“Living together – body talk”
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (January 26, 2025)
I came to a shocking realization last week. I should have known, but somehow it eluded me, that there weren’t going to be many more opportunities to preach here at FMC. Potentially, just three more sermons in your midst! So I looked at the lectionary readings for these next three Sundays. Was there any particular theme that emerged?
The prescribed passages from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians all have to do with living together in the community of faith. They’re familiar ones. Many of us have heard these things before. But that doesn’t make them any less relevant. Some of the most important truths deserve to be repeated, in the hope that maybe we can hear them again, in a different time, perhaps in a different way. And maybe this time they’ll stick.
So what we’re going to be doing these next three Sundays is remind ourselves of things we already know. Or should know.
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Living together – that’s our theme. But let me say right at the start: It ain’t easy to live together. Even though that’s exactly what God has made us for.
It didn’t take long for good old Adam, living in that ancient garden of bliss, to grow lonely, poor guy. He had everything he could want. But one thing was missing: another human being.
So God made a second person, a partner, a companion fit for him. And that’s where things get interesting. Because here, right at the very beginning of the human race, we start listening to those slippery, snake-like voices that whisper in our ears.
And we end up making a mess of things. Plagued with all sorts of family disfunction. Including envy, blame, violence and even murder!
Despite the passage of millennia, and great strides of progress in human civilization, this brokenness is still with us. It ain’t easy to live together.
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That’s exactly why Jesus came. To fix this mess – healing our destructive tendencies, and our discord, and drawing us back into right-relationship with God. And with each other. The two can never really be separated.
The apostle Paul writes to a particularly flawed gathering of believers in Corinth, whose community life had been so distorted by boastful arrogance and competing factions, that they’d forgotten the reason God had called them together in the first place.
We all know that churches can be that way. And it’s not hard to recognize the terrible irony of it: The community of Christ, breaking apart, fragmenting. Two thousand years later, not much has changed.
But the call of God remains as well: To rise above all that. To put aside our sinful selves and – by the grace of God, empowered by the Spirit, led by the person of Jesus – to walk in newness of life. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free …”
Paul skillfully sketches this image of what our life together is meant to look like: The body of Christ.
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In our current culture it seems that everyone is in pursuit of the perfect body. A body that is slim, trim, curvaceous, rippling with muscle. A kind of body that’s beautiful to look at.
But my body has never really lived up to that ideal. And as I age, I’ve given up hope that it will. It’s scarred in places. There are bulges, and saggy bits. But I don’t want to get into that. I take comfort in the knowledge that good health doesn’t always coincide with cultural ideas of beauty.
The church is the body of Christ. Think of that for a moment: God made manifest in the world through human members like you and me! It’s a miracle, surely.
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We were all baptized into one body. All of us. Regardless of our ethnic identities. Our social statuses. Our physical capacities. Jew or Greek, slave or free – it matters not a whit.
The body has many members, Paul reminds us. Exactly how many, I had no idea. So I decided to Google it. It’s hard to get a straight answer. Our bodies contain roughly 30 trillion cells. It boggles my mind!
“The internal human body includes organs, teeth, bones, muscle, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and blood, lymphatic vessels and lymph.”[1] All linked together by complex systems of connection and coordination.
The body has so many members, I wouldn’t know where to begin listing them all.
And the thing is, the whole creation is like that! Full of endless diversity. The stars in the sky. We shovel snow by the bucket. And every snowflake in that bucket is different from every other one.
God seems to revel in diversity and difference. How many kinds of trees in the forest? How many varieties of grass in the field? How many species of fish in the water, or birds in the air, or bugs, or animals … or human beings?
Each has their own unique place in the web of creation. And each is necessary to the well-being of the whole. Bio-diversity is a healthy thing.
So too in the body of Christ. When everyone begins to look and think and sound and act like you, that’s when you should worry!
The body of Christ thrives with a variety of spiritual gifts, each one of us doing our own God-given thing. Shovelling snow, offering rides, preparing food, playing music, attending meetings, leading Bible study. Yes, even preaching a sermon. We all have a place.
