"Taking Care of the Body of Christ" - Sermon for 3rd Sunday after Epiphany

Sermon:

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who joins us together as sisters and brothers in the body of Christ.

            We are continuing our reading from 1^st Corinthians this week. It’s one of the central passages of Paul’s letter to the church he founded in the city of Corinth. They’ve been struggling to figure out what it means to be this new church of Christ. Paul said in our passage from last week that each one of them, and us, have God given gifts that we should use for the benefit of all. The central part we drew out last week was that God is the one energizing these gifts in us. God doesn't just give us these gifts but gives us the power and strength to use them in the world.

            This week we move further in Paul’s teaching. And his main theme is found right away in our first verse. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one, 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.”

            We are the body of Christ. Joined together in our baptism, we are drawn together to be Christ for the world. Some of us as the feet that walk to welcome others, some the hands that comfort and support, others the head that looks long term, others the back that gives strength to the rest. We are each a part of Christ’s body, we are each members of something that is larger than us. And we are all completely necessary in this body of Christ. We each have value and meaning that adds to who Christ is for the world, and how we make this therefore a better place to live, furthering God’s mission of bringing the kingdom here, and Christ’s call to minister to the least.

            The body of Christ is more than simply here in this building though, it’s more than just the people that make up this congregation, the Body of Christ is all baptized people of all the denominations and churches of the world. And each of us is needed to show the world God’s grace. It’s the reason that we work to build relations with other churches, why leading up to next year and the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation the Lutheran World Federation, of which the ELCA is a member, and the Roman Catholic Church are in communication about what are the things we hold in common, and not focusing on where we differ.

            Seeing the Body of Christ as all, means that we have to work with each other, that we can’t see each other as competition.

            Paul goes beyond that though. He’s primarily not talking about just seeing each other and all people as part of the same body, what Paul is accenting when he expands upon this idea of Body of Christ, is caring for all those who are members of it.

“But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

            I was reading the Christ in our Home devotional that is available out in our entryway, and the devotion for Saturday looks at this text. I would like to briefly share the devotion with you. “Michelle was sitting near the front on a Sunday when the Youth group was leading worship. Suddenly she began to sob – face in her hands, shoulders shaking. At the time, no one knew why she was crying. No one know how deeply Michelle, who had been with us less than a year, was grieving a broken relationship.

            One of the high school kids walked over and sat by her. Amy wrapped an arms around Michelle holding Michelle’s head against her shoulder. From behind, hands reached forward to touch and to bless Michelle in her grief, affirming her place in the community.

            Who blessed whom here? Michelle was comforted in her “weakness,” but we were also strengthened by her trust. We saw what it means to be a place where one need not hide grief for fear of shame or judgment. Visitors learned that if they ever needed a place to cry, they would be safe with us. We need to be this church, a place where need and strength flow through each other and are blessed by God for the wholeness and joy of all.”

            That is what it truly means to be the body of Christ together. Not just working together and seeing each others gifts, but truly watching out for each other and caring for each other. Crying with one another when pain and grief are so strong, sitting with someone who is losing a loved one, praying with someone who is fearful about a job loss, simply smiling at someone you see in the street.

            Christ calls us to pray for each other, to visit one another, to be support and strength for each other. We are to see the body of Christ as a family. God as our Father, but in addition as all those around us as our Sisters and Brothers. Those who we would go to any lengths to help and protect, who we trust to care for us in our needs.

            All our God given gifts and abilities we use alongside and for our sisters and brothers. They allow us to protect the least and care for the weak. And again, we need each member, each and everyone of you is important and part of the body of Christ, the Family of God. We sin before God when we declare that we don’t need people. We cripple ourselves when we attempt to cut people off from the body of Christ. When we outcast people or tell them that they are unwanted or worthless and using Paul’s words, cut off an arm, we cripple ourselves, we don’t purify ourselves, but remove an important cog in God’s work in this world.

            It’s hard to see not do this though. We hear Paul’s call for unity, and think it means uniformity. That in order to belong you must conform to only one set of ideas and understanding, that you have to fit one vision and set of beliefs. We become a people who cut others off rather than welcome them into the grace and love of God. We become a church of exclusion rather than inclusion, of pushing away rather than bringing in. When we cut others off, we instead injure ourselves and maim the body of Christ.

            Christ calls us to welcome each other in, to look not to what makes us different, but to instead what makes us the same. That we are all beloved children of God. That each and everyone of you is loved by God, and has been called to further Christ’s mission and marked with the Cross of Christ forever. To be united as sisters and brothers in Christ, united together in the body of Christ, working to care for each other and all in this world.

            This week may you go out to share with the world that we are the body of Christ, united to serve in all our diversity. Amen.