Building Blocks (1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 2/23/14

There is one movie that is out in theaters now that I cannot wait to go see. It has been the top at the box offices for the past two weeks. The movie that I cannot wait to go see is “The Lego Movie” I don’t know if you’ve seen ads for it but it is an action adventure movie in which all of the characters in the movies are Lego people.  While the movie itself looks funny and there are many great voice actors in it, the reason that I want to go see it so badly is probably because Legos remind me of my childhood.  Legos were a great toy to play with, small little blocks, different sizes and different colors, that you could stack on top of each other in order to create some wonderful structures. I loved playing with Legos except there was one small problem; I was horrible at building with Legos. In my mind I would have pictures of amazing bridges or castles that I was going to build, which then in reality turned into rickety oblong structures that one would really have to use their imagination to see a castle. My problem was that I had no sense of construction, no sense of building. I would want to build a castle but not understand the foundation that first must be laid.  I would want to build a bridge, but just quite couldn’t figure out how to stack rectangle blocks on top of each other in order to make an arch. People would walk by and ask me, “what are you building?”  I got so bad at Legos that eventually I started buying ( or my parents started buying me)  Lego sets that had directions for how to build what was on the cover of the box.  For example you would have step by step instructions for where to put each certain piece in order to make something like a spaceship or a car. Thank goodness, for the folks who put those things together with instructions to help poor little kids like me who knew nothing about building.

            Paul on the other did know a lot about building.  No, he may not have been able to construct a building or a bridge, but Paul certainly understood what it took to build a church, what it took to build up the Body of Christ. While we have seen this at play throughout our sermon series, today as we conclude our series, Paul seems to drive the point home. Paul in fact even uses the analogy of building in order to explain further to the Corinthians what it takes to build up the Body of Christ. Much of what Paul says to the Corinthians is nothing new; in fact much of it in a way recaps what he has been saying from the very beginning.

             While using the analogy of building a structure of some sort,  Paul argues that you much first start with a strong foundation.  It is no surprise then what Paul tells the Corinthians the foundation must be; that is of course Jesus Christ. We have heard this before from Paul.  We are all members of the body of Christ and Jesus Christ is the head. Everything that we have is from God and everything that we are able to do is through the grace of God.  It is nothing new for us to recognize that all life of the church, all life as the body of Christ must center around Christ, but this analogy may really help to drive the point home. There are many who can identify with a step by step approach to addressing an issue, like me and my lego sets a step by step direction for how to build up the body of Christ.  Paul cannot make step one any more clear. Step 1: Lay a foundation with the foundation being Jesus Christ. Any other foundation will eventually end in ruin. Like my Legos I can start with a piece and go from there and for a while it may even look  correct, but you get to a point where you can’t go any further, you get to a point where it all falls apart and that is because you did not start with the proper foundation.  The proper foundation, the only foundation for the Body of Christ, is Jesus Christ.

            Paul moves on in his analogy of building and notes that after the foundation of Jesus Christ is laid, we continue to build upon that foundation, and at the same time we are part of that building, of that structure being built. Paul talks about how he himself helped to lay the groundwork for the church in Corinth, and we have seen him earlier in the chapter acknowledge that Apollos also played a large role in cultivating and developing the church. At the same time the people of Corinth themselves have put a lot of work and heart into the growth of that church. With Jesus Christ as the foundation, these leaders and members of the church have helped it to grow.

            And yet though they helped it to grow, Paul makes the distinction that they are part of it. He says, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Now you may have heard before someone say that your body is a temple and therefore you must take care of your body; though our scripture for today sounds a lot like this; this is not what Paul is saying here, that comes later in chapter 6.  Instead when Paul says do you not know that you are God’s Temple he is using the plural for you.  In my Greek class in seminary we would sometimes joke that southerners have it right when it comes to languages because like Greek, we have a word for the plural of you, that is of course ya’ll. This is what Paul is saying, “Do ya’ll not know that ya’ll are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in ya’ll. For God’s temple is holy and ya’ll are that temple. This changes how we think about how we read this passage. We are not talking about our individual being as being holy (though it is), Paul is telling us that together, collectively we are God’s holy Temple.

            Once again this is nothing new for us, it is just another reiteration of the fact that together we are the Body of Christ. But here Paul uses the metaphor of the Temple to warn them against defiling God’s Temple. “So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”  Paul once again brings up the conflict that has been happening in the church, once again he acknowledges the divide caused by different leaders, and this time he is telling them that it is defiling the Temple of God, for they are the Temple of God. That they are this Temple resting on top of the foundation of Jesus Christ, and instead of being a steady base to further build from, they rip and tear, they go off in their own directions and Paul warns that if they do not stop, if they do not unite then they will crumble back down to the foundation.  We are building and yet we are the building.

