Showing Love in the
Community of Faith

Text: I Corinthians 12: 12-26 (NRSV)

Theme: Rooted in Love: Showing Love in the Community of Faith

Prayer:

Lord God, we come to you this morning having renewed our commitment to you and to the Body of Christ, and ask that, through your Spirit, you refresh our spirits, and renew our love. We pray that you continue to teach us in the school of faith and discipleship what it means to be the church and where you would use us to further the building of your kingdom. This we ask in the name of the One whose name we preach, the name of Jesus Christ the crucified and risen Lord. Amen.

There are many images used in Scripture to describe the church of Jesus Christ. For example, in I Peter 2: 9-11 we find several of them: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, aliens and exiles, etc. In I Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul chooses the image of the Body of Christ to describe the church and how it should function in order for it to flourish.

This morning, I’d like to remind us again why we as a congregation have chosen to bind ourselves to God and to one another in covenant renewal as has been our practice from the beginning of our history together. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we see a church full of life but beset by many issues and problems. This was not surprising because Corinth was a considerable city, strategically located on the isthmus joining the Peloponnesian peninsula with Achaia in ancient Greece. Like many port cities, Corinth would have seen a confluence of people from many different places, backgrounds, religions and ethnic origins. Acts 18 describes Paul’s arrival at Corinth and the origins of the church there. Finding little welcome among the Jewish community, Paul turned his ministry toward the Gentiles. The church grew and Paul remained there for nearly a year and a half, teaching and guiding the neophyte believers. Fractious and unbalanced in their communal life together, the Corinthians required some direct teaching regarding the nature and practice of the church and so Paul writes the letter containing our text to the church.

Some significant themes emerge from our text.

1. The church is like a body. It is made of constituent parts, each one important for what it is equipped and charged to do. If the various body parts function well and in a complementary way, the body thrives. However, if one part fails or is in pain, the whole body suffers. The success of each part of the body means success for the whole body. The health of every part means health for the whole body. Each part, whether it seems important or not, is vital, for it can impact all the rest.
   
   In the life of the church there are some more glamorous positions or gifts but there are no unimportant gifts. Each gift or calling is necessary for the church in order for it to be faithful to the call of God. And so the various committees, ministries and/or individual roles are important in order for the church to be healthy. Not only are they important, but the effort needed to fill those roles needs all of our sincerity, integrity and energy.
   
   
2. The human body is a unity. When the body’s parts work together in harmony, the body can move, act, work and behave in the way it was intended. If some parts are missing or fail to act, the body becomes unbalanced and in danger of not working properly. The different gifts and talents are required for the whole unity to work well. The church also should be characterized by unity but equally, not by uniformity. Many different gifts and talents are given by God for the sake of the whole church. Each of them is required. This unity is characterized by the Spirit of God which indwells each member. It is not unity of practice or behaviour which is required but rather the unity of the Spirit which sees in each other the value of their gift.
   
   
3. Finally, the way of love is intended to be the way of the church. Paul argues, in the middle of his treatment on gifts and the nature of the church, that love is the way, the most important way, in which the church operates. Without love, everything becomes empty and vain. It is instructive that this chapter on love, so familiar to us in a variety of contexts, should be located in the middle of a text devoted to the life of the church and the distribution of spiritual gifts. Frequently love is the element that is lacking. We want the pre-eminent role(s) because they appeal to our vanity or sense of importance. But love, “which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things” rejoices in the call of God to use whichever gift one has been given to the service of all for Jesus’ sake. That is our reward. That is enough.
   Amen.

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