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| The Body of Christ (1Cor. 12:12-31a) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you … As much as I, for one, really enjoy the variety of worship that we have on Sunday morning … from a service that reflects my roots back to the old Page 5 and 15, which I could do by heart before I could read to the energetic and enthusiastic Majestic Celebration service at 11 … what we have today is something that just doesn’t happen very often anywhere where a church normally has two services on Sunday morning … especially with two different kinds of services … the entire congregation meeting together in worship. And What a Joy that is, Praise the Lord! So this morning we want to talk about Jesus … and we want to talk about us. So, first Jesus. Last week, our reading from John’s Gospel showed us Jesus at Cana in Galilee at a wedding changing water into wine … And we spoke about how this miracle signified Jesus assuming the role of the Bridegroom … and of us being His bride, the Church. And as we talked about that account, we looked at His words to His mother. As you may remember, Jesus said to her … “my time is not yet come.” The time that Jesus was referring to …His Time … would be when He would truly proclaim Himself as the Christ, the Messiah. And the wedding in Cana in Galilee was not that time. But what Luke shows us today IS that time … Here in Jesus’ home town He proclaims publically; in the Synagogue … Who HE is …by saying that He Himself is the embodiment, the fulfillment of the Prophecy of Isaiah, which He read in their hearing … That He is indeed God’s Christ, the Messiah … as He makes the claim, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And as we read, that claim of Jesus’ was not well received… But that reception didn’t change the truth of Jesus’ words … nor the fact that Jesus would accomplish His mission laid out in the words from Isaiah. Jesus confronted the unbelief of His town. And, as a result, He incurred their wrath. And so … in spite of his home town’s attempt to throw him off the brow of the hill … His other time, His time to suffer and die … had not yet come. And so we read that Jesus finally passes through their midst and goes on His way. Ever wonder after that, how life was different for those people who lived in Nazareth? … who heard Jesus confront them in the Synagogue? They probably passed it off that Jesus was some kind of nut. They had known Him since childhood. How could He possibly claim to be the Messiah of whom Isaiah had spoken? Well, that was then; today is now. Let’s then ask ourselves the same question: Because Jesus IS the Christ, because God BECAME man for us … how does that change our world today, and how does that change my life? Well, those same questions were on St. Paul’s mind as He spoke to the Christians in the city of Corinth in his day. You see … that congregation was having a problem … it was divided. Not divided as we are on Sunday Mornings between the 8:30 and the 11:00 services. And not divided over some theological issues like we see between Roman Catholics and Lutherans and others … but a division over what people did in the church. Or a division over how what Jesus had done for each of them was now making a difference in their lives. It wasn’t a division over the choice of the color of carpeting, or the use of common or individual cups for communion, or even the style of worship … The division in the Corinthian congregation was all about who did what, about who did what job or had what role in the congregation! Can you imagine … Christians thinking that because they had a particular spiritual gift … that made them superior to other Christians? Or maybe even worse, Christians thinking because they didn’t have a particular gift … that they were worth … less … in the church?? And so in light of that, how do we fair as a body of Christ? As St. Paul reminds us … the key to understanding who we are is to understand … first … that we have unity as forgiven sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ … that’s something God does. God is all about unity. The human part of this is about each of us accepting each other as such … as forgiven sinners under the cross of Jesus Christ. But that human part is where the division comes. And why does it come? Because we are all different, by God’s design. And we are all gifted differently spiritually by God’s design. How does that happen? By the Power of God’s Holy Spirit working in each of our hearts. In fact, the Holy Spirit does three things in each of us. First. The Holy Spirit gives us that unity we talked about. The Spirit makes of children of God through Faith. The faith that makes each of us equal heirs of eternal life. … Forgiven and reconciled sinners in God’s sight. That’s a good thing, right? Second thing the Holy Spirit does is this: The Holy Spirit works what’s called the “fruit of faith” in every Christian heart. What is this fruit of faith the Spirit works in us? We’ve heard these traits of Christian character