January 24, 2010
 
Scripture:         1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
 
Sermon:           “Body Parts”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, where we will read together verse 12 through the first part of verse 31.  You can find that easily on page 232 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.
            This is one of the longer stretches of scripture that we will read together.  And it is a piece of scripture that is familiar to a lot of folks.  I don’t want to lose you along the way.  So, I’m going to have you do a couple of things with me as we read it.
            The first has to do with keeping in mind the situation that these words were first written to address.  The church in Corinth was a troubled place.  Folks seemed to be fighting over just about everything.  But, the hardest thing for the people in this church to do seemed to be learning to live in a different way as a congregation than they were used to living elsewhere.  What I mean by that is that there were wealthy folks in that church.  And there were folks in that church that were not wealthy at all.  It was a congregation made up of rich and poor together.  And that’s something that the gospel of Jesus Christ will do, you know.  It will draw in all kinds of people.  But, there in that town rich folks treated poor folks either with contempt or they just ignored them altogether.  So, these things from their lives outside the church continued without so much as an interruption once they were all members of the church together.
            So, remember that as we read these words together.  There were a lot of poor folks who were not used to having any sort of respect or authority in life to contribute.  And there were a lot of rich folks who were not used to making room for others who were, shall we say, beneath them.  And Paul is trying here to get them to think of themselves as one living organism.
            Remember that struggle in the background.  But, also, in order to keep our attention in the reading, I want to invite you to point to the body part that is mentioned in the scripture each time a body part is mentioned.  Maybe it will keep us focused.  Paul here talks about body parts in a way that asks us to consider just what we are as individuals in relation to the whole organism to which we belong.  So, we’ll play along with him.  Just point to each one as it is mentioned.
            This is the word of the Lord…
 
            For 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.  For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
            Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.  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?  But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many members, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”  On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this.  But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
            Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.  Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?  Do all work miracles?  Do all possess gifts of healing?  Do all speak in tongues?  Do all interpret?  But strive for the greater gifts.
 
