Part of the Whole

A Sermon preached at the Family Service on Epiphany III, Jan. 27, at St. Augustine’s Wiesbaden

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

[Illustration with the help of a volunteer ... one hand clapping, standing one one leg]

What does that tell us? That often one part of a body does not function well on its own. That we need two or more. That we can do more together. I don’t think Paul was into this sort of play acting, he preferred to write letters, lots of them. But even in letters he uses images and illustrations and in today’s extract from his letter to the good, and sometimes not so good, people of Corinth, he uses the idea of the body and organs and limbs to tell us what the church should and should not be like. 

His ideal picture of a church is one that is diverse, made up of many different people with different backgrounds and talents: “The body does not consist of one member but of many.”  (1 Cor. 12:14) No member, whether of the body or of the church, is worth more or less than the other: “On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” (12:22) And none of them can exist on their own: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?” (12:17) All are needed if the body, and the church, is to function properly.

Just as God is responsible for are bodies are put together, God also arranges us as parts of Christ’ body, that is the church. Paul lists apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, those who speak in tongues and those who interpret them. We have some of these talents here too. We have people who feel sent into the world to proclaim and serve, we have people who speak up about injustice, we have teachers, we certainly have miracle workers …. How else would all our concerts and events function so well and so successfully! I’m not certain about those who speak in and interpret tongues, except of course in the sense that English is not everyone’s first language and we need to be ready to help and support them.

Paul’s list is not exclusive anyway. God has appointed in this church also people with lovely voices who can sing or read to others, second people who are good at building and repairing things, God has given us Gerhard to look after our garden. You are all friendly and some of you are particularly talented in making people feel comfortable. And last, and not least, some of you are leaders. And we hope to see new leaders at the AGM when we elect the Vestry. This list too can go on and on. Nobody, especially not priests and pastors, can do everything…and we are not meant to! Paul’s image of the body tells us that God wants us to cooperate. When we use and acknowledge each other’s God-given talents and abilities anything is possible. Sharing resources, time, and especially our gifts is what makes things work.

Sadly, the Church has a long history of not acknowledging and accepting its peoples’ talents and gifts. Why do you think Paul had to write this letter to the Corinthians? They believed some members, the poorer ones, the slaves, the women, were worth less: weaker, less honourable, or less respectable.

But before we look down on them: Can you imagine refusing a great singer just because they were black, or a great preacher just because they were a woman, or a great teacher just because they were LGBT? Our (wider) Church did, and many other churches still do. While none of the above are an issue here anymore, we must still also be watchful, mindful of Paul’s admonition, that we do not refuse anyone because of who they are, where they come from, or even how long they have been part of the church. 

In Paul’s image, we should be so closely connected that we are feel for and with one another: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (12:26) Being able to share in each other’s joys and sorrows is therefore another sign that we truly are the body of Christ. 

Last and certainly not least we need to remember that what holds the body of Christ together and what unites the diverse parts. We were baptised into one body, Paul says. We made a common declaration of faith and of the action resulting from that faith. We drank of one Spirit, God’s Spirit, Paul continues. We renew that common bond every week when we share Christ’s body and drink Christ’s blood in the bread and wine made holy. These are the greater gifts Paul tells us to strive for, for they are the gifts of God, for the people of God.

Amen.

In whom do we trust?

A Sermon preached on the Feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, at St. Augustine’s Wiesbaden

Isaiah 60: 1 – 6; Ephesians 3: 1 – 12; Matthew 2: 1 – 12

I am not certain that the wise men really deserve their title. First, they trusted in astrology, the idea that the movements and relative positions of stars and planets have something to say about human affairs and terrestrial events. Then they trusted King Herod who sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ (Mt. 2:8) And it wasn’t their own wisdom that stopped them going back to Herod, but a dream. Otherwise we can assume that once they had told the king where they had found the child, he would have had them killed, before sending a team of assassins to murder the “child who has been born king of the Jews.” (2:2)

As even very recent history teaches us, that is what despots and dictators do: imprison, silence, or kill the witnesses and messengers and anyone who is a threat to their power. Because as power increases, so does paranoia! While the wise men, and Jesus, survived the day, those children we call the “Holy Innocents” and whose feast day we remember, rather oddly a little over a week before Epiphany, did not: “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.” (2:16)

But while their judgment may have been faulty in getting to Bethlehem, at least they made the right choices when they were there, “on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.” (2:11) Seeing not just a child, but what this child would be and would do, they put their trust in God.

Let’s stay with the theme of trust for a moment. Trust is the firm belief in someone else’s reliability, in the truth of what they say, or in their ability to do something or to deliver. We trust that they will act as we have agreed, or in our mutual best interest without having to watch or supervise them. Relationships break down without trust. Neither our communities, nor our societies can function without trust. Sadly, and worryingly, that is what is happening in the world right now. The erosion of trust in our institutions and the established parties and politicians leads to two self-reinforcing dangerous developments. We are only willing to trust those we think we know really well, such as our own families, and those who look like and act like us. We put our trust in those who have easy answers, who reinforce the fear of the stranger, who proclaim self-reliance: for the individual, the group who support him (it’s mostly a he), and for the nation. It is not only the wise men who put their trust in the wrong people.

The most recent example is the new president of Brazil for whom the best solution to the problem of crime is not to tackle the poverty that is its cause, but to free up gun possession: “Good citizens deserve the means to defend themselves,” he said in his inauguration speech a few days ago. I wonder who will define who is a good citizen? And, as they all do, Mr. Bolsanaro claims to want to “unite the people, rescue the family, respect religions and our Judeo-Christian tradition, … conserving our values.” One thing is sure, they are not Christian values: faith, hope, and love are our core values - faith in God, hope for the future, and love of God and our neighbor. As long as the Bolsanaros and his like are being elected on supposedly Christian platforms, we have not been doing our job, we have not been preaching the gospel, and we, as the church, have not been making God’s wisdom and plan for restoring humanity to the role God intended known: as guardians and stewards of creation and one another.

We remember the wise men, or the three kings as they are often also called, and who even have a shrine of their own in Cologne Cathedral, not for who they were, wise or not so wise, but for what they did. They made the long and perilous journey to find the Christ child. They brought him presents that symbolized Christ’s kingship, priesthood, and sacrificial death. They signal at the very beginning of the Gospel of Matthew that the good news is not just for the Jews, but for the whole world. This is the same message Paul has for the Ephesians when he writes that “the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Eph. 3:6) The Feast of the Epiphany, and the season that follows, are all about this revelation, this realization that God has acted in the world through Jesus for all people and that in Paul’s words, it is in Christ Jesus that “we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.” (Eph. 3:12).

With this boldness, confidence, and faith, all of which are also synonyms for trust, with the knowledge of God’s revelation in Christ, and with the same enthusiasm and commitment that Paul shows, despite being in prison, we are equally empowered and sent to bring to all people the “news of the boundless riches of Christ.” (Eph. 3:8) Just as the wise men, as representatives of the world, were sent to Bethlehem, encountering in Herod the evil powers that need to be overcome on their way, so we are sent out from Bethlehem, from the manger on a mission to the world. Our mission is to proclaim the Good News of the God’s Kingdom whose values our Anglican Communion has summarized[1] as responding to human need by loving service, transforming unjust structures of society, challenging violence of every kind and pursuing peace and reconciliation, striving to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustaining and renewing the life of the earth. We trust in God, in the truth of the mystery now revealed, and in the working of God’s power in us to transform the world into the kingdom that royal child, sought by the wise men, who is Christ Jesus our Lord, proclaimed in his life and teaching.

Amen.

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[1] Taken from the Five Marks of Mission, see: https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx