God calls us to build up the body of Christ

Sermon preached at St. Mark’s Honey Brook, PA

By The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, November 18^th, 2007

Twenty Fifth Sunday in Pentecost (Year C, Proper 28)

1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (Numbers 11:16-18, 24-30; Matthew 28:16-20)

1 Corinthians 12:12-31 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 in 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. And I will show you a still more excellent way

Occasionally, preachers select special Bible passages on which to preach, instead of the appointed lessons for the day. Today, I selected these readings from Numbers, First Corinthians and Matthew because I’ve noticed and heard of a lot of energy around the themes of our common ministry in the church. Many people are talking about each person’s place in the ministry of St. Mark’s—in the Daughters of the King, the Marksmen men’s group, the Vestry and Sunday Studies. So I thought it would be helpful to offer these readings to you, and my reflections on them.

I want to focus on First Corinthians, but I’ll say a little bit about the other two readings first. Today’s Gospel reading is called the “Great Commission.” This event comes after Jesus’ teaching ministry, after the crucifixion, and after the resurrection. Jesus meets his disciples on a mountain in Galilee, and before he ascends into heaven, he gives them their mission. “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

This is a very famous articulation of the mission of the church. Notice that we are not called to “stay” and “sign-up people for a directory list” if they come to us. We are instead called to “Go” rather than stay, and we are not called to sign up new names, but rather to make disciples, those who follow and obey Jesus. Notice also that this commission is given, not just to the eleven apostles, but to a larger group of disciples. In the Great Commission, Jesus calls us to be disciples, and to go out and make disciples. So what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

The passage from Numbers is an Old Testament vision of the ministry of the church. Moses is overburdened with the leadership of the wandering children of Israel. So God shares the gift of the Spirit with other leaders in the community. And when Eldad and Medad prophecy outside the camp, Moses replies “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” Moses rejoices that more and more in the community are called by God into leadership and sharing the gifts God has given them.

With this call to discipleship and disciple making, and this vision of shared and common ministry, let’s turn to the passage from First Corinthians, chapter twelve. This passage is about God’s call to us in the church, about how God calls us to build up the body of Christ. This passage also tells us something about God—about why living as the body of Christ is fundamental to following Jesus.

How many of you know about Amish Barn raising? When non-Amish people build a barn, they hire a contractor. When the Amish build a barn, however, they gather the whole community together from the youngest to the oldest. Everyone contributes his or her skills. One is a carpenter, another a designer, another skilled at working lumber, another skilled at masonry, another with skills to cook and feed a crowd of hungry farmers. Even the oldest Amish man can sit and sharpen tools. Even the youngest child can tote pails of nails or bring glasses of water. Everyone in the community is essential to building up the barn. In short order, a great new building rises from the ground.

Paul calls us to a similar way of being the church. St. Paul uses the metaphor of building a building to describe the church. Paul tells us that each person in the church is vital to the whole church, and that being in healthy relationship with each other is essential to our identity as disciples. Each of us is important to building up the whole church. In today’s passage from First Corinthians, Paul’s metaphor is the metaphor of the body. “Now you [all] are the body of Christ, and individually [each of you are] members of [the body],” Paul writes. Keep in mind that this metaphor became so strong that we now use the word “member” to mean someone on a roster of names associated with an organization. But the word literally meant “body part.” You hear echoes of this meaning in the word “dismember,” meaning to pull the body parts apart. Paul calls us “body parts” of the body of Christ.

Paul writes this whole letter to a church in Corinth that is in conflict. There are factions, created by competing loyalties (even loyalties to Paul), or competing visions of ministry, and certainly competing claims as to what spiritual gifts are the most important. So Paul spends a lot of time taking down the excuses for these factions. He does so, not by attacking the personalities, but by validating the ministries of everyone. He validates the other leaders that some have seen as alternatives to Paul. He validates all the various spiritual gifts that have become sources of division. But then he calls the Corinthians to use these gifts and roles in the church to build up the whole church—to build up the whole body of Christ.

“If the whole body were and eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?... If all were a single member, where would the body be?” Paul addresses those who would discount others in the church. “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.’” All the members of the body—all the body parts—have to work together for the health of the whole body. “If one member suffers, all suffer with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

Thankfully, St. Mark’s is not beset by deeply entrenched factions, but factions are very common in churches. Indeed, factions are common in businesses and schools and families. Factions are a part of human brokenness, and we see them appear in churches all the time. The Corinthians were not the first church to experience factions and division, and they weren’t the last either. But as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to resist this kind of division, and instead build up the body of Christ.

They say that if there is no conflict at all, there is no pulse—there is no energy or activity going on. We are called to make our conflict healthy—to work together to solve problems and learn from one another and the differing gifts that each of us bring. This is the difference between saying “let’s solve a problem” and “you’ve got a problem” or worse yet “you are the problem.” To be disciples of Jesus, we must never say “you are the problem.”

So how do you respond to others in the midst of disagreement? When you feel hurt feelings, or when someone has not treated you well, how do you respond? In Corinth, they responded by competing with one another, or putting the other person down, or by discounting the other. This is the easy route—instead of talking out our differences, we stew in our anger, and develop bitterness and an adversarial attitude. But God calls us to respond with grace and forbearance, humility and forgiveness. God calls us not to be doormats, but to engage with each other to build up the whole body of Christ.

So if we discount others, we tear down the body, instead of building it up. But Paul also calls us not to discount ourselves. Paul writes “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.” God calls each one of us to embrace how important each of us are to the whole body. You might think that the brain is so very important, and that the small intestine is unimportant, but what happens if the small intestine were to simply say “I’m not all that important, I think I’ll just sleep-in today. The brain can cover for me?” The whole body suffers because even a small part of the body decides not to participate. So it is in the church—when parts of the body of Christ do not participate fully, then the whole body suffers. But when each part contributes, even in small ways, then the whole body is built up.

God calls us to build up the body of Christ—to value each person and to pursue healthy relationships with each person in the church so that all are built up together. God calls us not only to value others in the church, but to embrace our responsibilities as parts of the body. Each one of you in these pews is essential to the ministry of this whole church. We cannot live into the vision that God has for us as a church that makes disciples and develops our own discipleship without the participation of each of you.

Each one of you is essential to the mission of this parish. When each of you gather for worship each week, and gather for Christian Formation each week, you become disciples of Jesus, and deepen the discipleship of the whole church. When each of you do ministry each week, you go into the world to make disciples and build up the church. When even one of you stays away, or stays uninvolved, or leaves the task to another, our whole parish diminishes. Each of you, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, is called by God to build up the body of Christ.

Now this may be wise organizational structure, and these may be great ideas about teamwork. But this response is also fundamental to what it means to be a Christian. We value others, even when others don’t treat us well, because God values us, even when we don’t treat God well. We show grace and forbearance to others because God gives us his undeserved love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We sacrifice our time and self-interest for others because Jesus gave his life for us. We live in the hope of renewal in this parish because Jesus rose again to new life, and gave us the hope of the resurrection.

God calls us to build up the body of Christ because living this way emulates the grace and mercy and love that God has given to us. To be disciples and to make disciples of Jesus is to love others as God loves us. And Jesus will be with us always, even to the end of the age. With these gifts, we rejoice in building up the whole body of Christ.