3rd Sunday after Epiphany
January 25, 2004
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

^12:12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." ²²On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, ²⁵that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. ²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? ^31aBut strive for the greater gifts. (NRSV).

You Are the Body of Christ!

  Today Adam was baptized into the body of Christ. Do we know what that means? How will Adam’s parents, sponsors and to some extent the rest of us, explain that to him as he grows? How will he be taught to think about himself? What identity will we help give him?

  Now you might be having some very politically correct thoughts right now. You may be thinking, “I will not give this child an identity. I will not force my views on him. I will let him make his own decisions and choose for himself what he will be.” That sounds good coming from the mouth or a politician trying to gain votes, but it is of course pure nonsense. I have no doubt whatsoever that Adam’s parents will dress him in little boys clothes and not little girls clothes. I have no doubt that they will potty train him rather than litter box train him. I have no doubt that they will speak English to him and teach him their values rather than say, the language and culture of the Zulu of South Africa. I have no doubt that Adam will grow up eating ordinary Canadian food rather than locusts and wild honey like John the Baptist.

  OK, I could go on with other examples, but I think you get the point. We do pass on an identity to our children and we believe that is right. They do not grow up in a vacuum. They learn to be basically what we are. Their identity is formed very early in life. It’s not really something they choose for themselves. We know this is true. That’s the reason Honda can make those stupid commercials about the guy who was raised by wolves. We somehow accept that his bizarre behaviour is due to the fact that he was raised by wolves. He has a wolf identity!

  So I come back to my original question. What identity will Adam’s parents, and to some extent the rest of us, give him? What identity are you giving to your own children? What is your identity? God, our Creator, has an identity he has given or wants to give us. He wants us to be the body of Christ. When we are baptized, not only does God forgive us all our sins, not only does he give us his Spirit to renew us, but he also makes us part of the body of Christ! He wants us to know that so that we can live in the power and peace of Christ.

  For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

  Paul has been explaining some things about the Holy Spirit. He has already explained that all faith in Christ is the working of the Holy Spirit and that all spiritual gifts come from that one Spirit. Today he adds that no matter who we are we were all baptized into one body . . . and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Our identity is that we are the body of Christ!

  That is the identity we have given to Adam today. He has now been joined to Jesus and is part of the body of Christ. He has been buried with Christ, crucified with Christ, raised to new life with Christ. He has been born again! He is no longer just Adam _____, son of _____ and _____. He is now, Adam the Christian, brother of Christ, son of God, heir with Christ of eternal life. He is now part of the people of God, a branch grafted onto the vine of Christ. That is now his identity. And it is something that he can’t change without experiencing another kind of death, separation from Christ, which, God willing, will never happen.

  Every one of us shares that same identity by virtue of our baptism and faith in Christ. We began life in a hospital room—well most of us I guess!—but spiritually dead, separated from God and under the curse of the Law. But sometime later, the death and resurrection of Jesus were applied to us. We were baptized for the forgiveness of sins and received the Holy Spirit. And, we were baptized into the body of Christ.

  Since we have all been baptized into the one body of Christ, we have a deep, organic unity. We belong together. God means for us to work and play together, to cry and laugh together, to live and die together and go to heaven together. But we have trouble with this unity and togetherness. The baptism part is fun and easy and quickly forgotten. Then we split up and go our merry, individual way and the devil and the world crush us. If we would only stay together in the one body to which the Spirit of God gives gifts of grace and power, we would defeat the devil and the world. But we have a hard time with that. Why? Because we forget our identity! We don’t think from the perspective of a body. We don’t have a ‘body’ model for life. We’re all hung up on the politically correct individual model for life.

  And that’s why Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, to point out and correct some wrong attitudes that make it difficult for us to live in the power and peace of the body of Christ. Here are three ‘spiritual viruses’ that come from our corrupt nature and the world. They weaken and even kill the body.

