There are several useful metaphors for church
in the New Testament; Paul uses at least two of them . . . he addresses his
fellow Christians as siblings, he says “brothers and sisters,” using a family
metaphor . . . and family is a pretty
useful metaphor for the church, one that Jesus himself used, even though he
radically redefined the concept . . . Remember he wouldn’t see his brothers and
mother when they came to see him, saying “whoever does the will of God is my
brother and sister and mother . . ?” And
this metaphor, this image of the church
as family is commonly used today, isn’t it?
Congregations often use family-talk to describe themselves, we say “our
church family,” distinguishing it from our biological family, even though Jesus
himself makes no such distinction, in fact he acts like the church – “whoever
does the will of God” – is the real
family, and refuses to even see his
biological family . . .
The other major New Testament image for the
church is my personal favourite, and this passage is ground-zero for it. Paul imagines
the church as the “body of Christ,” saying “for just as the body is one and has
many members . . . so it is with Christ.”
This is a powerful image, one that he explores in great detail . . . but
we have to understand that it doesn’t stand alone – it grew out of the
situation at the Corinthian church at the time . . . the great value of Paul’s
letters for us today – well, aside from the fact that the theology of all us
Protestant types is based on them – the other
great value is that they are written in response to pastoral concerns, about
real problems that were going on in real churches. Thus, his letter to the Galatians is about how to respond to some false teachers, First Thessalonians is about how to be
Christians when the end times have not
come . . . and the Corinthian letters are no different. One of the problems was that there were some
not so subtle differences between folks in that church. In other words, there were divisions. He says it straight out, right in the first
chapter – “I appeal to you, brothers
and sisters . . . that all of you be in agreement and that there be no
divisions among you . . . for it has been reported to me by Chloes’s people
that there are quarrels among you . . .”
And so one of the reasons for this letter is to admonish them for these
quarrels, and teach them how not to fight.
And of course it’s as if it were – as it says on Law and Order – ripped from today’s headlines! Fighting is rampant in every mainline – and not so mainline – denominations, over
everything from ordination standards to the necessity of Christ to what color
the tablecloths should be. Well, maybe
not the last one . . . but it seems that we can’t seem to get along any more
than could the Corinthians.
And
Paul says this is unacceptable: The body
of Christ is one body with many members, and it’s clear that we, as individuals
within the church, are the members he is talking about. And we are wedded together, melded into one
body by nothing less than our baptisms in Christ. “For,” he says, “in the one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body -- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free -- and we were all
made to drink of one Spirit.” It is
through the sacrament of baptism that we become members of Christ’s body.
And by this it’s clear he’s talking about more
than just a local congregation here . . . we are baptized into the body only
once, but may be a part of more than one church, more than one local expression
of that body during our lifetimes. So in
one sense, he’s talking about the church universal here, the church
catholic—that’s little-c-catholic—that great fellowship of all the believers on
earth.
But it’s also clear that at the same time, he’s
talking to a specific congregation, one he founded on one of his journeys. And he’s saying that each member within that
congregation—and we can safely extrapolate that to all congregations—is
connected to every other in an intimate way . . . as intimately as one organ of
the body is connected to another, as if by sinew and tissue and bone. And what happens to one organ of a body affects all the others, doesn’t it? Paul
puts it like this: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one
member is honored, all rejoice together with it..” If one organ is not well, all the other
organs are in some way diminished.
This diminishment may take several forms . . .
it may be a direct reduction in the health of target organ. If the ability of
the liver to detoxify the body is compromised, for example, toxic waste builds
up in the blood and other organs . . . one of the most visible results is
jaundice, where bilirubin builds up in the skin and other organs. If the diminishment continues, if toxic
compounds continue to accumulate, it can result in the failure of any number of
organs, and lead to eventual death.
In other cases, the decrease in functioning of
one organ, and the consequent reduction in its ability to do its job, results
in other organs having to compensate.
For example, if lung capacity, is reduced by sickness—like pneumonia or
bronchitis or even the common cold—overall oxygen levels are reduced so that
other organs compensate by working harder.
Thus, the heart pumps harder to move a greater volume of blood, the
diaphragm contracts more rapidly to increase breathing, and etc. Compensating in this manner can see the body
through in the short run, but in the long term it damages the compensating
organs and reduces their overall lifespan.
