Hearing and Speaking

A sermon for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2007

1 Corinthians 12: 12-31

The Body of Christ 

     A young minister once preached a sermon on the subject of Christian stewardship. As his text he used the parable of the talents. He eloquently urged his people to place at God's disposal all their gifts and abilities with which they had been endowed. After the service a man came up to him and said, “That sermon really spoke to me. You see I am very gifted. I don't teach Sunday School, I am not on church council, I don't usher or sing in the choir. But I have one particular talent that would be of great value to our church.”

    What's that?” the young pastor asked more than a little mystified.

    “Well, I have the gift of criticism. I can criticize constructively. I can criticize your sermons. I can criticize the music. I can criticise everything about this church, you know point out the faults and short comings. What do you think I should do with my talent?”

There was a long silence. Then the minister replied, Do you remember what the man in the parable did, the man with one talent? He buried it in the earth. Perhaps you should do the same thing.”

    If we could read the mind of Saint Paul, I am sure that he was thinking similar thoughts about the Corinthian church for that church was a church divided. There were those within the church who saw themselves as being more gifted, more capable and more talented than anyone else. These people, puffed up with their own ego spared no chance to criticise those less talented, less gifted and less capable. Naturally enough tensions, arguments and bad feelings arose. The church which Paul had so lovingly founded was coming apart at the seams.

Hearing about these troubles while he was in Ephesus Paul responded in a letter with these words, “

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

To the divided Christians at Corinth he said, you are like a body made up of different parts, but each part is indispensable. If the body is to function at a peak level then all parts must work in concert. Cooperation of the various parts is the key to a healthy functioning body. The head cannot do without the feet, the hand does not damage the eye, the foot does not kick its own behind. Coordination and cooperation are the keys to a healthy body and a healthy church.

What a perfect image for this week of Christian Unity. The global Christian community is a body divided. We are split into denominations, each of us comfortable with our own traditions and rites. Differences in the most basic elements of the church, baptism and Eucharist become walls that divide. I did my theological training at Atlantic School of Theology an ecumenical institution where Roman Catholic, Anglican and United Church shared classes and faculty. It was a rich experience. However our community experience was marred by our inability to share the communion meal together. We could share a theology lecture, share prayers and have a common life together but the three denominations could not find a way to gather at the Lord's table. Perhaps we need to hear Paul speak to us once again, firmly reminding us that Christians are called to be one body in Christ.

Do you remember the old movie, “All of Me?” In this film Steve Martin plays a man whose body has become a haven for the displaced spirit of Lily Tomlin. The funniest scenes of the movie are when Steve Martin's body attempts some action only to be stymied by the will of this unwelcome spirit. The left side of his body lurches to the left, the right side moves to the right, and the whole body ends up on the floor. Eating, walking, shaving, all simple activities become little battles between competing spirits. The resolution comes only when the two entities learn to cooperate.

So it is with the church. The scandal of division within the Christian community inhibits our ability to get things done. Our inability to harness our energy and faith is a reason that many loose faith or never come to faith in the first place.  Richard Dawkins is the world's most famous out of the closet atheist. He is world renowned evolutionary biologist who has a sideline as a scoffer of all things religious. In a recent book called the God Delusion he blames religion for all the evils that plague humankind and argues that the division between Christian communions is a concrete demonstration of the ineffectiveness of faith. What kind of God would allow such longstanding divisions, such misunderstanding and mistrust?

This year's theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has its origins in the experience of Christian communities in the South African region of Umlazi, near Durban.