before: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Those are Christ-like character traits which the Spirit works in ALL Christians, in each redeemed child of God. Those are gifts of God’s Holy Spirit we can all earnestly pray to grow in each and every day. And that’s good too, right? Now, finally, the third thing: it’s the Holy Spirit who gives each one of us a spiritual gift, or gifts, as Paul says, “to each one is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (v7) and “”all these are empowered by the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.” (v11) … That’s what St. Paul’s analogy of being a hand or an eye is all about. Now all that’s good, too, right? But, you see what happened in the Corinthian church? They sort of glossed over the first two things the Spirit does in our hearts … Making us a Unified Body … and making us reflect Christ in Character … They instead concentrated on the third thing … the apportioning of Spiritual gifts! And what they found out is that those gifts are for naught, if, first of all, number one, can’t see each other as forgiven sinners for the sake of Christ Jesus … and therefore equals, if you will, in God’s eyes … And secondly, by experience, they found out you can’t really exercise your spiritual gift or gifts apart from cultivating them along with Christian character … or the fruit of the Spirit. They had to learn those lessons the hard way. But do we? If we were to take a poll this morning … all of us would probably give credit to God and His Spirit for our salvation …and again, probably most of us would also be aware of His Spirit working in us to produce a Christ-like character. (And even if we’re not aware of it, His Spirit is doing it anyway!) And even if you do not know how God, by His Spirit, has apportioned you a Spiritual gift or gifts …this much we know is true … God has placed you here in this body of Christ, this congregation, for a reason. Part of the problem that St. Paul was dealing with in Corinth was the fact that each individual was exercising his or her gift as something just between themselves and God. They didn’t see themselves as part of a body. They saw themselves as a gifted individual with a call to use their gift. So those with a gift of tongues would just go off and exercise it … when no one was there to interpret what they were saying for the good of all. They were exercising their gift put the spotlight on themselves, “Look at me, look at what I can do.” And you know where that kind showing off flys in a group, don’t you? But this wasn’t just limited to the showy gifts … the charismatic gifts as they are called … The Eye’s where the only ones who could see, the ear’s the only ones who could hear, the feet the only ones who could go, the hands the only ones who could serve. The body was fragmented into its constituent parts … to whose benefit? Ultimately, no ones … and much to the detriment of the unity of the flock. They were becoming the Church of “Look at ME!” Instead of the Church of “Look at Jesus.” St. Paul’s solution to the division comes in our reading from 1 Corinthians for next week … there He talks about Love. And that we have. The Love of Christ. And so … we’d safe in concluding that we don’t share their issue of being a church of “Look at me.” But we do share in their situation. We do have all of you, each of you gifted by God as He has apportioned. And the temptation for each of us IS to do what the Corinthians were doing … to run out and to do something, anything, as the Spirit has gifted us. Ah, but we have the “whole council of Scripture” as it’s been called. We have MORE than St. Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians as God’s guide for us. And from that … we see how God does call us as a Body of Christ to work as one. Instead of each of us going off in our own direction. He calls us as a body to look and listen for His invitation to Join Him in what He is doing. His Spirit in us helps us come to a consensus as a body as to the direction God is calling us to go … the things that He is calling us to do… and from that, how we individually and as a body of Christ can use the gifts He’s apportioned us to join Him in His work. So, it may not be so important to determine, up front, “Ah, my gift is this!” We might submit that it is more important to hear God’s invitation to join Him in what He’s doing and then rely on Him to supply the gift, or gifts, you may need… Moses tried to exempt Himself from God’s invitation to lead His people out of slavery. “I don’t have the gift of speaking well!” He complained. And when Moses refused to trust that God could do what was needed to be done through him anyway, God called Aaron, his brother, to be that gift of speech for Moses. Never try to put God in a box. He won’t fit. And so today as we meet together and talk about the things we see God putting before us a a Body of Christ … which He has supplied with many, many gifts. My prayer is we all will respond in faith as one saying… “Yes, Lord. Speak. For your servant heareth …!” In Him. Amen. |