1 Cor. 12-13
February 3, 2019
Epiphany 4C
Dear Saints of Our Savior~
We’ve been hearing bits and pieces from 1 Corinthians over the past few Sundays. And 1 Corinthians is always a good place for any congregation to spend time. Last week’s reading from 1 Corinthians included this rather remarkable statement: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And please notice that St. Paul does not say that you symbolize the body of Christ, or that you represent the body of Christ, or even that you correspond to the body of Christ. No, Paul’s words are unambiguous: You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Paul used a lot of ink explaining to the Corinthians how each part of the body of Christ is a vital part. Paul compared individual Christians with individual body parts: Feet and hands, eyes and ears, God has arranged all these many parts into one body. Each part serves a purpose. Each part is valuable. Each part is connected to all the other parts.
It’s kind of a fun exercise to speculate about which part you are. Which part are you? The beating heart of the congregation? A bicep or quadricep, providing power and muscle for all the heavy lifting? Are you the “brains” of the operation, always making thoughtful
One thing’s for sure: we are all very different. As you look around at the members of the body of Christ gathered here this morning, it doesn’t take long to notice the differences. We’ve got introverts and extroverts, republicans and democrats, young and old. There are great differences in education and income and interests. We’re as different from one another as tonsils are different from toenails—each with different roles and responsibilities and gifts for our life together as the body of Christ. The miracle is how the Holy Spirit takes this diverse rag-tag mishmash of quirky people, and incorporates it into the body of Christ—into the one, holy, Christian and apostolic church.
The congregation at Corinth was even more diverse than we are. They had rich members and poor members, slaves and free, Jews and Gentile converts. Many of them had received special gifts from the Holy Spirit—gifts for teaching, for working miracles, for healing, for administration, for speaking in tongues. Few congregations have ever been on the receiving end of such a rich variety of spiritual gifts.
But wherever God richly blesses His church, the devil puts in overtime. Or as Martin Luther once put it, “Where God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel.” The rich diversity of spiritual gifts among the Corinthians—which should have been a source of blessing and thanksgiving—became a cause of division between them. It’s so predictable! There really is nothing new under the sun.
The body became divided. Some members developed an inferiority complex; while others developed a superiority complex. “Well, I can’t work any miracles and I can’t speak in tongues. So I guess that means I’m just a callous on the foot of the body of Christ. I don’t matter.” Meanwhile, the members with the more spectacular gifts concluded that they were more important than everyone else—that they were both the brains and the brawn of the body of Christ and that everybody else should just step aside and get out the way and watch the magic happen. This is why Paul wrote, “You—all of you—are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
This is also why the Holy Spirit led Paul to devote an entire section of His letter to the topic of love. For love is the lifeblood of the body of Christ. Love is the lifeblood of this and every Christian congregation. If we don’t have love among all the parts of the body of Christ, then, Paul says, we are nothing. We may possess powers of prophecy, we may possess faith that moves mountains, we may possess knowledge and understanding and insight—we may know our catechisms forward and backward—but if we don’t have this love for one another, then nothing else matters. Love makes the body of Christ function smoothly and efficiently.
This love, of course, is agape. Agape is unlike every modern notion of what love is. Agape love has nothing to do with my feelings or my emotions. This love isn’t just a sentimental feeling. No, this love is a sacrificial love—a self-giving love. It’s a love that takes action in the form of words and deeds.
And this love is absolutely necessary between ALL the members of the body of Christ. It’s a love that says, “You matter more than me. What can I do for you? How can I help you?” It’s a love that gets shared between all the members of the body—not just the members you know and like, not just the members who are similar to you, but also those who are different, those you don’t know, those who can sometimes be cantankerous. We should love the toenails and the tonsils as much as we love the brains and the brawn. Or, if I could put it another way, every person in this body of Christ should matter to you. When they are hurting, it should be as if your own body is injured. When they are honored, your own heart should swell with pride.
Now, it’s right here that I, as a preacher, must recognize the limits of my power. I can’t create this kind of love at Our Savior. I can’t force you to be patient and kind, not to envy or to boast or to insist on your own way. I can’t even create this kind of love in my own life, so I certainly can’t create it among all of you. Nor can I expect you—even with all your good intentions—to extend this kind of amazing love to all the other members of the body of Christ. I can’t inspire you or teach you to love like this.
Love like this—agape love—can only be given to you. The ability to love like Jesus . . . can only come . . . from Jesus. And from Jesus it does come—to you and you and you. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into [this] one body.” Whether you are a nose or an ear or a finger in the body of Christ—you are a vital part of the body because you are baptized. You are washed. You are cleansed. You are chosen by God. You become a vessel of this agape love on a daily basis, when the Holy Spirit who lives in you drowns the Old Adam so that the “Jesus” in you can arise to love God and to love your neighbor.
Today’s epistle reading is sometimes referred to as the great “love chapter” of the Bible. Here Paul lays out the kind of serving, sacrificial love that God gives between us as members of Christ’s body. But today’s epistle also shows us the love of Jesus—the kind of love that Jesus Christ has for you personally. In other words, it’s not merely about the love we should have, but the love that Jesus already has for us. St. John wrote: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.” God so loved you and me that He sent His one and only Son to die for all the loveless thoughts, words, and deeds of sinners like you and me. It’s there on the cross that we see love in action. There on the cross we see self-giving love—sacrificial love. In Jesus we have a love that keeps no record of sins. Jesus is love in human flesh. And this love is for you, no matter which part you are in the body of Christ.
Today once again the body of Christ gathers to be nourished. And Jesus has nothing but the best for you: His own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Do you feel like your faith is weak? Do you feel like your hope is fading? Does it seem like your love has grown cold? Then come to the Supper of Jesus’ body and blood where faith is strengthened, where hope is renewed and where love is given in abundance. Now we see in a mirror dimly; we struggle to make sense of it all. But the day is coming when we won’t need faith any longer. And we won’t need hope any longer. For we will be face to face with Jesus, embraced in His love which never ends.
You are the body of Christ. It matters not what part you are—kneecap or knuckle, ankle or eyebrow—you have a place and you have a purpose in the body of Christ. Don’t feel inferior. Don’t feel superior. For no one is more loved by the Lord than you are. You are the body of Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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