Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year C

January 4, 2004

Isaiah 60: 1-6
Psalm 72: 1-7, 10-14
Ephesians 3: 1-12
Matthew 2: 1-12

How many times have we heard that passage? We usually hear it on Christmas Eve and not only have we heard it, we have, no doubt, also seen it acted out in children’s plays and by both adults and children in the live nativity on Christmas eve. Many of us could also recite it from memory.

We must be careful though, lest its familiarity to us rob it of its power; a power sufficient to blow us out of the waters of complacency and change our lives forever.

Well then, let’s look at the story. Matthew had written a wonderfully crafted beginning to a wonderfully crafted gospel designed to tell the story of the one who was born and visited by wise and important people from far away.

Who are the principal characters: the Magi, Herod and the group referred to as chief priests and scribes? First, who were these magi? We don’t know much about them, but the word magi, in its original language, suggests that they were well educated, hence “wise men”! Most likely they were astrologers or experts in the interpretation of dreams. But, the most significant fact, for Matthew, was that they were NOT Jewish. This new “King of the Jews” was, according to Matthew, destined to be worshipped by those from other lands and who followed other faith practices. This King was not just for “Israel”. In this King, Israel would be a true, “Light to the nations”. It all started when, after his birth, his ‘birth star’ caused others to come to him! Notice that we are not told how many there were. I guess we have always assumed there were three because of the three gifts, but that is just surmised! While we are not told either how they travelled it is a safe assumption that they travelled by camels. They would have formed part of a caravan for most of the way and had many servants withy them. These wise men were likely from Persia or Babylonia. In their past Israel had been overthrown by one of these and taken into exile and then freed by the other when it, in its turn, defeated the first. Clearly, the tables were turning when symbolic representatives of these once powerful nations were coming to Israel pay homage to a new king.

Many cultures had a belief that the birth of a new king would be heralded by a new star and the magi, as astrologers, would be “just the people” to see and be guided by a new star. Clearly this way of doing things would appeal to the other nations. So the wise men, after seeing a new star and consulting their writings, undertook a long and arduous journey to find the one whose birth had been announced by it. Some biblical commentators have said that it could have taken up to two years for them to arrive in Bethlehem so the child to whom they paid homage would have been walking and talking and not the infant in swaddling clothes. Notice that the test speaks of a house! Notice also that King Herod tried to eradicate this threat by going back the two years in his orders to kill all the boys in the town.

Now, to Herod. Herod was from a region of the country called Idumea and he had gained power in a military conquest and, backed by Rome, had established himself as king and kept his power by brute force and sustained by merciless taxation. His reign was resented because of his association with the hated Romans. He was known for his extravagant building projects; the Jerusalem temple being one of the most famous. As Matthew tells it, when Herod hears of this new king, he is troubled. In fact, Matthew’s gospel tells us that all Jerusalem was also troubled! After all, there can only be one king! Essentially, in Matthew’s gospel, Herod represents the resistance of the world to the kingship of Jesus, as ordained by God. Matthew, who already knows “the rest of the story” is foreshadowing the trouble and unrest in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion when “The world” and “this new King” will have a final showdown! It’s a hint that there are troubling things to come out of Jerusalem in the future.

Now, the chief priests and scribes! They were the leaders of the temple and the experts in Jewish law and prophecy. Matthew calls them the “scribes of the people”, and we are again given a hint about what is to come. As all readers of the gospel come to find out, in the last days of Jesus’ life, the religious leaders and Jesus will be competing for the loyalties of the people. The question is not really as simple as choosing sides, but rather, is this Jesus and his message the fulfilment of God’s age old promises, or is God going to send someone else some day? So, this story does not stand alone: they are all connected and Matthew has a good reason for telling it to us and wants us to pay close attention to these folks as the gospel story progresses. We can’t afford to ignore the political powers and the religious leaders and their significance. These scribes and pharisees know the history of their own people, yet their loyalty ends up being to the power of the world and not the ‘new ways’ in which God is acting to save his people in Jesus.

