If you saw a chart of this church pictured as a human
body, and I asked you to pick the part of the body, an
organ, which represents who you are in the church-that best
describes how you use your gifts. then write your name at
that spot on the chart. which organ would you choose? (Think
about it for a few seconds and make your selection...)
Now could you really choose the head or a part of
the head, remembering what Paul teaches us in
Ephesians 4:
"
Speaking
the truth in love we must grow up in every
ways into him who is the HEAD, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and knit
together by every ligament with which it is
equipped as each part is working properly,
promotes the body’s growth in love."
Dr. Paul Achtemeier, who was my New
Testament professor in Seminary, writes in
the Interpretation Commentary on
Romans, "the most intimate expression of
Christian life..." occurs here, whenever
Paul uses "...that analogy of the body..."
to describe the gifts of God’s Spirit.
Of necessity, this is "a rich
plurality of gifts" used in ways and
with attitudes that promote and work toward
unity, and not discord.
It is not dependent only on a few person,
but on all of us.
From the oldest person– John
Rankin, Ruth Howell –in their
90's
to the very youngest, baptized on
the 11th of May, by Stan
Larson, Annie Jeanne Stingley,
because baptism is what initiates
you into the church and puts your
name on the church roll book.
It is grace–undeserved, free–which
provides the structures which hold those
body parts together in Christ’s living
church.
Grace is the Elmer’s Glue, the
muscles, sinews and the joints that
holds the organs together.
So that is why Paul begins the second
paragraph of this text by saying, "
For
by the grace given to me I say to everyone
among you not to think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think, but to think
with sober judgment..."
Think about how the same measure
of faith is give to each of us,
how "we have many members" but
not the same function.
We are made that way so that we
need to share our organs, our gifts.
Here is a story that illustrates the
truth of this...
Two groups on two different
airliners are traveling to two
different destinations. One plane is
bound for Heaven and the other plane
for Hell. It is meal-time and the
flight attendants bring out the food
trays for the passengers. (This
story takes place back in the days
when airliners really flew "the
Friendly Skies!") The trays of food
and the utensils are identical on
each plane: a bowl of hot, savory
beef stew, but the soup spoons are 3
feet long. Each person tries to feed
themself, but they are unable reach
the mouth and spills the hot stew
everywhere and burn themselves. On
the second plane, however, each
passenger feeds someone else and all
enjoy the meal. Now which plane do
you think is going where?
John Calvin observes that here "Paul lays down the
principle from which all the parts of holiness flow. This is
that we are redeemed by the Lord," writes Calvin, "for the
purpose of consecrating ourselves and all (of) our
member(s) to Him.
"Consecrate" - This New Testament
word reminds me of the requirement
to prepare yourself by washing your
dusty feet, your hands and your face
in the Islamic tradition before
entering the house of God, or the
mosque. In Iran where I grew up,
there were large rectangular shallow
pools which perfectly reflected the
beauty of the hand-built mosaic
artwork on the mosque.
These pools were also the pools
of purification.
Paul’s verb means to purify, to
set aside, for a holy purpose,
because we know our bodies are a
temple to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
6.19).
In another epistle, in the second half of 1
Corinthians 12, Paul gives us an in-depth treatment
of his holy anatomy, his building of the
organic church.
Exactly as he does here, his
anatomical treatise follows as an
expansion of his discussion on the gifts of
the Spirit.
He also declares that we were all
baptized into "one body,"
Ephesians 4:There is "one body,
one Spirit, one hope to which you
and I have been called, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of us all"
In his farewell address to his
disciples in the Gospel of John,
Jesus appeals for their unity,
because he knew how hard that would
be.
Or the eye would say to the hand,
"‘I have no need of you...’"
Now doesn’t this sound a little bit like
some of the conversation I have heard in
just one week in this church, with people
sounding me out on a turf war...
Are you pro-ASEP, or would you
like to see it changed?
That is like asking me when I
move in to my new house, if I am in
favor of the city signing a contract
for garbage collection with one
company, or to continue to let
residents sign up with one of the 3
companies! (Page 2)
c .I want to observe with my own
eyes and come to me own conclusions.
Rarely do we need to decide matters
in a hurry.
Is there healing needed in our
living church body? Reconciliation?
This is why this sermon based on the
lectionary text from Romans 12 is so fitting
for us this morning.
One author warns us if we depart from
God’s purpose for our particular spiritual
gift, if we depart from the purpose of the
body organ we represent, then we spoil or
destroy that gift.
At the close of the 1 Corinthians 12
passage, Paul warns us that because we are
one organic body, "if one member suffers,
all suffer...if one member is honored all
rejoice together..."
Paul opens Romans 12 by writing, "I appeal
to you, brothers and sisters..."
I beg you, I plead with you ... "by the
mercies of God..."
Remember it is by grace, only
grace, that we are able to present
our
2. body–our whole person-
as ... "a living sacrifice,"
a. Paul’s language here is that
of presenting a victim for
sacrifice...
When the Israelites in the Old
Testament captured an enemy king,
they would keep him alive until his
troops and people had been defeated.
In front of the humiliated enemy
they executed the king.
That is why when Saul was
wounded in battle with the
Philistines, after his 3
sons were dead, he begged
his armor bearer to run him
through with his own sword.
He did not want to be
captured and sacrificed in
front of his own men.
a. I love the theology of the
church that we find in the letter of
1 Peter, written to Christians who
were really suffering persecution.
b. 1 Peter 2 tells us to "
Come
to him a living stone...chosen and
precious in God’s sight, and like
living stones, let yourselves be
built into a spiritual house, to be
a holy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ."
c. Living Stones: there is
a plant discovered in South Africa,
whose leaves are split into two
perfect rounded succulent bodies.
Only the very top part pokes its
heads up through the sandy soil. A
visitor to South Africa saw them out
on the desert and tried to pick up
some of these curious stones, only
to discover they were alive,
they had a larger underground leaf
and a root. Today they are known as
LITHOPS, or "living stones," and
people love to collect them.
Do we really know the
cost of conforming to the
grace of God?
It means, Self-sacrifice
and most importantly in 1 Peter,
living as a
joyful Christian
rejoicing in hope
together.
I rejoice that you have
called me to be here with
you!
The verses here in Romans 12:1-8 do not
mention love, which Paul says in
Ephesians 4, is how we grow up into Christ
as the head of the church, we grow up in
love in every way. (Love is mentioned in
verse 9.)