We’re Here Together
Cornwall/Montreal
May 7, 2005
We’re here together, in our church. What is our relationship to each other? Sometimes, as we go along, we become unclear about our relationship with each other, or we simply forget what it ought to be. We have to understand what Jesus sees and what He wants for us to see, as we are together in this, part of Jesus’ great church.
The church is an organism. What is an organism, you might wonder? Well, let’s think about this for a minute. In the NT, there are nearly 100 word pictures of the church. The church is the household of God, the people of God, the bride of Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, just to name four. The church expert, named Paul, had a favourite image. He saw the church as a body- the body of Jesus Christ, which brings us to what an organism is. The church, as an organism, or as a body, is a life-pulsating people who are animated by the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. The body is alive. The church is a living being- an organism. The church is not a company; it is not an organization, or an institution, or a business. Although there are elements of each of those, in the church, sometimes, it is not accurate to use those terms, primarily. The church is a living, moving, growing body- the body of our Lord, Jesus Christ- it has those, who are part of it, sharing in divine life.
So, in this organism, what is our relationship to each other? We’re into a season of celebrating relationships- Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, St. Jean Baptiste Day, July 1, July 4- all celebrate various aspects of various important relationships. How do we relate to each other- what is our relationship with each other, in the church?
Paul, again, the church expert, speaks of our relationships of interdependence in three ways.
1. We belong to each other.
2. We need each other.
3. We affect each other.
1. We Belong to Each Other
1 Cor.12.13- this says that everyone, no matter who we are or what we have done, comes into the church by the same means. We all must come humbly on our knees- we did not choose Christ, but he chose us. Someone has said that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. Though we might try to live without God, his sovereign Spirit opens our hearts. We are drawn into a new life from above, picked up by the scruff of the neck and placed into his body, the church. The only thing we may have in common with the person next to us in worship is that we do not deserve to be here. God has wonderfully and gently come into our lives so that each of us has a story of our coming- our wooing, really- to tell. What knits us together is that we belong in Christ.
So, we have no choice about who our brothers and sisters are. God did not and will not consult with us on whom he brings into the body. Every other human organization can set its standards for membership and filter out those not to their liking. But, by listing, “Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,” Paul declared that racial, ethnic, and religious heritage and station or class I life are meaningless to the church. Through baptism in the Holy Spirit we enter into this divine body and find ourselves with others who have also been chosen. From the world’s viewpoint this can make for strange bedfellows. But when the most unlikely people are reconciled through Christ, then insurmountable earthly barriers are overcome.
Charles Colson tells a story of a dinner gathering that included Harold Hughes, a former senator; Tommy Tarrant, a white racist; Eldridge Cleaver, a militant black activist, and Colson, a former White House official.
“What a strange collection of people: the one-time Nixon loyalist, a recovered alcoholic and liberal Democratic senator from Iowa, a member of the Black Panther Party and an avowed Marxist revolutionary out on bail, and an ex-Ku Klux Klan terrorist doing 35 years in prison. Here were men who represented opposite poles culturally, politically, socially; it would be unthinkable in the world’s eyes that they could come together for any purpose. Yet on this night they prayed together, wept together, and embraced- joined together by the power of the Holy Spirit in a fraternity that transcends all other.”
We belong to each other because we first belong to Christ. Don’t let anyone persuade you that the church and the people in it don’t matter to you.
2. We Need Each Other
According to Paul’s body image, all the parts are interdependent and necessary for the body’s health. God has so designed things that the involvement of every person with his special contribution is necessary for the proper functioning of the community. No individual part can function without a connection to the other parts. A hand disconnected form the wrist is useless.
1 Cor.12.14-
Paul is concerned with two wrong attitudes that interfere with the interdependence of the body- inferiority and superiority. The corrective is inter-reliance.
Inferiority- There are some who attempt to detach themselves from the body because they feel unimportant in the overall scheme.
1 Cor.12.15-16- some compare themselves with the highly gifted and conclude that they have nothing to offer. Invariably, when we compare ourselves with others we come up second best and therefore fail to accept ourselves as the valuable persons God has made us. Comparison is really a self-focused coveting of gifts. You have something very valuable to give this body. We suffer today from an epidemic of low self-image and lack of healthy self-importance. Yet the body functions in a healthy fashion when all are affirmed and valued for the contribution each has to make. “God don’t make no junk”- I used to have a tee shirt with this on it. To prevent this, we need to help each discover the unique gifts given to him or her by the Spirit for building up the body.
Eph.3.11-12!
Gordon Crosby, a pastor in Washington, DC, said, “Christ makes each of us something unlike any other creation fashioned by God- something wonderful, exciting, unique; something specifically needed in the total body of Christ. This uniqueness, this very self that is so hard to describe, this charismatic person is the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the primary gift we bring to the Body, and without it the Body is immeasurably impoverished.”
Superiority- The second wrong attitude Paul describes is just as destructive as inferiority. There are some who believe they are complete in and of themselves and do not need the other parts of the church.
1 Cor.12.21. The attitude of superiority is reflected in the belief that the church is on God’s optional list. So we hear people say that ‘the church is helpful if you need it, but as for me, I can be as close to Christ in my garden or on a golf course as I can be with other Christians in church.”
