WE ARE ONE BODY
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – August 14, 2016
If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you know there’s been a lot of activity in the pool this week. NBC has been showing quite a bit of Olympic swimmers like Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky. And rightly so. They’ve been some of the most dominant and successful swimmers not only at these Olympics, but really in all of history. But someone else in the pool has been getting some attention too. Earlier this week, a reporter for the New York Times tweeted a picture of an Olympic lifeguard sitting by the pool, along with the caption, “If you ever feel useless just remember that someone is a lifeguard for the Olympic swimming events.” He was pointing out what seems pretty obvious – that the best swimmers in the world are not likely to need help swimming. But the law in Rio requires that a lifeguard be on duty for a pool that big, so someone has to be the lifeguard. They just won’t really be doing anything. Someone else shared the same picture and said, “I imagine being a lifeguard at the Olympics is about as pointless as being a weatherman in San Diego.” In other words, being a lifeguard at the Olympics isn’t all that hard or important.
Some have been saying that they would want a job like that. But I don’t know if I believe them because, honestly, who would you rather be – someonelike Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, whose work makes people stand up and cheer because they’re so excited to see them do something, or someone people only talk about when they want to show what it looks like when someone’s life, work, and existence don’t really mean anything?
How do you evaluate whether or not yours does? At the Olympics it’s easy. If you did something really well, they put a medal around your neck. But you don’t see too many people around here wearing medals for going to work every day, paying your bills on time, checking in on your parents, or for being kind to someone who didn’t deserve it. Michael Phelps lives in a big house and gets lots of money from endorsements because he can swim in a straight line faster than you or I. Lots of people believe that’s worth something. How do you evaluate whether or not you are?
Today is our Family of Faith Sunday. On the front of our bulletin you can see the last verse of today’s sermon text – “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” In other words, today is a day on which we say that you are incredibly important, that each person in the family matters. But have you ever wondered what that’s based on? Do pastors just say that so that everyone feels good? Do they really just mean the people who give a lot of money or volunteer their time to serve on a committee? Maybe some churches do. But God is the one who said this. So today, whether you more often feel like Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, or the lifeguard who’s watching them, we’re going to let God define what your true value is.
12 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.13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.16 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 cease to be part of the body.17 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?18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
The Olympics are a really good illustration of what the Apostle Paul is talking about here. Do you know how you win the Olympics? Individuals can’t win the Olympics. Only countries can win the Olympics. And your country wins by winning the most total medals. It doesn’t matter if the medals are gold, silver, or bronze. It doesn’t matter if they were won in swimming, judo, rugby, or gymnastics. It doesn’t matter if the medal was won by a man or woman, by a 16-year-old table tennis player or a 52-year-old equestrian. What counts is everyone’s combined work. And by that definition, not only is the United States winning the current Olympics in Rio, but if you combine all the Olympic medals over the history of all the Olympics, the United States is entirely dominating this competition. Coming into these Olympics, the United States as a team has won more than twice as many medals as the second place team (Russia). The Olympics emphasizes the combined work of the team. Paul emphasizes the same thing here. As you look to determine your personal value, It’s necessary to look at the work we accomplish together. He compares our individual lives to individual parts of a human body.
So I would like you to do something. I want you to pick one part of the human body that you consider to be the most important. You can only pick one. Now I want you to raise your hand if the body part you chose is something you can see right now, like your eyeball, fingers, or your skin. Now raise your hand if it’s something that you currently can’t see (like your heart or your brain). I want you to raise your hand again if the body part you chose is the Plica Semilunaris. When was the last time you thanked God for the Plica Semilunaris? Unless you like having your tears and sweat drain directly onto your eyeball, I guaranty you that you’re grateful you have one.
This little activity helps us remember what it is that your value is NOT based on as a Christian. God does not base your value on how visible you are or on how much honor or attention you normally get. In fact, I’d like you to think of one more thing. I want you to think of a football game. I want you to choose the most important person in a football game. How many of you chose ‘the guy who picks out what type of paint will be used to paint the field’? Because that guy, all by himself, was powerful enough to stop an entire football game from happening. Last Sunday night, he did not allow the Packers to move one single yard or score one single point. I’m guessing no one paid all that money to go to that game because they wanted to see the guy who makes decisions on the paint, and yet, I think everyone found out that his work is pretty valuable and important.
Just like your work in the body of Christ is. And take note that Paul is not talking about your place only in this congregation. You are part of a body that is much bigger. He says that you were brought into this body at your baptism, a baptism that connected your heart with the hearts of every other person who has been baptized throughout the whole world. That’s the body. He’s talking about our collective work as Christians in the world. And you represent that body anywhere your faith is active in the world - not only at church, but also in society, at your job, and in your home. And as you look to determine our value in all these places, Paul spends most of his time talking about two major mistakes Christians make when trying to determine whether or not their life means anything. Firstly, he mentions the mistake of thinking less of yourself than you really should.
Paul gives the hypothetical example of the foot looking up to the hand and thinking that because it isn’t a hand, it isn’t really all the important. Or the ear looking at the eye and coming to the same conclusion. It’s ok to look up to others and notice the things they do well, even the things that you don’t. But if in looking up to them we look down on ourselves or think that we’re not all that important compared to them, then we’re forgetting a very simple point about how a body functions.
