Sermon for Sunday, March 7, 2004  

YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST

4th in a Series on "Jesus, Paul and the Way of the Cross

By
Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

 

Scripture:  I Corinthians 11:17-29    

¹⁷ Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹ Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine. ²⁰ When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord's supper. ²¹ For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk. ²² What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you! ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." ²⁵ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.  ²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.

I want to tell you a couple of stories that will illustrate the idea that Paul has in these verses from Corinthians.

Last Tuesday I went by the hospital to visit with Wade Jones who had just had his third surgery in a period of several weeks. The surgery had been very successful - it was done to repair a small error in another surgery that had occurred just two days earlier - and he is home now and recuperating very well.

In that visit Wade and Eleanor expressed their great appreciation for the care and love of their fellow members in this church who have been surrounding them with prayer and with phone calls and visits expressing support and concern. Wade is familiar to you as one of our ushers and greeters and he and Eleanor have become very active in one of our Seafarer groups that meet regularly. They have intentionally involved themselves in ministries beyond Sunday worship so that they have really established a community and relationships here - built an extended family in this congregation, which is what we are trying to do at St. Andrew. And you have been for them what Paul sees to be missing in the young Corinthian congregation - you have been the Body of Christ for them, a caring, loving, and supportive family of faith.

The other story is from this week as well. On Thursday morning here in the sanctuary, we celebrated the life of Barbara MacDonald of our congregation who died suddenly a week ago after a cerebral hemorrhage. She had been recovering extremely well from her heart surgery just a few weeks earlier and was planning to be well enough to go with us to Greece in April. Barbara has also been so active in so many areas of congregational life here at St. Andrew. She was one of our regular office volunteers and helped serve lunch at the monthly senior lunch that we sponsor here for seniors from our community. And she also was active in one of our seafarer groups and was known in that group for her culinary skills, especially with chocolate cake.

Barbara's five sons and daughters who are not part of this congregation commented to us about how cared for they have felt in the past few days from the folks in this church - our UMW, our office staff, and other members who have told of your love and appreciation for Barbara and offered prayers and condolences.

Paul would say about what has happened in these two stories that you have really been the body of Christ for these persons. That concept of the congregation as the body of Christ is unique to Paul and he says in several places that it is not just the communion bread that is the body of Christ, it is the congregation itself.

Paul is writing to a congregation in Corinth that he is deeply concerned about. They have split into factions - have you ever been in a church like that where there are deep divisions and arguments and factions? He is trying to help them overcome their divisions - not that they need to agree about everything but be able to work together in spite of differences. He says in the first verses we heard that when they come together for communion that because of how they are doing it, they are not really celebrating the Lord's Supper. This is when the Lord's Supper was a full meal and not just the smaller symbols of bread and cup that most churches use today. What is the concern that you heard him raise? He says this can't be the Lord's Supper because some of you are getting there early and eating all the food!! And not only that, you are drinking all the wine and getting drunk. And then when others come in for this spiritual meal, all the food is gone and some of you are passed out!

This is not the body of Christ, he says; you are not realizing that you are all connected to each other and that you are to be considerate of each other and courteous to each other. If you don't care that some people are stuffed and others are hungry, then you have not "discerned Christ's body" and you are eating and drinking judgment on yourselves. When some people eat and others go hungry, that is NOT the body of Christ.

Paul's picture of church is that we are a community where each person is important and where we are to look out for each other and be just as considerate for each other as we are for ourselves. This congregation understands much of that and that's why I told the stories at the beginning. This does not mean that we could not be doing a better job with every person and one reason I can tell about Wade and Eleanor and Barbara is that they chose to get involved in places beyond Sunday morning. That will be helpful to you also for you to build community. But this congregation is serious about being extended family for each other - family is one of our core values - and we want to keep getting better at that. Let me know if you need to experience that here in some stronger ways.

The folks that are really good at caring for each other in their church are the Mormons. They do an excellent job, from what I hear, of surrounding each other in times of need. It is one of the things I admire about the Mormons in addition to their strong commitment to inviting others to faith and their disciplined emphasis on generosity and tithing.

One of the observations that was made in the first two centuries of the Christian movement was about how the people in those churches really looked out for each other and took care of each other when anyone had a problem. The common observation was this: see how those Christians love one another. They are being the body of Christ for each other.

There are two other ways Paul uses this unique concept. He also says later in this letter that people in a congregation have different talents and abilities, and that is good. We even have different opinions and ideas and that is good. Wouldn't it be boring if we all thought and felt the same!! We would not learn anything from each other. He says we need each other's differences!! Together with our different talents and perspectives we can do some great things. And, he says in our call to worship, because the hand is not a foot, it is still just as important. Both are important.

A congregation is strong only if it is made up of people who are different. We have people who are religious liberals and religious conservatives, people who are Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and Independents, people who swear by the Wall Street Journal and who swear by the New York Times, people who worship chocolate ice cream and others who worship Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt.

Paul says this is good and we need each other and our unity is not in our agreement about everything, our unity is in Christ. And unity is not the same as uniformity. Our United Methodist General Conference is meeting in Pittsburgh in April and one of the critical arguments there will be whether we need to be uniform in our beliefs to be unified, or in Wesley's words whether we need to be able to think alike in order to love alike. Paul says, because we are like a body, we will have differences, but if we remember that Christ is the head and we are his body, we will be OK even in our diversity.

The last thing Paul means by this important concept of the body of Christ is that we are not only the body of Christ when we are together as a group, we are also Christ's body when we leave and are about our work life and other life this week. And like it or not, people will make judgments about Christianity and about Christ based on our behavior and our actions and our words. I find that sobering for myself and I find it discouraging when religious people have been perceived to be self righteous and intolerant and judgmental and legalistic. Marcus Borg says his university students who have not grown up in a church see Christians as intolerant, anti intellectual, judgmental, moralistic, and self-righteous.  Do you understand why that perception is present? I do.

And at times I almost don't want to be identified as a religious person because that is a common stereotype and I understand why that stereotype is there. I read about the airline pilot a few weeks ago who after the plane was in the air, asked all the Christians to raise their hands and then instructed people sitting beside those folks to listen to the witness the Christians should make. I was disturbed to hear about that because that was totally out of line for the airline to allow that and because I don't believe in that kind of forced evangelism. And if I had been on that plane, I don't think I would have raised my hand because what I mean by Christianity and what that pilot meant are pretty different.

Paul says you represent Christ when you leave this place. You become, through your actions, the Body of Christ in the world and you are a witness like it or not, of what it means to be a Christian. And some people will make judgments, right or wrong, about Christ based on your life. One of the reasons I encouraged our book group to read Lance Armstrong's new book is that he has had some very negative experiences with church folk and I think it is important for us to hear how others perceive us some time.

You and I will receive symbols of Christ's body when we come to his table; and then we will leave to be Christ's body in his world. What will people learn about Christ from us by what we say and how we act and who we are?

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