“We Are The Body Of Christ”
“We Are The Body Of Christ”
I Corinthians 12
The Reverend Angela Ying
Do you know Worship requires preparation?
I am not talking only about sermon preparation. What I mean is preparing ourselves for worship.
We may think we can walk in and be present with God without much preparation. And yet, to experience God’s presence within, above, below and all around involves preparation.
For some, it is opening your eyes and being aware of God in and around you as in the poor peasant girl, Mary “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices.” (Luke 1)
For some it is closing your eyes and being aware of the silence as in “Be still and know I am God” as the prophet Elijah discovers God — not as Moses before him experienced God in the great wind, nor in the earthquake and not in the fire, but rather in “the still, small voice.” (I Kings 19)
For some it is getting up out of your seat and dancing, as our children revealed this morning, “for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven” — including a time to dance! (Ecclesiastes 3)
For some it is coming for our own healing as in blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10) who has been on the journey and carried the suffering for quite a long time, yet have not lost all hope in being able to see again. Or the crippled woman, a daughter of Abraham, who is bent over, yet who longs to stand up straight and see others face to face (Luke 13).
For some it is coming for the healing of a family member as Jairus and his twelve year old daughter (Luke 
and the father who came to Jesus with a son who was ill saying, “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9).
For some it is to be fed, not just with bread but by the word of God as Jesus reminds us “do not worry about your life” (Matthew 6), “be not afraid” and “remember, I am with you always to the end of the age (Matthew 28).
For some it is to plot and destroy as the Herods, Pharaohs, Pharisees and scribes. Not because they are evil or bad people, but because they are so sure they are right and that Jesus, in loving more than anything else, must have had it wrong.
And yes, for some, we may never be quite ready for what God has in store. Yet God even uses the fact that we dared to show up and persevere — to actually move and shake and possibly even change us, if we are open to God and the ways of God not our ways.
There are so many different and amazing ways that we come prepared to worship as we place God and God’s love at the center of our lives and to be in community, instead of isolation in doing so.
As we read the words from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians telling the community that we are the body of Christ – I wondered what that meant for you, for me, for Bethany Church.
The Body of Christ
I want to share with you four words that for me reflect the body of Christ. They may be different for you.
The four words that came to me as I prayed and reflected on this morning’s passage are: Beautiful, Beloved, Broken and Blessed
Beautiful
Have you looked in the mirror and told yourself that you are created in the image of God? Remember: God does not make junk. Therefore, you are a beautiful creation of God — a magnificent creature of the divine.
We teach each other to be so humble in church that we rarely get to experience the joy of being a beautiful creation of God.
Because we find it so hard to conjure this up on our own — knowing that God created us in God’s own image — we need the community — the body of Christ to remind us of our beauty.
The world reminds us all too well of our faults and failures, our ugliness and violence and all the ways that you and I have fallen short. So, who but the body of Christ, will remind us of our beauty and the beauty of the earth God created?
So, in preparation for worship, we turn to one another, as the body of Christ and share with one another “You are a beautiful creation of God. You are a magnificent creature of the divine.”
[At this time, the body of Christ shares these words with neighbors --- “You are a beautiful creation of God. You are a magnificent creature of the divine.”]
Did you hear and feel the joy and laughter — even some giggles and blushing? A sign that we do not hear it enough. For some of us, it may be the only time during the week that we hear these words — as the body of Christ, here at Bethany Church.
You realize, though, that you can share these words and experience with your mother, father, sister, brother, children, even to in-laws, outlaws, enemies and strangers — and it changes everything.
That’s how God is working in mysterious ways and sometimes in very simple, direct and to the point ways.
You are a beautiful creation of God. You are a magnificent creature of the divine. Say it. Feel it. Believe it.
And if you do not hear and experience it enough, it is all right to ask. Even Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive.”
So call a friend and say, “Hey, I need you to remind me that I am a beautiful creation of God – a magnificent creature of the divine.”
Do it. For the more we hear it, the more we will believe it. And as the body of Christ, we want no one in community to go through life without knowing he or she is a beautiful creation of God, a magnificent creature of the divine.
The second word is Beloved.
You are God’s Beloved.
We are told this at our baptism and since many of us were baptized as infants and do not exactly remember hearing these words, even if our parents and relatives who witnessed this remind us that it happened, we need to hear the words — again and again — through the body of Christ.
Beloved.
Before Jesus went out to do any kind of ministry — preaching, teaching, peace and social justice, hospitality, building up the church, the disciples , the children, tweens, youth adults and families — Jesus had to be reminded in his baptism, “You are my Beloved.” You are my Beloved with whom God is well pleased.