Christmas preparations in the Johnston household have become progressively more complicated as the years have gone by. With 4 adults living in my parent’s part of the house and two adults and three children in my brother’s, hiding Christmas gifts is a fine art. Of course, it’s not necessarily the children who are the most curious! This year my parents’ basement even became a hiding place for a family friend; after all, how do you hide a fully assembled, propane barbeque in your own house? This became confusing for my mother because in late November things began to appear in strange places. If she felt she needed to ask someone about a mysterious package that has appeared in the office closet or behind the bed in the spare room, she couldn’t, because she didn’t know who to ask. Her worry was that she would inadvertently ask the recipient instead of the giver and spoil the Christmas surprise.

The story of the visit of the Magi could be seen as the story of a “Christmas surprise”, almost ruined. It creates wonderful suspense, even if you do know how it turns out! You see, the magi made a really dumb mistake, a mistake that could have cost the child his life. On the one hand we can understand why a group of learned and rich foreigners would go to the palace to look for a new king, but, on the other hand, it wasn’t very wise. Given their knowledge of the ways of the world, and particularly of the ways of Israelite history and politics, it would be a safe assumption that this king might well be of a rival house to the one currently on the throne. They could have been more discreet.

Matthew writes of what is said to have happened as a result of this blunder. The last part of the second chapter tells a tale of terror. We don’t usually read it on Christmas eve, but it does need to be read and acknowledged. As we heard, Herod ordered all the boys under the age of two to be killed. No trial, no witnesses, just a speedy and ruthless massacre. It forms an integral part of the story. As the gospel of Jesus the Christ begins, we must face several very important facts: one, not everyone will be thrilled a the advent of ‘baby Jesus’, two, innocent people suffer when powerful people try to subvert the will of righteousness and truth, and three, God is very good at guiding the right people to do the right things at critical times. It warns us not only, that not everyone we encounter in the Christian journey will be a friend, but also assures us that our God’s purposes WILL be accomplished! We are also warned that the life of this child will likely be in peril again! We begin the gospel adventure with two facts held side by side: that the world is sometimes opposed to the gospel and that God’s actions are designed for the eventual triumph of good, right, justice and life to triumph. As the readers of Matthew’s gospel begin the story they are both warned as assured.

The story of the Magi is about the persistence required of those who follow. It is about the risk required of those who follow the one who came to be King. It’s about change on a cosmic scale and about how the in- breaking of God into the world in the form of a tiny baby, changes everything. It’s also a story of conflict: the powers of the world represented by Herod and the power of God as revealed in Jesus, born in Bethlehem are in conflict from the very beginning. But it is primarily a story about the power of God.

The God of Creation; the God who had shepherded Israel for several thousand years; the God who called kings to lead the people and prophets to challenge them to faithfulness; the God who was with them in triumph and in exile was now coming to them in the most vulnerable of forms: that of a baby. In many ways this was a normal baby but we have already heard enough evidence to show us that something else is afoot!

The question for us is: have we seen the light of the star and are we prepared to give our lives to following that same light?

Amen!

January 11, 2004 -- Baptism of Jesus Sunday

Isaiah 43: 1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8: 14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

The Sound of Music , with Julie Andrew’s and Christopher Plummer, has become a North American New Year tradition. It’s that very long movie set in the mid-1930s, telling the story of a captain in the Austrian Navy who hires a would be nun as a nanny for his large brood of children. When she arrives, in her cast off clothes and carrying a guitar, Captain VonTrapp gets more than he bargained for! She tells him, in no uncertain terms, that she will not respond to whistles, and neither should the children! During his lengthy absences, she defies his orders and teaches them how to play and to sing. She tells him that the children do not need discipline as much as they need the presence and attention of a loving father!

What do children need? Of course many people feel that children “want” too much! We’ve just gotten past Christmas. The children in our lives made Christmas lists asking for everything from Barbie dolls and X-boxes, to computers, ATVs, snowmobiles and, for the over 16 set, cars! Most people feel that children just want these things, but don’t actually need them!

