1 Corinthians 12: 12-27
At the Carpenter’s tools annual meeting Brother Hammer was in the chair but some suggested he should leave as he was too noisy. Hammer replied, “If I leave then Brother Screw must also go. You have to turn him around again, and again and again to get him to accomplish anything.” Brother Screw spoke up: “If you wish I’ll leave, but Brother Plane should also leave. His work is all on the surface. His efforts have no depth.” Brother Plane responded, “Then Brother Rule must withdraw. He measures others as if he is the only one who is right!” Brother Rule complained about Brother Sandpaper, “You ought to leave. You’re just so rough and rubbing people the wrong way.”
In the midst of their discussion the carpenter from Nazareth began to make a pulpit from which to proclaim the Gospel. He employed the hammer, screw, plane, rule, sandpaper and all his other tools. Brother Saw marvelled, “I see now that we’re all workers together with the Lord.”
Last Sunday I spoke about the Trinity – our belief that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, one essence, three in one and one in three.
I finished by saying that God as trinity exists in a perfect community of love, and that fact must challenge and shape our love for one another.
We worship a God in whom there is unity, and diversity, all within a loving community; and that is how God would have us be in his Church: unity and diversity, within a loving community.
At the start of today’s Bible reading we read this: ‘The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.’
The Bible describes unity in diversity in the body of Christ and uses the most extreme contrasts of the day to make the point: Jews and Greeks; slaves and free.
Jews and Greeks is most likely a phrase that really means Jews and non-Jews; and in an age of growing anti-Semitism it’s good to be reminded that Jesus was a Jew, and his disciples were Jews.
But when we receive baptism in the name of Jesus the Messiah – the Christ – our diverse backgrounds find unity, even though we may come from wildly different religious backgrounds, and even though our experience of the world may be vastly different. Slaves experienced a very different life to freemen in the time of Jesus, but they all found unity as believers. They were different in culture, background, education, employment prospects and language – but they were all part of the body of Christ.
We are part of the Body of Christ in Billericay, which itself is part of the worldwide Body of Christ. And just as God is both unity and diversity, so too is the Church – the Body of Christ. Verse 14: ‘Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.’ One body, one church, with many parts – and what variety!
In verse 15 to 19 St. Paul, the author addresses people in the church who feel unworthy of their place within the fellowship of believers, for whatever reason.
Perhaps there were tensions between those brought up as Jews, and those who’d been brought up as pagans but were now all together in the Church.
Perhaps there were tensions between slaves in the Church and freemen. Did some feel less worthy?
The message was clear. If my foot could speak and say, “I don’t belong to the body because I’m not a hand. Hands are far more important and desirable than feet” – that would not mean that the foot is not an important part of the body! And so too with us.
Verse 17: ‘If the whole body were an ear where would the sense of smell be?’ Verse 20: ‘As it is, there are many parts but one body.’
Have you ever said, or thought anything along the lines of, “I don’t really feel part of the Church because …”? Fill in the blank!
I’m just a no-body. I’m just a mere unimportant toe!
God says, “You are not a no-body. You are important to me and important to my Church. Now believe it and get on and do what you were made to do!
Oh, but I’m new in Billericay. I wasn’t brought up in the Church of England. I live in the poorest part of town. I failed my exams at school. I don’t speak like other people do round here. Everyone else seems to express their faith differently to me. I’m just a scabby old athlete’s foot. I’m not really part of this body.
No, no, no, no and no again!
I don’t hear people voicing those thoughts and feelings too often but they do exist, and perhaps you can identify with some of that. It might even just be a sense of not really fitting in, not having clicked with people, sticking out like a sore thumb. Well even a sore thumb is still completely part of the body.
St. Paul’s message is the same now as it was then. Do not discount yourself or exclude yourself from the body of believers, from the church. See yourself as Christ sees you – dearly loved brothers and sisters.
So after making the point that in the Body of believers there is both a unity and diversity – as there is within the Trinity – Paul counsels those who are unsure about their place within the Church.
We’re not all preachers, not all gifted public pray-ers, not all great at working with children or young people, not all musicians, not all creative with art and flowers, not all amazing listeners, not all good cooks, not all good with our hands, not all great thinkers, not all red hot at admin, not all full of spiritual insight; but some of us are, and all of us have a place and a role within the mission of God.
For many of us our main role in the Church is to be an ambassador for Christ in the workplace and we shouldn’t expect or need you to give hours and hours to what’s happening in this building. Neither should you expect it of yourself. Those with time and energy available are not more important in the Church.
God has a place for all of us because we are many parts but one body!
Then, having addressed those who feel unworthy, St. Paul addresses members of the Church who are looking down on others for whatever reason.
Perhaps some Jews were feeling superior because of their historical ties as God’s people, the covenants and the commandments. Perhaps some Greeks or non-Jews were feeling superior because they had come into a relationship with Christ without having lived a life involving constant scrutiny, countless rules and laws and directions for living. Perhaps some revelled in their freedom and almost felt sorry or pity or even disdain towards some others in the Church.
Perhaps some slaves and masters felt likewise.
And so St. Paul writes, ‘The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable’ (12: 21-22).
Have you ever thought, even for just a fleeting moment, “I wish we didn’t have to put up with that person, that group, that theology or that drummer”?
Paul Scanlon tells of the time at the Abundant Life Church when he looked around at the 600 or so church members and realised they were nearly all white and middle class – in Bradford! A lady from one of the poorest estates got saved. She experienced the love of God in her life. She became a modern day disciple of Jesus and Paul asked her to bring along some of her friends to Church. She said, “Give me a bus and I’ll bring them.”
Next Sunday she brought 30 friends to Church from the poorest part of town. Now up until that point it had been a lovely safe place to go to Church, but now, occasionally, a hand bag might disappear. There might be chatter during the long sermon and there might be some fruity choice words used during normal speech because that’s how this lady’s friends had always spoken. No longer was it simply a nice, safe, ever-so-polite place to go to church with your children. When anything went wrong the bus people were blamed and the church went from 600 to 300.
Well-meaning people came to see Paul Scanlon - to implore him to stop being so over friendly and over familiar and so ridiculously over-the-top in welcoming the bus people in to church. Many of them left, but many have since returned and repented of their attitudes towards those so-called bus-people.
The Bible says, ‘The parts we think are less honourable we treat with special honour’ (12:23).
Young and old, those who like so-called traditional and those who like so-called modern worship, Caucasian, Black, English speaking, every other language-speaking, male, female, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jew, non-Jew, those who use the Book of Common Prayer, those who prefer no liturgy at all, those with qualifications, those with none, those with artistic gifts, those who can’t read, sighted and blind, hard of hearing, able-bodied, special needs, good health, poor health, alcoholics, criminals, law-abiding citizens, all made one by our baptism into Christ Jesus - unity and diversity!
What will this Church look like as God continues to build unity and diversity within a loving community?
Verses 25 and 26: ‘There should be no division in the body …its equal parts should have equal consideration for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it’. When you suffer …I suffer!
It has been said that ‘in order to accomplish his work on earth, Jesus had a body made of flesh and blood. In order to accomplish his work today, Jesus has a body that consists of living human beings’ (Bettlinger).
Verse 27: ‘Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.’ So if you believe that Jesus is the Christ; if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord; if you confess your sins and receive the forgiveness that Christ won for you on the cross, you and I are together part of the Body of Christ; each one of great worth and great value, with a role to play.
