I Corinthians 12:12-31a
Epiphany 3 C
God has blessed our church with many blessings. The greatest blessings are the members of the church. God has given gifts to the members of this church to do his work. We may not have all the gifts that larger churches have, and we may not have all the gifts listed by St. Paul in First Corinthians Twelve, but the Holy Spirit has given us what we need right now. The purpose of these gifts is so that we can be Christ in this world. We are not just a group of Christians; we are Christ, the Body of Christ.
God has blessed our church, but still we do have problems. We are not perfect. I do not think we will solve all our problems in this one sermon, but by looking at the words of St. Paul in First Corinthians Twelve, we will see clearly where the solution is. Our problems are not the same as the problems of the church in Corinth, but the solution is the same.
The problem in the church of Corinth seems to be that they were not united; they were fighting over who was the boss or who was the most important. They didnft seem to think that the other people in the church were important. They didnft need anyone else. They put other people down. They did not help other people who were suffering. They were jealous of people who were honored.
St. Paul says the church should be like a body. It should all be working together in order to live, to walk, to talk, to smell, to see, to hear. All the body parts are necessary. But if you start to take apart the body, to dismember it, the body will die. And if you remove the body from the head, it will die immediately. And so it is with the church. Christ is the head of the church. If you separate Christ from the church, the church will die. If you separate any member of the body from the head, it will die. This is both for a church congregation, and for the members of it. If a person is separated from Christ, that person will die, die apart from Christ, and die without salvation.
What is the Christmas Story all about? It is the birth of Christ. It is the Second Member of the Holy Trinity coming to this earth and taking on a human body. Jesus is both God and Man, divine and human. Christ took on the form of a human body because he loves us, and he knows how important our bodies are. They are important for our life, and for the enjoyment of life. Christ took on our human form in order to save our human form. He died on the cross as a human, he rose as a human. That was to forgive our sin and make us holy. As the Creed says, gI believe in the resurrection of the body and the life eternal.h God blesses this body with baptism and nourishes it with the Lordfs Supper.
The Christian Congregation is also a body. Here are the sacraments of Baptism and the Lordfs Supper. We are united in Christ. Christ is our head and we are his body. That means that the church is Christ. We are Christ. We are all parts of the body of Christ?his hand, his foot, his left kidney. We are not just gchurch members,h we are gChrist members.h Do you realize what that means? The church is the body of Christ, the church is Christ. You too are Christ. We could change the name of this church to gOkinawa Lutheran Christ.h I can change my name to Christ, and so can you. We can do that because in Baptism the Triune God has given his name to us.
So, what is the solution to all the problems of our church? The solution is Christ. That means love, forgiveness, mutual aid, suffering together, and rejoicing together. That is what Christ does. That is what we do.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church