What then, do children need? Food. Shelter. Education. Health care. Love. Affirmation. Challenge. That list is quite different and comes with a very different price tag.

This is Baptism of Jesus Sunday and on this Sunday we are given an opportunity to reflect on the meaning, not only of Jesus baptism, but also of our own. In our denomination, the United Church of Canada, the baptism of infants and children is much more common than adult baptism. Today’s lessons, therefore, call us to reflect on what it means to be a community which welcomes children through baptism. We Are called to ask and answer the questions, “What do the children of our church need?”, “How do we live up to our promises made at the baptism of not only our own children but also those of all the children of this church?

It seems to me that the first need of all children, and of all adults as well, is the need for love, expressed in both word and action.

Our passage for today from the book of Isaiah was written during a time of great difficulty in the history of Israel. In this passage the people are assured of God’s love. Like a parent assuring a frightened child, God assures these folks, suing languages and images of caring and compassion, of naming and belonging.

Looking at the gospel passage we encounter John the Baptizer. In this passage he is preaching about repentance and offering baptism as a sign of that repentance. Something about his message or his personality or the combination of the two raised the expectation in many people that he might actually be the long awaited messiah!

When we look at such passages we have to remember that the hopes for a messiah to come and save the people and return their nation to the glory enjoyed during the reign of the great King David was part and parcel of their way of looking at the world and at their faith. From the time of the exile on they were never the determiners of their own destiny and they were getting tired of foreign rule. It’s next to impossible for us to truly understand this hope.

Imagine, the biggest dream you can. Imagine also that everyone in your family shares this dream. Imagine that everyone in Canada shares this dream. Imagine that the dream has not been fulfilled for generations and generations. You would be looking every day for sign of that dream becoming reality.

That’s the kind of hope that some had for John the Baptizer. What did he do? He tries to dispel the notion that he is the messiah and says that his role is to prepare the way for this one. His task? To preach a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Well, he preached and he baptized. He called people to repent, which was not a ‘feeling sorry’ kind of emotion, but an earnest desire to go in new ways and new directions. He offered baptism as a sign of that repentance. It was a physical and public act. It was a sign of commitment to this new direction. It was to be a sign that this repentance thing was being taken seriously!

As Jesus receives this baptism and connects his beginning ministry with the very purpose of John’s ministry, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon him and affirmed him, not only as God’s son, but also as God’s beloved, as one pleasing to God

When we bring children for Baptism or come as an adult seeking our own baptism we receive a similar affirmation. In baptism we are given, not our “so called” Christian names, but instead, the name “Christian”! We are affirmed as God’s beloved child. As we make the promises, either on our children’s behalf, or for ourselves, we are promised that we are not left to follow these promises on our own strength and wisdom alone. We are promised the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the assistance and presence of the community of faith. Each time the sacrament of baptism is celebrated we are offered the opportunity to reaffirm our faith and to renew our commitment to live in the community of faith as those who have chosen to follow in God’s way as revealed in his chosen one, Jesus the Christ.

Baptism is serious business , but we must remember that first and foremost it is about grace. God loves us and has loved us from the time of our very beginning. In our baptismal prayers we remember aloud some of the many times, as recorded in scripture, that God acted to save his chosen people. Sometimes, maybe a lot of the time, these folks did not ‘deserve’ this love, they were graced to be its recipients. The qualifications for baptism are not found in our economic status, or our family name or history, or our past behaviour, but on our promise to live in faith and in God’s grace. Baptism looks forward to God’s future and asks us to walk with God to that glorious promised future.

Baptism is much more than an individual matter. It is, in the United Church, a sign of incorporation into the Body of Christ, the church. It happens during a service of public worship because the community is an intrinsic part of those promises. We are not Christian in isolation, it is a communal faith. The next time we look at our Christian Education programs in church we need to look at them in the light of our promises at Baptism. How does our Sunday School, or our Bible Study or our conformation programs, or our outreach, show that we are taking our baptismal faith seriously?