The reason Michael Phelps wins all those races is because every part of his body is working together at the same time, all doing the exact thing God designed them to do. His feet can bend 15 degrees more than the average person’s. How many races would he win if all the parts of his body looked at his feet and thought, “Ooh, I wish I flutter up and down like them,” stopped doing what they were supposed to do and tried to flutter up and down really quickly? Michael Phelps wouldn’t be able to win anything.
Apply that to how Christians are supposed to make an impact in this world. The best way for our body of believers to go out and make a big splash in the world is not for all of us to go out and do the same thing –everyone be really good at sharing your faith, everyone be really outgoing, everyone go learn to play the organ. It’s for each part of the body to be who God made them to be. If you’re a parent, be the most godly one you can be. Same thing if you’re a child, a student, a friend, a neighbor, a grandparent, a retired person, or even unemployed. You don’t have to go out and be or do something different in order to be valuable. Paul reminds us that God designed each part of the body, just where he wanted them to be. He knows where you are, and he knows how valuable you are, exactly where you are, even if you don’t always see it immediately.
The second major mistake Paul points out is the opposite of thinking too little of yourself. It’s thinking too much of yourself. He uses the illustration of the head looking down on the hand, and the eye looking down on the feet, saying “Well, since you don’t do what I do, you’re not quite as valuable as me.” This is what many characterize as pride. And there many signs of pride. Some of them would be: looking down on those who don’t quite measure up to your level of success or education. Being judgmental toward those who don’t look like you, dress like you, act like you, work as hard as you, or raise kids the same way you do. Pride can be only talking about the things you’re good at so everyone thinks you’re good at everything. A prideful heart often gets defensive when being criticized since pride often thinks it never has to learn anything. Being a perfectionist is a sign of pride. So is interrupting someone, or checking your phone, when they’re speaking to you. Never admitting you are wrong is a sign of pride. There are any number of signs up pride, including this one: hearing all these signs of pride and thinking about someone else who needs to hear them while feeling thankful in your heart that you are not like them.
Pride is really at the heart of everything Paul is saying here. Because whether you’re thinking too highly of yourself or thinking too low of yourself, in both bases, you’re still thinking about … yourself. And whether that causes you to disengage from the body and stop working because you don’t think you’re valuable, or it makes you run ahead alone, thinking the body would be better off if we could leave certain parts behind, in both cases, you’re preventing the whole body from working together. You’re hurting the body. And in every case, you’re hurting a body that’s already hurting.
Do you know some ways the body of Christ has been hurt this week? Let me tell you a few. Just this week within the body of Christ, someone’s friend committed suicide. Someone’s father died. An 8-year-old had her third brain surgery. Someone’s retina detached from their eye. Someone’s nephew was killed. A marriage is breaking apart. A parent found out their daughter thinks she might be a lesbian. The news from the doctor wasn’t at all encouraging. These are just some things I know happened this week within the body of Christ, some within the Garden Homes family, and some in our extended family. You may or may not have known about these. I’m guessing you could actually add to the list. And when we put them all together, I think I can confidently say there is one thing each part of the body has in common. We all hurt. Either from self-destructive pride, or from the regular pain of life. We all hurt. And how easy is it for a body to work when it’s already hurt?
Do you remember Joannie Rochette? You have to go back 6 years, to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Joannie was a figure skater from Canada. She started skating when she was 2 years old. That’s when her mother first took her out on the rink and noticed her daughter had a pretty amazing gift. Since the Olympics were taking place in her home country, it meant Mom was going to be able to attend pretty easily, along with a lot of other friends and family. Joannie’s mom arrived in Vancouver two days before the first day of skating. Later that same day, she suffered a sudden heart attack and died. She was 55. Some of us have lost our moms or others when we weren’t quite ready to say goodbye. And so you know it’s not real easy is it to move forward when something like that happens. And yet Joannie did. She dedicated her skating at those Olympics to her mother and ended up winning the bronze medal – the best she ever did at any Olympic competition. She was hurting. And yet she still won.
And that’s not the first time something like that has happened. Jesus hurt too. It hurt when they put a whip in his back. It hurt when they pounded nails in his skin. It hurt hanging on a cross. And yet the reason he kept going toward that pain, when he could have pulled out and no one would have blamed him, is because he wanted us to see what a heart that is completely empty of pride really looks like. It looks like a sacrifice that coveredover and forgave every prideful sin that could ever separate us from him, and it looks like a victory over death on Easter morning that guaranteed you will one day be given something far better than a gold medal. You will be given relief from all your hurt and from every pain as we rest forever right next to him; the only one whose body gets to walk through life and death expecting that we are going to win.
And until we finally see that happen, verse 25 identified a wonderful goal for us to put into practice. “No division in the body … Equal concern for each other.” When one person cries, none of our eyes are dry. When one person rejoices, it’s as if we all won the prize. In other words, we’re in this together, looking at each other and treating each otherexactly as our Jesus already did; while at the same time looking at yourself and seeing the same thing God does when he looks in your direction – the valuable part of Christ’s body you already are,whose work, life, and existenceis already making the best kind of difference.
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