            While Paul’s words for the most part simply reiterate what we have already discussed throughout this sermon series as we have discussed becoming the Body of Christ, this analogy of building may give us a couple of insights about the Church that the analogy of the body might not suggest.  This first is that we need to recognize and observe what we are building upon. Recognizing what we are building upon is two-fold. The first aspect is to appreciate that we are not starting from scratch.  We are not building from the ground up because there have been many faithful Christians who have paved the way for us. Sometimes we feel like we have to reinvent the wheel, that we have to come up with something that is totally new and original, but as the old cliché goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  As United Methodists, as Christians we have a rich heritage, a rich tradition that we can learn and grow from. Leaders in the early church have already wrestled with some of the most difficult discussions of our faith, including the trinity, the role of the church, Jesus’s humanity and Jesus’ divinity.  In fact each week we profess these things in worship through our affirmation of faith, but that creed that we say each week took many years of debates and wrestling with scripture for our early church leaders to develop. We now simply have the benefit of learning and understanding the thought, prayer, and work that they have already put into expressing our faith beliefs. It doesn’t just stop with the earliest church but we can look at the founder of Methodism John Wesley and what he has taught us about grace through his own wrestling with scripture and through his sermons. We can appreciate and learn from the call for social justice from Boehm and Otterbein,  leaders of the Evangelical United Brethren, which merged with Methodism in the US  and is where we get the United from in United Methodist.  We can learn from the movement of a few women in Methodism who gathered for the purpose of education and mission and which grew into the powerful organization we now know as the UMW. And we can learn from those members of this very church who have served before us. Who built this church as a mission to the community, who taught Sunday school, who gave generously of their time and gifts. When we gather as the body of Christ we gather in appreciation for those who have faithful served before us. We gather knowing that we do not have to start from scratch but simply build onto the rich tradition that has come before us.

            But when we reflect upon the fact that others have built before us, we must also examine what it is that we are building upon.  As I said earlier there is so much passed down to us through our tradition that can help to shape, and guide us in our own service to God, but we must recognize that not everything passed down to us is helpful.  One of the biggest killers of any church is the phrase “because that’s how we’ve always done it.”  The problem is not that it has always been done that way, there was probably a reason why it was originally done that way. The problem arises when we no longer understand why we do something, but simply do it because that’s the way it’s always been done.  Sometimes what we build upon can lead us off of our foundation.  A church with an unspoken tradition of being exclusive, or a tradition in which the laity of the church have no responsibilities, these are not helpful traditions, these are Legos hanging of the edge of the foundation, that if we continue to build upon will cause  us to topple. We must take time to examine what it is we are building upon. When we do that we may also rediscover the original intention of something that we have always done, and in doing so renew a vigor in our spiritual life. I heard the story of one church that had a tradition of having a monthly meal as something the church had always done. At one of their council meetings the discovered that this meal was costing them a great deal, and someone called into question what was the point, since members just came and ate together. One of the older members of the congregation spoke up and said that when they started, it was a meal for the less fortunate in the community in which they would serve guests and then eat with them, and slowly over the years it has just turned into a members meal. Well this reminder sparked a new fire in the church and they set out to once again make the meal a time of service to the community.

            That leads us to our final point, is that as part of this body, as part of the Holy Temple that Paul tells us we are a part of, we must not only examine what it is it that we are building upon, but also what are we going to leave to be built upon. Just as so many have come before us paving the way for our ability to worship and serve, we must also think about what we are going to leave for the church after us.  Are we going to leave a massive heap for our later generations to have to sort through, or even for them to leave in rubble, or are we going to build upon that strong foundation of Jesus Christ, and the solid work of those who have served before us. And we must also question what it is we are building toward? Are we building toward a guarantee of our own personal salvation and a plot in the graveyard for our bodies when we die, or are we building towards a church, a body,  kingdom in which God’s mercy and justice reigns and we live in peace in love with our brothers and sisters.  Are we building for personal reasons, or are we building in praise and gratitude for the grace we have received through the Lord almighty. Are we building with hope that we can help to build up the Kingdom of God until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.   As we close our sermon series today we close having explored what it means to be the body of Christ. That we are all important members of this body, and that Christ is the head that leads us. That we are called to obtain the mind of Christ and that we can do that through the grace we receive through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have learned that true growth first starts within, with us seeking to be drawn into closer communion with Christ and with each other, but as we close we realize that we do not stop there. That we are part of something built before and that will last far after we are gone. We realize that we are building on a firm foundation, and that we have the ability to build towards something extraordinary. And so as a church, as the body of Christ, reflecting upon all we have learned we must ask ourselves as we go forward, what are we building, and what are we building towards?