The reality is that our faith is meant to have communal implications. Going in a new direction is about much more than personal morality, though that is not unimportant. Christian faith is about responding in the love of Christ, to the need of the world.

In and around the city of Bam, Iran, the people are trying to recover from a devastating earthquake. While some few people may yet be pulled alive from the rubble, it is clear that tens of thousands have died. An entire city lies in ruins. It is also the dead of winter! Even though it is half a world away and great gulfs of language, religion and culture, lie between us, we are called to look to this human need with the mind of Christ. Even in the face of such massive devastation we who sit here on this cold January day can respond in ways that are helpful. We can pray and we can make a donation of money. We cannot look at a world in need and get ourselves off of the hook by saying that ‘those people’ are not Christians, or not Canadians, or are, somehow, responsible for their own plight, or whatever. Part of our repentance is seeing beyond ourselves and our own needs and wants, and seeing the need and responding in generosity and love.

While baptism is a sign of belonging and the means of initiation, it is only a part and a step in that initiation and belonging.; there is more to it than a simple ceremony!

In Baptism we celebrate the dangerous, uncontrollable, work of the Holy Spirit. In baptism we agree to let God have a significant part in our lives. In Baptism we take a deep breath, open our eyes and take a step of faith and trust. God is with us, as God has been with countless generations of his people in past generations.

Are we prepared to remember our baptism and to live in the light of the grace it promises us and to follow the promises made.

In Baptism and in God’s great love, we are given everything we could ever want or need. In baptism we are incorporated into God’s great plan to give that same love and grace to a hurting community and world. The question is: are you willing to participate in these promises and this great ministry?

Amen.

January 18, 2004 -- Second Sunday After Epiphany

Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm 36: 5-10
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11
John 2: 1-11

A child returned from church and was questioned by his mother about the Sunday school lesson for the day. He told her that the lesson was about the time Jesus turned water into wine. “What did you learn from that story?” asked his mother.

The child thought a bit and then said, “If you’re going to have a wedding, you’d better invite Jesus?”

Actually, that’s not a bad conclusion to draw from the story, but it’s not so that we can save on the bar bill at our next family wedding though! 2000 years later, the story of the water being turned into wine is one of the most intriguing in the gospels. Surely, some argue, Jesus should have expended his energy on more important things such as giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf or mobility to the disabled! Why this miracle on this day? What does it mean in John’s gospel as a whole?

This is the wedding season, or rather, the wedding planning season. The diamonds have been given and received for Christmas or New Year’s and if a wedding is planned for this summer, the caterers, the photographers, the florists and hopefully the clergy have all been contacted. Part of most wedding celebrations is a reception. “What will be served?” is an important question for most couples. It was no different in Jesus day. In fact, it may have been more important. Wedding celebrations were elaborate events, and the whole thing, from start to finish, lasted many days. There were many rules and traditions governing the hospitality involved in weddings. A good host prepared enough food for the guests and had enough wine in stock for their needs. Running out of wine was an absolute “no-no”. I read somewhere that running out of wine at a wedding was something which could haunt the couples and their families for the rest of their lives.

We don’t know who this couple was, or what connection they had to Jesus and his family, but if what I have read about the importance of hospitality at wedding celebrations is true, this miracle saved not only their wedding celebration but also their reputation.

Many of us, myself included, were raised in the shadow of a tradition that saw all alcohol as evil and somehow assumed that Jesus would certainly have no part in what seems to be encouraging the drinking of large quantities of intoxicating beverages. As a result of such a belief, some have even been taught that this was not really wine, but just grape juice that had not had time to ferment. However, there is no reason to doubt the validity of the story on ‘moralistic’ grounds. Jesus, like most of his fellow Palestinian Jews, would have consumed wine on a daily basis. Some, like John the Baptist, gave up wine and strong drink, but this was neither common, nor expected, of the average person, even of most religious leaders. More modern concerns about abuse of alcohol are valid considerations in how we order our lives, our communities, and our laws, but they have no relevance in interpreting this passage.

