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1 Cor 12:12-27 Luke 4:14-21 
Church-It does a body GoodPart 1: Body Parts - None to be Ashamed of[Children’s sermon: Sing “Dem Dry Bones”. Point: we all need to be connected together.] “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” The human body is a marvelous creation. Just start with the surface. We are all covered with this substance we call “skin” that acts as a protector of our internal organs, regulates our temperature, and guards us from disease. The fact that no person has the same finger prints tells us that the skin alone is complex. Internally, our body consists of complex systems of the pulmonary, cardiovascular, the digestive, the glandular and the nervous system. These systems link together the various body parts, which themselves have different functions. In turn, these parts and systems are made up by individual cells, and those cells are differentiated by their function. Of course, no cell would exist without the molecules that make them up, and we could even go further and say no molecules would exist without protons, neutrons and electrons. There are even smaller elements that are part of those. It is easy to see that the body is a complex group of systems that coexist to form what we look at in the mirrors every morning. If one of those systems fails, the body is in trouble. There can be pain, dysfunction, or even death. But when all the parts are working together, the body functions well. Moreover, when well-trained, well-disciplined and well-nourished, the human body can achieve marvelous things. Think about the grace and power of dancers and athletes.
Of course, on one level, thinking about the Church as the Body of Christ can be as simple as the example I gave in the Children’s message a few minutes ago. “The ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone.” We are all connected together in this body. When one part hurts, the rest hurts. All parts are important. We need all the parts doing their own function for the whole body to function properly. You can’t connect the hip bone to the knee bone without the thigh bone! And you certainly can’t run very fast if they are not connected. As true as this is, the functioning of the body of Christ and its many members is more complex than that. It is a spiritual reality that every single baptized person is a member in Christ’s body, both the body of the Church universal, and the body of the local church. It is also true that every single member of Christ’s body, the church, has gifts for ministry and has a role and a function in the body. Just like Paul said, some of the members have functions that may not be as highly visible or honored. We easily identify the work of the eyes and hands, but a body couldn’t function without its pituitary gland and intestinal cilia. In our church, there are teachers and musicians, and people who have a gift for praying for others. There are those who can build and make things we need, and those who can turn a stage into a sanctuary with a few well placed cloths and the care of holy vessels. I admit, sometimes it’s not obvious at first how different members function in the body. Perhaps you’ve seen the t-shirt slogan. “Have you ever considered that your purpose is to serve as a warning to others?” Christians do NOT subscribe to that view! Some members of the body, especially those who are the youngest and the oldest, or the most vulnerable in other ways, may not be doing the visible work that other members do, but they also have an important role, even as receivers of the love, service and gifts of others. In the church, we often have occasions to interact with people we may never otherwise have the opportunity to be with, and these encounters can teach us about the breadth of the kingdom of God. [example of Bishop Jones’ grandmother in the nursing home as mail carrier] Now I don’t know about you, but I have been in a lot of different churches over the course of my life, and I have never been in one where EVERYBODY has lived this truth out. It often seems that some members of the body have to over-function because other members of the body weren’t performing. The sad thing is, of course, that when some are performing other members’ functions, they can’t be performing theirs as well they could or should. The body just doesn’t function very well when some parts are paralyzed or atrophied. The dead skin cells of the church keep it the body from glowing with the power of the Spirit. The excess body fat of the church soaks up resources and slows down the body’s movement. I don’t want this to sound like I’m railing against some perceived “pew potatoes.” To be fair, I think there are many people, in this church, and in other churches, who don’t really feel like they are part of the body. Sure, they’ve been baptized. But do they really belong as part of this part of the body? Maybe that’s your case. Maybe you are coming from another part of the body and you feel like an organ transplant and you wonder whether the operation with “take” or not. Assimilating into the body takes time. That’s natural, and that’s ok. Maybe you’ve never been part of a loving, healthy, church body, and you don’t know how to start connecting, and are maybe even afraid to connect