Church Growth (1 Corinthians 3:1-9)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 2/16/14

Today in our sermon series we finally take a look into what has become one of the most popular topics for churches around the nation; that is church growth.  If you attend any type of pastor’s seminar or venture to take a look at some of the books in a Christian bookstore geared towards churches, you will surely find many that deal with this topic of church growth. 5 easy things for church growth,  10 ways  to tell if you church is growing,  Is your church growing or dying? Now these are some made up book titles but I bet you would be able to find some actual books out there that are eerily similar. Online you can find signs, coffee mugs, Bible studies, and sadly yes even sermons, that are guaranteed to help your church grow; well maybe not the guaranteed part, but you get the point. Even in our conference there seems to be seems to be a push towards more numbers, as we record and analyze our average worship attendance each week as part of our Vital Congregations initiative. This push for growth is not unfounded either, Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Now here in the third chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul addresses this issue of church growth. Finally we are no longer talking about a theology of Jesus as the head of the body of Christ, no longer are we talking about unity in the church, no longer talking about wisdom and spiritual disciplines, we are talking about church growth! How exciting, except we are still talking about all those things, because while we are talking church growth is very different than what we normally discuss.

            Paul’s discussion about church growth is not a discussion about numbers, in fact Paul’s message to the Corinthians in our chapter for today is not even explicitly evangelistic. So far we have been talking about what it takes, what it means to come together as the body of Christ, and here Paul does not abandon this idea.  Paul picks up right where he left off. If we recall last week we talked about the power of the Holy Spirit and how we had different means of grace by which we are able to experience the grace of God.  Paul talked about how because we as humans are both physical and spiritual beings, and that through the power of the Holy Spirit our spirit is able to connect to the spirit of God.  Now Paul picks up by talking about growth in the church, but here Paul does not discuss growth in numbers, rather he discusses growth in spirit.

            In fact Paul calls the members of the church of Corinth babies. Yes you heard that right he says, “ And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.” Paul calling the people of Corinth babies, or infants cuts two different ways. The first is a harsh indictment of the church, or in other words Paul is intentionally insulting the Corinthians.  He goes back to the division that has been going on in the church, and calls their actions into question.  He once again mentions the divide that has been caused by following the different leaders of Paul and Apollos and essentially calls the conflict childish. He says, “for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?  Paul tells the people that though they claim to be spiritual people, full of spiritual gifts, they act no different than those of this world. That through their actions there is no way to tell whether they are Christian or not.  That people who were spiritually discerning God’s will would be able to recognize that the way they are acting is not conducive to growth as the body of Christ. They are acting like babies.

            Paul drives the issue home further, he says, “ For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.” Paul acknowledges that though he and Apollos may have had their differences, that they are still working together fulfilling their own role in kingdom building. Paul is the planter, Apollos is the waterer, but God gave the growth.  We actually lose some of the intensity of this point in this translation, for the Greek actually says something more in verse 8 more along the lines of, “the planter and the waterer are one.”[1]  That though Apollos and Paul differ, though they have different gifts and responsibilities, that they are one because they both work together in strengthening the body of Christ.  Paul calls the Corinthians infants, because they have failed to see that how they are behaving spits in the face of body of Christ.

            Like I said earlier however, Paul’s use of the word infant has two sides to it; it was an insult as we have just discussed, but at the same time it was instructive. In chapter 2 Paul has just told us that we are able to obtain the mind of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. That since we are spiritual beings the Holy Spirit connects us closer to Christ.  As we talked about last week however this is not an instantaneous event. Our first moments as a Christian does not mean that we know it all; in fact if we can look at our own spiritual lives and realize that there is still a lot that we have to learn. It is for this reason that Paul calling the Corinthians infants or babies is also quite fitting, for we are all infants in our spiritual walk.  It is a reminder that Christianity is not a name it and claim it title, where we are baptized and then are allowed to go about living our lives as if nothing has changed, for if we go about living our lives as if nothing has changed, then spiritually nothing really has changed. We receive grace from God, inviting us to come closer, but if we do not continually seek to be closer to God,  why would we expect it to happen? Jesus in the gospel of John tells us that we must be born anew, born of the spirit, and at baptism that is exactly what happens, but we must remember that is but the birth. If we do not seek to be drawn closer to Christ through the grace of God, then we are exactly what Paul says we are; infants.   For this reason we must continue to seek the grace of God through those means of grace that we talked about last week. We must continue to pray, both in private and with others. We must continue to receive the sacraments, as often as possible in fact. We must continue read the Bible and to also discuss it with others, because though our culture tells us the importance of our personal faith, we must remember that we are members of the body of Christ, and therefore our faith is not just a personal faith, but one that is connected to all members of the body.  We must be in service to those in need, seeking justice where injustice lies. When we talk about church growth, we must first talk not about growing in numbers, but growing in in faith, or in spirituality as Paul puts it.

