2-7-10 Where?

Where do you fit? I believe that's a universal question. We all need to know that we belong (that we are a part of something). I learned early in life that I belonged. My grandparents loved me and I felt accepted. We, except for that time I wanted to buy a Michael Jackson album and they prayed to rid my spirit of those demons. But, that's another story.

I also knew that I belonged to the church. I was a part of the church. I was there all the time. And I remember learning that the church was the body of Christ. That made perfect sense to me at that time. I was taught pretty well. The people are the church. The church is the body of Christ. I got it? at least the literal part of it. My translation might have been a little premature. It didn't take long for me to construct an image of Jesus that looked just like my church.

Jesus was Caucasian, of course. He was Christian which meant he was a Southern Baptist. He was over the age of 50. He liked to chew tobacco and tell dirty jokes. He seemed to talk louder when praying for others, and he was always, always collecting money. It was clear to me. Jesus was just like us.

Obviously my early construction of Jesus has changed some over the years. But what I learned as a young child has had a profound influence on how I process life and faith. My grandfather was attendingBoyce Bible School in Columbus, Ohio and working part-time as a local church pastor. The churches he served at all had memberships of less than fifty. And that seemed to suit grandpa just fine. He could be himself there. It worked for him.

I also remember attending all types of church events. We went to any and every tent revival we could. I went to more Gideon's meeting than I ever did Boy Scout meetings. Church was my life.

Of course, the older I got the more I realized church wasn't everything people talked it up to be. It seemed that church was more authoritarian than relational. And I began to have trouble seeing Jesus like that. The ideal of the perfect church, you know like the one in Acts 2:44 where "all the believers were together and had everything in common, they sold their possessions and goods, and gave to anyone who had need?and they ate together daily with glad and sincere hearts." Yeah, that church was nothing like what I was experiencing. Sure, my church really tried to force other to have everything in common with them. And they always wanted to eat. And they were glad and joyous when you agreed with them.

Don't hear me wrong. They were good people. And they were Christian. They were a part of the body of Christ, just not the whole body of Christ. My church was not perfect. They did focus on Jesus as savior. And they believed in the Bible. But, like all churches they were limited.

So Paul comes up with a metaphor that causes us to think about what the church should be and is? the body of Christ. You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts -limbs, organs, cells- but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized. Each of us is now a part of his resurrected body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain - his Spirit - where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves-labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free-are no longer useful. We need something bigger. (I Corinthians 12:12-13). Paul saw that the church was pitting itself against one another. They quickly labeled each other and took sides.

As a church going Christian I felt this type of pulling. Being pulled by different groups telling me to join their side. It left me feeling out in the cold, dismembered. (distribute parts of Mr. Potato Head). I saw the inner working of the church. The dirt, the messiness, the stain. I remember the hate mail my grandfather received. The heated arguments with words of anger, fear and hatred. It didn't get any better the older I got either. Being dismissed from one church because I was labeled a "liberal." Pam and I had trouble finding a church where we both felt comfortable and accepted. Church became a place to compete. It was a place to put people in their place?shame, guilt, rules, judgment. It was just as polarized as society, not unified. Why should I even bother with church?

Eugene Peterson's introduction to Corinthians spells it out pretty well. He says, "When people become Christians, they don't at the same moment become nice. This always comes as something of a surprise. Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn't automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals. The people of Corinth had a reputation in the ancient world as an unruly. And hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people. When Paul arrives with the Message and many of them became believers in Jesus, they brought their reputations (and habits) with them right into the church."

Makes me wonder some about what Paul saw in Corinth and what he was really trying to communicate in his letter to them. You see he has spent much time with these people of Corinth. He told them the good news of Jesus. He modeled for them the way of Jesus. And, their lives and lifestyles were changed. That is?until Paul left. When he left they seemed to revert back to what was most familiar and common. Their leader and accountability partner had moved. So, Paul continues his correspondence with them. And that's what we've read from today.

As Paul continues along his journey he learns of the problems that this church is experiencing. He learns of the divisiveness and discord. He learns of the bickering, the infighting, the power struggles. And what we are privy to is Paul trying to figure out a way how to communicate the spirit of Jesus to them. Not a Jesus constructed by their own patterns and culture, but the spirit of the risen Christ that changed Paul's life forever.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand would be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way-the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it make no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? (I Corinthians 12:19-24).

Yes, we are different. We're supposed to be. "?the body is not made up of one part but of many." (I Corinthians 12:14). It's a bit ridiculous, don't you think, to ask the eye to perform the function of a finger, or for a foot to fill the role of a nose, even though a nose may cringe at the stench of a foot. Each individual part is a part of the whole. What good is one part of the body if it is separated from the body?

I'm reminded of the MASH episode where Hawkeye Pierce lost his eyesight for a period of time. And during his temporary blindness he goes into the operating room, blindfolded, to help B.J. in the operating room. While standing at the table Hawkeye gets a whiff of perforated bowel, (just before B.J. was about to sew the patient back up), something B.J. couldn't see. Hawkeye leaves the operating room and B.J. comments, "Who was that masked man?"

If you remember that episode you'll remember Hawkeye reminiscing about his experience with blindness. He talked about that experience as a gift because he had not experienced life like that before. He was forced to pay closer attention to senses that he had taken for granted. He was forced to pay attention to other functions and parts of his body. He was forced to learn the role of other senses.

Paul goes on, The way god designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. (I Corinthians 12:25-26).

Family Systems Theory is a theory introduced by Dr. Murray Bowen that suggests that individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family, as the family is an emotional unit. Families are systems of interconnectedness and interdependent individuals, none of whom can be fully understood in isolation from the other. What I appreciate about Family Systems Theory is that one of its main concepts has to do with focusing on what you can control. Being the best of what you were called to be. Or, as Hawkeye might have said, "Paying attention to your specific sense."

You know, no matter how bad church got for me, God, I knew, was always there. And, you need to know, I think that has a lot to do with my grandfather. Sure, grandpa wasn't always perfect. He had/has a lot of flaws. Don't we all? And as parents, we realize we may have more flaws than we can bear to face sometimes. And even though I don't agree with my grandfather's approach to church and I sometimes cringe at his theology, I am quickly humbled when I see him serving the least of these, which is simply a part of who he is. It comes naturally to him.

I am put in my place because my grandfather's heart and actions speak louder than he could have ever prayed or preached. (Put Mr. Potato Head back together). Each of us are important members of the body of Christ. We can be useful as his church in the world. But we must first know who we are. We are baptized into him and his spirit nourishes us. We are a part of his body. We are assimilated into him. Not the other way around. We can never forget that we are all connected.

Karoline Lewis, a Luther Seminary Professor of Preaching, wrote, "Being a member of the body of Christ means an absolute, out-and-out conjoining of one with the other, a sister or brother in Christ. To exist in division, to see only difference and not the unity we are able to profess because of Christ, to demand conformity without celebration of difference, is to entertain the notion of dismemberment. We will find ourselves cut off from the very source of our life, our existence, and in a way, our ability to be most fully who we are. To what extent are we able to live out fully our callings when we are not able to rely on and give support to others to live out theirs? Is it not true that who we are called to be necessitates our fellow members of the body of Christ to embrace and embody their callings?"

Where do you fit? I'm not sure where God has called you to be a part, but I know God has called you. And he is calling you now. AMEN.