Has Christ's Body Been Divided? (1 Corinthians 10-18)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 1/26/14

image courtesy of iphotostock.com

Over the past few years here in America we have seen one of  the most divided, most dysfunctional United States Congress in recent memory, maybe even since the Civil War. A massive polarization has swept across the Congress, so now many times instead of voting on the issues, members of congress are simply voting for their party, or against the other. The polarization is widespread, Democrats and Republicans alike stubbornly and blindly follow their party lines, looking for political victories for their party, and downfalls for the other, instead of trying to come together and work out a compromise for the good of the nation. The height of this polarization, or at least I hope it was the height, came last fall when instead of working out a new budget for the nation, congress caused a government shutdown, causing countless Americans to be without jobs for weeks.  As all of the nation looked on,  most Americans became fed up. I remember hearing multiple people suggest we should get rid of all the members of congress and just start over.  In fact according to a Gallup poll taken in November of last year, only 9% of Americans said that they approved of the way that Congress was handling it’s job, 9%.  As Americans we are finally tired of all of the polarization, we are ready for people who are willing to come together and work issues out; we look at Congress and say that their behavior is unacceptable.

            So why then do we allow that same behavior in our churches? Not only do we allow that behavior, but we are often the ones propagating it. When there is a theological or societal or moral disagreement, instead of coming together as people with the love of Christ in their hearts, ready to talk about why we believe what we believe and listen to why someone believes something different,  we instead hunker down on our position, attack the other for their beliefs and then say it is all in the name of Jesus Christ. Maybe even more pressing than ideological differences, so often we are polarized, and divided in our local churches because of claims of authority and power, yet if we remember from last week, Paul reminds us that the real authority and power of the body of Christ rests with Christ, for Christ is the head of the body. So what then does our quarreling and division do to the body of Christ? This is the issue at hand for this week’s portion of our sermon series.

            Once again we will look to the first chapter of 1^st Corinthians to see how Paul addresses this issue. As we noted last week,  Paul starts off his letter with the typical salutation found in a letter at that time, and he also provides the framework that everything that will be discussed later in the letter will revolve around; the fact that authority belongs to God and that what we have is God given. It is amazing though how quickly Paul moves into the heart of the matter at hand.  Often times letters, kind of like sermons, will lead the reader through a series of premises and ideas, stories and analogies, until finally towards the end it all comes together as a complete argument and the reader is fully able to understand the point the author is trying to address. This is not the case for 1 Corinthians, After a brief salutation, Paul smacks the Corinthians in face with the heart of the matter, “ Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” It is harder to be much clearer than Paul was there.  Do not let there be divisions among you, be united in the same mind and the same purpose. Paul’s message for the church of Corinth is unity. I must stop to make sure that when we here this we do not confuse unity with uniformity. It is for this reason that Paul’s analogy of the body is so crucial. We are called to be united, but like a body we can be different and yet united as one body. We can even have some differing beliefs and opinions on some things, but with Christ as the head of the body we can still be united in the same mind and the same purpose; we strive to follow the will of God and to make disciples of all people for the transformation of the world.   Out of all the messages that Paul could have picked for this, one of his longest letters to a church, Paul begins with unity. We should note this, as it may reflect the importance of this issue if we are to live as the body of Christ.

            So what was going on in Corinth that caused Paul to write these words?  Well, to answer this, maybe we should try to get a little better understanding of the city of Corinth at that time. Corinth was a city in between two seas,  so many traveler passed through the city going from one sea to the other. For this reason Corinth became a hub for merchants and with it brought a diversity to the city. There were both Jew and Gentiles, both rich and poor and everything in between. There were people who had grown up there as well as many who had moved there from their travels, bringing with them other cultural norms, other tastes, other knowledge. The church in Corinth most likely reflected this diversity, and so as you can imagine there was the opportunity for much division.  Add to that fact that the church was relatively new, and that not only had Paul visited, but other leaders like Apollos had as well, and with all the different people that traveled in and out of the city, the church had also heard about the work that Peter had been doing as well.  This created divisions of who to follow.  Some claimed they belonged to Apollos, others claimed they belonged Paul, others still claimed they belonged to Peter.  Whether it be ideological differences, who it was that baptized them,  or simply the personality they preferred the most, the people of Corinth were sharply divided.  But Paul reminds them that they were not baptized in the name of Paul or Apollos, but in the name of Christ, and that it was not Paul who died on the cross for our behalf, but that it was Jesus. Paul reminds the Corinthians once again that at the head of the body of Christ, is Christ.