            Paul makes a wise observation about growth however, and that is that things change when we grow. It is in making this point that I believe Paul’s term of infant is so powerful. After calling the Corinthians infants, he makes an interesting analogy using baby food.  He says, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready,” Paul reminds us that in our own physical lives the nourishment we receive changes. When we are infants we are fed milk, when we grow a little we begin to eat baby food, mashed up carrots or peas, pretty bland food, As we grow we begin to eat more and more; when often begin to like spices that we didn’t use to, and we begin to recognize our need to eat healthier as well. Our growth in Christ is very much like this.   When we first came into the church we probably came and grew from simple messages of faith. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life.” The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”  We were satisfied with just sitting back and being passive listeners in worship, and an occasional Bible study would fill us, and we would never really wrestle with some of the difficult questions.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  What really is the trinity?  How do we interact with other Christians who have some different theological ideas than us? 

            Paul reminds us that in the beginning of our new life as a Christian we are fed what he calls baby food. This sounds harsh, but in reality there is nothing wrong with this. For most of us when we are young in our spiritual lives this is what we need to ground and strengthen our faith. It would be almost foolish to demand answers to those hard questions from someone who is still young in their faith.  The problem arises when we never move past baby food. If we live with a shallow understanding of our faith, then our faith will be shallow. As we have said our goal as Christians, our goal as the body of Christ is not to be baptized and then just sit and wait, but we must continue to grow closer to God. We must continue to strive towards Christian perfection, that is to love as God loves. That means we need to move past baby food, and start feeding us with the rich nourishment that God provides to us through those means of grace that we talked about last week.  It might mean a more active role in worship or in the life of the church, it may mean taking more time for prayer, or reading the Bible more, or even reading in through the lens of views that might challenge your own. Just like our bodies that grow when we take on the nourishment that we need, so too will we grow both individually and together as we continue to grow in our faith. You see those church growth seminars, books, and vital congregation statistic collection is not wrong about our need to grow by reaching out to others and bringing them into the church, but real church growth begins with how we push ourselves, challenge ourselves and grow in our faith. Because others will see that growth in the church, and see the growth in our personal lives and say, I want that in my life, I want to be a part of that.  The real growth of this church, the real growth of any church, begins within.

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[1] New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary Volume X

"Means of Grace" (1 Corinthians 2:1-16)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 2/9/14

A few weeks ago in a children’s message as we began this sermon series, I asked the children, “If you had to tell something very important to someone else how would you do it?”  There was a variety of responses, starting with the most obvious you would tell them by speaking to them. But then I asked, “What if that person is far away, how then would you tell them this message?” The children and I came up with a great list of ways to communicate the information such as: calling them on the telephone, texting them, emailing them, and of course writing them a letter; the means in which Paul used to communicate with the church in Corinth.  This little exercised showed us that there were many different means in which we are able to tell people the good news of Jesus Christ.  But what if I rephrased the question, what if the question was no longer about how we can tell others about the gospel, what if it were not about means of communicating with people at all but instead means of being in contact with God?  How then would we answer the question? What are the means in which we experience God, what are the means in which God’s wisdom is revealed to us, what are the means by which we experience God’s grace?

            Why do I ask this?  I ask because this is the next logical question to ask if we continue to follow Paul’s line of thinking in the beginning of 1 Corinthians, like we have been doing over the past few weeks. How so?  Well let’s do a little recap of the argument that Paul has been making.  At the very beginning of chapter 1 Paul commends the people of Corinth for the ways in which they have shared the gospel message and  the ways in which they have grown; but throughout this commendation Paul makes it abundantly clear that everything that they were able to do was through the power of Jesus Christ. In other words, all authority belongs to Christ, and everything that we do in the church is a testament to the glory of God, not to our own power.  This is key to our understanding of 1 Corinthians; the rest of Paul’s argument centers around an understanding that all honor, power, and glory belongs to God.  Paul will later develop this point further by using the analogy of a body for the church, stipulating that the head of the body is Christ.

            We see that this understanding of the authority and power of Christ is important for Paul to write to the Corinthians because there were many divisions amongst the members of the church. There were divisions based upon authority; some claimed authority based upon who they were baptized by, For example some claimed Apollos, and others claimed Paul.  Other divisions occurred in the church due to a diversity of spiritual gifts; those who had a particular spiritual gift believed that theirs was the most important, and that it warranted them having more power and authority in the church. Other divisions in the church centered around those with Jewish heritage and Gentiles, while still other divisions occurred due to wealth and poverty. Paul once again reminds the Corinthians that authority and power does not belong to any individual, but that it belongs to God; that we were not baptized in the name of anyone other than Christ.

            This moves Paul into the last part of the first chapter that we talked about last week in which we see Paul starts to make a differentiation between our power and God’s power; between our wisdom and God’s wisdom.  Paul acknowledges that there is a wisdom of the world, that especially in those times power was derived from those who were the greatest speakers, greatest debaters, those who were fluent in the writings of Aristotle and Plato and many of the other classical philosophers.  Paul recognizes that there is a understanding of power in the world that raises up an individual based upon his knowledge, and based upon what signs of strength and wonder they have performed. Paul labels these things as the wisdom of the world. Paul then contrasts this wisdom of the world, with the wisdom of God. He says that to the standards of the world, the wisdom of God seems foolish, where in reality, “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”  For this reason we can all recognize the call that God has given us, for most of us are not from noble birth, nor are many of us rich, but Christ can use that which may seem foolish to the world as part of his wisdom, the Holy Spirit can take that which seems weak to the world and make it powerful.

