Return to Sermons Page | Home Page

"The Body of Christ"

Sermon by Dr. Greg Knox Jones
on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
given January 21, 2007

A colleague (an Episcopal priest, Barbara Taylor) reminds us that on Sunday mornings a great division takes place among the American people.

The division is this: some people come to church, but most do not. And those who don’t come are not simply taking a week off; they’re not coming next week either. They do not come because the church is not a part of their lives. As far as many of them are concerned, houses of worship are little more than quaint edifices, fussed over by wishful thinkers who do not know when to admit they are wrong and go home.

It may be one of the most peculiar things that 21st century human beings do - come together week after week to declare things we cannot prove about a God we cannot see. It may seem difficult to justify in an age that denies anything that cannot be perceived by our senses, but those of us who have made it a part of the rhythm of our lives begin to count on it.

Why do we keep coming back? One reason is because this is how we learn where we fit. This is how we locate ourselves between the past and the future, between our fears and our hopes, between the earth and the stars. This is how we learn who we are and what we are supposed to be doing. We accomplish it by coming together to sing and to pray, to be silent and to listen, by peering into the darkness together and telling each other what we see. We may baffle our unbelieving friends and neighbors, but it cannot be helped. Half the time we baffle ourselves, proclaiming good news when the daily news is so bad, and trusting in the light when the sky is so dark. (1)

Why do we keep coming back? We keep coming back because it’s the best way to make sense out of life. Our existence is either one incredible accident, or we are here for a purpose. That is one of the choices we are forced to make. Either life came about and human beings eventually evolved by accident after accident after accident, or, there is a power in the universe that creates life and calls forth evermore complex forms. We keep coming back to church because we believe that there is a reason for our existence and it matters how we live. We keep coming back because it helps us to figure out what is genuinely important, and what is not. It helps us to unmask those things that vie for our allegiance, but are actually of no consequence in the long run. Many voices within the world tempt us to strive for power, prestige and possessions. The Church says to strive for compassion, justice, beauty and peace.

The Christian Church is not a perfect institution and we would be fooling ourselves if we imagined it had ever been flawless. Yet, for nearly 2,000 years, it has been Christ’s visible presence in the world.

The ministry of Jesus lasted no more than three years and, during that brief time, he taught, healed and showed what leads to rich and joyful lives. Then, in his farewell speech, he said to his small band of followers, words that have echoed down the centuries. He said, “Now, it’s up to you. You are my physical presence in the world.”

A few years after Jesus was gone, the Apostle Paul began to draw Jews and non-Jews together in new communities of faith where people were called to live out the liberating message of Christ. Paul is credited with creating a number of churches and one of them was the congregation located in the city of Corinth. Located about 45 miles west of Athens, ancient Corinth was a bustling, cosmopolitan city. It was an important seaport that attracted traders and sailors from around the Roman empire who brought with them different religions, different philosophies and different values. Corinth gained a reputation as a hotbed of immorality. Its pagan temple, the reputed home to 1,000 prostitutes, no doubt helped Corinth garner its reputation as the “Sin City” of the ancient world. Since it continues to be an active archeological site, I suspect that one day they will unearth an ancient sign that was posted at the edge of the city limits for anyone approaching Corinth to read: “If you lived in Gomorrah, you’d be home now.”

It’s unclear how much pressure the conflicting values of the culture placed on the Corinthian congregation, but significant problems began to surface. Internal bickering gave rise to competing factions that threatened to tear apart the young church. When Paul got wind of their dissension, he fired off a letter chastising them for childish behavior and challenging them to rise above petty differences. In the portion of this letter we are focusing on this morning, Paul urged them to bear in mind that the church must be united as one.

Of course, his counsel was not simply for that first century congregation. It applies to us, as well. His human body metaphor provides a helpful image of the church. In the same way that a human body has arms, legs, eyes and ears, and yet is still one body, the church has many different members, yet it remains one. Paul’s imagery affirms that the church is to be united and our unity is forged through our faithfulness to Christ.

However, Paul does not want us to confuse unity with uniformity, and so he writes, “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?” In the church, we are not expected to have identical thoughts or to perform identical functions. Rather, our unity preserves and honors our diversity. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Paul was stating what the church needs to declare today: God is not reserved only for those who think like us, who look like us and who believe like us. The body has many different parts.

Further, Paul insists that our unity does not exist despite our diversity, but rather is healthier and more vibrant because of our diversity. Like a human body, the church is comprised of many different parts, however their connection to one another forms a more dynamic organism.

Paul’s analogy provides a helpful framework for understanding the church; it is to be united, yet diverse. However, it does not stop there. His description underscores another vital point that was central to the message of Jesus. That is, within this body, everyone counts. That message is counter to what we find in most cultures, but it is basic Christian theology: Everyone counts. 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.”

Imagine what would happen if during the second quarter of this afternoon’s playoff game between the Colts and the Patriots if the offensive line for the Colts says, “Since we never get to touch the football, we’re not important” and walked off the field. Peyton Manning and the other headline players would get mauled. Their skills are useless without their offensive lineman.

If the Philadelphia Orchestra is playing a soaring overture, and in the middle of it, the cellists decide to walk off because they’re not highlighted like the violins, the music would fall flat.

If the cleaning staff at the hospital says, “Because we are not physicians or nurses, we might as well leave,” the care of the patients will grind to a halt very quickly.

Paul’s point is obvious. Everyone counts, and no one in the Body of Christ is to think too lowly of himself/herself. Everyone can make a contribution to building up the whole. Paul also says that no one is to think that he/she is superior to others. He writes, “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’.” It is critical for us to acknowledge that everyone is a child of God and no one who is doing the best that he/she can in building up the church is inferior to those who can do more.

Finally, Paul says that in the church we are to care for each other and to depend on each other. He writes, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

Congressman John Lewis wrote an autobiography about his rise from life as a black sharecropper’s son in the South to his election to the United States Congress. In his book, Lewis recalls a memory from his childhood. It happened on a hot, humid Saturday afternoon when he was playing with about fifteen of his cousins in his Aunt Seneva’s yard. Lewis says the sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed in the distance, and suddenly he was not thinking about playing anymore.

He was frightened because he had already seen what lightning could do. He had seen fields catch on fire after a strike to a haystack. He had seen a tree explode when a bolt of lightning struck it. Aunt Seneva was the only adult around that day, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded all of the children inside. Her house was not the largest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed in to it.

All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on moments earlier ceased. Now the children were holding their breath. The storm grew in intensity and the mighty winds made the little house shake. The children were terrified. Even Aunt Seneva was scared. And then it grew worse. The wood plank flooring beneath them began to bend and one corner of the room started to lift off the ground. The storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky with all of them inside it.

That was when Aunt Seneva shouted, “Line up and hold hands!” And the children did as they were told. Then she had them all march together as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising off the ground. From the kitchen to the front of the house they marched, the wind screaming outside. Then another corner of the room started lifting and they marched to that corner. And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children going from corner to corner, holding that trembling house down with the weight of their small bodies.” (2)

That’s quite an image. This group of small children joined together, doing what they could to keep the house from flying apart. And it fits with Paul’s description of the Body of Christ, when he writes, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” In the Body of Christ, we are to care for one another and to depend on one another. We are to join hands and unite as one, so that we can face the both the trials and the celebrations together.

NOTES

1. Barbara Taylor, Gospel Medicine (Boston: Cowley Publications, 1995), p.72.

2. Quoted by Agnes Norfleet, in “Homecoming,” preached at the 2000 Covenant Network Conference on November 3, 2000.

Return to Sermons Page | Home Page