            This leadership debate that Paul addresses was but one of a number of issues dividing the church in Corinth, and Paul finds it crucially important to start off his letter by urging for unity. Why is unity of the body of Christ so important, what is at stake? To answer this let me read to you a story of disunity at its worst from the book of Judges. I will warn you ahead of time the story is graphic and quite disturbing, and is probably why many of us have never heard it even though it is right here in our Bible. ⁶ Then at evening there was an old man coming from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was residing in Gibeah. (The people of the place were Benjaminites.) ¹⁷ When the old man looked up and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city, he said, “Where are you going and where do you come from?”¹⁸ He answered him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to my home.^[f] Nobody has offered to take me in. ¹⁹ We your servants have straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and the woman and the young man along with us. We need nothing more.” ²⁰ The old man said, “Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants; only do not spend the night in the square.” ²¹ So he brought him into his house, and fed the donkeys; they washed their feet, and ate and drank.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.” ²³ And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. ²⁴ Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing.” ²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ As morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.

²⁷ In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ “Get up,” he said to her, “we are going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out for his home. ²⁹ When he had entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ³⁰ Then he commanded the men whom he sent, saying, “Thus shall you say to all the Israelites, ‘Has such a thing ever happened^[g] since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.

            This is a deeply disturbing and saddening story from the book of judges.  It is one that many Christians are afraid to touch, because they don’t know what to do with it. The story brings back recollection of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the lack of hospitality shown by the people of the city, and the desire to violate the alien and the outsider. Yet unlike the story at Sodom, there were no angels to rescue them this time; instead the guest’s concubine was sacrificed to the crowd.  This story shows the brokenness and despair that we humans have fallen into since our fall from Eden.  That even a people lead out of slavery from Egypt by the grace of God, who doubted God in the wilderness and yet God still brought them into the promised land, that the people of God could still stray so far from the fold.  And so as disgusting as the act of cutting up the body of the concubine may be, it is fitting, because it was sent to all the tribes of Israel of a sign of how far we have fallen. The perversion of the body of this concubine became a warning for the perversion of the people of God. Just as the body of that poor woman was divided, so too were the people of Israel.

            And yet the good news as Christians, is that we no longer have to live as a divided people. Our brokenness was and still is being made whole through the body of God incarnate, which was crucified on a cross, and rose again on the third day.  We know longer have to live as a people of despair, a people of division, for though we are still broken and fall short of the glory of God, our brokenness is made whole  through the body of Christ; in the literal since of God incarnate act of salvation through living, dying, and rising again as both God and human, but also in the metaphorical of this community, the body of Christ. That through this community we are drawn closer to God, to each other, and through the grace of God drawn closer a perfect love.

            And so we can see the importance for the unity of the body of Christ. That if members are divided then that precious community that has been created suffers. That opportunities for growth are destroyed, opportunities for healing and comfort are missed, and the opportunity for evangelism are lost because when others look at a divided church it resembles the scattered body of the concubine woman, a sign of our own brokenness, rather than resembling the body of Christ, God’s intervention with the world, God’s sign that he has not abandoned us, God’s sign that he will do anything for us. Today we must truly reflect upon which body we most truly resemble, and upon which body we want to look like.  This church can truly be a beacon to the world, showing that Christ’s love is extended to even those in the darkest circumstances, but that love must start with how we extend Christ love to each other. Will there be disagreements in the church, will there ever be hurt feelings, sure there will,  but what matters is how we extend love and forgiveness to each other in the midst of our disagreements. We must also recognize each members unique gifts and calls, and not only appreciate them if they are different than our own, but appreciate them because they are different than our own. Paul understands that Christian unity is paramount for a healthy body of Christ, that is why after address that Christ is head of the body, this is the first, and largest issue he tackles, and his words ring true for us just as much as they did for the people of Corinth. And so there comes a point where each church must decide which body we want to reflect. We could be the broken body torn in different parts for all to see and gasp at our miserable state; we could, but Paul asks Has Christ’s body been divided? The answer of course is no, and so let us live accordingly.

