A Body with Many Parts
As we continue our series, “Reimagining the Church” Pastor Nate Ryan will be sharing from 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul writes about the image of the body of Christ. We still all have a part to play. We’re a collective whole, but each of us has a part. We’re to use our gifts, those specific talents God has created us with and gifted us by His Spirit, to build up the Body of Christ to fulfill its mission where we know the body is lacking. We’re called to step up and use are gifts, so the church can fulfill its mission in the world more efficiently. Pastor Nate will help us learn how we can do this.
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A Body with Many Parts
In downtown Chicago there is a prestigious law school called the Kent College of Law, perhaps you’ve heard of it. Kent Law prides itself on having been the educational home of many individuals who have gone on to do some extraordinary things: Representatives of Congress, State Supreme Court Justices, City Mayors, and even the first female patent attorney in the history of the United States.
But perhaps the most impressive and most unlikely student to have graduated from there was a man named Christoper Overton, who was the school’s valedictorian in 1972. Chrispher Overton was a man, blind from birth. He impressed all his classmates simply by being able to graduate on time, much less graduate with high honors and the highest GPA in the class.
During his commencement speech, Overton went out of his way to specifically identify one fellow classmate to whom he attributed to 50% of his law school success. That man was Dimitri Kaspryzak, a Polish international student, who just happened to be born with no arms.
The two first met each other during their first semester at Kent, when Overton was struggling to find the library because he hadn’t yet memorized the route. Seeing that Overton was blind and clearly in need of assistance, Kaspryzak offered to help by accompanying him along the way.
Once the two men left the library later that afternoon, Overton carried Kaspryzak’s books for him as a token of his appreciation. The acquaintanceship soon blossomed into a lifelong friendship between the two men, and a beautiful example of the power of interdependence.
The two became roommates and coordinated all their schedules so they shared every class. Kaspyrzak always had someone to carry his books for him, while Overton always had someone to read to him while they studied in their apartment.
Eventually after the two graduated, they started a law firm together. Within fifteen years they became fierce lobbyists on Capital Hill, advocating for what would one day come to be known as the Americans with Disabilities Act, a piece of legislation that drastically improved the rights and freedoms entitled to those who are impaired in this country.
This is a beautiful story of how two men were able to overcome their individual disabilities by compensating for one another’s weaknesses.
Each recognized a particular strength in the other that they themselves lacked, and, in humility, they allowed themselves to be aided in such a way that made their goals attainable.
They depended on one another for their mutual benefit and education in a country that had not yet formally recognized their need for such support.
And the most beautiful part of that story is that they were able to accomplish exceedingly more together than they ever thought possible on their own. More than just simply graduating law school, they changed the country and changed people’s lives who were hurting, struggling and questioning if they even had a place in this world.
It was all because they relied on each other’s strengths to compensate for what they themselves lacked.
Brothers and sisters, that’s what the church is supposed to do and what it’s supposed to look like.
The Body of Christ is one where every part should be interdependent, but the church doesn’t always look that way. That’s a tragedy, because the Lord has called His people to do some extraordinary things, things far greater than we could possibly imagine.
We’re called to be salt and light, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. In the name of Jesus, we’re called to proclaim and partner with God in advancing the reality of His Kingdom here on earth.
And that Kingdom is supposed to bring good news to the poor, set the prisoner free, restore the sight of the blind, free the oppressed and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor which is here to stay and to be experienced by all.
The Lord has called us to do some extraordinary things, but we have to be willing to partner together in that mission.
All of us have certain weaknesses that just happen to be other people’s strengths.
We all have gifts the Holy Spirit has given us that can be used to edify the whole Body although they are not all the same. This is the image the church.
I want to make it clear that this is an area where I think BBC excels and has for a long time. But that doesn’t mean we can’t always improve or get better. So how do we do that? Thankfully for us, there are examples of churches in the Bible that we can look at and learn from.
The most obvious of them is the church in Corinth, a community founded by the Apostle Paul in southern Greece. After spending a year and a half there, Paul left his ministry, confident that the church would continue following Jesus on their own without any help. Boy was he wrong! Paul was surprised to find that in-fighting and scandals had soon rocked the church and all their problems could be traced back to the fact that the church wasn’t unified. There were factions among them, and in addition, they were not using their gifts to benefit the whole Body of Christ.
Paul wrote to them in the year 54 AD, largely telling them to shape up. Paul urged them to be the community Christ had called them to be unified and work together to do the incredible things God had in mind for His people.
Our Scripture this morning comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Listen to these words:
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.”
One of the first cardinal rules in studying the Bible is to be aware of words or phrases that are repeated multiple times in a single section, meaning they are important.
In the first two verses alone of the passage I just read, there’s a single word repeated five times which Paul wants us to notice. ONE.
Paul says “Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Brothers and sisters, in just two verses, Paul is telling the fledgling Christian community in Corinth what’s at the heart of all their problems. They aren’t one. They aren’t united.
The entire Christian faith is predicated on the idea that no matter what your background is or where you come from, you have a role to play. God can use you and no one should be telling you otherwise.
Regardless of your race, your socio-economic status, whether you’re rich or you’re poor, male or female, a child or a senior citizen, you have a part to play in the missional work of the church.
We’re called to do some extraordinary things, but if we’re not united in our faith and understand that the person next to us has been given the same Spirit as we have, we’re in trouble.