  The first is an attitude of inferiority and jealousy. If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. The advertising industry understands this better than the rest of us. Most advertisements try to make you dissatisfied with what you have or with what you are. Your clothes, your hair, your food, your car, your house are not as good as they could be. You would be much happier if you would buy their product! In the same way, many of us feel that we’re not very important, that we have little or nothing to contribute to the community or to the church. But that is wrong! God made you part of the church, the body of Christ. No baptized person must ever think that he or she is unnecessary for the well being of the Church. Just as it is absurd for a foot to say that it’s not part of the body because it’s not a hand, it is absurd for a baptized person to say that he or she is not part of the Church. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Just as God created feet and hands, eyes and ears for the body, so you were baptized to be part of the body!

  The problem is that the devil and the world have lied to us and made some of us feel useless. Others have believed the same lie and thought that some are useless. But God says otherwise. If your hand left your body, you would suffer. You might survive and be handicapped, but you would suffer. In the same way, you are part of the body of Christ, and if you leave, the body will suffer. It may survive losing you and be handicapped, but it will suffer.

  Further more, the whole scenario is absurd. A piece of your body would never leave of it’s own accord. What would it be on its own? Thing, on the Adam’s Family? Yet people leave the body of Christ often for ridiculous reasons. They forget their identity, go off by themselves and die. Yet Christ died for you so you could be part of the body and live!

  The second is an attitude of superiority. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." The world does not teach us to think of ourselves and others as parts of one body. It mostly glorifies a sort of self-sufficient independence. It makes us believe that once we get a good job with good benefits we’re set and don’t really need other people’s help. And then God sends a hurricane to wake us out of our stupor for a moment or two. “You think your so independent, well how about no power for a few days! What will you do for light and heat? What will you do to cook? What will you eat after the meat in your freezer starts to rot? What will you drink, how will you bathe or flush the toilet since your pump doesn’t work?” What a delusion that we are self sufficient! We depend on each other for the most basic things in life, food, clothing and shelter. We are a community, a body. That’s our real identity!

  So it is foolish and sinful to think that we don’t need someone in the Church, someone who like myself was baptized into the body of Christ. My head can’t say to my feet, “I don’t need you.” They are inseparable. They do not exist apart from each other. They are not individuals, they are parts of a whole. There is no place for arrogance and superiority in a body.

  I’m not sure how to label the third attitude. It’s that very modern way of thinking that equates rights and function. It says that since we’re all equally part of the body, we can all do the same things. A foot can be a hand or an eye an ear! But Paul says, Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

  Rights do not equal function. For example, our laws should give men and women equal rights. But that doesn’t mean that we can erase all differences between us. We are biologically different. There are some things one can do that the other cannot do. For example, a man cannot have a baby no matter how much he wants too. A same sex couples cannot have children and make a family. We are different and so have some different functions! Yet we rebel against what God has created. We reject our proper nature and function and try to be what someone else is. It’s back to the foot trying to be a hand. In our sin we neglect our function so that someone else has to try to make up the difference. We have no foot so we make an artificial one. It let’s us get by, but it’s not right; we’re not happy about it.

  God designed the Church as a body. We are all equally part of the body, but we don’t all have the same function. If we try to be something we are not, we’ll get frustrated and frustrate others. Try walking on your hands! If we neglect the function God has given us and take one that belong to another person, we throw the whole system out of balance. We need each part of the body to function as God designed. Our differences perfectly compliment each other and make a complete body. Rather than be jealous of each other and dwell on feelings of inferiority or superiority, we must strive for mutual care. We must strive for each of us to realize his identity in the body and be the best one can be.

  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. . .God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.

  We often think we can do better than God. But the truth is that we cannot. We can’t deal with flus and mad-cow disease. We can’t clone an animal that lives a normal life. So what makes us think we can improve on God’s design for the body of Christ?

  God did not have Paul write this stuff about the body in order to constrain us, bridle us, and stifle us. He did it to bless us! He put us into the one body of Christ so that Christ could live in us, empower us and give us joy. Jesus said to his disciples, I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11. He gave us his Spirit who works in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal 5:22-23. Those are only some of the blessings that God has for us. But they are found only in the body of Christ, when we receive our identity from God.

  Today we welcome Adam, into the Body of Christ. Let’s give him a chance at the full blessing God has for him, shall we? As he grows, let’s teach him who he is so he can find his place in the body of Christ. And do the same for you children and yourself. For God says, you are the body of Christ!