            And it is at this point in the argument that we find ourselves this morning, now into chapter 2.  Paul has set up the wisdom of the world against that of the wisdom of God, as these two vastly different things. Paul has then left us with the notion we as members of the body of Christ are able to act in the wisdom and the power of God.  And so the question must be asked how. If we are human, not God, which of course none of us are God,  then the power that we have is power that we have is the power of this world, the wisdom that we have is the wisdom of this world? How are we as humans supposed to obtain the wisdom of God?  By what means do we receive this grace? Can we even obtain it at all?

            Well, the last question is by far the easiest to answer; Can we obtain the wisdom of God? Paul tells us flat out that the answer is yes. “Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. ⁷ But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived,what God has prepared for those who love him.”   Yes we are able to obtain the wisdom of God; it is not the wisdom of this age, or the wisdom of the rulers of this age, it is the eternal wisdom of God. Paul makes it clear that we who love God, who seek to be in relationship with God truly can receive this wisdom.

            But how? How can we as mere mortals receive wisdom from the Almighty God?  The way that Paul answers this question is one of the reasons I love this text so much; Paul’s answer is very Trinitarian. We have already acknowledged that the head of the Body of Christ is none other than Jesus Christ, and Paul refers to God the father and the eternal  nature of God’s wisdom; but here in the second chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul stresses the importance of the often neglected third person of the trinity; the Holy Spirit.  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.¹¹ For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.”   Paul reminds us that humans are both mortal and spiritual creatures, and that through the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to receive wisdom from God. This Holy Spirit working within us is the way that we are able to be in communion with God, as Paul says in another one of his letters, the letter to the Romans, “When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” In other words it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to experience the grace of God.

            The question still remains, how?  If the Holy Spirit is working with me to reveal God’s grace and wisdom to me, then shouldn’t I know it all? Shouldn’t bask in the power and glory of God rather than falling into the darkness of my day to day failures?  If the Holy Spirit connects us with God, then why do I still feel as though I am not wholly connected?  Paul tells us, “Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.” Paul once again tells us that we are able to have the mind of Christ, but how? We know that it is through the power of the Holy Spirit, but it certainly doesn’t seem as though we obtain it now.  But Paul tells us that those who are spiritual discern all things, and this discern is a critical word. We do not obtain all things, we search all things. The Holy Spirit does not give us the mind of God so that we ourselves may be like God; instead the Holy Spirit connects us to God. The Holy Spirit helps us to follow God’s will, to love as God loves. We have the mind of Christ not as our own mind, but we have the mind of Christ because we are all members of the body, and Christ is the head that leads us. The grace of God helps us to discern God’s will, and the love as God loves.

            And yet still we ask how? Yes we know it is through the Holy Spirit, but what are ways in which we are able to receive this grace, what are the means of grace? John Wesley described means of grace as, “outward signs, words, or actions, ordained of God, and appointed for this end, to be the ordinary channels whereby he might convey to men, preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.”[1] Wesley says it pretty well, it is the channels in which God conveys to us grace. For Wesley, the means of grace could be broken into two different categories, “works of piety” and the “works of mercy”[2] Works of mercy are exactly what they sound like. It is our joining in with service to God and service to others.  Through works of mercy, these acts of service, we are able to receive the grace of God.  Now let me be clear, it is not that these acts of service cause grace, it should not be viewed as an action that produces the outcome of grace, if that were the case we would be saving ourselves. Rather, it is through works of mercy that we open ourselves to experiencing the grace of Christ in our lives. They are channels that we know of in which it is possible for us to receive grace.  Many people today are brought into the church through participation in acts of service.  The act of helping someone else in need can stir something inside to make a person realize there is something much greater at work. Cleaning a park, planting new trees, or participating in a recycling program can allow us to understand God’s love for all creation.  There are so many works of mercy available to us, and they are truly amazing ways in which we are able to experience God’s grace.

            We are able to experience this grace in other ways than works of mercy as well; Wesley called these means of grace works of piety. These are the actions that we do, both individually and communally, that are more intentionally geared towards spiritual growth.  We often call these spiritual disciplines, and they include but are not limited to, public and private prayer, worship, public and private reading of scripture, fasting, and the sacraments, which for United Methodists is Baptism and Communion.  Just as the was the case with works of mercy, works of piety do not produce grace, but they are channels in which we can experience it.  They are almost like the tuner on the radio, that you turn and turn and work at, that helps to bring a station in more clearly.

