We Are One Body in Christ
1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 31a
Ok so I didn’t get the rousing response to the opening of the sermon last week with the Wonder Twins from the late 70’s and their ability to activate their superpowers by fist bumping and declaring “Wonder Twins Power, Activate”! Which led us to our discussion about the spiritual powers, gifts that we use to Manifest the Spirit of God. So, I have decided to go a different route to get you primed for this week’s lesson by getting you singing and doing some movements.
As you know, we have a 3-year-old grandson living with us and over the past year and he has been coming home from school with new songs that he likes to sing. One song in particular, came to mind as I was working on our lesson for today where, as we know from the message scripture, Paul uses the parts of the human body as a metaphor for how we as Christians fit, operate and cooperate within the Body of Christ.
So unlike last week when you acted like you didn’t know the cartoon Wonder Twins, I know that you all know this song and the motions that go along with it. So, if you are able get up on your feet if not you can remain seated, and join me in the oldie but goodie, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!
Our lesson today comes immediately after our lesson last week where we learned that each of us as believers has been uniquely gifted by God through the Holy Spirit with the capacity to make a contribution to the body of Christ. Those unique spiritual gifts from God, along with our own unique personality makes each child of God as unique and special as the flakes of snow that fall from the heavens above. Paul told them that there are a variety of gifts given and each one of us receives at least one spiritual gift and none are better or more important than any others because all come through the same Spirit, and they are all intended to benefit the entire Body of Christ.
In our lesson today Paul reminds us, the body of Christ “is not one member but many” and all of us are to use our gifts to serve one another so that together we can make a significant difference in our world. In order to help us understand this, Paul uses the analogy of a human body because it is a fitting description of the Church and a clear and relatable representation of how the members of the church in Corinth should be working together for the purpose of God. There is diversity in all the parts of the body but yet there is unity of purpose. We Are One Body in Christ!
Paul is telling the Corinthians that each of them have unique gifts from God empowering unique personalities, which leads to millions of uniquely gifted members of God’s family. But the true transformational power of God’s plan is not that we can or ought to work alone with our individual gifts to try and change the world but rather that His divine transformational power comes from the combining and enabling all the diversity of gifted souls into a unified body that brings all of the grace and mercy of the Father into the changing of the world. We Are One Body in Christ!
Brothers and sisters, the Church Universal, and this church as we noted last week, is the visible manifestation of Christ in the world. Paul is telling us that We Are One Body in Christ. It is one entity yet is made of up many different people with many different gifts.
Just as each part of the Body serves a specific function, for example the eye does not do what the ear does, the foot does not so too God gives believers different gifts to fulfill different functions through the collective influence of the entire Body of Christ.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The body has all sorts of parts including Head, shoulders, knees and toes, as well as eyes and ears and mouths and noses yet all of these parts together make up one entity, a body with defined purpose.
It is more than a figure of speech to say that the church is the Body of Christ because together our bodies, mine and yours are literally the body of the church. Each one of us is a pillar, a foundational stone, a girder, a floor board, a window for the light within to be seen by the world, a bell tolling out the truth of God’s grace and mercy beckoning others to come and join the masterpiece. God has given us a visual aid, our own body that we live in, to walk around in, and to serve others through to help us understand the meaning of the church as the Body of Christ. We Are One Body in Christ.
Through Unity in the Body we believe that God The Creator, Jesus Christ His Son, our Savior and the Holy Spirit enable us to be the physical hands and feet of a loving God reaching a world in need. Dear ones, physically we constitute the means by which Christ functions within the world. It is a body with many members, and yet it is only one Body. We Are One Body in and through Christ!
So how did we become part of that body? Well, we were not born into it as infants and the Body of Christ unfortunately does not consist of everybody in the world. It consists of only the ones that have chosen to be included in it, included by accepting the offer of grace found in the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul tells us we become part of that One Body when we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into it when we commit our lives to Christ.
This is the “baptism with the Holy Spirit” announced by John the Baptist at Jesus’ baptism in the Gospel lesson that we read two weeks ago, it was announced by Jesus himself, fulfilled for the first time on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came upon the disciples and to the bewildered, listening crowd. Thousands of Jews were converted that day by the Spirit and they became part of One Body in Christ!
The promise of the Baptism in the Spirit is continually fulfilled whenever anybody comes to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. It was fulfilled when each one of us accepted Jesus Christ. The Spirit baptizes every believer into unity in the Body and dwells within us from then on. That is how you and I became part of the Body of Christ.
Paul goes on to stress the need for every member of the body to use their gifts just as they have been ordained! The eye needs the hand and the head needs the feet. It takes every member of the body for it to function properly.
The same is true in the church. We are all knit together as a co-dependent organism. What I do affects you, and what you do affects me. While we are many members, we are yet but one body and collectively members with one another, We Are One Body in Christ. Each person in the body helps hold the whole body together and every person in the body according to their gifts, ministries and abilities causes the growth of the whole body (Ephesians 4:16).
Hear the Good News my friends……
Paul tells us today that We Are One Body in Christ, we are one part of many, each special, precious, purpose filled and loved! Each part with a specific function that is necessary to the body as a whole. The parts are different for their unique purpose, yet in their differences they must work together.
Christians must avoid the mistakes that the Corinthian made being too proud of the gifts and purposes that they were given, or thinking they have nothing to give to the body of believers. Instead of comparing ourselves to one another, we should use our different gifts, together, to spread the Good News of salvation.
Dear ones, the church is composed of many types of people from a variety of backgrounds with a multitude of gifts and abilities. Despite the differences, all believers have one thing common – faith in Christ. All believers are baptized by one Holy Spirit into one body of believers which is the church. We don’t lose our individual identities but though the Holy Spirit achieve an overriding oneness, We Are One Body in Christ.
During a rehearsal at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, the renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini offered some constructive criticism to the featured soloist. However, she was too proud to accept his comments regarding her “gift” and expressed her resentment by exclaiming in anger, “I am the star of this performance!” Toscanini responded wisely and firmly, “Madame, in this performance there are no stars.”
The maestro had the same point as Paul is making today. The soloists, the members of the chorus, the orchestra and the conductor, all had to work together as One or there could be no beautiful music. This is also true of the church.
Just like the parts of our physical body combine together to bring about great works so too do the uniquely gifted souls in the church bring about divine works. All of us as believers have our own unique traits, individual duties and our individual passions, but coming together We Are One Body in Christ working together for the good of God’s people and to bring about the Kingdom of God.
Friends God is not looking for soloists, He is looking for all of the individuals of chorus and the orchestra to unite together, to bring their individual talents and gifts together to create His masterpiece. Dear ones, I encourage each of you to join one another in that great chorus of Oneness, along with the host of Heavenly angels to bring harmony to a broken and needy world. Head and shoulders, knees and toes, eyes and ears, mouth and nose we are all precious and vital in His sight. We Are one Body in Christ! Amen