too much. You recognize that if you really give your life to Christ and his body, the church, you become part of an interdependent system…. Maybe you aren’t sure you want to depend on anyone, or have others depend on you. Maybe you are still considering the claims of Christ, and are not yet baptized. Maybe you are wondering what it would be like to be grafted into this body? This might be a time of exploration for you. That’s ok as well. Others of you may have begun to find wonderful relationships and interconnectedness in the body, but you are still unclear how you are related to the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ himself. What makes this body of Christ different than the body of the Rotary Club? What makes the body of Christ present in a small group, different than body of friends present in the neighborhood book club? Until you have experienced the power of the blood of Christ to bring you new life and to cleanse away the impurities that build up in every cell, then it is understandable why you might be content to stay disconnected. The nerves aren’t working right, and there’s a numbness where there should be a scintillating, tingling, alive, abiding connection to God. For you, the body shouldn’t expect you to perform any function. The rest of the body needs to serve you. It can offer good spiritual nutrition, and the warmth of support and fellowship while you discover where there may be blocks preventing you from receiving the life-blood you need. We can help show you how to open communication channels to the head of the body, so that you begin to feel connected and transformed. There are others of you here who know you are part of the body. You know the joy of being connected to the head. You enjoy relationship with other members, but you just don’t know exactly where you fit. You may have been trying to function as a foot, when really, you are an eye or an ear. Maybe you are so aware of the fact that you not a Sunday School teacher, that you have ignored the fact that you’d be an excellent shepherd. You may not make a good small group leader, but your willingness to keep and share the prayer list helps your small group recognize God’s power. It takes time to discern which functions you are best suited to. As a church, one of our purposes is to help each person find a meaningful place in the body of Christ. That is why we offer Spiritual Gift Assessments to help you discover how God wired you. At our vestry retreat this last weekend, we also decided to implement an apprenticeship program for all our ministries, so that people can try something out that they think they might enjoy and have gifts for. If it turns out not to be the right thing, they can, after the apprenticeship period, rejoice that they have discovered, for example, “No, I’m not really cut out to be an usher. I think I’d rather use my hospitality gifts as the host for a small group.” So while we will be building that plane while we fly it, know that you can feel free to try out a ministry without the fear that you’ll disappoint someone if you find that it’s not a good match. I think often what gets in the way of the Body of Christ functioning as the body of Christ is that we are our own worst critics. We look around and we tend to think that others in the body are more important, or better suited for a function that we are. We don’t think we have much to offer. Certainly the body won’t really miss me and my gifts. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we all recognized our role in the body, and felt the connection to the head, we would see our church move ever more gracefully and powerfully. I realize that I may paint an ideal picture of what life is like in the church. All of us one unified body. All using our various gifts together in ministry. All of us as a body living out our mission “Encountering God, Building Relationships, and Making a Difference in the World.” Believe me I do know that sometimes working together as a Body is, well, a lot of work! I once heard the quote: “To dwell above with the saints we love, that will be glory. But to dwell below with the saints we know, well that’s a different story....” We learn that different people in the body of Christ not only have different gifts and different functions, but they do things differently than we would. They have different ideas about what would work in a given situation. John Wimber, the pastor and founder of the Vineyard church, was once approached by a member of his congregation who had met somebody in great need. After the Sunday service this man told John Wimber of his frustration in trying to get help. “This man needed a place to stay, food, and support while he gets on his feet and looks for a job,” he said. “I am really frustrated. I tried telephoning the church office, but no one could see me and they couldn’t help me. I finally ended up having to let him stay with me for the week! Don’t you think the church should take care of people like this?” John Wimber thought for a moment and then said “It looks like the church did.”[1] God uses the gifts and talents we give him to accomplish his purpose in the world. God has a place for each one of us in his body, the church. Amen. [1] Quoted by Nicky Gumbel in Questions of Life, p. 226 |
