1Corinthians 12:3-13

Much has been said about Christians acting as one body. It seems so reasonable except when we disagree. Have you ever noticed how quickly people stop thinking of the church as the Body of Christ when trouble happens? The pope had a service in New York, reaching out to other denominations. It seemed like a touching idea until he spoke. His speech was that local creativity not sanctioned by Him would only damage the church. The tone was of gentle reproach of the head telling the hands and feet not to act like that part of the body that we don’t mention.

Oddly enough, the Pope was quoting from a politician, which shows that my frequent remarks on justice and politics are part of a long tradition of pastors. Menenius Agrippa in 494 BC tried to get mutinous Roman workers back on the job with the same speech. Rhetoric about the human body also served the interests of the upper classes in Greco-Roman society. The upper class political elite managed the lower classes to by making them feel needed but keeping them in their place by convincing them they are feet.

Paul speaks here about the need for the Christian church to act differently, in the power of the Holy Spirit first revealed in Pentecost. We are trying to live out that vision at Community Church. The words of grace that you will hear this morning from the first book of Corinthians are practical words that transform a church from average to great.

It is hard to know just why the Corinthian church had so much trouble getting along. What we know is that Paul’s preaching had attracted both Jews and Greeks, rich and poor. In his Corinthian writing, he does not include male and female because the Corinthian church had worked on gender issues and there may have been a movement there for men and women to dress identically. Paul does include that there is no difference between men and women later when he writes to Christians in Galatia.

Paul transforms church relationships by reinventing the metaphor, adding in the love of God, and appealing to specific divided groups to make their peace. Paul starts by reinventing the metaphor. Senator Lieberman this week said that he had checked John McCain’s bearings and he hasn’t lost them and still has them. I think he was trying to reinvent a metaphor, either the expression ‘he has lost his bearings’ or ‘he lost his marbles’. So you have to be careful about reinventing a metaphor.

Paul does it successfully by inverting it. The body image was used to subjugate people . Poor people were supposed to one foot and other cultures were supposed to be the other foot. Paul says the church must live a new life where all parts have equal respect . Our church can only rise to greatness if there is an equality in our diversity. Friends, I challenge you to go the Lord and ask God for entire sanctification. Oh that we would plead with God to rid our hearts and feelings of the idea that the richest among us should have more respect and that people of our own ethnic group are more trustworthy or higher quality. We have all been raised in the racist climate of our times. We assume ourselves to be much more liberal and just than we are. In moments of stress, our real feelings emerge. I want Christians in Community Church to be free of prejudice when the real feelings emerge. It takes a work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul adds in the love of the God in chapter 13. You cannot be an agent of change if you are not secure in the feeling that God loves you. I tell you, you can be involved in the church in every way, deal with matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment, win, lose or wait and you will be fine if you feel that God loves you. Some of you have heard my wedding sermon on this passage. Divorce is caused often by good people who run out of love. We can only be the Body of Christ for each other if we are each secure in God’s love for us. This is the beauty of the small groups which we are continuing and starting new ones. I want 20 leaders of small groups which will spring us forward into new outreach and connection within our own attendance. Small groups are places where people experience God’s love for them. It makes a church great.

Lastly Paul appeals to specific groups to come together. The rich were a group unto themselves, even trying to get communion served to them first. They must have had better bread and real wine in those services. I somehow can’t see people fighting over communion today. I think that the two challenges in our church for the year ahead is that we need to build a stronger Body of Christ out of the incredible ethnic diversity that is present and that isn’t easy. And we have a few gay members and are situated in a larger gay community and we haven’t worked through what that means as the Body of Christ. Just as Paul left out male and female when he pushed the Corinthians, we have plenty of victories in our life together. But we have some challenges left to transform our church from good to great. I want to challenge you to pray for sanctification of feelings, ask for an outpouring of God’s love for you, and work to make sure that we are united as the Body of Christ. Amen.