Eighth
Sunday after Pentecost / Year B
1
Corinthians 12:4-31
Pastor
Gayle M. Pope
One Body
Grace and peace to
you, brothers and sisters, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I have a sister named Cindy who was a year behind me
in school. When Cindy was in college,
she became a “born again Christian.” Back then, you’d sometimes hear people
like that called a “Jesus freak.”
Now we were raised in a strong Catholic home by
parents with incredibly strong faith. All of us kids were raised as Christians.
But when Cindy had this experience of meeting Jesus in college, her faith
changed so much that, it seemed to her that the rest of us might not even
really be Christians at all. I think she
believed that she wasn’t a Christian
before she went through this new awakening.
She left the Catholic church and started going to the
Evangelical Free church. If she prayed
with us before meals, she would make a point of NOT making the sign of the
cross. And when we went to Mass together as a family, she wouldn’t go to communion
because she didn’t believe in it the same way as the Catholics.
To me, my sister seemed to have become very
judgmental about our faith. BUT, I had to admit, she was much more
conscientious about living out her faith than I was. She seemed to think about it all the time and
it made a difference in the the decisions she made and the way she lived. I could see that her dedication to Jesus came
first in her life, and I actually thought that’s how it SHOULD be. But I was afraid of giving up my life that
way.
Well, eventually, I went through a renewal in my own faith. I finally let go of my right to myself and
opened my heart to let Jesus in. I got involved in Young Life in
I also left the Catholic Church and started going to
an Evangelical Free Church. I made a lot
of good Christian friends, and by that I mean that our friendship had a lot to
do with our shared beliefs. We studied
the Bible together, prayed together, encouraged each other and sensed the
“kindred spirit” of brothers and sisters in Christ.
But I just never DID take the attitude that, “Now I’m
a Christian and, because you don’t have the same feelings and commitment as I
do, you’re not.” I always believed – still do – that I have been a Christian
since my Baptism.
But not everyone feels that way. There is a lot of division
within the church. And by the “church” I mean the Body of Christ – all those
who believe in Jesus. There is a lot of defensiveness and judgmentalism and
separation. It has always been that way.
It used to really bother me a lot because I thought
that, when two beliefs and opinions differed between Christians, one must be
right and one must be wrong. But, somehow, the stronger my faith grew, the more
I could see and appreciate the presence of God in others whose expressions of
faith were different from mine.
When I was still Catholic, I married a Lutheran. We
had to go to a special class on “interfaith marriage.” I remember the instructor drawing a cross on
the chalkboard and saying to us, “The closer you get to Christ, the more you will
find you have in common.” And, you know,
I have found that to be very true.
I bring this all up because, yesterday, there were
all kinds of different Christians who got together for this “Freedomfest” in
the state park. Now, I mean to tell you, there was a lot of diversity in this
group. A lot of differences in the way
different Christians pray and in the language they use to talk about matters of
faith.
There are also differences in the way the different
Christian churches view the presence of the Mormon church here in our midst and
what our response to it should be. Some
take a very strong position focusing on the deep and profound differences in
our theology, while others seek to minimize the differences and build
unity.
I believe some churches chose not to be involved in
Freedomfest because of these differences – the differences in beliefs between
the Christian churches, AND the differences in our stances toward Mormonism. I
can accept that.
None of us has all the answers and, based on past
history, none of us ever will this side of heaven.
We are all broken.
Romans 3 says, “For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.” Not one of us has all the answers, but
together, all who believe form the Body of Christ on earth.
When you put us all together, we make a complete
picture. There is a lot of junk there. Just
like our own bodies get viruses, infections and all kinds of disease, so does
the Body of Christ – the church. It can
be very messed up.
So, some parts of the Body have the job of fighting
infection and disease, while others are busy doing other jobs. That’s OK. We need each other.
This is what I get
from the Scripture I read this morning from first Corinthians.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 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. 16 And 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. … But as it is,
God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
What is the point of all this? Why am I talking about this today? There are
two messages the Holy Spirit has pressed upon my heart:
First is the question: If God has arranged us as members of the body
as he chose, then what part are we? What
part does each of us play as individual believers and what part do we play as a
congregation?
I know that God has made me a truth-seeker, and
truth-teller, but not in a confrontational way – in a unifying way. This is
just who I am. This is how God has formed me and called me. This is the kind of pastor God gave you for
this time and place.
This congregation seems also to be a unifying force
in the Body of Christ. There is
diversity within us in our expressions of faith – a smaller spectrum than out
there in the church at large, but nevertheless a diversity. And yet we seem to get along pretty well with
each other.
We are people who are very much a part of the
community, very much in relationships with members of other Christian churches
and with our Mormon neighbors on a day to day basis as we go about our
lives. We are not confrontational. We
are accepting and caring. We are interested in the needs and problems of
others, as our weekly prayer vigil would attest.
God has also made us Lutherans and has given this
denomination a particular theology, culture and history that is a gift to the
church: an emphasis on salvation by grace through faith; on freedom in Christ;
on the deep and fearless study of God’s Word with all its complexities and on
the effectiveness of the Sacraments as a means of receiving God’s grace.
God has made us and called us as we are. We do have
an identity. But that doesn’t mean we
don’t need to continually seek God’s guidance and continually seek to grow in
our faith and continually allow the Holy Spirit to challenge and push us out of
our comfort zones.
This is an ongoing process – never finished as long
as we are on this earth. We never stop growing and learning and changing to
serve God in this changing world. And we need each other in the process. This
is why we are having a congregational planning meeting on August 20th.
So … the first point is to understand and grow in our
OWN identity as Christians. The second point is to appreciate other Christians
who are different from us. Since all believers are brothers and sisters in
Christ, we ought not to judge or criticize one another except out of love and
in all humility, knowing that we, too, are subject to error.
We don’t have
to agree, but we need to listen and consider other points of view and respect
one another. Maybe God is teaching us
something through this brother or sister. Or maybe God wants to use US to teach
something. Or BOTH.
It is notable that the Scripture I read this morning
ends with the statement, “I will show you a still more excellent way.” After talking about the diversity of gifts
and roles in the Body of Christ, Paul goes into the famous “love chapter” of
First Corinthians 13. The chapter that
begins, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Regardless of our gifts and our callings … regardless
of our similarities and differences … regardless of our likes and dislikes …
regardless of our doctrines and beliefs … we are called to love one
another. Not in the mushy, “let’s all
get along” sense that denies differences, but in the way that faces differences
and weaknesses and faults head on in truth and says, “I will love you anyway
and treat you as I believe Jesus would want me to.”
This is Paul’s prayer
for the Christians to whom he was writing in today’s second reading. And it is
a fitting prayer for us today as well. Please pray this me:
“Lord, grant that we
may be strengthened in our inner beings with power through your Holy Spirit
that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith as we are being rooted and
grounded in love. May we have the power to comprehend, with all the saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of
Christ that surpasses all knowledge so that we may be filled with all the
fullness of You.”
Now to him who by the
power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we
can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all
generations forever and ever. Amen.