King David wrote in Psalm 139:8, “I praise you
because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Do you ever take a moment and consider the human body and how it works
and its relationship to the mind and the self and to others? God really has done something wonderful.
Consider what all goes into playing a banjo? One has to understand music. It helps if one can to hear; though it is
amazing that Beethoven composed all of his beautiful music when he was all but
stone deaf. To play the banjo it is
necessary to have hands and fingers and a neural network with the brain to form
chords, finger notes, and pound out rhythm.
If a right-handed banjoist lost her right hand, she could still banjo
but would be limited to strumming like a riverboat banjoist. Yet, if a special
prosthetic were made to hold a pick, she could to pick individual notes and
play Irish fiddle tunes.
On the other hand (pun intended), for a right-handed
banjoist the left hand is probably the weakest, uncoordinated part of the
body. Yet when it comes to playing music,
the skill developed in the left hand could not and cannot be done with any
other part of the body. A banjoist could
loose the thumb and even a finger or two on the left hand and still manage to
play music. But if she lost her left
hand, this otherwise clumsy and awkward and weak part of the body, she could
not play banjo anymore and that would be devastating to who she is as a person
that would in turn have profound effect on her relationships. There would also be those who would miss her
playing.
Paul says here in Corinthians that God has made,
established the human body just as he chose to and he made it so that it
consists of many parts and those parts need each other. A hand cannot be a hand
without a brain and what good is a brain with no hands. If a part of the body is lost no matter how
insignificant it might be, like a toe, the impact on the rest of the body and
the human person and the community of that person is…profound.
Well, so it is with the church. We are the body of Christ and individually we
are members of his body. Paul wants us
to think of church fellowship as a body, like a human body, that God has
fashioned and is fashioning our life as a congregation in such a way that we
each are an indispensable member of the whole body and that even if we were to
loose what would seem to be an insignificant part or person, the effect it has
on the whole body is dramatic, even traumatic.
So, the main point of the day, we are the body of
Christ and each of us are individual members of his body gifted by the
Holy Spirit with abilities for specific functions of Jesus’ own ministry to his
church and to the world and therefore, we are each indispensable in his body
and his ministry. So, here in this passage Paul brings out three threats to
that unity: individualism, isolationism, and elevationism.
Individualism is when we say, “I am a hand, but I am
not so sure about this body.” In real
life that sounds like, “I come to church here because the minister is God’s
gift to preaching (riiiiight), but I really don’t feel like I have much in
common with the people here and those I’ve talked to, I don’t agree with all
that much on stuff. I’m not so much into
the things that the church offers for me to do. I like to do what I like to do. I’m a hand.
I don’t need y’all for my Christian walk. Thank yuh.”
Individualism is sitting in the pew and avoiding fellowship and serving
with others. It’s the risk free way to
go. It keeps you in control all the
while preventing you from the mandate to love and share in ministry together. People don’t get to know you and you don’t
get to know them.
Isolationism is when we look at our brothers and
sisters in Christ and say, “You’re a hand.
We’ve never had hands before and we have functioned quite well without
them at doing the things we do.” Yet,
“the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ And, the head cannot say to the foot, ‘I don’t
need you.’” The Christian faith is about human beings living together NOW in
the way life will be when Jesus returns and God makes all things new; life
governed by the one commandment Jesus gave his disciples – that we love one
another as he has loved us. Love is a
community effort.
If we look at the Book of Acts chapter 4:32-35 we
catch a glimpse of early church life and we find that they were constantly
together. They constantly worshipped together, prayed together, and ate
together. Moreover, they shared all
things in common…they shared all things in common! There was no such thing as pew sitting back
then. They didn’t have pews! Nor, could they exclude someone who was
different. Jesus’ commandment to love as
he loves cut that one off at the pass. Individuals compose the body of Christ
but individualism and isolationism have no place in it.
Lastly, elevationism says, “I am an important and
powerful person outside the church and therefore, I should be important and
powerful inside the church. And, if I’m
going to give the big bucks because I can, I’m going to say how they’re
used.” Others might say, “I’ve done
everything there is to do around here.
I’m here all the time. I am
this congregation. Therefore, it will do
what I want it to do or I will make life miserable for them.” What swill we swaller.
Just as God has fearfully and wonderfully made it so
that the loss of any part of the human body profoundly affects not only the
person losing it but also those close to them, so God has made the church so
that the weaker members are elevated and all are equal in care for one another. The church is the only human community where
rich and poor, powerful and powerless, successful and failing, black and white,
red and yellow and brown, rural and city, Brit and Scot, Yank and Arab…whatever
the boundary line of status we draw…are a family…the family of God. As a family we all gather around the same
table, drink the same Holy Spirit, eat the same body of Christ, and share in
the same ministry of Jesus Christ. In
the church, those who seem of little importance or status out there in the
world become elevated and honoured just the same as the worldly honourable. It’s because we share the Holy Spirit and the
same ministry of Jesus. We love because
he loves us and so we build one another up in love.
Friends, we are the body of Christ…THE BODY OF CHRIST. Each one of us individually are members of
his LIVING BODY…eyes, ears, hands, feet, heart, mind, follicle, finger…and this
is by God’s doing and design and not our own.
We are in effect a New Humanity – human beings indwelt by that Holy
Spirit of God so that in our life together in the love we share we look and
function like Jesus Christ who gave himself up for us to free us and heal us of
the spiritual disease of sin. Jesus has
gifted us each to be a particular and vital part of the Body of Christ as it
exists in this backwater community of Southern Ontario. Through all the churches of this community
the kingdom of God is breaking into this fallen world and WE are an integral part
of what God is doing here.
We, the congregation, are fearfully and wonderfully
made by God to be a New Humanity, the Body of Christ filled with the Holy
Spirit reflecting the glory and love of God.
So, praise be to God, let us love and serve one another in all humility
in this world that is dead in individualism, isolationism, and elevationism. Amen.
