When I was about twelve or thirteen like many boys I
took an interest in bodybuilding. I’m
not sure exactly why. I think, and don’t
quote me on this, it was because I had this crazy idea that girls liked a guy
with muscles more than a skinny nerd. It
was about this time also that the TV show The
Incredible Hulk was on every Friday.
Lou Ferrigno, a two-time Mr. Universe, played The Hulk. Being a skinny nerd I obviously had nothing better
to do on a Friday night than watch The
Incredible Hulk (and Aqua Man, Wonder
Woman, Treasure Island, Love Boat, and don’t tell anyone but Dallas too – and I don’t remember who shot
JR). Ferrigno got me all inspired to
pump some iron.
My brother had a set of weights that he never used that
I coopted. I bought a couple of books,
some bodybuilding magazines, and even got the Charles Atlas program. There wasn’t going to be anybody kicking sand
in my face at the beach. No way. Uh.
Uh. This chump was going to be a champ.
As you can tell I never got very far with bodybuilding. It takes more than a well-motivated teen-age
boy with dreams pumping away in the basement. There’s more to it and it is
something you really shouldn’t do alone. Bodybuilding isn’t just bulking up your
muscles. It has more to do with
proportion, with muscle development that happens evenly all over the body. There’s nothing more weird looking than
somebody with massive arm and chest muscles but skinny little legs.
To get that properly proportioned body a bodybuilder
needs a coach. A coach has experience,
expertise, and a set of eyes. A coach
knows which exercises work best for bulking and which for fine-tuning. Coaches can tell you which areas of your body
need more work. Coaches give guidance
and encouragement.
It also helps to do your bodybuilding at a weight
room that has the proper equipment and most importantly people who will help
and encourage you. Bodybuilding is a day
after day after day thing that requires a lot of exertion and dedication. You need friends to keep you motivated coming
back.
Well, enough on the sport of bodybuilding. Let me
tell you something about Jesus that I bet you didn’t know. Jesus is into body building. We are his body and he wants every part of
his body built up in perfect proportion to the rest of his body so that the
whole body works together to maintain unity in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who
is at work in us bonding us together in peace with the Super Glue of mutual,
unconditional, sacrificial love. It may
sound a little vain, but Jesus wants a body that matures into looking just like
him. For Jesus to have a body that looks
like him we have to focus on what Paul calls maintaining the unity of the
Spirit who bonds us in peace.
Let me tell you about that word maintain. Maintain is a weak word to use there. The Greek word, tereo, means to keep, to guard, to protect something precious. It’s like being entrusted to rear up the
precious child of another. You have to
keep that child safe and healthy, and teach it the things it needs to
know. It’s not your own child so you
can’t be sloppy about it. You’re
commissioned to deliver on the high expectations of the parents who have a high
social standing to uphold and that child has got to fit the bill. That’s a little bit more than just
maintaining.
Jesus has placed the Holy Spirit in our midst who
glues us together with the love of God forming in us a peace, a unity like no
other among people. This unity is a
precious gift that he has commissioned us to rear up. We must keep it safe and healthy in our midst
and let it grow into maturity heeding the Spirit who teaches us the things we
need to know to become the people of Jesus who look and act like him in this
world.
Paul says this takes humility and gentleness. There can be no arrogance or self-exaltation
in this gym. Only gentle encouragement
and speaking the truth in love while always considering others before
ourselves. It takes patience and by
patience Paul means restraining ourselves from wrath. We all have our ideas about what “other
people deserve”. We don’t act wrathful
to each other, we bear with, endure, longsuffer one another in love encouraging
one another to look to the Spirit’s working in us each. The stiff regimen of learning to follow the
Spirit’s inclining us to humility, gentleness, patience, and longsuffering in
love is the bodybuilding Jesus wants us to do to grow to maturity in him.
To make sure the body grows proportionately Jesus has
also gifted us with leadership, with coaches.
Paul calls them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and
teachers. Apostles are people that God
sends to plant churches and to help existing churches grow. Prophets speak the specific things that God
has to say to us. Evangelists help us to
find ways to announce the Good News of the Lordship of Jesus Christ to the
community around us. Pastors are
shepherds who make sure the flock is safe, watered, and fed. Teachers teach.
Paul tells us that God has given the church leadership
to equip the saints, the people in the pew, for ministry and to build the body
up. It is not the work of apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to do the ministry for the people
in the pew, but rather to equip them.
This is an important point. You
are the body builders. Timothy and I are
the coaches. We are not the
ministers. You are the ministers. We are here to equip you to do the ministry.
Can you imagine a gym full of bodybuilders who never
exercise, but all the while they sit watching the coach exercise for them? The bodybuilders stay wimpy while the coach
dies of exhaustion. Imagine what Jesus’
body would look like if the leaders/coaches of the church do the ministering
for the people. Jesus is the head. The leadership becomes this enormously muscular
neck while the body below is too weak and skinny to get out of the pew. Actually, that’s the way the minister’s salary
package looks in most church budgets.
That should tell us something.
We are the body of Christ. Jesus is our head and he’s into body building. The Holy Spirit is at work in us each and us
together so that we each in our individual ministries and we together in church
ministries grow up and mature into looking like Jesus. We are a new humanity, people indwelt with
the Spirit of God, that actively loves as God loves. We are hulking on Jesus. I am so encouraged that a discipleship group
got off the ground here this week. When
this congregation figuratively looks at itself in the mirror a year from now
due to this discipling you will be a stronger, healthier, better proportioned
body in the image of Christ. Amen.
