So It Is With Christ

Sermon for 3 Epiphany RCL 1/24/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

My friends, Saint Paul has gotten a bad rap in recent years. Over the last few decades of biblical research, St. Paul has been written off as someone who fundamentally changed the Hebrew character of the early Christian communities by inserting foreign Greek ideas.

Well, it is certainly clear that St. Paul’s insights and leadership did momentously change the future of the Church. But I believe that it would be a travesty to place a negative judgment upon the particulars of his teaching.

Here today, in our Epistle reading, we are given a distinct example of one of St. Paul’s signature contributions to the Church. Most of us here have heard this passage about the Body of Christ so many times that it feels quite commonplace and familiar and, thus, we miss the truly radical nature of its message.

Think back through all four canonical Gospels and all of the teachings of Jesus. Nowhere is there any suggestion even remotely like this. Nowhere does Jesus suggest that his disciples would serve as the manifestation of his own Body. The only clear reference Jesus makes to his Body is at the last supper, and the reference here is directly related to the Eucharist: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

So where they did Paul come up with this new idea? It was common for Greek writers to speak of their city-states as one body politic with a plurality of many parts, each of which had a specific role to play in the community. Surely, as an educated Roman citizen, Paul had heard of such analogies. But here he applied this concept in a quite different way, on a deeper and mystical level. Here he applies it also directly to Christ.

Tomorrow, January 25, is the date on which the Western Church remembers and celebrates the Conversion of St. Paul. This event was his inspiration behind this remarkable analogy of the Body of Christ. Do you remember what the Lord said to him, still named Saul at the time, on the road to Damascus? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Why are you persecuting me? Not, why are you killing my disciples? But, why are you persecuting me? As St. Paul meditated over the years on this event, he came to understand that, although the resurrected body of the Jesus was now invisible in the heavens, it is all of his baptized disciples together who make his physical presence manifest here on the earth.

Praise God for St. Paul’s vision and insight. "For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And so, in beautiful words now famous, does St. Paul remind us of our true identity. We are together the Body of Christ, and each one of us has a crucial and vital role to play.

Here in our Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry, we are embarking on a new adventure in ministry. This will be a work in progress for quite some time as we discern together how best to integrate all of our gifts and talents together for effective ministry to one another and to the wider community. But this much is clear: it will certainly require some effort from each one of us in this community.

Church is not a spectator sport. No one here is an innocent bystander! We are all players on the field, and it is vital that each one of us knows our role and is diligent to perform that role at a high level.

Therefore, in order to ensure that we are all working toward the building of an active, integrated Christian community here, I would like each of you to turn or move to the person sitting closest to you and in one minute describe to your neighbor what role you believe God has given you to perform in this community. Tell your neighbor what key position you are called to play here. What part of the Body of Christ are you? Let’s do that now for just a few minutes.

After a few minutes of discussion in the pews: “The unity of the body consists in the fact that its many members supply the things which the other parts lack.” So wrote Ambrosiaster in the fourth century, and his insight is true.

I want you to know that as I prepared for today, I realized a simple and yet very profound mistake that I have been making over the last few months. If you look at the front of the Sunday bulletins, I have made it a point to name our Presiding Bishop and the Bishop of New Jersey. They are vital to what we do here, because they are the physical manifestations of the apostles, our tangible link to our apostolic heritage. And then my name is listed as the Vicar. But something is missing. Something so basic, so simple, so obvious. I have forgotten to name the ministers here in our Shared Ministry. But from now on, this will change. Next week, and the weeks after, you will now see the correct designation placed there. It will say, Ministers – Comma – All baptized members. For this is what you are: the ministers of the Gospel in this time and place. “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

Thanks be to God. Amen.