The “I have no need of you” attitude is also expressed as the arrogance of gift projection, a form of superiority. It is psychologically true that we expect that everyone sees things as we do. Wee then project our perspective on others. This can apply to spiritual gifts and involves a failure to see the diversity of the body. George Mueller was a great Christian of the 19th century. What God accomplished through Mueller’s faith was incredible. But Mueller had a blind spot in thinking that everyone had the gift of faith. He wrote, “Let not Satan deceive you in making you think you could not have the same faith, but that it is only for persons situated as I am…I pray to the Lord and expect answers to my requests, and may not you do the same, dear believing readers?” Faith was his spiritual gift. Yet he expected it to be everyone’s as if there was only one part of the body.
Interreliance- The middle ground between inferiority and superiority is interreliance. None of us is complete in and of ourselves. We are whole only in relationship to other parts of the body. Jesus makes himself known more fully corporately than he dos in isolated individuals. For example, evangelism done in the in the context of community will be more powerful than individual witness. The witness to someone of a small group, for instance, will exceed the impact, simply because of number, of an individual.
We are created for relationship. This was so from the beginning. Before Eve was created, God told Adam, "It is not good that the man should be alone"(Gen.2.18). None of the living creatures could be a ‘helper’ or, better, a ‘counterpart’ to Adam. When the woman was presented to him, Adam declared:
Gen.2.23. He was no longer alone. The Hebrew language reflects this completion. Until the creation of woman, the word for ‘man’ was ‘adam’, meaning ‘mankind.’ When woman was created, the word for man became ‘ish’, meaning ‘male’ in contrast to ‘ishah’, for ‘female’. Man did not become male until there was female.
To be created in the image of God means to be created for relationship.
Gen.1.27- Sin marred the image of God in man and shattered relationship. The church of Jesus is meant to be a reflection of the corporate restoration of the broken image.
Col.1.15- Christ called a people out who would be the visible expression of the image of God being restored. The church is not simply a good idea, convenient when it is needed. The church is essential to God’s redemptive plan. Jesus reflects his presence to the world through an interreliant people. We need each other.
4. We Affect Each Other
We are called together to leave a holy imprint on each other’s lives, and we do this in two ways- in our ministry and in our relationships.
- In our ministry. 1 Cor.12.4-8- Paul spells out that we all have ministries- esp. v.7. It is through our ministry that we contribute to the good of the whole. Our ministry is defined by the gifts God has given to us, and Paul uses 4 different synonyms to capture what he means by spiritual gifts.
a. “Gifts” (1 Cor.12.4). The Greek word for ‘gifts’ is ‘charismata’ from which we get our word ‘charismatic’. The root of ‘charismata’ is ‘charis’, which means ‘grace.’ So charismata are literally ‘grace-gifts’ that come with the package of salvation. They are the tangible, manifest expression of the love of God for us. Each of us has a basic need to make a contribution, to know that our lives have added to the common good. The grace-gifts are the means God has provided for us to make this contribution.
b. “Service” (1 Cor.12.5). The Greek word is derived from ‘diakonia’ from which we get the word ‘deacon’. It could also be translated in 1 Cor. 12 as ‘ministries’. ‘Service’ captures the attitude in which we make our contribution. Jesus is our model. (Mk.10.45). He said this and lived this. The way we give our lives away is through the proper stewardship of our gifts. We all have a service to give the body. Gifts are not for self but for ‘the common good’.
c. “Working” (1Cor.12.6). The term ‘working’ also sounds familiar, coming from the word ‘energematon’, from which we get our word ‘energy’. Gifts energize, charge, or make a positive impact on the body. Each gift operates in its particular way to strengthen the body. Evangelists bring in new babes in Christ, pastors help create a nurturing atmosphere, mercies reach out in compassion, servers identify and meet basic needs, and so on. Each one strengthens in his own way. A spiritual gift is an ability to minister that is given by God to strengthen and build up the body of Christ.
- In our relationships. Paul captures the rhythm of mutuality in the body when he writes- 1 Cor.12.26. He draws a lesson from our physical bodies, when it comes to suffering. When one part of our body hurts, the rest of the body turns its attention to the hurting part. We don’t say to ourselves, “I shouldn’t be concerned about that throbbing toe. I should be glad that all the other pats of my body are functioning correctly.” Of course not! Our entire attention is focused on relieving the pain of the sore toe. IN the body of Christ what happens to one member affects the whole. The Greek word translated ‘all suffer together’ is ‘sympatheo’, which means ‘to suffer with’ or ‘sympathize’. Sympathy speaks of identifying with another’s suffering to the degree that we enter into and carry another’s pain as if it were our own. It is the image of getting next to a person and lifting the burden so that the weight is distributed on the shoulders of other people. Paul says that the suffering should be spread out so the whole community carries it.
The reverse is true, too. “If one member is honored, all rejoice together.’ It is deflating to have something wonderful happen to you and have no one with whom to share the joy. The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, said to his colonists, in 1630: “We must delight in each other, make other’s conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body.”
Conclusion
The biblical vision is of the church as an organism. That means that the church is a people in whom Jesus invests his life; we are a people who remain connected and receive direct signals from the head; and we are a people through whom divine life is transmitted to one another. Paul has his own summary- 1 Cor.12.27.
Each of us must be committed to Jesus’ body. Are you? Am I? I must be. If I’m not, I need to repent and to respond to Jesus’ call back to His body.