            Paul tells us here in chapter two, that though we are humans, we are capable of obtaining the wisdom of God. We know that this is through the power of the Holy Spirit, and John Wesley has helped us in our understanding of how exactly we can best receive this wonderful grace. And yet if we do nothing, how will we ever grow closer to God?  If we are not out in service, if we are not participating in worship, reading or Bibles, praying with God, receiving the sacraments, how can we expect to experience God’s grace drawing us into a deeper communion with Christ, with each other, and with all the company of heaven?  If we do nothing we are relying on our own strength, our own wisdom, but I don’t know about you, but I’d rather rely on the strength and wisdom of the Almighty. Paul’s message for us today, is that if we want to grow as the body of Christ, we must grow closer to God, and that this is not an impossible task because of the grace we receive through the power of the Holy Spirits. A church that serves, a church that studies the word, a church that prays, a church that partakes of the sacraments, that is a church that grows, for that is a church growing closer to God.

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[1] John Wesley, “Means of Grace”

[2] John Wesley, “On Zeal”

The Sophomore (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 2/2/14

In high school and in college have you noticed that we give strange names to people in each different grade?  Instead of just calling them 9^th,10^th, 11^th or 12^th graders (or in college 1^st,2^nd,3^rd, 4^th year students)  we give these students the names of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I guess some of it makes sense, The oldest students in the school are the seniors, the next oldest then also makes sense to be called the juniors, the next step down from the seniors, but what about freshman and sophomore. Even freshman makes some sense, even if it is a bit sexist,  because the students are fresh, new, beginners at the school. But that leaves the curious name of sophomore. Sophomore is actually compound of two Greek words, sophia, which means wisdom, and moros, which means foolish.  We can see both of these words in other words we often use such as philosophy which means love of wisdom, or moron which is a straight connect to the for fool.  The two words combined making the word sophomore create a very odd meaning of the wise fool. Now in terms of being in your second year of school I don’t know if being a wise fool is a very good thing, I guess it means you are smarter than freshman but not yet seniors, but according to Paul, a sophomore is exactly what we are called to be.  We are called to be wise fools.

What do I mean by this?  Paul doesn’t actually use the term sophomore, but he certainly uses the idea of being a wise fool.  In our reading from 1 Corinthians this morning, Paul starts out by saying, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  What does Paul mean that the message about the cross is foolishness? Today we are so familiar with the message that it has almost become an ordinary statement for us, but Paul gives us insight to why this message seemed so foolish. He says, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,” He says that first many of the Jewish people of the time looked to signs and miracles as a sign of authority and power. We see this often in the gospels where the people are asking Jesus to show them a sign. And yet the gospel of the cross tells of Jesus dying on the cross. There was no miraculous sign of him coming down of the cross demonstrating his power, instead Jesus died.  Paul said that for many Jews, this became a stumbling block in their faith.  On the other hand Gentiles, many of whom were influenced by the Greek philosophers and the Roman orators, search for authority through wisdom. The person at that time who could speak and argue most eloquently, who could make clever arguments was seen as wielding much power, and yet Paul acknowledges that the claim that the death of the Son of God is an act of extreme power that Christians claim as a victory, seems quite foolish.  And yet Paul says, “For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.”

            To Paul, humans put too much stock into the wrong type of power. We lift up as our idols those who have been cutthroat, ruthless, and have done whatever it takes to make it to the top of their field, and we celebrate it as ambition and wisdom. We label them as wise businessmen, or politicians or what not. We tend to view their characteristics, such as their looks, their education, their social upbringing, and we begin to strive for those things in our own lives because we believe that is where true power rests. Paul reminds us that the message of the cross negates this. In a dog eat dog, individualistic society where the one who makes it out alive is the king of the hill,  the message of the cross reminds us that true power is not who is able to conquer and outlast the other, but rather who is willing to sacrifice themselves for their neighbors. The message of the cross is not about what I can do, the message of the cross is about what we can do together.  The message of the cross is not that our power comes from innate traits that we have inside a select few of us, it is instead that we all are capable of great things through the power of God. 

            Paul really drives this last point home, He says, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.”  Paul says to us, look I know that most of us were not born into nobility, born into some elite status; not all of all of us have the same level of education, the same athletic ability, not all of us have the same ability to speak in public or social skills, and yet all of us have the same power through God.  That according to worldly standards many of us do not seem to be the most qualified to participate in the important role of serving God, but we don’t live but human standards, we live by God’s standards. We may be asking why me, what can I do, it just doesn’t make sense for me to a have a role in this body of Christ, and yet to the world the lifeless body of Christ on the cross doesn’t makes sense earlier. And yet we know better, we know the power that is in the cross, we know the power that is in God the father, and the power given to us by the Holy Spirit. We know that we have the power to do great things through the power of the cross, we know that as we gather as the body of Christ there is power in each other for the sum of the parts is greater than any individual part. We know that this calling that God has put on each of our lives is no mistake, no matter what the world says we know that God has equipped us for great things. As we continue to learn about what it for us as a church to truly become the body of Christ, let us never think that we can’t do it.  Let us recognize the call God has placed on our lives, and on the lives of those around us. To the world we may not look like much, what we claim that we can do through the power of God may seem foolish, but I want to be fool. I want to be a sophomore.

