The Divider

“The Divider.”

By Benton Stull

A Protestant theologian, a Catholic theologian, and an Orthodox theologian all lived near each other in the same town.  They liked to get together and have discussions and study, as an Ecumenical practice, that is, a practice of unity between their different church traditions.  One day these three theologians heard about an Ecumenical conference happening in a nearby city, and they decided they would all go there together for the day.  So they drove there in one of their cars; the trip was about 3 hours, and when they arrived, they had a great day enjoying the unity of the church, and doing all kinds of Ecumenical things.  In the evening, as the conference ended, the three walked back out to where they had parked their car, but the first one to get there found his door locked.  As all of the doors were tried and found locked, one of the theologians looked in through the window and saw that the keys were still dangling from the ignition.  The driver, the Protestant theologian, had forgotten to take the keys with him.  The Catholic theologian spoke up first, saying “well, it’s no problem, we’ll just smash the window and when we get home I’ll pay to have it repaired.”  The Orthodox theologian thought that was unnecessary and instead suggested that they call a locksmith to come and open the door.  The Protestant theologian didn’t want the window to be broken, and he was certain that there would be no locksmiths willing to come out at this time of night.  The Protestant theologian suggested that he call his wife, and she could drive the spare key to the city so that they could unlock the door.  The Catholic theologian said that that would take too long, and if they just smashed a window, they could be on their way and be home in the same amount of time it would take for someone to meet them with a spare key.  Well, the argument continued, with each theologian believing he had the correct answer to their shared situation.  Eventually, as happens, each theologian gradually moved from defending his idea, to defending himself.  Passersby actually started gathering around and watching these theologians who had been yelling at each other around a parked car for 30 minutes or so.  Eventually, the Protestant theologian reached his breaking point, and said “Enough!  Now I don’t know how we’re going to solve this problem, but I know we have to solve this problem, and I know we have to solve it quickly.”  He pointed up at the sky, and there were huuuuge storm clouds rolling in.  The Protestant theologian continued, “In five minutes it is going to be pouring rain right here, and the roof of the car is down!”

I’ve been watching a bunch of lectures by a Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy lately, and he told that joke at the beginning of one of them.  He was using this joke as an illustration of how the people of different churches often miss the obvious teachings of Jesus, and instead focus on the differences in our own ideas.  I think this joke illustrates equally well the ways we members of the Church are willing to divide ourselves from each other, over trivial matters.

 

My favorite theologian was actually not a theologian.  Jacques Ellul was a lay-theologian; he was not formally trained in theology.  For the most part, he was a sociologist and a law professor at the University of Bordeaux, in France.  And he was a Christian, so many of his works cross back and forth between theology and sociology very easily.  For example, he wrote a book called “The Meaning of the City” in which he talks about cities in the Old Testament, and discusses what it means that Cain is the first person in the Bible to build a City.  In one of his other books, Jacques Ellul lists six evil powers that are mentioned in the Bible.  He lists them as follows: Mammon, the prince of this world, the prince of lies, Satan, the devil, and death.  

To us, all of these powers are very similar, and they frequently all get rolled up into one red cartoon-like character.  The way Ellul tells it, each of these is a special name for a particular function of evil power.   The function of Mammon is greed, the function of the prince of this world is power, the function of the prince of lies is deception, the function of death is destruction.  We can easily see how each of these powers is very closely related to the others, but they all each have their own character also.  

As weird as it is for me to have chosen this subject, the ones I want to talk about today are Satan and the devil.  These two seem to be the most similar to each other.  In fact, these two names are pretty much interchangeable, but there are a couple of different meanings that can apply to either of them.  Satan means “the adversary,” and Satan and the devil can mean “the accuser” or “the slanderer.”  