“God arranged the members of the body,” says Paul, “each one of them, as he chose.” As God chose. It’s all God’s doing. So who are we to say to any other member of the body, “You don’t belong here.”
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The Corinthians were big on flashy gifts. Things that get lots of attention. And that created, in their minds, a kind of hierarchy. “My gift is better than yours.”
And so there were some in the church all puffed up with pride. Instead of valuing cooperation and interdependence and community, they thought they could walk the road alone. “I don’t need you,” they said, dismissively.
Now let me see – where might we have heard this recently? Whenever any of us say such things about another church member, a neighbour, a political opponent, someone from a different background, who speaks another language, who sees the world in different way … whenever we dismiss anyone out of hand, the whole of God’s creation is diminished.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you.” Yet sometimes that’s what we do. “The head cannot say to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.” Yet isn’t there part of us that craves the security and comfort of a community where everyone is the same?
Paul says the members of our bodies which are less honourable, those weaker members are, in fact, indispensable. He claims that God gives greater honour to the weakest members of the body of Christ! All of us are made in God’s image. All of us are to be valued and respected.
So if there’s someone who’s a little slow, who can’t keep up, or doesn’t understand, or dresses differently, or has weird ideas, or doesn’t fit in with your concept of what is good and proper … Well maybe God has put that very person here for a reason.
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And while we’re talking about not dismissing others, let me also caution you about dismissing yourself. Sometimes we put ourselves down. We diminish our own gifts. We think we’re not good enough. We have nothing to offer.
We look at some other incredibly talented person, and we think “how can I compete with that?” But it’s not a competition. It’s all about community. And God has put each one of us exactly where we’re meant to be. Can you believe that?
I think as we grow older, sometimes our confidence begins to wane. Because, once again, the culture around us says that we’re dispensable. That we don’t matter any more. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
Don’t dismiss others. Please don’t dismiss yourself!
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But now, let me turn from all this emphasis on individuals, and remind us that we are meant to be part of a greater whole. We are baptized into one body, says Paul.
I worry that in recent years we’ve put so much emphasis on the individual – all the rights and freedoms that we claim – we forget our collective identity. Because each one of us is 
in loving relationship with Jesus we are called, therefore, to be in loving relationship with one another.
Martin Luther King Jr. called this God’s “beloved community”.
“It really boils down to this,” King said. “That all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”[2]
The apostle Paul put it this way: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.”
We have this solidarity in the community of faith. If misfortune comes to any of us, then all of us feel the effects. No one exists in isolation.
And to the extent that any of us are raised up, healed, restored, made whole – well, that is a gift for the whole community to celebrate! One person’s success or accomplishment serves to enrich us all.
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The trick is to keep our focus on Christ, who is at the very centre of our life. The centre of all our lives. The centre of creation itself!
This is the final day in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Too often we focus on difference, which leads to fragmentation.
Let’s focus, instead, on that which draws us together. Let’s lift up those things we hold in common. Let’s put aside division and embrace the unity that is God’s gift. Let’s be a different kind of church. One that shows the world we can live in newness of life.
I know “it ain’t easy.” But we are the body of Christ, baptized by his Spirit. And so our lives are being drawn together, not split apart. The closer we get to Jesus, the closer we grow to one another.
After all this, Paul tells the Corinthians “I will show you a still more excellent way.” So now that I’ve wet your appetite … well, that’s for next Sunday. Stay tuned!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body, Accessed Januaryt 25, 2025.
[2] Martin Luther King Jr, A Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1967. https://blog.nwf.org/2024/02/diversity-in-nature-diversity-in-action/, Accessed January 23, 2025.
“Living together – love language”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (February 2, 2025)
Today we come to the second in a series of sermons from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It’s all about living together – which ain’t easy. Did I mention that?
But you already know how difficult it can be: To live with certain neighbours. To put up with that one particularly difficult person – in your work life, in your home life. To stay married to a spouse who’s probably not perfect. To raise kids who stubbornly ignore the things you say.
Whether it’s that little world of our home, or the much larger world of nations jockeying for position, asserting themselves … living together ain’t easy.
