Body
Notes
Transcript
Because of the grace that God gave me, I can say to each one of you: don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Instead, be reasonable since God has measured out a portion of faith to each one of you. We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other. We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us. If your gift is prophecy, you should prophesy in proportion to your faith. If your gift is service, devote yourself to serving. If your gift is teaching, devote yourself to teaching. If your gift is encouragement, devote yourself to encouraging. The one giving should do it with no strings attached. The leader should lead with passion. The one showing mercy should be cheerful.
These verses in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome are among my favorite when it comes to talking about the need for all members of the church to be involved in ministry. Because on the surface these verses talk about the need for everyone to do their part in order for the church to do God’s will. I’ve always thought that it was amazing that each one of us holds importance within Christ’s church. We have to have many people with many talents to accomplish the mission of the church.
Just like our body, the church is one body. Our body has different parts that play different roles but all are working toward accomplish one thing. The is the same way. We are all different parts working as one body to accomplish one mission. But, unfortunately we fall short a lot.
One of my favorite and hated quotes is from Mahatma Gandhi. He said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi made this statement after trying to attend a church service in Calcutta. The ushers turned him away and said he was not allowed in the church.
Now, you probably are asking why is such a statement one of my favorite. Yes, it seems strange but it is a reminder for us as Christians that not only are we called to follow but to imitate Christ in all we do. We are to love as Christ love. We are to sacrifice as Christ sacrificed. I do not mean by dying on a cross but a willingness to give up all for the betterment of others.
I hate this statement because of the truth that it holds. The truth that Christians are not like Christ like we should be. Gandhi fell in love with Christ through reading and studying the Gospels and was seeking more from the church. Instead the church turned him away. The reason he was turned away was because he was not part of the high class caste in Calcutta. The high class caste were the only ones allowed in the sanctuary. And thus pushed Gandhi away.
Gandhi was a man seeking to understand Christ and may have been converted if he had heard the message of the Gospel from Christ’s followers but instead he was turned away. He never had that opportunity to hear the message because of Christ’s body’s rejection.
Isn’t it crazy that a man held in such regard by many different religious leaders as a spiritual leader was not welcomed into the church.
To me that is crazy. And a sign that we need to be careful of. We know we are the body of Christ and Christ is the head. This means the church should follow Christ not only with words but with action.
Let’s think about Christ as the head of the body. What does the head do when it comes to our bodies. Well the brain is contained within the head. This is the center for all decision making. The brain directs all actions voluntary and involuntary come from the brain. Our brain is our decision making center and memory center. We breath because our brain sends a message to our lungs to function. Without the brain we would not survive.
The same can be said about the church. If the church does not accept Christ as the head then it will not survive. But, the bigger thing is, if the church does not follow the direction of the brain it will die to. The church needs Christ’s direction to survive, when we lose sight of that direction as a church then the church dies.
But what is that direction? Where is the head leading us? Scripture tells the direction we should be heading. That is love. The primary message of the Gospels is unconditional love. That is what we are striving for, to offer the same love as Christ. It is that love that we are all made in the image of and we strive towards.
For me, Paul misses a part of the body that is pretty important, the heart. While the brain is located in the head in is the processing center of the body, the heart is the part the moves blood throughout the body to drive the muscles. We know, we cannot live without the brain or the heart and I believe Jesus is the heart also. It is the heart of Jesus that moves us, that calls us, that hurts for us, that loves us.
Yet another example of the importance of Christ within the church and our lives. Think about how the Jesus’ story changed your heart. Think about how much more love you have because of Jesus’ love for you. Think about how much hurt you had before finding the joy of Christ.
If we are to be the body of Christ for the world then we must follow Christ’s heart and tell the stories of how Christ has changed our heart. We take the heart that Christ has given us and show others. The body is directed and fueled by Christ. When we fully allow Christ that directing and fueling then great and mighty things happen for the Kingdom of God.
This is not easy, though. We allow our own thoughts, opinions, biases, and politics to get in the way of Christ running the church. We feel like we know how the church needs to be run the best and fail to realize those ideas remove Christ from leading the church. Yesterday, I sat and participated in our Annual Conference in which we voted on the closing of 24 churches in the conference. Let me say this, these churches must vote and make this decision ahead of time and the conference has to approve it. Seems strange, I know, but it is how it is. A person asked why they were closing? The Bishop’s response was they lost sight and had older demographics.
This is true in a majority of cases. When a church ends up closing it typically is because the church is more inward focused than outward focused. This means, they worry more about the current members than making disciples of Christ, old and new. A lot of times this happens because the church does not want to see “their” church change. They want “their” church to be how they have known it for so long. When pastors go into these churches they typically hear, “we want to bring younger people, especially families in.” Then when the pastor presents ideas to help bring younger people and families in, the pastor gets push back. The pastor is typically told, “that is not how we do things around here” or “but you cannot change that”.
Those words are a sign that the church is not allowing Christ to be the head of the church. Those words are a sign that human ideas are more important than Christ’s direction. Friends, ask yourself, have you said that any of those before? Have you said we need younger families and people but do not want change?
Friends, the challenge of Christ being the head of the church is us getting out of the way. People want to follow Christ but don’t find Christians to be like Christ. I’ve had many conversations about this lately, especially when it comes to the things happening in our world.