In the Bible, “Satan” is usually used as “the Satan,” that is, it is a title bestowed upon a person who is an adversary or is making an accusation.  Ellul says: “… wherever in any form or for any motive an accusation is made… there is Satan.  Satan is then at work, is present, and becomes a person.”  So in this view, when we do the work of accusation on earth, we give a body to accusation.  Just as when we do the work of Jesus, we give a body to Jesus.  There’s a poem called “Christ Has No Body Now But Yours.”  No one knows for sure who really wrote it, but it’s a valuable idea, I think.  We can also apply it to these evil powers.  Satan cannot have a body unless we offer our bodies to Satan.  The work Jesus calls us to do on earth cannot be done without a physical body.  And Jesus does not have a body unless we offer our bodies to Jesus.

But even though Satan and the devil are used the same way, the word “devil” comes from the Greek word diabolos.  The divider.

Of this, Jacques Ellul says:

“The devil is not a person or individual but the reality of a fact, namely, division…  The devil is present wherever there is division, conflict, disruption, competition, combat, discord, disharmony, divorce, exclusion, maladjustment.  As in the case of Satan, the church is the favorite prey of the devil…”

When a scripture author speaks of the devil, the author is speaking of a power that divides.  Perhaps the author is even speaking of the devil as the division itself.  In Matthew 10, Jesus says “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  Jesus then says that his message may break up families between those who want to follow him, and those who don’t.  Doesn’t that seem divisive?  

Looking at the names of all of these evil powers, we can see that some characteristic of Jesus is the exact opposite of the evil power.  Mammon is greed and wealth, Jesus preaches freedom from greed.  The prince of this world is earthly power, and Jesus rejects all forms of earthly power, especially violence.  The prince of lies is deception, and Jesus is the Truth.  Satan is the accuser, and Jesus is the forgiver.  Death is the destroyer, and Jesus is Life and Resurrection.  Just the same, the devil is the divider, and Jesus is the reconciler.  Jesus’ path is one of reconciliation between all people.  But to set off on that path may require us to leave some things behind.  Or, following Jesus may take us down paths that our loved ones cannot follow.  That’s what I think Jesus was referring to.  Not saying that he had come to purposely sow division between people.  Right after this, Jesus says “those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  

If we were there to follow Jesus, we would have seen that Jesus’ work in his life was to break down barriers that divided groups of people.  One reason Jesus didn’t get along with the Pharisees was that they were constantly dividing people into clean and unclean, and lawful and unlawful, and treating people badly as a result.  Jesus’ message is never one that allows us to treat other people badly.  And Jesus constantly went to those who had been divided from the better parts of society, and he embraced them and healed them.  One article I read on this subject reminded the reader that Jesus is not the devil.  That is, Jesus does not act in such a way as to be a minister of division.

In the scripture that we just heard from 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is encouraging a church to avoid dividing itself by loyalty to different leaders.  It was really easy to pick a scripture reading for today.  Not because I knew which one to pick, but because there are a lot of passages that talk about us being the body of Christ.  There are many members, each with different gifts and purposes, but all still members of the same body.  Ephesians 2:17-22, is a good one:

“So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you are also built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”

We belong to the body, but we do not own it.  There is room for each of us and all our different weaknesses and abilities and ways of thinking.  I think it is fairly risky for us to cut limbs off of the body of Christ, having decided that they are not wanted or needed.  Think about the amount of time and mental effort that some churches go through trying to decide who is in Jesus’ flock, who is out of Jesus’ flock, and why?  And another headscratcher is “When is the last time you heard of a church splitting up over something that Jesus actually talked about?”  Division in the church is nothing new at all, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be avoided.  The history of the PC(USA) church shows a few times when the church divided itself over something that was the most important thing in the world at the time, only for the pieces of the church to come back together 10 or 15 years later.  The church will never lose its spirit of unity and reconciliation.  The trick is to never allow our fears and insecurities to make us into servants of the diabolos.  Which is more important: being the one who is right, or being one of many who seek the Kingdom of God on Earth?  We cannot do the work of the devil on behalf of God.