            The Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to this troubled congregation, he liked to use things that folks could see and touch in the world around them in order to make his point.  One of my favorites is this thing he called the “full armor of God”.  You’ve got folks that are pretty familiar with what the armor of a Roman soldier looked like.  A lot of them could tell you all about the shoes and the breastplate and the shield and the helmet and so forth because they’d gotten a good look at it all before.  Roman soldiers enforced the so-called Peace of Rome, the Pax Romana, in all the territories by brute force.  And Christians, you know, weren’t always treated very kindly.
            Paul knew this was a familiar image.  And he used it to describe how faith would protect believers from the evils of the world around them.  Faith was just like that armor, Paul said.
            You know, Paul may have been in a Roman prison when he was writing about the armor of God.  And who would have been standing outside of his prison cell?  Think about that.  He’s in prison and guarded by a soldier wearing armor.  He’s in prison, not for committing a crime against someone, but because the powers that be didn’t care too much for his traveling about starting churches.  And this big fellow wearing armor is standing outside the door.  He takes up his pen and paper and writes a letter to one of his churches and says, “My friends, put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day.”  (Eph. 6:13)
            Prison.
            Speaking of prison, I want to share with y’all an experience that some of us had recently in a prison. We took a group of folks from here at Park the other night to Luther Luckett Correctional Complex over near LaGrange, Kentucky.  It’s a medium security prison for men.  Correctional Complex—it’s a prison.  And in that prison is a church congregation.  Our sister churches in Kentucky have started a new church made up of inmates at the prison, which is a different sort of thing to do.  There are only 14 such congregations in all of the nation.
            But, we went there the other night to worship with them.  They have folks from outside churches come about once a month to do this.  It gives them a sense of fellowship and normalcy for a brief time while they’re incarcerated.
            And don’t get me wrong.  These are inmates.  And they’ve committed crimes—many of them heinous crimes.  It is really something though, to sit with these men and worship God together with them.  It makes the gospel of Jesus Christ strangely more powerful to consider what words like forgiveness and grace really mean.
            One man spoke to me after the worship service on Friday night.  He said, “Brother, it’s an odd thing to consider that this place might actually be saving my life.  I mean prison.  I’ve been on one kind of drug or another since I was nine years old.  And being here just might be the thing that gets me off of that stuff.”
            Now, what kind of place is it that allows a nine year old to take drugs?  Or that gives a nine year old drugs?  Or doesn’t pay attention to a nine year old taking drugs?  That’s a place of devastation and destruction.  But, there in that place this young man has a glimpse of what his own life could be like.  If he could just believe that vision, that vision God has given to him, it could carry him into a future he’s never been allowed to imagine.
            He said, “Somebody told me here in this church that we’ve got: if I can see it, I can be it.”
            I do not know if this man is actually going to make it.  You know a lot of folks don’t.  The pastor of that prison congregation, Dean Bucalos, told us that night that inmates involved in churches like this have a better chance than others.  I can’t say for certain about this one.  But, I do know that something is happening in that place because there is a church inside those walls.  It’s the kind of life-changing, life-saving ministry that the church has always been about.
            The church.  I want to talk a little bit about the church.  We talk a lot as Christians about what the gospel means to us personally.  We talk about our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  We talk about our walk with God.  But, we don’t say enough about what it means to be a part of the church.  We don’t focus enough on being a part of this thing called the body of Christ.
            Without the church, this young man in prison might have no chance at breaking free of all that has shaped his life into what it is.  It takes a community of faith to proclaim the gospel together.
            We get the idea, you know, that this faith is just between ourselves and God.  Some folks say they don’t need the church at all.  I live my life and I treat folks right.  I believe in God.  Pray.  Don’t need the church.
            Jesus didn’t go about contacting folks one at a time, healing them, or forgiving them, and then just moving on.  That’s not the way he did things.  He ministered to them and then extended the invitation to be a part of the new community.  He said, “These folks here are my new family.”
            And those folks that followed Jesus started new communities.  They didn’t just get a person here in right relationship with God.  And then get a person there healed.  And then, well, you know what I’m saying.  The community mattered to Jesus.  The community mattered to his followers.  They became Jesus’ living body on earth after he was physically gone.  And being a part of the church was important in order to do together what no one person could ever do alone.  The community of believers was meant to model what God’s kingdom was all about—a gathering of respect and justice and wholeness.  The church was meant to be a bit of heaven right here on earth.
            So, Paul talked about folks living together as a single living organism, the body of Christ, with each part functioning in its own way in order that the whole thing could do what it was meant to do—proclaim the gospel to a hurt and broken world.
            Now, here in this community, this church, Park, we don’t have the issues that were plaguing Corinth.  It doesn’t matter much to anyone here what kind of balance is in your checking account, you know.  That’s not our trouble.  But, I’d suggest that this scripture has something to say to us anyway.
            Raise your hand if you’ve been a member of Park for less than five years.  And raise your hand if you’ve been a member for a long time, but you’ve just become active again in the last five years.  And if you’ve been visiting for a while but haven’t joined yet, go ahead and raise your hand, too.  Now, look around.
            We’ve recently updated our membership information, which you probably know because Missy Stephans called you.  But, did you realize that over half of our active membership and visitors have been here less than five years?
            And I’d be willing to bet that most of us in that category are very important body parts in that we’ve got all kinds of unique things to offer in order for God to accomplish with this church what God desires.  But, we don’t know, most of us, if we can fit into what is already in place.  We haven’t yet developed the relationships and friendships in the church to believe that we should speak up about something, or volunteer for something, or suggest that the church start doing something new.  Some of us new folks are natural born leaders, but in this community we’re not yet sure if the rest of the folks here will look to us as leaders.
            I used to play soccer for a coach that would refer to our whole team as a living organism.  We were in college, so that was supposed to appeal to our intellect.  “You are one living organism, boys.  Each of you matters.”
            There was one guy on our team, however, that was a wise guy.  He was a goof ball, never taking anything seriously.  He’d say, “What about me, coach?  What part of the living organism am I?”
            Coach would say, “Dennis, I’ve given this a great deal of thought.  And best I can tell is that you are the rear end of this operation.”
            We don’t try to end up there in the church.  That’s not the body part we want to be.  But, when we aren’t able to use our gifts, that’s how we feel.  Useless.  And that’s where the Bible is speaking to us at Park this morning.  It’s saying now is the time to get up and do it.  Build the relationships and friendships with folks in the church so that you can start making a difference.  This good news is too good not to share with our community.  But, we can only do it right as a community.  And you matter to this community.
 
Rev. David James Brown
Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)