lastly, to make disciples for this new day, we need to have a living faith. The type of faith that doesn’t mis-represent itself to make others look bad. The type of faith that is honest and authentic. A faith that is vulnerable when we come before God and one another. A shared faith with our brothers and sisters who hold us accountable for our sin and ignorance, because they know us well. A faith that shares one another’s burdens.

Here’s the thing. People can throw around all sorts of statistics about why the Church is in decline in North America. But those statistics can backfire when they lead us to judge ourselves or others. Instead, what is we turned the conversation around, asking how we will reach out to so many people in our community who are not yet a disciple of Christ? What if we changed the conversation into how we can be an inviting and welcoming Christian community? Or how we will reach out to people in adaptable and relevant ways? What if we take an honest look at ourselves and see if what people are saying about us, the Church, have any roots in the truth and seek to repent so the message of Christ isn’t hindered? What if we reclaim that we are servants of God, not the judge of others?

Robert Evans once said that transformation is the conversion of the entire person and society. As United Methodists we claim that our purpose is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world - the conversion of people and society. How are we going to live into this claim in this day and age? Amen.