St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Last Sunday of Epiphany
18 February 2007

This morning I would like to spend a few minutes looking at the Epistle lesson for today from 1 Corinthians. There is a very important set of teachings in this passage and I would like for us to look at those in some detail this morning.

Let’s start by looking at the first verse in this passage. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” Now we could read on if we wanted to because that sounds nice. It’s a very religious sound. We agree with what Paul says there I am sure; but we could choose just to read on. Or we can take a step back and see just how much teaching is offered to us in this one verse. Let’s just stop and think about what it means to say, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” What does it really mean to be the body of Christ? What does that have to do with how we treat each other in the Christian church? What does this teach us regarding our mission in the world - - to be told you are the body of Christ?

Some of you know that N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham in England, is my favorite New Testament scholar and writer. In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Bishop Wright says about this one verse, “These words should be engraved on the mind and heart of all church members.” Now that is a powerful statement. This one sentence, “These words should be engraved on the mind and heart of all church members.” So why is that? What is Paul trying to teach us here in saying, ”You are the body of Christ"? He goes on in the next few verses talking about different gifts. Paul says, “Some are apostles, some are prophets, some are teachers, some have different deeds of power, some are good at offering assistance to others, various forms of leadership, some speak in tongues”. So Paul is saying that in the body of Christ there are many members with many different gifts. He has used this analogy earlier in this epistle when he says, “The hand needs the foot. Every part of the body needs the other parts of the body so that the body can be complete.” And so he is continuing this imagery here later on in 1 Corinthians. “There are different gifts in the church,” Paul says, “but ultimately, we are members of one body. And each member is of equal importance.” He then has a series of questions. “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” Of course, the answer is no. He is setting up a case here. Not everybody in the church can do everything. As a priest in the church, there are things I am just not good at. There are things that I just have no particular competence to do. That is the case for any member of the body. But the gifts that we do have, we are to claim. We are to offer those gifts to the glory and in the service of God. So Paul has said, “Does everybody have all these individual gifts?” Of course, the answer is no. But then he says, “But strive for the greater gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way.” I am going to get to my main point here in just one second. What he is setting up here is to counter a problem in the church in Corinth.

When you read 1 Corinthians, and we talked about this several weeks ago, it is obvious that there was contention in the church over which gifts were the most important. One of the primary issues of contention was speaking in tongues. When you read 1 Corinthians, it is absolutely clear that some people were boasting about their ability to speak in tongues. And some people felt left out of the church because they did not have that gift. But there are other gifts as well that people are saying, “This is what I can do.” So Paul lays out the various gifts here. And then he says, “Not everybody has every gift.” And then he says, “But strive for the better gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.” Here is what he says. Here is the main point. 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” It is very interesting. This passage is typically read at weddings. You may suddenly feel like you are at a wedding this morning as you hear these words from 1 Corinthians. It is a wonderful lesson for a wedding. I recommend to couples that they use it. But in its original context in 1 Corinthians, this has nothing to do with romantic love at all. This is the love that is the foundation of church life. That is what Paul is talking about in Chapter 13. It fits the occasion of a wedding beautifully, but the original context is the life of the church. What Paul is saying here is, “The greater gifts, the gifts that we are all to strive for, are those gifts based on love.” That is the foundation of the church’s life. To be the body of Christ we must build the foundation of the church on love. Now this does not mean some pollyannaish notion that everything will be easy, and that we will always agree with what each other is saying. That is not the love that we talk about in the New Testament. It is the love that comes from knowing we are forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is what binds us together in the church. The love of Jesus is the foundation that will enable us to be the body of Christ.

Paul lays out all of these gifts: teaching prophecy, leadership, being able to assist people. They are all good gifts. They all come from God. But the greatest gift is God’s love. That is the foundation of the church’s love. That is what we are here this morning to share. We are here this morning to embrace the love of God, and then to share that love with one another.
When you look around you this morning in the room right now, as you leave the building on your way to Sunday school, as you look around this morning, the people you see are your sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ. And we are to love one another in the deepest sense of that word because we first are loved by God. Our mission is to share that love with one another. That is why we are here today - - to build on that foundation of love.

It is an extraordinary thing for one of the great New Testament scholars in the world to say, “These words should be engraved on the mind and heart of all church members.” The words are, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” So this morning we celebrate this love that makes us one body. We are 50 or so people at an individual level but together we make up the body of Christ. And our life together is to be characterized by the love that Jesus Christ so graciously offers us. Our mission then becomes to share that love with one another. I think Bishop Wright is correct about this first verse. I would add, very humbly, that I think these words, as well, should be engraved on the mind and the heart of every church member, “And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Amen.