They just wear right out.
I think this last case is really common in
congregations . . . as membership decreases, there are fewer and fewer folks to
do the work that is necessary for a healthy church. When this happens, the church’s mission
contracts, it gets smaller, because there quite simply are not enough worker
bees to go around. Some things the
congregation is used to providing—for its own members as well as the
community—go by the wayside. Food
pantries go unstocked, clothes closets go . . . unclothed. Rides to church for the disabled go by the
wayside. It’s not that the congregation
doesn’t want to provide these things, there just flat-out aren’t enough folks
to do them.
Then
there are things that would go away, but are deemed just too important. In those cases, other members—like other
bodily organs—compensate by taking on
more jobs. Thus, the head of the worship
committee chairs the nominations committee, proofs bulletins and shovels snow
in the driveway. The youth director
drives the shut-ins to church, sings in the choir, and watches the
nursery. And things go on for a time
like it has before.
But inevitably, it catches up with them. Just like compensating organs in the human
body, just like a heart compensating for ailing lungs, just like a muscle on
the right side taking up the slack for one on the left, humans that compensate
for others get tired. In the case of
humans, the psychological toll is taken first.
Working for the church becomes no longer a joy but a burden. As the yoke becomes heavier and heavier,
their frustrations can mount, and they are heading for burnout.
Here’s a statistic: in any given church, what
percentage of the congregation actually participates in the work of the
church. I’m not talking about attending
worship or receptions or other fellowship functions, but serving on committees,
and boards, participating in outreach, and et
cetera. The answer is ten to twenty
percent. In smaller churches, such as
ours, it tends to be toward the higher end, and in larger churches toward the
lower. But it generally stays within
those limits.
Now let’s do a thought experiment: in a 200 member church, if that number
increases by just 2 percent, that’s four more worker bees . . . which doesn’t
seem like a lot, but it’s another kitchen clean-up crew, or rides to church for
four more shut-ins, or four more carloads of groceries to four more hungry
families. And if we increase the
percentage by just five, it’s ten more which, in our PC-USA, is one whole committee!
Just kidding . . . but you see the
problem. Participation in church work
determines how much ministry a church can do, both internally to its own
members, and externally to the community at large. And it’s kind of like a self-fulfilling
prophecy, or a vicious circle: if a
basic program is missing for lack of volunteers—such as regular children’s
Sunday school or a vibrant choir—folks who have children or who value a
thriving music program won’t join, they won’t come on Sunday mornings or if
they do, they won’t come back. And thus,
in churches like that, without new blood, the number of participants, the
number of workers, continues to
decline, and more programs are demolished, and the circle continues to turn.
But by the same token, a church that’s on the
go, with vibrant, living mission programs and exciting, joyous worship generate
an internal excitement, a buzz that
attracts new people, who bolster the programs and relieve the burdens of the
stalwart pillars, and bring new ideas and that attracts new blood, who bolster
the programs and further relieve the stalwart worker bees, and round and round
it goes.
Sisters and brothers, there is a reason that
Christianity is practiced in a community . . . it’s because it truly takes a
village, as a certain outgoing Secretary of State put it. It takes a community of people, each with
different gifts, each using those gifts to the glory of God and for the
edification of God’s church here on earth.
Again, Paul likens this different “gifting”—there’s another one of those
nouns turned verb again—Paul likens the different gifts God has given us to
organs of the body of Christ. He says
that we—we plural, the congregation—are the body of Christ, and individually
its organs. And God has given people different
gifts . . . apostles, prophets and teachers.
Healers, leaders, social workers, practitioners of all forms of assistance. As
Paul understood so well, God has gifted us with different talents and
abilities, for use in furthering God’s mission on earth.
But when the members of the body don’t use
those gifts, when only 20 percent of them use them in any given congregation,
the mission of God on earth is
compromised, it is diminished. As we
prepare to go downstairs and learn about the opportunities for service here at
Greenhills, I ask that you prayerfully consider where in our ministry your
gifts are best-used, and then volunteer to use them. I say these things in the name of God the
Son, God the Creator, and God the Holy Spirit, amen.
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