Heavenly Father, let us drink of the one Spirit. As we receive your Spirit, open our ears to hear your preached Word. Comfort us by your Word, and bring us to eternal life; through Jesus, the head of the church. Amen.
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a congregation in Sometown. It wasn’t too large, but it wasn’t small either. This congregation was comprised of a whole bunch of different people: there were children and adults; some were rich, others not so rich; there were people involved in nearly everything, and others who just seemed to show up when free food was involved; there were doers and thinkers; some were very new to the faith, some were more mature; some were easy to get along with, others were (let’s say) “difficult.” There was a small group of dedicated members who arrived earlier to worship each week. They were always on time, never late. Often they would help setup for the service. The members of this group prayed regularly. They felt close to God. They were well respected in the community. But there were some other members of the church who were always late. They always had some kind of excuse. They were never there early enough to help with any of the jobs. The first group grumbled. “Why are you always late? We get here on time, why can’t you?” This first group thought they were more important. Whenever someone made a mistake, they would mutter to themselves. The others, well, they just wanted to belong, but at times they didn’t feel welcome or good enough.
I wonder if you’ve worked out which congregation this story is about? Well, that’s a bit of a trick question, because this story isn’t about any one particular congregation. This is a story about all congregations!
St Paul planted and pastored a whole bunch of congregations soon after Jesus’ resurrection in the mid-first century. One of them was the church in the Roman city of Corinth. The story I told could well have been about them. Their church services would start with a meal and wine (not a bad way to start church, hey!?). One group — mainly comprising the wealthier, social elite — would arrive in the early afternoon and start eating and drinking before the others were even finished work — they’d actually be tipsy before the service started proper! Some of them spoke in tongues (a spiritual language praising God). This group thought they were better, superior, and more important than those who didn’t have this gift. The church was diverse and divided. So Paul wrote them a stern letter to remind them that the church is a body (he actually wrote them at least three letters, but we only have two of them in the New Testament). Let’s just unpack three aspects of this body picture.
(1) A body is diverse, yet each part has a purpose. A body has many different parts and limbs. As part of my university studies before becoming a pastor, I audited a human anatomy subject. Anatomy is the study of body parts. Basically this subject was an exercise in memorization. The body can be organized into systems: skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, etc. Each system then has different sub-systems and parts. For example, there are more than 200 bones, each with their own name and particular purpose or use! Anatomy is just memorizing all these names and purposes. The body is an amazing creation, but it is very diverse, with many, many different parts. St Paul writes: ‘The body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.’ (1 Corinthians 12:14). There are feet and hands, ears and eyes, nose and head. We see and experience this diversity in the church. There are some people who look and act different than us. So we can expect the church to be a diverse mess, full of full of very different people. (Remember the wedding feast from last week? Everyone and anyone from the highways, byways, and street corners was invited to the feast!).
But each body part or limb has a purpose. The skeleton acts as support, muscles move, nerves help us to feel. Feet walk, hands grip, ears hear. Likewise, each person in the body of Christ has a purpose. You have a role and purpose. But your role and purpose is different than someone else’s. St Paul makes the point: ‘If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell?’ (1 Corinthians 12:17). Imagine a body comprised of all ears, or arms. How would we eat or walk? Imagine if all of us were apostles (i.e. the pastor), and the whole congregation started preaching at the same time?! Or if we all had the gift of hospitality and we each catered for ten people?!
So Paul says, ‘God has joined together all the parts of the body.’ (1 Corinthians 12:24). God has created the body in a particular way for his purpose. There’s an old joke: God the Creator isn’t a civil engineer; if he were, he would never have put the waste disposal unit next to the pleasure unit! The church may look diverse and messy to us, poorly designed and confusing, but the church is God’s creation, brought into being to accomplish his purpose — to tell the world what He has freely done for us through Jesus Christ.
I wonder what your gifts are? How do you, or will you, serve the body of Christ? Are you a good administrator, and can help organize the mess? Has God given you the gift of music for you to lead the body in worship? Are you hospitable and make others feel welcome? Are you a prayer, interceding for us and our community? If you’re not serving here at Walla Parish and would like to, please talk to myself or one of our leaders.
(2) Each body part is important. It’s common for parts of the body to be labelled as “important” or “not important.” This leads to a few issues. Firstly, pride. The people who think they are more important, look down on others. They scoff, abuse, belittle. Pride means to elevate yourself above another, and put another under you. Secondly, for the others, it leads to lack of belonging. The ones who are made low feel little and that they don’t belong. They are denied their purpose. They say: “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” (1 Corinthians 12:15,16).
But St Paul makes clean that each body part is important. ‘The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honor.’ (1 Corinthians 12:22–23). He gives the (awkward) example of our private parts. Our private parts aren’t typically something that we honour or parade about. Rather, these seemingly “weaker” or “less important” parts are treated with special care e.g. we wear underwear and clothes. Paul’s point is double edged, as if he’s saying, firstly, “You may have special gifts, but don’t think you are the be-all and end-all of what the body needs!” Then secondly, “You may not have spectacular gifts, but you are still part of the body and you are very much needed.”
Let’s look at one simple example: children. Having children in church at times can be difficult. They might be loud and fidgety. They have a smaller vocabulary and don’t know as much. They ask difficult questions. But having children in the body of Christ invites us to explain the good news in simple terms, which benefits everyone. As children discover the story of Jesus, they often draw us into their wonder and excitement. The same is true of new Christians or enquirers: having enquirers in our midst encourages us to explain what we’re doing and why. We can’t speak in Christianese, but need to translate into plain English. Without this youngness and newness, the body would grow old and die. So each part, even and especially the so-called “weaker” parts, are important and have a purpose.
(3) Christ is the head. In numerous other letters to first-century congregations, St Paul writes that Christ is the head of the body, the church (e.g. Colossians 1:18). But as the head, Christ doesn’t think of himself as more important. See the typical Roman understanding was that the social elite should be served by the lowly workers, just as the belly is served by the hands and mouth. But actually, Christ turns this idea, well, on its head. Christ shows us what it means to love the body: he made himself nothing, taking on the nature of a servant; he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. The head gave up everything to serve the church — Jesus gave up his very body and poured out his blood for you. But Jesus was raised to life from the tomb. And God the Father has elevated him above all things, making him the head of the church.
You have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through this baptism you are united as one body. All the diversity of the parts come together to serve the whole body — you serve the body of Christ. Each one serves with the gifts God has appointed — you are gifted. And each part is important and needed — you are important and needed.
One of the positives for the Walla Parish from this whole COVID-19 situation is that, during this time, a wide variety of parts have been involved serving the body of Christ; a wide range of people have served the church in new and exciting ways. My prayer is for this to continue. So let’s have the mindset of Christ: let us not think that we are special and the be-all and end-all, and let us not think that we are not important and do not belong. We are church: we are diverse, yet each one has a purpose. We are church: we are one, and each part is important. We are church and Christ is our head. Let us love and serve selflessly, as he loves and serves us selflessly. Amen.