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)

Image courtesy of Istockphoto.com

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.

            

I Like to Picture Jesus As... (Matthew 2:13-23)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 12/29/13

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

In the movie Talladega Nights,  there is a scene that I have always found hilarious, but I find it to be even funnier now at this time of the year. In the movie the famous race car driver Ricky Bobby is gathering at dinner with his family and best friend and he begins to pray and starts his prayer with “Dear Lord baby Jesus”  Throughout his prayer he keeps referring to Lord baby Jesus, until his wife finally cuts him off and says, “Hey you know sweetie, Jesus did grow up, you don’t always have to call him baby, it’s a bit odd and off-putting to  pray to a baby.” I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace. When you say grace you can say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus or whoever you want. After some more arguing Ricky’s friend jumps in and says, “I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt,  because it’s like a want to be formal, but I’m here to party too. The kids jump in I like to picture Jesus as a ninja fighting off evil Samurai.” So finally Ricky begins his prayer again, “Dear 8 pound 6 ounce newborn infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just and infant and just so cuddly, but still omnipotent… and he finally continues and finishes the prayer.

            Now this example is of course over the top, but it does make us wonder how do we actually think of Jesus?  At this time of Christmas it is normal for us to think about Jesus as a little newborn infant, it is in fact what we are celebrating with Christmas, but as the season ends as we move on further into the calendar that’s usually not how we picture Jesus anymore. We begin to picture Jesus as an adult, we picture Jesus as  he performs his miracles, as he goes about his ministry, and yes as he dies on the cross at Calvary. After Christmas we jump from newborn baby Jesus to 30 year old grown adult Jesus. That leaves a lot of years of Jesus’ life in between. And it is not our faults that this is the way that we transition our thinking of Jesus, because it is the way that the Bible itself moves. In between the time of Jesus’ birth and the visit from the magi, to the time of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, one of the few stories that goes into any detail about the life Jesus in between happens when Jesus was twelve. Jesus and his family were traveling together and thinking Jesus was with other family members, Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. When they backtracked, the went to the Temple to find Jesus listening and asking questions of the teachers. Other than some other smaller stories about Jesus being taken to the temple for consecration, or being told that he grew and was full of wisdom we really don’t know that much about much of Jesus’ life. What happened between this story where Jesus is twelve, and the adult Jesus that we find being baptized? The answer is we really don’t know all that much. So then the question to ask is what happened between the time of Jesus’ birth and this story of Jesus at twelve years old? While we still do not know that much about Jesus himself, but thanks to our scripture for this morning we do know a lot about what was going on with him and his family at that time.

            Our scripture starts by saying, “after they had left,” but who are “they?” well if we were to backtrack a little in our scripture we would find that they were the magi, or the wise men as they have been traditionally called.  Word had gotten out in the land that a child had been born that who was being called the King of the Jews. King Herod, gathered all of his best advisors together to figure out exactly what was going on and who this child was. He then sent out the three magi to go to Bethlehem and find this baby child, because he claimed he wanted to offer him praise as well. Herod had much more sinister intentions however, he saw this baby child as a threat and wanted to find a way to get rid of him. The magi find the baby child and pay their respects, but they were told in a dream that Herod had bad intentions, so they returned to their country by a different route.

            That brings us back to our scripture for today. Herod finally realizes that he had been tricked by the magi, that they were not coming back to report the location of the child. Herod gets angry, he gets rash, he wants to get rid of this threat so bad that he does the only thing that would seem to guarantee the end of this child, and the end of the threat to his power; Herod orders all children in and around Bethlehem that were two years or younger. This surely would do the trick.

            It probably would have too, except an angel came to Joseph and said, “"Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him."  The angel warns Joseph and in doing so foils Herod’s plans. Joseph takes Jesus and Mary and they move to Egypt, where they wait until Herod dies and they can return back to home. How long that will be no one really knows, but now they sit and they wait. Sadly this is how our dear savoir is forced to spend much of his early life.

            Think about it, I mean really think about all that this family has faced in such a short time. Mary and Joseph had to struggle with the news that Mary would bear the Son of God. Then they had to travel to Bethlehem for a census, Mary would give birth to Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Shepherds would come and pay homage to Christ, and Mary would ponder all of this in her heart, and later magi would come from the east and bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. If all of this was not wild and strange enough, they now had to flee the land that they knew, and had to become exiles in a foreign land.   Oddly, they would become immigrants in Egypt, the very same land that God had helped the Israelites and Moses escape from centuries before. On top of all of this while they were gone the children of all the people of Bethlehem and its surrounding areas were being killed, all because Herod wanted just one child dead, their child,  Jesus. Imagine the fear, the guilt, the sadness that must have accompanied Jesus and his family for much of the beginning of his life. When the Gabriel angel came to Mary a few years ago he promised her that he brought news, but so far she had faced much more hardship than any seemingly good news.

