Recent Sermons

January 21, 2007: Straight Talk about the Church

INTRODUCTION: A doctor and his critically-ill patient were in the middle of a consultation that included several “what ifs,”“perhaps,” and “maybes” as the doctor searched for any manner of hope that he could offer. Finally the patient said, “Doc, just give it to me straight.” Without so much as a blink of the eye the doctor said, “You’re going to die!” Then the patient, amid the shock of the doctor’s words, replied, “I didn’t mean that straight.”

As a general rule in January each year the President of the United States of America delivers the “State of the Union” address. It is supposedly straight talk about the shape and condition of our country, along with new policies, programs and promises. And as far as I know, the governors of each state likewise deliver a “State of the State” address -- again, supposedly straight talk about the shape and condition of our state, along with new policies, programs, and promises.

In a very real sense, I think, the lectionary text this morning from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians could easily be described as his “State of the Church” address. And unlike most politicians, for Paul there is no beating around the bush – no “what ifs,” “maybes” or “perhaps.” Like it or not, Paul’s message is straight talk – clear and to the point.

First church Corinth was a church in trouble. Dr. William Willimon cites that “the exact difficulties are a matter of speculation. We can easily infer that there were divisions and disputes and a host of other problems that made this congregation, ‘a poster child for Paul’s worst congregation.’”

This lectionary passage is familiar to preachers and Bible scholars, Sunday school teachers and even the most casual readers of the New Testament. It is a passage that describes the church and how it exists using an analogy of the human body.

Were Paul to write in this day and time, especially since we are only two weeks away from the Super Bowl, he might use football terms to give us a picture of the modern church. Honestly, you don’t need to be a football fanatic to understand that on a football team there are specialized positions: center, guards, tackles, ends, backs and the quarterback. Some of the positions seem more important than others. The quarterback, for instance, must be quick-thinking, have a good arm, be fast on his feet and have great leadership skills. He gets paid a lot of money and is usually better known than most of the other players. It will be his name that the announcers call most often – even if he is passing to an end or a back that score. Linemen are seldom recognized as superstars and are known mainly as people that push other people around. However, without good linemen, the quarterback couldn’t do much of anything and would spend most of the time on his back. If you know anything at all about football, you know that both the quarterback and the running backs are only as good as the blockers in front of them. The converse is also true; a team won’t be able to move the ball or score if all they can do is block. They have to have members who can run and throw and catch. The bottom line is this: they all need each other if they are going to be successful! Obviously that is not original with me, but it is something you need to put a star beside as you write it on your wall of great sayings…they all need each other if they are going to be successful!

But Paul didn’t have football teams to use as his frame of reference, so he used what he had; he used what was familiar to his congregants: the human body. Graphically he describes the situation for the Corinthians and for us, “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. 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. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? There are many members, yet one body.”

I mentioned earlier that this passage is a familiar text for preachers, students of the Bible, Sunday school teachers and even the casual reader. Preachers often utilize this text to declare to their congregations that we all have different functions in the life and ministry of the church. I have, on occasion, used this text to make the point that we have a diversity of gifts; some in our congregation are excellent teachers, others sing with the voice of angels and still others make hospital calls and nursing home visits. Some prepare a meal to serve to a bereaved family while others make evangelism calls or mow the lawn. Some are good at one sort of ministry but others have a gift for other sorts of ministry.

Both for us and for the first church of Corinth the metaphor used by Paul helps us to understand that we each have a gift of ministry to be used for the benefit of God’s kingdom. He also tells us that it is the Holy Spirit of God that gives the gift and the direction in which it is to be used. I want to say more about that shortly.

For now I want us to focus on a single line from this text; a line that Paul uses in a number of places in his epistles. Paul says: “Now you are the body of Christ.” And once again, as Dr. Willimon reminds us, “the reason that statement is so amazing in this situation and to this church is because in a number of earlier chapters in this letter he has been pounding the Corinthians, for all of their woeful inadequacies, to be the church.”

What one might anticipate here is chastisement. Again Will Willimon says, “They ought to be ashamed of calling themselves Christians and acting the way they have acted, with their fussing and feuding and doctrinal ignorance, petty divisions, and cowardly disloyalty to the way of Christ.” But even amid their dysfunction Paul blurts out, saying directly to them, “Now you are the body of Christ.”

No doubt it would have been less surprising to the Corinthians and to us if Paul had said something like, “You ought to be the body of Christ” or “If you work hard, some day you might become the body of Christ.” But straightforward Paul just says flat-out to them, “You are the body of Christ.”

It is both surprising and somewhat amazing for Paul to say that about a group of people like those that made up the Corinthian church; a group about which both their history and background, he was well informed.

Come to think about it, it is also an amazing thing to say about a group of people like us, isn’t it? It is amazing and somewhat frightening to be told: “You are the body of Christ.”

In this regard let me share with you a portion of the devotional that Dan Pike sent me this week. He writes: “A great heresy of American popular religion is that your religion is a personal thing. However, Jesus did not only preach and heal – he also formed a community. He called together disciples – the most unlikely bunch of people (you can imagine) and he made them into a community.” (That is what the church is as the body of Christ.) The church is community. It is not a club for people who have the same interests (like a photography club, a knitting club or a club for stamp collectors). The church is held together by something much more impressive: God’s Spirit. This means the church is not what we make out of it. The church is what God makes out of us…”

What an interesting and important thought that is: the church is not what we make of it; it is what God makes of it through us.

Before Paul gave his analogy of the church using the metaphor of the human body he prefaced those words by first saying, “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” – God’s Holy Spirit."

It is, after all, this spirit that keeps us alive and well in the church. It cannot be measured or photographed or weighed, but it is real. It is this Spirit that makes a group of people a family and not just individuals who live in the same house. Every organization – like football teams, political parties, service clubs and the Christian church – have a spirit. The obvious difference between these groups and the church is the kind of spirit acquired. The church has the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit, sent forth by the Lord of Life who calls this church into being and keeps it alive. We cannot survive without it. It is the Spirit that gives different members different abilities and direction for use of those gifts and abilities for the good of all.

You are the body of Christ; for all our faults and failures – the very body of Christ. You are Christ’s presence in the world.

Once again Willimon cites, “A preacher that I know was trying to encourage a prospective member to attend his church. The prospect said, ‘Well, I do consider myself a Christian, but I am just opposed to organized religion.’ My friend said, ‘You would feel right at home in our church; we are about as disorganized as religion gets!’” You see, when you are looking for an excuse, one will work as well as another. When will we ever realize that the church is a gift? It is not what we make of it but what God makes of it through us. Quite frankly, here is the straight talk about the church: If you do not find this particular church to be a place of comfort and healing, a place of fellowship and learning and love – then find a church in which you will find what you need and plant yourself there in the work of the Spirit.

Like it or not, for all our faults, we are the body of Christ, the only visible form the risen Christ takes in the world. And here is the “state of this church” in a nutshell. In this last year we have served Christ well, and this year, we can do better.