When we are looking at this passage we must remember that we are reading the gospel of John. If we remember that the gospels are not daily diaries of Jesus’ movements, but rather, well organized and well-thought out theological statements, we are left to ask two questions: what does this miracle mean, and, why start the account of Jesus’ ministry with this miracle? When you go home, read the gospel of John from the beginning. John begins with what seem like vague words about the beginning of the world and something or someone called, ‘the Word’. We soon realize that this ‘Word’ is Jesus in some inexplicable way and that John, the Baptizer is the one sent to prepare the way for him. You will notice that John’s gospel has no ‘birth narratives’, no census, no manger, no shepherds, no Angels singing in the night skies, no Magi! We are introduced to Jesus only when he is about to begin his ministry. After the calling of several disciples, this is Jesus’ first public act. You will also notice that is also our introduction to his mother, who incidentally, is never named in John’s gospel.

The fact that this is a wedding is very important. Weddings are significant beginning points in people’s lives; it says something about God’s involvement in ordinary human hopes and dreams. A wedding is not much in the grand scheme of things but to that couple, on that day it is everything.

John the places this miracle at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry because in a sense is the inaugural event. This event shows what Jesus’ ministry will be all about.

As in all miracles there is a problem; this time it’s not blindness or infirmity, it’s a lack of wine at a wedding. I’ve already talked about why this is so drastic a problem. As the story goes, Jesus’ mother discovers the problem and goes to her son. We’re not sure, but it seems that she knew already that he could do something about it. While his reply seems rude, commentators who know more about that culture say that it’s not. Also, it’s simply part of the story; his response indicates that he’s not sure his time to reveal his powers has come. It’s important for Jesus that things be done properly and according to God’s will, God’s agenda, and God’s time. It’s also interesting to note that everywhere Jesus family appears, he seems to distance himself from them. It seems that he needs to show that he does not answer to his mother or brothers, but to God. In that day and age your family was everything and Jesus is showing a new way. Very soon the disciples will have to choose between their Christian family and their blood family.

So what else does this event show about Jesus’ ministry. Well it’s about the abundance of God’s actions in Jesus. John goes to great lengths to describe the jars; their size, their number, and their composition. It is clear that there was a great deal of wine at the end of the miracle; much more than would ever be needed for an entire wedding feast, let alone as it was winding down! There will be a great deal left over, that’s for sure. When Jesus feeds the 5000 there will be plenty left over as well. The miracle of the water into wine tells us that God’s grace produces in abundance.

John also tells us that this is not just everyday wine, but wine fo the best quality. God’s grace in Jesus may have come after God’s people have journeyed many years and many miles, but the revelation in Jesus is not second rate, or low quality, but rather, first rate. It is as if the best has been saved until the last.

As wine is a symbol of joy the abundance of joy has come in Jesus of Nazareth, God’s abundant gift. Throughout Jesus ministry the people will see again and agin how God’s abundant grace and abundant love is being shown in Jesus. As 21st century Christians, our goal is not to try to make sense of this miracle, or to explain it away, but to be open to that grace, that power to grant abundance.

In John no miracle is important, in and of itself, but it always shows something else in a brighter light. In John’s gospel there is also very little that doesn’t apply to the crucifixion and resurrection and “the hour” to which Jesus refers, is the hour of his glory - when death is vanquished and true life is proclaimed. The abundance of Jesus’ ministry is that the new age which the people had been hoping for, for generations upon generations, had already begun in the ministry of this Jesus.

This miracle is also about the power to expand our expectations. The steward of the feast was amazed, and so we can be to if we are open to the working of the Spirit. The gospels talk a great deal about ehe changing of expectations in relation to Jesus. The people never knew what to expect and Jesus always reserved the right to show God’s power in new and even unusual ways.

The Common Cup Company, a now disbanded singing group formerly based in Winnipeg sang a song called, “Cana Wine” based on this passage and it goes like this:

“Some friends of mine got married 
about three days ago 
I could take you in the to the place in the valley just below 
but I think I’ll stay up here a time enjoy the sweet warm glow 
that has come with the taste of Cana wine.

