For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
1 Cor 12:12-26
Note: this sermon was preached in East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church in Craftsbury, Vermont. Sermons are most meant for the people they are directly preached to, in community, and so some things here are particular to our church.
How are you?
It’s cold out there in the world; the weather is chilly, too.
So how are you? And who are you? I don’t mean the questions you might ask at a party, or you answered for a job, but what Paul was asking in our reading today: who are we, whose are we, and how are we to be?
His Corinth friends had trouble answering those questions. As he indicated earlier in his letter, some said, “‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Peter’…Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:12-13) Today, I wonder how much anything has changed. Our divisions, our factions, our tribes, and our identities aren’t the same, but who do you think you belong to?
This famous passage on the body of Christ was written to a divided church in Corinth. I’d say it was perfect for our times and perhaps even this week, but truthfully, it’d be hard to find a time it wasn’t relevant for the Church. The Corinthians were fighting, and they would keep fighting for decades. Not even the pure outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this letter could solve all their problems.
Yet even that became a blessing; through these letters, the rest of the Church has reaped the gifts of their problems. Strangely, we must even thank God they were fighting, for it wasn’t for all their issues, we would not have these words that would become so foundational for the Church.
So in the greater mystery of the body of Christ that is not just here and now, but stretches all the way back in time, this group of people who just couldn’t get along were playing a role—God “used the whole buffalo.” It’s like what Nehemiah would say of some of the problems they encountered in returning from exile: “But our God turned the curse into a blessing.” (Neh 13:2) And God has turned the curse of the Corinthians’ divisions into our blessing. May it be so again in our time.
The Blessings From the Curse
Those of us who grew up in the Church may be so familiar with this 1 Corinthians passage that some of it seems obvious, but for me, it is powerful every time, both in its reading and in its message: the body is individuality working together in unity. There is no part that can be abandoned, and in fact, the weaker parts are the most honorable, and the most vulnerable parts are those afforded the greatest glory in Christ’s body. And so together in Christ, we neither erase difference nor deny the importance of working in a harmonious relationship, for musical harmony is only possible when you can hear individualized notes. And whoever you are and whenever you’re reading this, you have a unique gift to offer Christ’s church that only you can offer in this time and place, and we need you.
But something I didn’t notice from this passage until this week was that the Body is not just parts, but a process—in fact, lots of smaller processes, and sub-processes within those processes. What makes a body a living body isn’t that it merely has parts, it’s that they are working together, not merely exiting but in a coherent relationship. The how in Christ’s body is lots of living, breathing, hows working together. When you need to sleep, what happens to (In Paul’s words) “the seeing”? It takes a break. When you're breathing, what happens to “the swallowing”? It pauses. And when you’re in pain, what happens to “the speaking”? It…says some words it usually wouldn’t.
A healthy body is one that sometimes has tension, sometimes even inflames itself. The fact that disagreement exists in the nation and the greater Church is not the problem. It’s the how that makes for a healthy body or a sick body. It is often a sicker body if we’re scared to ever have any tension, if we kept all our opinions to ourselves, if we never spoke the truth in love, and certainly if we maintained silence in the face of abuse as too many Christians have done in the name of unity.
One of the amazing things about the body is that sometimes, processes that appear to put your body parts against one another are actually helping the body maintain its healthy unity. When you’re sick, your body might need to raise its temperature and cause your nose to run because it senses something that truly threatens the body. Some of the deadliest diseases that can happen to a body is when the immune system stops working, almost as if the body stops being able to disagree with itself.
So, even in times of severe national division that often filters down to the local, perhaps there is something in the “curse” of our polarized times that is a process working itself out. Perhaps there are even gifts in the curse. If it weren’t for the Early Church’s fighting over circumcision or dietary laws, where would Christ’s body be?
Of course, we also know that many churches have not just schismed, but collapsed, and the devil is in the details of that “how.” Today, the how of the world is as broken as I’ve ever seen. No matter what tribe you’re in, there is plenty of broken ugliness in our “hows.” Mercy is weakness, forgiveness is for chumps, apologizing is for losers, and genuine humility doesn’t drive internet traffic like pride and selfishness do. And the more and more we become digitally discipled, the more and more we risk becoming members not of Christ’s body, broken for you, but members of purely illusory factions, only existing in the digital ether, prone to every kind of manipulation over and over. While we in our rural church might well be doing better than most, so many don’t know what Paul reminded his friends, “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:12)
So how should we, the body of Christ, be different? What does a healthy immune system look like? As Paul would tell his friends in Ephesus:
“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace….speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way 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 building itself up in love…speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear…Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Ephesians 4:2-3, 15-16, 25-27, 29, 31-32
Oh, that’s all? Not hard, huh? Of course it is. Yet it is the standard Christ asks of us.
This Part of the Body
That said, I want to say that I’m grateful that our church here in Craftsbury actually does do so much of this well. While we are connected to them in Christ, we aren’t like the congregation in Corinth. When I read Paul's words above, I’ve seen those things here. I know there have been hurts and disagreements and differences, and that some of them may still exist, but I also know that we have worked through them. And that when we look at the past year and look to the year ahead, there is so much healthiness in this part of Christ’s body to celebrate.
So, my hope for us in our congregation in Craftsbury is that, like Nehemiah, our God will turn the curse of the state of things into a blessing. I’m grateful that this is one of the dwindling politically purple places in this country, which allows us to show people who we are through how we are. This church already has done so with processes in this body that were going long before I got here. And as we keep following Jesus together, I hope that you discover more and more what your spiritual gifts are and that we flourish in them together, not for our own sake, but for the sake of our neighbor who we are called to love.
It’s a cold world and a confusing world. We have lots of knowledge, opinions, and hot takes. Our brother Paul kept it simple: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). If you get confused, ground yourself back in his Body. Abide in him and he will abide in you (John 15:4). And when we do that, my hope and my joy is that in this coming year, more people might get a chance to “come and see” that Christ’s body is here, yes, here in little old East Craftsbury, Vermont. And they might come to see more and more who they really are, and whose they really are.
And when we forget who we are in our spiritual amnesia—as we all do—remember that we do not belong to anything, anybody, or “any body” but the body of Jesus Christ.
And you are not just parts of his body, but in a living relationship with him in and among his body, broken for you and raised for you, so that he might live in you.