Christ as the Head (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)

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Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 1/19/14

(Week 1 of Sermon series "Becoming the Body")

In a couple of weeks the nation’s eyes will be glued to the television to watch two teams battle the cold and each other at the champions from the NFC face off against the champions in the AFC in the “big game” as they call it. They all will be competing for the Vince Lombardi trophy and the right to call themselves the NFL champions.  A lot goes into wining that prize, hours of working out, studying film, practicing techniques; there is blood, sweat, tears  not, just in the game itself, but yearlong that the players pour out all striving for that national title. The beauty about this sport is that it doesn’t matter how talented each individual on the team is; if they don’t play as a team they won’t win. Don’t get me wrong it takes incredibly gifted and talented players to win as well, but they cannot win alone. Think about it, you can have the best quarterback in the world, but if the offensive line isn’t able to block the defenders, it doesn’t really matter how good the quarterback is.  On defense you can cover you position and your player so well that there is no way that they are going to get the ball, but if your teammate let’s his player free, it doesn’t even matter because they are off to races. Football is a team sport, in which each player has a different but equally important gift and position, and a team is only great, if all of the members of the team work in perfect unison.

            The church is very similar to one of these football teams. No of course we are not playing a game, we are not tackling each other, at least I hope not, but this concept of every member using their own unique talents and gifts to come together to create a great team, is the same in a church as it is for the champions of the NFL.  Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth actually makes this very point. No he doesn’t use the analogy of American football, which of course didn’t exist at the time, but instead he uses the analogy of a body.  He says that we are all members of one body, and just like our own bodies we have very distinct yet important parts.  The eye is extremely important it helps us to see, but it cannot say that it is more important than the mouth which helps us to speak and to eat. Even our eyelashes which we often forget about, serve the important function of protecting the eye.  Paul reminds the people of Corinth that they together make up a body, and that the head of that body is Jesus Christ; making all of us part of the body of Christ.

            We are part of the body of Christ, but what does that mean, what does that entail? Today we start a six week series in discovering what it means to become part of the body of Christ, and what it means as a church to live as the body of Christ. We will do this by looking at portions of Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. As we have already seen, Paul address this idea of the Body of Christ with the people of Corinth, but he does it for an important reason. Paul writes this letter to the Church in Corinth because the church had many gifted members and wonderful leaders, some were great teachers, others were great speakers, while other were great organizational leaders.  While the church in Corinth had so many gifted members, they did not have a particularly gifted church; they were not living as the body of Christ. There were divisions amongst the leaders, many believed that their own gifts were the most important gifts. While these members surely had the heart and the passion to be followers of Christ, the really did not understand how to go about doing it. They did not understand how they were to stop being individual believers and how they could become the body of Christ.

            And so today we start off our series by looking at the very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. At first glance this part of the letter is quite boring. Paul starts off with a typical salutation for a letter of the time explaining who it is that is writing, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”   and to whom he is writing, “To the church of God that is in Corinth.”  He then begins to write in what sounds to a lot like flattery; it sounds as though Paul is trying to butter the people of Corinth up before he lays the smack down upon them. In a way this is true, Paul most likely is trying to gain some favor before he begins to criticize what is happening at the church. That being said, I don’t think that it necessarily means that Paul’s words are hollow. I believe Paul starts with a very important aspect for members of the body of Christ, and that is affirmation.

            The people of Corinth know the problems that they are having with their church, and they know that this letter that they have received from Paul is not just a random letter he sent for fun; the know he is going to have some tough words for them; and so Paul starts out by first reminding them that though there are struggles, they have a lot to be proud of. He acknowledge that many of them truly have amazing gifts given to them by God.  He  reminds them that they truly have shared their testimonies and the good news of Christ with others. Paul starts out his letter by thanking them, thanking them for their faithfulness, their gifts, and the energy and passion that they have put into the church.

            Sometimes isn’t this just something we need, to be appreciated for our efforts. Even when we know there are struggles, difficulties, even when we know we can do better; it is nice to start out knowing that we are appreciated. And so this morning before we dive too far into our lesson, before we really start to scratch and dig into what it means, what it takes to be the body of Christ let me first stop and let me express my gratitude for all of you. Thank you for all you who come and participate each week or as often as you are able. Thank you for all of you who teach, who sing, who organize, who lead, who do the tough nitty gritty work that no-one really wants to do. Thank you for all of you bring you children or your grandchildren, it is not the easiest thing to do on a Sunday morning. Thank you for all of you who keeps records, reports, copies of the business and history of this church, and thanks to all who help with the maintenance of this building. Thank you to all who go and visit those who are sick or shut in, and thank you to all of your for your kind words, your cards and your gifts. This church truly has some wonderful people; people who have some extraordinary gifts given to them through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is so much that this church has already accomplished, but as we all know, there is so much more that we could do. So as we recognize the gifts that we have and the gifts those around us have, let us now ask, how can we become a stronger, healthier body of Christ.

