I Corinthians 12.12-31

One Body. Many Gifts.

January 21, 2007 Third Sunday After Epiphany

There is a song that goes like this:

I am the Church, you are the Church,

we are the Church together.

All who follow Jesus all around the world,

yes, we’re the Church together!

The Church is not a building, the Church is not a steeple,

the Church is not a resting place,

the Church is the people!

It’s a simple song; children love it, and I do to, especially when you add the hand motions. Better yet, for all its simplicity this song expresses something wonderful about our life together. Saint Paul uses a striking image to say something similar.

“Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ... Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (I Corinthians 12.12 & 27). Paul writes letters with sentences that run on endlessly not because he can’t write well but because he is caught up in his own utter astonishment. Look! Can you see how the human body works together – eyes, ears, tongue, thumb, feet, liver, kidney, heart, nose and more? Isn’t it amazing? He presses the metaphor as far as possible to help us “get it”, namely every person is essential for health of the whole congregation. “The eye can’t say to the ear we have no need of you! If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?”

Try holding the bulletin without the use of your thumb. If you’ve ever suffered a kidney stone, you are quite aware of that organ that usually does it duty without notice. I am rarely aware of my body and all its intricate parts; it’s just a body - until it begins to break down.

Still, all this talk about The Body is fine as long as we are talking about livers or kneecaps, says Barbara Brown Taylor.

“The problem begins when you put me in community with a bunch of other people who look, smell, think, talk, and act differently from me. One is perfectly cheerful but she can talk for thirty minutes straight without stopping to breathe, while another has been so beaten up by life that everything he says comes out a sneer. One speaks so intimately of God that everyone around her feels like a spiritual slouch and another is a complete impostor, who prays big hot air balloons on Sunday mornings and then goes home to knock his family around. ‘Now you are the Body of Christ,” Paul says, “and individually members of it.”

Pressing the image to its limits Paul intends to transform the way we think about our life together and our common purpose in the Spirit.

Every member of the body matters – all do not have the same function – but each member matters. Think about this when you tie your shoes in the morning. I do. Thank you God for my fingers! Think about this when you hear the carolina wren singing? I do. Thank you God for ears to hear bird song! And think about this each time you notice a member of the Church serving in some way - thank you God for making that person your very hand of kindness, mercy and compassion!

So, what does this mean for you and me in this thing called a congregation?

We are healthy when every single member discovers his or her calling to serve. Some persons, of course, are not able to participate physically, because of frailty or illness. Yet, you who may not be able to participate physically, can pray for others and this is not an insignificant thing. In the congregation, as in the human body, all the parts work together. If one of us is not participating in some way in worship, ministry and mission, then the whole congregation suffers, too. Every single person has a ministry in the world - this is what it means to practice the Christian life. It is to find deep satisfaction.

But Taylor reminds us that, “Most of us have a romantic notion of community that gets in our way, because the real purpose of community is not to retreat someplace with other like-minded people, but to give ourselves up the working of the Holy Spirit by learning how to live with people we may not like at all. What finer way to learn about the reconciling power of Christ than to test it in a body of infinite variety?”

Listen, says Saint Paul, whether we like it or not, Christians simply are who we are - One Body - because of what God has done in Christ. You are born with a body. A infant is fully a human being, but she is lives into the fullness of her potential over a lifetime. Her growth can be stopped or impeded, by what she does and by what is done for her. So in the Christian community we are becoming what we already are, and our maturity can be impeded by what we do. This is what our life together in the Church is all about: becoming the visible sign of Christ’s reconciling love in the world here at Saint Mark. This is why we gather in small conversation groups to pray together, think together and discuss God’s direction for our congregation so that we can fulfill our purpose to be community of Christ in our words and in our deeds.

______

Your life and mine is given up to the community so that together each one of us becomes what God has created us to be. To withhold your self from this community is in some way to withhold your self from God; to hang on to the very thing that God has given you to give away. It is like the child who carries the birthday gift to the party and loves it so much that she hides it in a closet and takes it home. That child will never experience the true joy of the party until she is able to give her gift for the enjoyment of the host.

Our common ministry grows from the baptismal blessings of the Spirit and today we ordain elders and deacons to service in the Church. They have brought their gift to the party, some with knocking knees and pounding hearts, unsure of themselves but certain of God’s calling. Together we will hear their vows, affirm each person’s gifts and offer our prayers.

As you pray for them, will you ask yourself this question: Am I willing to discover God’s calling for me? How will I serve in this Body? Albert Schweitzer once said, only those who have sought and found a way to serve are truly happy. This is a community of faith where you can discover a way serve. And when we serve together, Saint Paul says we are the Body of Christ for the world. Now, that is amazing.