—and experienced in skit form
—John’s account of Jesus’ first act of public ministry. Today, and next week, we read of Jesus’ first public act according to Luke.
Returning from temptation in the wilderness,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
Jesus reads these words from Isaiah 61:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he concludes: “In your hearing of these words this scripture has been fulfilled.”
… or more to the point,
because Greek verbs are slippery things…
Isaiah’s words are fulfilled
and continue to be fulfilled.
In our hearing
—this very day
—Isaiah’s prophetic words, completed in Christ,
continue to be completed.
Pastor, how is that possible? Here? Us?
I think Paul points us in the right direction on this:
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
Prayer
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
We, the Church, are the Body of Christ.
We, individual Christians, are members of that body.
S, R, P
—after this sermon,
before we sing “We are all one in mission”, I’ll be inviting you up to officially welcome you as members of this congregation.
Member is such a common word in the English,
that we don’t hear it viscerally,
when Paul writes about “the many members of Christ.”
Think of it though
—members,
pieces,
limbs.
Christian mystic Teresa of Avila famously wrote: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.”
Or think of Paul’s own experience.
He was on his way to Damascus to kill and torture more members of the Early Church
—and in a vision Jesus said to him, “You’re not persecuting them, you’re persecuting me.”The Church is the Body of Christ.
Congregations and churches get used in many different ways:
as service and community centers,
family reunion spots,
a place to pass on values to children,
or make friends…
But ultimately, we are gathered together,
because we are Washed into Christ through Baptism,
together we commune with him Holy Communion.
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
I’m so glad I’ve never served a congregation like Corinth
—they were the most divisive and divided group of people you could imagine.
There are at least 11 issues that they break into factions over, everything from:
-where they meet,
-to who gets the privilege of paying the preacher
and (get this G) who gets to be the treasurer, they fight over that
Issues such as:
-the role of women in the church,
-what spiritual gift was the best
-and if you can marry a non-Christian.
Such division
—and to this Paul uplifts a diversity of gifts!
By and large, he does not urge conformity
—but instead the celebration of difference…
The church ought to be strong enough to celebrate difference, because our unity is centered in Christ’s love.
Celebrating one ministry doesn’t take away from another.
Sunday School and VBS doesn’t diminish the Women of the ELCA or the Altar Guild.
The Finance Team and the 250th Anniversary committee,
or Worship & Music and Fellowship &Outreach…
every inch of our annual report
—the account of our life together this last year
—ought to be seen as part of a larger whole
—empowered by the Love of Jesus Christ.
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
We need each other!
Not just the congregation,
but the whole body of Christ.
This last week has been the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
—a week where we are in prayer that this global diverse body of Christ
—might see the gifts we each bring
and recognize the ligaments that hold us together
—the ties that bind.
Note more clearly how much we need each other.
Paul makes a strange move in his 1st letter to the Corinthians
—he points out that those parts of the body that are most often covered with clothing are the disrespected and weak parts—that covering he writes,
is an act of honoring them…
The weak and disrespected parts
—Isaiah might say the poor, blind, and oppressed
—ought to be honored as indispensable among us.
—we ought to afford dignity and kindness to each other
—that should be obvious
—but especially to those to whom our larger society is unkind and disrespectful.
We are one in Christ, and we matter to each other
—when one of us is hurting, we’re all hurting.
Think on that metaphor of the Body
-toes are tiny, but if you stub one the whole body knows.
-When your nose runs, or your sinus gets an infection
—that isn’t just the problem of the nose or the problem of the sinus
—it is all our problem.
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
There are a wide variety of gifts among us
—song and service,
stewardship and leadership,
maintenance and mutual ministry.
Many vocations among us, just to name a few: Lab Tech, Trooper, Gardner, Pastor, Parent, Quilter, Citizen, Child, Spouse
All guided and empowered by our Baptism into Christ
—our first sacramental connection to God’s love.
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
Behind all of it,
one Spirit, one Body.
Empowering it all
—rooted in love, or it is worthless.
All that we do
—we in the biggest sense I can say,
rooted in love.
The love of Christ is the animating force that fulfills all that God is doing in the world.
We are the Lord’s limbs
and love is our ligaments.
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