            To begin to answer this question let us once again turn to Paul’s introduction to the book of 1 Corinthians. As we have already noted,  Paul begins by affirming and recognizing the gifts of the people of the church; but did you notice a theme that was present as he spoke about these early members.   “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus….who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ….. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,  so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   Every sentence, almost every phrase calls upon the name of the Lord, gives thanks to God, tells us that something is through grace of God. As Paul begins one of his longest letters to a church, a letter addressed to a church with great strengths, and yet a church not quite functioning as the cohesive body,  Paul makes it abundantly clear that all thought of spiritual gifts, all thoughts of unity, all thoughts of growth and evangelism, all thoughts on becoming the body Christ must begin with Christ.  If somehow we missed this point through the repetitive calls on the name of the Lord throughout this introduction, Paul makes sure we don’t miss this point in verse 9. “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

                “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” You have not been called into fellowship with Christ because of anything you have done.  It is not because you are a great singer, it is not because you are a great speaker, it is not because you have the money to finance countless ministry opportunities,  it is not because you are skilled with numbers and management. There is nothing that we have within or without that warrants our union with Christ, there is nothing that we have done or can do that we can say causes us to deserve to be part of the body of Christ. It is only through grace that we are drawn into fellowship with Christ, it is only because we have been called, drawn in, invited by God, for God is faithful.  This understanding is key if we are to grow as the body of Christ.  For as the body of Christ we all have various functions, different gifts, different abilities, some of us have even taken on different leadership roles in the church, and yet we must be reminded that if we are the body of Christ then there is only one true leader, Christ.  This can be a very humbling realization. We like to take ownership of our church, we like to claim that because we hold this position or that position that we have control; but the truth is if we strive to live as the body of Christ, then we do not have control.  We may serve the important function of the eye, or the mouth, or the hands or the feet of the body, but we will never be the head. Christ is the head of the body, and only once acknowledge this fact, only once we humble ourselves to a recognize our role in the body, can we truly begin to function in a healthy manner.  We could spend the next five weeks of this sermon series addressing many critical issues for the church, we can discuss ideas and tactics to help us in our growth and functioning, but all of that would be worthless if we do not truly recognize Christ as the head of this body.

                While this recognition can be a very painful, humbling experience, one in which we feel control slip through our fingers,  one in which we must put aside some of our own desires for the good of the body; this experience can also be a very freeing experience.  We may have to let go some of the control that we desire to hold on to, but at the same time we may also be letting go of some of weight of burden that has bent our backs for too long as it has rested on our shoulders.  For too long we may have felt like if I don’t to this it will all fail, that it is up to us. Every set back, every fall, every critique or dissention felt as though it landed on us. Christ reminds us however that his yoke is easy and my burden is light. We do not have bear the weight of the world, the weight of the church on our shoulders, because Christ has already bore that burden on a cross in Calvary. Recognizing Christ as the head can be a truly freeing experience.

                That is not to say though that we have no responsibility. That would be like saying just because the brain is in control, the eyes can close, the heart can stop, and the feet refuse to move.  We of course still have responsibility as members of the body of Christ, but recognizing Christ as the Head, reframes the way in which we view our responsibility. This is the framework that Paul has given us this morning through the introduction to the church in Corinth. He acknowledges the gifts and talents of the members of the church, he thanks them for their faithfulness, he affirms that these gifts and how they use them truly do matter for the vitality of the church, but he reminds them that these gifts are grace given.  That all they have is from God, that all they have done is thanks to God, and that all they will do and the ways in which they will grow will be because of God. He reminds them that at the center of any church, that at the center of the Church universal rests our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That yes we have been commissioned by Christ to go forth and make disciples of all nations, but that in doing such all authority belongs to me, says Christ.  That through that authority he have the freedom to go forth in confidence, that we may go forth using the gifts that the Lord has given us, because with Christ as the Head we are reminded that Christ is with us to the very end of the age.