Epiphany 3
Sermon preached by the Revd Sophie Young
Sermon on Luke 4: 14-21 and 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a
If I asked you the question, what communities do you belong to, I wonder what the varied answers would be? For sure, they would be varied, because we all find different places where we sense we belong, and where we can contribute to something bigger than ourselves. Some of you, if you’re studying here in the city would likely identify yourself as being part of a college or the university community; others of you may identify yourselves as being part of particular sporting or music communities. You may be here today and consider yourself part of the Streetlife and homeless community, or some of you might consider yourself part of your local, village or suburban community.
Community is important because it gives us a sense of belonging, of being noticed, and of being valued. It enables us to learn from one another: to both contribute what we have to offer, and to receive what others bring to the party. When communities were so disrupted by the lockdowns put in place to stop the spread of Covid, there were desperate measures to keep people connected, to help one another through, and more than ever we realised the need for one another, and that life is pretty impossible in total isolation.
The more we read the bible, the more inescapable is the conclusion that community is basic to any human attempt to understand, and to serve God. You can only get so far with personal, private knowledge and relationship with God: the real test is when we interact with one another.
In the Old Testament reading today, we join the story at the point at which Nehemiah is building a new people to live in the new Jerusalem. The people of the rebuilt Jerusalem are a very mixed bag, some of them are those that were left behind in the successive waves of invasion - they were not thought worth the effort of taking into captivity, even. Some are the Jews who have chosen to return having done well in their exile, they are wealthy and independent. Having rebuilt the physical Jerusalem, Nehemiah’s real challenge now is to rebuild a people fit to live in it, and to be God’s covenant people. He is faced with a diverse bunch, with different backgrounds and experiences, and somehow, they need to come together as one.
The reading from 1 Corinthians, is also about trying to build a new people. By all accounts the Corinthians are a rather gifted lot, but they seem to struggle to live together well, in love! Paul’s impassioned plea is an attempt for them to live in a new way, to do community differently. Rather than boast of their gifts, and compete to be the best, they are required to share them and use them to build up the Body of Christ: not themselves. He is teaching them to think about themselves as one entity, one body, whose health and very life depends on co-operation and connection.
The readings from Nehemiah and 1 Corinthians are about learning to live together well as God’s people: about celebrating their diversity and working together to build up their worshipping communities.
So, what is different about church community from the college community, the sport and music communities, the Streetlife, or the village community? It is the Holy Spirit, the fact that we are bound together as one body, one community, through the Holy Spirit. We do not come together as a Body of Christ, as a church because we have similar interests, or because our life circumstances are similar even, but because we confess Jesus as Lord and saviour. We come together through our confession of faith and filling of the Holy Spirit. It is in the baptism service that we hear the words:
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism: by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.
And then we …. welcome that person into the fellowship of faith; declaring that we are children of the same heavenly Father
So, it is with that in mind that we are not just community, but we are one body….one entity bound together by one spirit. And so, Paul’s illustration helpfully reminds us that we are dependent on one another to grow, and flourish, to heal and to minister: we are all interconnected, inter-dependent.
Not something, I imagine, that always sits comfortably with us all – especially the more fiercely independent among us! But we are not created to do life and faith alone, it is not good for us, it is not good for the church, and it is not good for God’s mission. Paul’s plea is for a united Church, a church in which the gifts given by the Holy Spirit are exercised within the body, for the benefit of the whole body. When we confess our faith, we each receive gifts from the Holy Spirit, and Paul goes about naming some of those: gifts of healing and tongues, of teaching and leading……….
And if you’re sitting there wondering whether you have any gifts to share, and your faith is in Christ, then you do! And we want to see them and celebrate them with you and give thanks for them and be able to build up this Body of Christ with them.
But we, like the Corinthians, must remember that they are gifts: they are given, they are not talents to compete with, or competencies to boast of, but gifts given by God for the good of all his people. So it is incumbent on us to share what we are given, and to help others share what they are given.
Paul’s illustration about the Body of Christ needs little explanation. In fact, I’ll share with a you a little bit of my pre-preach preparations……
whenever I am down to preach on a rota, I approach the three readings set for the day a little like Goldilocks approaching the 3 bowls of porridge: I often start with the first reading and say to God: God that is way to hard, what on earth am I going to do with that in 10 minutes? Then I look at the second one and I’m like God that is way too easy and familiar, what can I possibly add to that that the congregation don’t already know and understand from the reading itself (and this time…..that was the 1 Corinthians passage!) and then I get to the third….and well sadly it’s not the fairy tale ending because of course all scripture requires us to look hard at it, whether familiar or not, it challenges us to look at ourselves and our church, at how we serve and worship God in our own lives, and corporately.
So, although on this occasion Paul’s illustration in Corinthians is fairly straight forward, teaching us how we need one another in the Body of Christ, in the same way that in our bodies we need each part to play its role in our whole health, it is a significant challenge to us. How hard, in reality, we can find that to actually put into practice in our churches!
The health of the Corinthian church, as with our own church, will be all the stronger when we celebrate our diversity and when we recognise our need for one another and connect. And unlike other communities we may be part of where we celebrate diversity and connect to one another, the difference with church is that we are bound together as siblings in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
And it is the same Spirit in which Jesus returned to Galilee, that empowers his ministry to the poor as we heard in the gospel of Luke this morning, it is in that same spirit that we too are shaped as the Body of Christ. That the distinction between slave and free, the barriers between the poor and the privileged are broken down. It is in that very same spirit that empowers Jesus’ ministry to the poor, and ours, that the very distinction between any of us is broken down.
And isn’t it interesting that, as Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, his declaration of intent for his ministry is not about teaching, or better spirituality, but it is about doing God’s justice, and creating God’s community: setting the oppressed free, proclaiming the good news to the poor. And so, it is clear surely that we the church, to be the Body of Christ, must do as he did. It is in our actions and the way we treat others that Christ will be recognized. And it is in sharing and celebrating our diversity of gifts, and using them for the good of the whole body, that we will best represent Christ and fulfil what he calls us to do.
So, what will that look like for us at St. Bene’t’s in this new year? How will people recognise us as the Body of Christ? How can we live better together, sharing our gifts and encouraging others to share theirs? And how will we invite others to become part of this Body, to learn about God’s love for them, and the role they have to play in his church too?
Amen.