Last week we talked about diversity – in the natural world, in our human lives, and in the church as well. We are invited to celebrate that diversity.
Scripture also recognizes a deeper unity revealed to us in Jesus. We are baptized into one body with many members. All of us are valued by God. All of us contribute to a larger whole.
After saying these things, the apostle Paul lifts up the greatest gift of all. The one thing that truly matters. The treasure that makes all these other gifts look like peanuts. I wonder if you’ve been waiting breathlessly for it all week long? Well here it is: the gift of love!
I told you these sermons wouldn’t be talking about anything new. Just things we need to hear again. And then, again – throughout our Christian journey.
Over time they have a way of working themselves into our hearts and minds. And so the process of transformation unfolds. The Spirit is working in our lives, making us more like Jesus. Which is the goal.
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The gift of love. So tell me, what do you think love is? Are there words enough in the English language to define it?
Is love a feeling, a fluttering in your heart? Is it a candlelight dinner and romance? Have you made plans for Valentine’s Day?
Is love a function of hormones? A biological necessity for reproduction?
What on earth is love? Especially the kind of love that Paul is writing about in 1 Corinthians 13, that lasts for all eternity?
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Before we go any further, let me say that context matters when reading scripture.
The most common place to hear these words, in my experience, has been at a wedding. Picture a bride and groom standing there, starry-eyed at the front of the church, ready to make their vows.
The person officiating reads these words: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love …”
It’s a beautiful passage! Very poetic. Enough to inspire a young couple. And maybe re-invigorate the love of every older couple sitting there, listening in. Yes, it’s a fine passage for a wedding.
But that is far from the original purpose of Paul’s letter. He’s writing to a fractious, divided congregation, where no one sees eye to eye, where competition trumps cooperation. And people are pulling in different directions, every person putting their own interests first.
I picture the apostle Paul at his wit’s end, pulling his “pastoral hair” out! (Incidentally, he’s often depicted as a bald man in early Christian art.) Paul must surely have been frustrated.
A noisy gong! A clanging cymbal! I can be the world’s most eloquent speaker. I can understand all mysteries. I can say to a mountain: “Be taken up and thrown into the sea.” (cf. Mark 11:23) But if I don’t have love, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans!
As if to say, “Come on, you people. You can do better than this.” So, can we?
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I was speaking with a friend of mine about a week ago, who reminded me how much they dislike that song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Because we make a mess of loving others. And who do we think we are anyway? Are Christians the only ones who can love? The answer is, of course not.
Yet the invitation to love is central to the Christian calling. It’s at the heart of everything Jesus stood for. Remember how he said to his disciples: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you ….” (John 13:34-35)
Jesus himself embodied God’s love … as he cared for others, even the least among them. As he taught them, healed them, led them. Even died for them. That’s the kicker. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)
He loved not only friends, but enemies also. And tells us to do the same: Care for others, even when they don’t give a hoot about you. When someone does you wrong, forgive. And not just once, but many times.
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So now we see that love is more than just a nice idea. And certainly more than mushy sentimentality. Love is a disciplined way of life, a path we’re called to follow.
Love is a verb, a movement, a doing. Not mere words, but action.
Love, says Paul, means being patient. Showing kindness. Being humble – not boastful or arrogant or rude. It doesn’t draw attention to itself. It doesn’t gloat when things go wrong for others. It doesn’t utter falsehoods. Love rejoices in the truth.
You can see, can’t you, that this is no namby-pamby kind of love. This is love that challenges our humanity to the core. (And love that draws out of us the very best of who we are.)
Scripture calls for love in the most demanding circumstances. These times in which we live can be challenging. Like the church in Corinth, we too encounter division. Personalities drive us crazy. Love sounds fine, until it comes time to put it into practice with our neighbours.
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Love doesn’t happen all at once. It takes determination and practice.
If we want to keep our physical bodies fit and healthy, we have to exercise. It’s no good flopping down on the couch all day. We need to keep moving. This is why we have our Fitness in Motion group here at the church. To encourage seniors in our community stay well.