Umlazi was originally established under the apartheid regime as a 'township' for the majority black population. A legacy of racism, unemployment and poverty continues to raise formidable challenges for its people where there is still a shortage of schools, medical clinics and adequate housing. Poverty and unemployment gives rise to a high crime rate and problems of abuse within families and communities. But the biggest current challenge faced by people in the informal settlements and townships is that of HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 50% of the residents of Umlazi are infected with the virus. When leaders of the various Christian communities in Umlazi met recently to ask what they could do together to address the overwhelming challenges faced by their people, they realized that one factor which aggravated their present situation was the stigma which keeps people who are suffering abuse, victims of rape, or infected with HIV/AIDS, from speaking openly about their problems. There is a cultural norm which suggests that matters relating to sexuality are not to be spoken of. In Zulu the term ubunqunu, literally 'nakedness', indicates that these subjects are taboo. As a result, many people hesitate to seek the assistance available  in terms of counselling, pastoral care, home-based care-giving, communal support and health care centres.

No war in the history of the world has claimed more lives than AIDS. While many organizations, regions and churches have sought to respond to regions ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the responses have not been proportionate to the disaster being experienced. In 1993, Bishop Desmond Tutu reminded the 5th World Conference on Faith and Order that during the apartheid era church leaders learned that “apartheid was too strong for a divided church”. Today, faced with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other dehumanizing forces, it is acknowledged that they also are too strong for a divided church. In Umlazi, there is one courthouse, one hospital, one post office, one clinic, one set of shops - and one cemetery reflecting one overwhelming challenge facing the people. In this same township, the people, almost all of whom are Christian, adhere to scriptures which profess that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. Yet there are many churches, which are not in full communion with each other, and which remain a sign of a divided Christianity. As AIDS lay waste to area the Christians spent their energy attempting to keep the walls the divided them in good repair. In Umlazi, there was an impatience and frustration with inherited divisions generated many centuries ago in other lands. One Christian observed, “The truth of the matter is that we different churches and clergy are servicing the people of God who are blood relatives;  friends and colleagues;  one community and  receive their daily services from one town hall and one hospital, and share one cemetery. Therefore every party or celebration, wedding, baptism, confirmation and funeral/requiem mass is inevitably ecumenical. For many, they only realize that they belong to different churches for two hours on a Sunday. At funeral services we are bound by the despair of their suffering.”

Lay people began to realize that their common enemy was AIDS not each other. These same lay people began to urge their priests, ministers and pastors to begin to cooperate. Dialogue led to occasional ecumenical worship. This lead to sharing of pastoral resources which led finally to all churches committing themselves to the common cause of eradicating AIDS within the region. As one local put it, “We are now gradually growing together as churches, trying to follow Jesus, who prayed that they may be one.”

  Friends the story of our South African sisters and brothers is a challenge to us. It is a reminder that so often our denominational differences inhibit our ability to be about Christ's work in the world. We may not be able to agree on baptism. Perhaps we will continue to have differences on the Eucharist. Maybe some will ordain women and some will not. But surely we can agree that poverty is an evil that ought to be fought against. Surely we believe that Jesus calls us to stand with those who suffer from a modern day plague like AIDS? What is stopping us from taking some common cause? It begins with us, right here tonight. It starts locally. What can our churches do together that we could not do alone? What are the particular gifts of our respective congregations that could be harnessed for the good of the people of Summerside?

When such common commitments trump the idiosyncrasies of our own denominations then and only then will we have a powerful witness in this city. When God's justice becomes more important than how we are baptized; when common acts of compassion and caring become the norm then and only then will we be the Body of Christ in the world.

  There was once a father who had five sons who were constantly quarrelling. One day, weary from their bickering he asked them to bring him a bundle of sticks. Handing the bundle to the eldest he said, “Break it.” The lad attempted to break them over his knee his only reward a sore knee. One by one the other brothers were given the same command. None of them were able to break the bundle. Finally the father tore open the bundle and handed each son a stick. “Break it.” This time the task was done with ease and little pain.

The father said, “My son, if you remain together and assist one another you will have the strength of this bundle. If however you are divided among yourselves, you will broken as easily as these sticks.”

Friends let us not be broken. There is enough division and enmity in the world. Let us be the Body of Christ, united not by rituals or dogma, but our common commitment to Jesus Christ who came to heal a broken world. May unity be found in our bold acts as we show the world what we can do together. Thanks be to God. Amen