            Why did all of this have to happen this way? What is the point of all of this hardship? Did it mean anything at all? These are difficult questions that Mary and Joseph had to face, but as our scripture for this morning shows us, there are answers to some of these questions.  In particular our scripture answers whether or not all of this means anything at all. We find that much of what happens to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is the fulfillment of scripture. The family had to flee for their lives and live as exiles in Egypt, and while this all seems just circumstantial, that they just needed a place to flee after being warned about Herod, we see that the prophet’s said, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” The death of so many children at the hands of Herod was so tragic, and yet this tragedy was also foretold, “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”  Even when Herod passes away, and the angel tells Joseph it is safe to return home, but not to Judea because Archelaus was ruling there, but instead to Galilee, this too had special meaning because the prophets foretold, “He will be called a Nazorean.” So many of the events in the early part of Jesus’ live, even the tragedies had a special meaning, because they all pointed toward Jesus being the fulfillment of scripture. They all pointed towards Jesus being the Messiah. So to answer the question of whether all of this means something, well the answer is yes. It means that Jesus is the Messiah.

            This however does make the other questions much harder to answer and can create some dangerous ideology if we are not careful. We have seen that these things happening point to the fulfilment of scripture, but why did scripture had to be fulfilled this way?  Why did the family have to flee from the land the loved? Why did so many young children have to die? If we aren’t careful we can start to think that since it is fulfillment of scripture, that God had somehow scripted it all to occur in this way. This is quite easy to follow, but if we follow this train of thought then we are saying that God wanted countless numbers of innocent children to be murdered, just so Jesus could fulfill some prophecy. I am not willing to say that. Do I have the perfect answer to why these things happened, no, but I don’t believe that God creates evil but instead finds ways of extending grace in the midst of hardships, These evil things have happened and yet God still gives hope to the world, by showing that in spite of the evil and because of the evil Christ has come. Christ has come to conquer sin and death, Christ has to set us free, and Matthew points to the words of the prophets to make his point.

            We will never be able to ever fully explain why evil exists, why hardships happen, why something that is supposed to be so good can be so difficult, but same time I think we also have a distorted view of what is good.  We hear that something is good news and we automatically assume that means easy. We hear good news and we imagine some far-fetched idea like winning the lottery and relaxing on the beach on a private island, and then if the good news doesn’t match this idea, then we are disappointed, we get upset at the first sign of difficulties. And yet if we look at some best times in many of our lives, we will see that there usually is a lot of difficulty that comes with. Good news you got into the college of your dreams, but that also means the work will be harder, you will be graded harsher, and the students around you are just as smart if not smarter than you. Good news we’re getting married, but we all know that marriage is a commitment and alongside the joy is also many struggles and hardships. Good news you’re having a boy, but that means 18 years of struggling to raise him, from being woken up late at night at the beginning to staying up late at night worrying about the decisions he’s making when he’s  a teen and everything in between, parenting is also a struggle. All of these things, getting into college, getting married, having kids, are things that most of us would recognize as good news, things that most of us who have experienced any of them treasure as some of the best news in our lives, and yet we all would laugh if someone told us it was easy.

            The good news that Gabriel told Mary about nine months prior to Christmas, was indeed good news, but it was by no means easy news.  Mary and Joseph had to struggle the entirely of Jesus’ life. From the birth in the manger to his death on the cross and everything in between the good news of Jesus Christ on Earth was also difficult news for Mary and Joseph.  Maybe that’s why Ricky Bobby wanted so much to picture Jesus as an 8 pound six ounce baby Jesus. It all seems so perfect, so easy, when we picture Christ’s life as little sleeping baby. Cooing and laughing in the arms of the mother Mary. And yet we know that Christ did not come to Earth for and easy life, took on a life of hardships by taking on our brokenness, and yet living as an example of perfect obedience to God’s will, which of course included dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus’ life was not easy. As we have seen through our scripture for this morning it did not even take long for his life to become difficult; fleeing for his life, living in exile for much of his early life. But though Jesus’ life was not easy, it sure was good, Jesus fulfilled what the scripture spoke of, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus Christ came to save.  So how do you picture Jesus. Does this change your view at all? Do you picture him as a baby, or as an adult? Do you picture him maybe as a teen or as a toddler and young boy like in our scripture this morning?  I like to picture Jesus as all of the above.  I like to picture Jesus not as any one image, but rather as a whole gamut of a live lived in accordance with God’s will. In fact it doesn’t matter how I picture Jesus, I just picture him as good news.