3 Epiphany, Year C (2010)                                                            

Nehemiah 8:1-2, 5-6, 8-10                                                          

I Corinthians 12:12-31a

Luke 4:14-21

 

            Come, Holy Spirit, take our hearts and our minds and unite us in the bond of Love.  Amen.

 

Today’s text from Corinthians is so familiar that it’s easy to let the words enter one ear and go straight out the other.  We’ve heard this passage so many times that we, of course, know what it’s about and it needs no further discussion.

 

“The body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body.”   This is common sense.  We all know our bodies are made up of many members and that together they form one body.  And we also know that Paul applies this analogy to the body of Christ.

 

But, I propose that it’s not so easy to accept this analogy at all.  What Paul is advocating here is really quite a challenge if we are willing to look closely at this text and then reflect upon our lives.

           

We are all quite aware of how each part of our body acts in relation to the other parts.  All it takes is smashing our thumb in a door to realize how indispensable that thumb really is.  Simple tasks such as tying a shoe or buttoning a shirt with a bandaged thumb becomes quite a production. Not only do we then recognize how important that thumb really is – that thumb that we normally barely notice at all, we even take great care of it so that it will heal as quickly as possible – and be restored to wholeness.

 

In Paul’s time the rhetorical analogy of people functioning together in society just as body parts function together was used to keep people in their places.  Some parts of the body were seen as inferior to others, and this extended to mean some people in society were inferior to others. 

 

Paul, however, takes this common understanding and turns it upside down.  He says, “God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.”

 

This is true of ourselves.  We take great care when we go out in public to dress appropriately.  We take care of all the parts of our own bodies so that we may do our daily tasks with ease.  So, as far as our own bodies are concerned, we do take care of its many members. 

 

But Paul speaks of the many members of the body of Christ.  You and I have been baptized into one body.  You and I are different members of one body.

  

We know our differences well, and we tend to associate by them.  We divide along theological lines into many denominations.  Even in our one Episcopal tradition, today we find ourselves focusing on division.  In our social lives for the most part we divide along racial, economic and cultural lines as well.  It is more comfortable that way – to associate with “like” members.

 

When reflecting on this text, I wondered:

 

What would it look like for each member of the body to have the same care for one another that we have for ourselves?

 

What does it really look like to say: “if one member suffers, all suffer together with it.” Or “if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

 

I understand being sad when someone else is hurting or even being overwhelmed with horror and grief in cases of broad-scale tragedy such the earthquake in Haiti or flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi or genocide in Rwanda.

 

And I understand being happy when something good occurs in another’s life.

 

It’s a little more complicated, though, to live in a world in which we take literally that when one person suffers, all suffer together.  Or that when one member is honored, all rejoice together.

 

But, as science progresses, we are finding that that really is true.  Every thing and every one is connected.  What happens to one affects all.

 

As I reflected on these texts I remembered one of my favorite movies called “The Spitfire Grill.”  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

 

There is a young woman named Percy who has just spent five years in prison.  When she is released, she goes to a small town in Maine because she has seen a picture of this place and thinks it is just beautiful.  When she arrives, she gets a job helping out around a diner called the Spitfire Grill. 

 

Soon after she starts working there, the owner of the grill falls and breaks her leg.  So, Percy takes on more responsibility to help the owner.  Before going to bed every evening, one of her tasks is to take a burlap sack, fill it with canned goods and put it out by the stump used for splitting firewood.  She has no idea who collects the food or why. 

 

One day she gets curious and decides to hide behind the log pile to see who comes.  It is dark outside, but through the light of the moon she sees a rather rough-looking man dressed in burlap with long hair and a long beard come and pick up the bag.  Just then she stands up.  Being startled, the man runs off back into the woods.

  

Percy runs after him, speaking to him, telling him her name and asking him what his is.  The man is long gone but she keeps running after him, continuing to talk to him, “I was wondering if you might like something different in your sack.  I keep putting the same list of food in every day.  I know what it’s like to keep eating the same food every day, wishing I had something else to eat.  Would you like me to put in a little something different? Well, I’ll just do that tomorrow.”

 

She returns to her room and goes to bed.  The next evening as she is packing up the burlap sack, she pulls out a freshly baked loaf of bread and carefully wraps it up in paper and puts it in the bag.  She puts the bag out on the stump and goes to bed.

 

Here is a woman who is caring for a man who has in some way been injured and now lives in the woods as an outcast.  Yet, she cares for him the same as she cares for herself.  She puts herself in his shoes and considers what his needs are.

 

“God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.  If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body.”

 

God has created us in great diversity.  Last week Paul spoke of the many spiritual gifts that God has given.  This week Paul speaks of our unity in the midst of great diversity.  All of our gifts are to be used for building up the body of Christ, so that it may function in wholeness.

 

At the beginning I said that Paul uses an analogy, comparing the parts of the body to the members of the Body of Christ…well, if you look a little closer, you’ll see that it’s not actually an analogy at all. 

 

Paul says, “You are the Body of Christ and individually members of it.”

 

We are thus mandated to care for one another as we care for ourselves.

 

This can be an overwhelming prospect.  In today’s story from Nehemiah as the people listened to the readings from the Law, they felt themselves indicted for what they had not done.  But, Nehemiah’s words to them are these: “Do not mourn or weep….Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared…do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

 

“Do what you can,” he says. 

 

“Don’t be overwhelmed with what you cannot control.  Do what you can and move on, and take joy in what you can do.”

 

In today’s gospel are Jesus’ famous words, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

Jesus has brought good news to the poor. 

            He has proclaimed release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.

                        He has brought word of freedom for the oppressed.

 

It is our task to join in such proclamation of healing and wholeness.

 

Jesus’ healing is already taking place in the world. 

            We are not without hope.

                        We are to participate in caring for the Body of Christ – our brothers and sisters.

 

As the community of the Episcopal Center, we have walked in the CROP Walk to raise money for those in our community and world who are hungry; we have participated in building a house for the Rahlan-Sui family.  This weekend at Diocesan Convention some of us helped make 100,500 meals for the hungry.  There are countless ways to honor one another.

 

We are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  God has so arranged the body that the members may have the same care for one another.  If one member suffers, we all suffer; if one member is honored, let us all rejoice together.

 

AMEN.