It was just a simple wedding feast
you know the kind I mean;
holding hands, holding hearts,
and holding fast to all their dreams 
but somehow I got the feeling that it was set more than first it seemed
must have been from the taste of Cana wine.

I didn’t have that much to drink 
but I never felt so tall;
the wine was finding empty holes I hadn’t known at all; 
it touched the deepest hurts in me 
till it found and filled my soul.
Never tasted the like of Cana wine.

That marriage down in Cana 
brought new life to my friends.
I bless them and I wish them
all the fullness life can bring.
But a new life’s rising in me to like a overflowing stream 
and it comes from the taste of Cana wine. 

The Sunday school student was 100% correct: if you’re going to have a wedding, you’d better invite Jesus! If you’re going to do anything, says John’s gospel, invite Jesus. In Jesus we are shown the grand abundance of grace and love offered to us and to all of humanity. There is no scarcity; nop rationing, not even any moderation. Drink deep, there’s lots to go around, there’s more where that came from. There is one warning though, when you’ve tasted this wine you can’t go back, your life is changed forever.

Shall I have him pour you a glass, or two?

Amen!

January 25, 2004 - Third Sunday After Epiphany

Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a
Luke 4: 14-21

One Body, Many Parts

Many years ago, I watched a film called “If you’re not there, you are missed.” In this movie, Jean Vanier, the son of a Canadian Governor General, who gave up a promising Naval career to work with handicapped adults, was speaking of the philosophy of his “home” in France. In that home every person was welcome, and every person had something to contribute, no matter how handicapped. In that movie, old and scratchy, and black and white, Vanier explained that the philosophy of the home was that every person would feel that, if they weren’t there, they would be missed. L’Arche homes have been opened worldwide, and in each welcomes people with developmental disabilities and those who choose to share life with them for a time. The name, “L’Arche”, french for “ark” points to God’s covenant with humanity and the biblical symbol of deliverance.

Pause

If you think about it, it’s a ludicrous image: a human body composed of nothing but arms, or a body of nothing but heads! They always say that two heads are better than one, but it would look very strange indeed!

In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul uses an easily understood image to talk about the value of different people and different tasks within the community of faith. I used Mr. Potato Head with the children because it’s easy to see what I’m talking about when he has nothing BUT eyes, or arms, or ears!

Most of Paul’s letters that are preserved for us in our Bible, were written because of conflicts of one kind or another in the churches with whom he worked. So then, what we have to do, is try and figure out what was going on in order to elicit such advice. Perhaps some in the community were intimidating others and gaining power because of supposedly superior gifts. It seems clear that some people were being given greater respect than others because of ‘spiritual gifts’.

Paul employs a frequently used image, that of a body, to teach about true community. When we read his argument, it makes perfect sense, but translating the image into the everyday life of the church is a little more tricky.

What Paul is talking about here is interdependency. This passage follows up Paul’s comments in vs two and three of the same chapter that talk about the transformation occurs when one takes on Christianity. The Holy Spirit enlivens us all, he says. Just as the Spirit enabled them to turn from their old ways, the Spirit enables them to be in accepting open community. All people are accepted because the same spirit is in them all. No matter how many members there are, and no matter how different they are one from another, there is only one body because there is only one Spirit.

For Paul, it all began at baptism. It seems that one of the pronouncements made at the early baptism service reflected the verse which stated that, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, the person had become one with the others in Christ. Paul asserts that just as individual differences, such as race or social status, are turned into non-issues by the work of the Spirit in their baptism, so any real distinctions in terms of being members with different functions had no significance.

Using the image of a body Paul argues that this is necessary for the good of the community Of course, in any community, different gifts and different functions are needed; not everyone can be the same. It would be natural then for those gifted to perform some duties to eventually be accorded a higher status.

British satirist, George Orwell, writing in the 1940s, described a farm run by the pigs. The farm began to operate on the principle, ‘all animals are equal’ but soon began to be run on a different principle: ‘some animals are more equal than others”. Designed as a criticism of totalitarian regimes, this book is a humorous look at how human nature transforms what sound like lofty principles into evil and oppression when power and the power of ideas are vested in the hands of a few.

When Paul begins his argument in this passage he begins with the assumption that the community is a body. He does not exhort them to be like a body, but rather, he tries to show them what their actions are doing to the body that already exists. example.

In the light of modern ideas of ‘self image’ and ‘self esteem’ we can see how this passage is addressed to both those with a too high opinion of themselves and to those with not a high enough one. To those who wish they had other, more important gifts, Paul says, “all of your gifts are important and necessary”. To those who thought they were more important, Paul says, “Wait a minute! You can’t do it all. Other gifts are needed. Perhaps not all are as glamarous, or as public, but where would we be without all our body parts, even those we don’t talk about only with our doctor or our spouse.

Teachers and parents know that it’s a tricky thing: teaching children how to feel good about themselves, but not making them arrogant. The role of parents and others is crucial as children receive feedback about how they are perceived by others when they are too pushy or not pushy enough in relation to gifts and abilities.

Instead of Paul ‘telling off’ the arrogant’, it is clear that Paul needed to speak to both groups. Both sides of this message needed to be there. It seems that in this Corinthian community, the relatively few who boasted, who sought to highly of themselves, forced their claims before the majority, who, let them get away. Paul needs to talk to both of them so that there will be mutual respect and true self respect.

Paul is teaching that the Christian life is not about competition for status, it is a that the mutuality of up building, a hallmark of love is this spirit which gives the gifts.

Many churches around the world have just celebrated the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, an 8 day celebration in which we are called to recognize our unity in Christ and not dwell on our denominational differences.

How then do we sum up this passage. How do we guard against thinking too highly of ourselves and our gifts, or not highly enough.

First: We must remember that God is the source of all gifts. God has decided that there will be diversity in a body and diversity in the community of faith. Just as our bodies are ‘blobs’ of identical tissue, the community of faith is diverse and multi-celled. It is not a burden to bear but a gift.

Second: We must remember that people with different gifts need one another. Just as each part of the body has a function, so each gift is needed in the church.

Three: No gift is more important than another. Even though some body parts are covered and not spoken of in public, it does not mean that they are not important. On the contrary, those parts are some of the most important.

Four: In what seems like a ‘no-brainer’ Paul asserts that we have to care for one another Think of a time when you had a sore toe, a really sore toe, or an ache or a pain somewhere. Even though only one part of your body was ill, the pain dragged your down and you had to stop and deal with it. Those who live with chronic pain know how debilitating it can be to the whole body and to the whole person to have an ache somewhere. Likewise when one member is in mourning, or sick, or in some kind of crisis, the whole community, if it is a healthy community, notices and does what it can to care. based on conclusions in Texts for Preaching, Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.

Sometimes the body isnt all in one place, and sometimes the body has to decide where its primary loyalties lie. There is a story told at about the congregation in St. Stephen, New Brunswick As you probably know St. Stephen is close to the border with Calais, Maine. In the early 1800's, the St. Stephen’s Church was the most prominent church on either side of the river which forms the international border. Both Canadian and American attended and mixed freely. When the war of 1812 broke out between England and the United States the minister told his parishioners to sit separately one Sunday morning: Canadians on one side Americans on the other. That in itself was unusual because people usually mixed freely during the worship service. The minister then asked a prominent layperson from the American side to stand-up. He asked the man if there was any reason he would want to shoot anyone on the opposite side of the aisle. The man shook his head vigorously and said, “ of course not!” The minister then asked a man from St. Stephen to stand up and answer the same question. The answer was the same, “ Of course not!”

“Well then”, the minister concluded “there is no need for us to be at war with each other”. I am told that throughout that war, St. Stephen’s remained a congregation of peace, a community of the reconciled

Let us go from here and seek health, wholeness and unity in diversity as a body of Christ in EVERYONE, everyone is VALUED and everyone is truly LOVED. That is God’s will and God’s gift.

Amen.