“A Perfect Body” I Corinthians 12:12-31a

What makes us strong? What holds us together?

Third Sunday After the Epiphany January 25-26, 2025
“A Perfect Body” I Corinthians 12:12-31a
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado

What an odd group we are. I’m talking about Ascension Lutheran Church in Littleton, Colorado. We have so many differences. In many ways we are not like one another, but, amazingly, we are a unified congregation.

On a Sunday during a football season one person wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey will be sitting near a person with a Denver Broncos jersey – and they smile at each other. We have folks who love to sing and some who won’t (and probably shouldn’t) open their mouth. We have folks that think the best thing that happened to our country was the election of Donald Trump and we have some who think it was the worst thing that could ever have happened. And some don’t care.

And yet we have chosen to be part of this place. I guess miracles still can happen. St. Paul is talking about the entire Christian church when he writes the 12th chapter of I Corinthians, as well as that congregation in Corinth. But before he speaks about the unity of the church, he addresses the disunity.

The feelings of inferiority or superiority within the congregation begins his conversation. He compares the church, the body of Christ with a human body. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be a part of the body.” (I Corinthians 12:12, 14-16)
In this analogy being a foot or an ear is not as spectacular as being a hand or an eye. Gregory Lockwood says of this, “So the foot, depressed by its comparatively lowly status and the drudgery of its work of supporting the whole body, compares itself with the more versatile and skillful hand; the ear becomes discontent with its simple and less-prominent function and compares itself with the more attractive eye.” (Concordia Commentary, I Corinthians, Page 446)

The self-exalting “I”, or “Me”, cannot be prominent in a healthy congregation. Paul reminds everyone, “The body is not made up of one part but of many.” (I Corinthians 12:14) He would remind them, “God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (I Corinthians 12:18)

Feelings of inferiority will stifle what God wants to do in us. Feelings of superiority can be just as harmful. Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.” (I Corinthians 12:21-23)

In one of Aesop’s Fables, he tells a story about the Lion and the Mouse. Have you heard of it? The great lion was asleep and then he was woken by a little mouse who was running across his face. He woke and grabbed the mouse and was ready to eat him. But the mouse frantically spoke, “If you would only spare my life, I would be sure to repay your kindness.” The lion laughed and let him go. How could he ever repay the lion? What could a gnarly mouse do for the majestic lion? But shortly after this the lion was caught in a trap by some hunters. They bound him with strong ropes. He roared but that frightening sound could not free him. But his friend, the little mouse, heard the roar. He came to the lion and gnawed the ropes with his razor-sharp teeth and he set him free. The Fable ends with words of the little mouse to the ferocious lion, “You ridiculed the idea of my ever being able to repay you, not expecting to receive from me any repayment of your favor; now you know that it is possible for even a Mouse to confer benefits on a Lion.”

I titled this sermon, “The Perfect Body”, not meaning the perfect physical body. If you had that you’d be on TV or in magazines or in Hollywood. The perfect body that I’m talking about today is how we are as a congregation. No one here can say they have nothing to offer in what God wants to do through this place, through you, through us. There can be no inferiority and there can be no superiority. Neither jealousy of another, nor pride and arrogance can be among us. All those attitudes lead to is discord and division.

In the Apostles’ Creed we confess, “I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.” In the Nicene Creed we say, “I believe in the one holy Christian and apostolic Church.” Stop for a second. You have said those words thousands of times in your life. What do they mean? You are saying, “It is not me; it is we.” Too many folks have an individualism to them. They say, “I decide how I am going to live.” “I choose what I am going to do.” And sometimes people do this with what they are going to believe. “No one is going to tell me what to believe – no holy book, no preacher, no church.” What arrogance.

God moves us from us at the center of our world, to Him as the center of our world. And He created the church, even the local congregation to do this. Not me; we. Our reading says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you in a part of it.” (12:27) And just before that, “God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so there should be no divisions in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (12:24-26) A body, a perfect body, is a community. We are real with each other. We hurt with one another. We smile and laugh with one another. Paul says in the book of Romans, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15)

The perfect body deals with feelings of inferiority and squashes actions of superiority, it moves from the throne of “me” to the community of “we”. But for this body to be whole we must look deeper.

What makes us strong? What holds us together? Christ does. Do you know any Latin? (A lot of folks seem to know some French, they say “Pardon my French”, but not too many know Latin.) The Latin term I’m using is “extra nos” – it means outside of us. In a commentary written by Reed Lessing he says, “We do not find ultimate peace inside of ourselves – but outside, in God’s Word and his Sacraments and Holy Communion. To be assured of God’s love, we do not look inward. We look outward and upward to the objective truth of Christ’s cross and resurrection. Salvation is extra nos, outside of us, and therefore sure and certain.” (Concordia Commentary, Lamentations, Pg. 191)

The perfect body, the perfect community doesn’t center on self but it centers on Him. Earlier in Corinthians we read, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which in Christ Jesus.” (I Corinthians 3:11) In Ephesians listen to this picture, “[We] are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22)

I wonder, do we, this Christian church have a perfect body? This church? A perfect body? No, we don’t. We have a long way to go. We can struggle with all those things that Paul spoke of. Sin is part of our struggle. Having actions of self-praise and a failure of a full love for others can show itself. But, I believe that we are on the right track.
The solution is not found inside of ourselves but outside of ourselves. It is found in the Lord of the Church – Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. He is our strength. He will empower us by the Holy Spirit.

I’m glad to be part of this church, this body of Christ. I’m glad that God has brought you here. May God make this place a place of His Spirit and work. Amen!!

 

 

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