Note that the words were not “You are my Beloved BUT if you do not do what I say you will burn in the fires of hell.” Strange how things get misinterpreted, for we hear this more than often than what is in the good book –“You are My Beloved, with whom I (meaning God) am well pleased.”
No, it says, open and see for yourselves in the good news or gospel: You are God’s Beloved — with whom God is well pleased.
So, as we worship, before we can go out and do any kind of ministry — preaching, teaching, peace and social justice, hospitality, building up the church, the disciples, the children, tweens, youth, adults and families — we have to be reminded of our baptism and the words that Jesus were given: “You are God’s Beloved, with whom God is well pleased.”
[At this time, the body of Christ shares these words with neighbors --- “You are God’s Beloved, with whom God is well pleased.”]
Where do you think the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr came up with the Beloved Community? From Jesus, who else? I know that some of you thought it was Brother Martin, but it was Dr. Jesus speaking through him!
Before we can begin to build a Beloved Community with the mission to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God in a multiracial, multicultural, intergenerational, open and affirming church context — let us remember, “We Are Beloved.”
To forget, we are Beautiful — magnificent creatures of the divine …
To forget, we are Beloved — God’s Beloved with whom God is well pleased will
lead us to hurt if not destroy the body of Christ, by first being destructive to ourselves and then to others.
Jesus knew that this was a real possibility in the body of Christ.
Every day Jesus preached, touched and/or healed the sick, poor, lame, blind, deaf and dumb — there were Pharisees and scribes and sometimes even his own disciples telling him not to do so.
Why? Because deep down inside, they felt threatened by Jesus’ amazing love.
A love so vast and deep and wide that would take Jesus to the cross and be killed for loving.
Which brings us to the third word as we are the body of Christ.
Broken.
Whom among us is not broken?
Anyone?
I would be the first confess that I am broken and need healing from Jesus.
That is why in worship in the liturgy every Sunday there is always a prayer of confession from us a body of Christ as well as words of assurance. Confession of our brokenness and at the same time a reminder that no matter how bad it seems, God is love and we are born in love, by love, for love — and yet, still can choose — still have the freedom not to love.
Prayers of Confession and Words of Assurance together. Brokenness and Healing together in the body of Christ.
This is not always the case in the world. For I still remember when my sisters and I accidently broke something in the house and my parents asked my sisters and me who broke “it”, we all claimed it was the friendly ghost .
And my loving parents played along with the Holy Spirit, so we all got into trouble. Thus, they gave me the gift of solidarity with my sisters is what I learned, even if it got me in trouble.
And yet, if we look at the people in the scriptures, no matter how faithful, even if the healing eventually came after years of struggle in God’s own time, there was always much brokenness.
Every day we hear, know and experience tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, hunger, poverty, sickness, war and violence for sure.
And more personally, our own and collective individual pain, struggle, suffering and sickness.
In our celebration of Holy Communion, we do not pass out whole loaves of bread, so everyone gets stuffed. We actually take one bread, break it and share it and there is enough. Only the broken bread of Christ given for all sustains us. We as broken people are also collectively the broken Body of Christ.
No one gets the whole loaf. So too, no one has the whole story. We are each a piece of the larger and greater story of God. A piece of the torn yet interwoven fabric of life.
When we begin to see that not one of us knows the whole story. Not one person or one people has a hold on God’s love, then by the grace of God, our brokenness can break us, paradoxically, open.
As we gather each week in worship, you may not know exactly all the things I am struggling or burdened by the pain of the community and the world and I may certainly not know all the things you are in great pains with — yet in this broken body of Christ, we can be here for each other, building up the body of Christ.
“When one suffers we all suffer. When one is honored, we all rejoice.”
The apostle Paul in his faith in the church, and more specifically in the Corinth Church who was full of great conflict and great love, knew this to be possible only in community.
Which leads us to the fourth word along with Beautiful, Beloved and Broken, this is —Blessed.
Some blessings at first may seem more as a curse. Only in hindsight do we get a chance to see God’s hand in our lives blessing and continue to bless us even amidst great adversity.
Blessed as individuals and as a body of Christ in that where with God, all things are possible.
There is forgiveness, grace, second chances, learning and growing again and again.
You are a beautiful creation of God — a magnificent creature of the divine.
You are God’s beloved in whom God is well pleased.
You are broken yet, a part of the whole body of Christ
And you are blessed
You are the beautiful, beloved, broken and blessed Body of Christ.
Say it
Feel it
Know it
Believe it
And Live it!
Thanks be to God!
The Benediction, which means blessing that was given on Sunday, July 31 at Bethany United Church of Christ came from the words of Kirk Franklin:
I know that I can make it
I know that I can stand
No matter what may come my way
My life is in your (God’s) hands