The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, but it’s also living in the person in this church whose life, background, interests and special God-given talents are different than yours. And that’s not reason to avoid them, but quite the opposite! It’s a reason to depend on them.
Whether you’re willing to accept this truth or not, you aren’t good at everything, there are places where you lack. Wives tell that to your husbands!
Paul turns to an image that’s familiar because we look at it every day in the mirror. To describe the essence of the church, Paul looks to the body as a visual aid.
Think about it, look at my body: it’s a single whole and I only get one of them. It’s not like I have one body specifically designed for some tasks and then another body I can simply change into for others. It doesn’t work that way. God has designed my body in such a way that it can do many things. The fact that I’m born with only one body doesn’t limit me from living my life and doing all the things I need for survival. My body is made of many parts. I’ve got eyes to help me see, and a nose to help me smell. I’ve got feet designed for balance and walking, and hands meant to grasp things.
Each of those parts has a specific role and when they all work together, I’m able to live my life in a relatively efficient way and there’s not much of an issue. It would be an issue if I didn’t have all those parts, or worse if only some of those parts were working.
Think about it, how difficult would it be to change the carburetor in my car if I didn’t have a hand, and all I had were feet? Or to go on my morning jog, if all I had were elbows? I wouldn’t get very far. Every part serves a particular function and if I’m missing one, I’m weaker and impaired. Paul says the same is true for the church.
The church, just like a human body, has many parts. In theory there isn’t anything the church can’t do so long as it has all its parts and they’re functioning together. The church fulfills its mission as the parts work together and are accounted for.
The Body of Christ is called to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That’s actually possible as long as we remember that the church needs all its parts working in unity with each other. If not, we’re weaker and less effective.
Paul says, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”
We are all a part of the Body and we all have a part to play. We’re a collective whole, but each of us is meant to use our gifts, those specific talents God has created and gifted us by His Spirit, to build up the Body of Christ together and fulfill its mission.
The question is, how do we do that? How do we do it well? As I said, I think BBC does a good job and is one of the images of the church in this series that I think we do best. But we can always do more.
I want to offer three ways where I think we can improve reimagining our church.
The first way is to recognize that there’s still work to be done to function as a whole. There are still some of us who share fellowship with only the people with whom we share the same interests, come from the same background, have the same political affiliations, or share the same gifts. You have to recognize that it’s a problem if our goal is to be a unified whole. Getting to know someone who comes from a different walk of life or brings a different perspective to the table is good and can go a long way. The first step in becoming a more unified whole is getting to know the person in this room who’s sitting in the furthest pew from you. It can do a lot of good!
The second way is to identify our gifts, because we all have them. Sometimes we doubt ourselves, and we aren’t sure if we have a role to play or a gift to contribute. You might think you’re insignificant and what skills you have can’t benefit the church, but you would be wrong. Paul says that “even the parts that seem weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.”
Don’t ever think that skills you have can’t be used effectively to edify the church.
Let me tell you a story. In the church where I previously served, there was a woman named Martha who dealt with some seriously low self-esteem issues. We held a spiritual gifts class, where Martha was convinced she that had no gifts and thought she was a liability, “just taking up a Sunday morning,” she said as she opened up her heart to me one morning.
But every week, Martha came to our sanctuary with a gift, whether a Bible or piece of clothing or just something that made her think of someone else when she saw it, and she gave that gift away to a different person every week.
When she announced in the class that she had no gifts, the whole room burst out laughing. Martha was astounded until one of the most mature women in our congregation, a Christian of over 60 years, turned to Martha and said, “You, my dear, have the gift of generosity.” Martha found her place.
Brothers and sisters, we all have gifts that can serve the body, no matter how ineffectual or unimportant they might seem to us. They’re “indispensable”, Paul says, “worthy of special honor.”
The third and final way we can reimagine this image of the church here at BBC is also the most difficult one.
We have to be willing to admit our weaknesses and allow others to compensate and support us.
Just as Christopher Overton and Dimitri Kaspryzak helped each other, we have to be able to mutually rely on each other to be a collective whole.
Some of us are only brains, able to cast vision and come up with some pretty creative ideas. But if you’re only a brain, you lack eyes and the ability to see clearly into the future to determine if those ideas are actually good ones.
Some of us are muscles and can do the heavy lifting, but we need someone to give us directives to make sure we’re lifting the right thing.
Some of us are hands and quick to pitch in and help one another wherever there’s a need, but if you ask us to run the marathon of leading a whole ministry, we’re already exhausted. It’s better just to leave that to the feet.
We have to be willing to admit our limitations and allow others to fill in to function as a whole. That’s the only way we can be the Church. God has called us to do some extraordinary things, and we can! But we have to be a Body, a Body with many parts.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, we seek to be your Body, with its many parts, but still whole. Give us the vision of how to reach the perfection of our synergy, where all the parts come together, and everyone has a role. May we identify our strengths, the beautiful talents and gifts Your Holy Spirit has given us. May we use them boldly without fear or insecurity, regardless of how unessential they may seem, or how unneeded we may convince ourselves they are. They’re a beautiful gift from You. Remind us they have value, that we have value. And may we be able to recognize our weaknesses, and allow ourselves to be compensated for. May we humbly admit that we can’t do everything, and step out in courage by allowing others to use their gifts for the benefit of us and the whole. We love You and we thank You, and we pray this in Your precious name. Amen.