And just as we exercise our physical bodies, so too we can build our spiritual selves in the “body of Christ.” It’s a form of resistance training, a way to grow our “love muscles.” We push against the weight of hatred, prejudice and pride.
Instead of lashing out, we try to be patient. Instead of further division, we work to find common ground. Instead of putting others down, we offer respect.
This is heavy lifting! It doesn’t come easy, not at all. And there are times when I have failed miserably. But the more we live God’s kingdom way, the stronger we grow. I’m hoping the day will come when it’s second nature to me.
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Speaking of days to come, our passage calls us to focus on things of lasting value.
Prophecies, tongues knowledge – all of these gifts the Corinthians thought so highly of, even bragged about – are limited and will, ultimately, come to an end.
We are invited to turn our attention from that which is partial and fragmentary, to that which is complete. From present to future. From what is now to what will be.
From childish ways, to maturity in our Christian walk. From seeing in a mirror dimly, to seeing God face to face.
Christians have this eschatological (end time) hope. We live our lives in flawed, imperfect ways. But we strive for a kingdom that’s coming to be. We’re surrounded by chaos, disintegration. But we are living for the promise of a world made whole.
At the end of the day, says Paul, there are only three things of enduring value: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these … well you know what that is. Love is the one thing that matters – eternally!
All else, everything we strive for and work so hard to attain – the good, the bad, the whole of our world and all our living – will fade into insignificance compared to this most precious gift in the God-given universe.
Faith hope and love abide. And the greatest of these is love.
When I arrive at the end of life, and I stand before my maker, the only thing that matters is that love will be waiting there to welcome me. I trust my life with that! Can you?
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It is a gift, you know: Salvation at the end of time. Love even here and now. These are gifts that come from God’s generous hand.
Scripture claims the only reason we love at all is because God has first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
“…love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:7-9)
I think of the amazing turn-around the apostle Paul experienced in his life. He was a smart guy, well-educated. He was zealous for the Lord. So much so, that concern for righteousness turned to violence. There was no love in his practice of faith.
Until one day Jesus showed up, out of the blue, and revealed himself, and said, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And it knocked proud Saul to his knees.
Love is always seeking us. Never gives up on us. Wants to dwell within us.
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When I read 1 Corinthians 13, I hear these lovely, lofty words. Then realize all the ways I have fallen short of them. It’s fine to say we should love more. Be patient, less irritable. Kinder, thinking less of self …. All down through the list of things that Paul presents in our passage as the way of love.
In my experience, it’s a bit like flogging a stubborn mule that’s bent on resistance. It doesn’t want to go. My life doesn’t want to change.
But as we open ourselves to God’s love, allowing it to come and dwell more fully within us – like a burning ember glowing in our hearts – then, maybe, hopefully, love will flourish!
And lives will change. And my life will grow to be more like that of Jesus.
The source of love is God. Love, says Paul, is the greatest of all God’s gifts. In love we were formed. In love we are redeemed. In love we will be welcomed. Love never ends!
And for that, we say whole-heartedly: “Thanks be to God!”
“Water and Spirit”
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22; Acts 8:14-17 (January 12, 2025)
I guess you may have heard that this year marks an historic milestone for Anabaptists. It’s been 500 years since the beginning of this movement that we Mennonites are a part of.
Last Sunday our guest speaker, Ken Bechtel, reminded us of the characters and stories that shaped our past. Those early days were tumultuous times – for the church, and for society as a whole. Back then, being true to your conscience might actually cost you your life.
But our scripture for today takes us back even further. Today we celebrate the baptism of Jesus. And it’s this baptism which all churches hold dear.
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Baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has left his early years behind. Now he’s ready to launch into something new: his God-given mission to proclaim the Reign of God, inviting people into a new community shaped by repentance and the renewal of God’s Spirit.
“I baptize you with water,” says John the Baptist. “But he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” What I want to talk about today is the importance of the Spirit in our life of faith.
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Imagine Jesus, standing there in the Jordan River, dripping wet. Notice that he’s praying. And as he prays heaven above is opened. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove. And a voice from heaven affirms his identity as God’s beloved Son.
There’s no explicit description of the Holy Trinity in scripture. But this is one of those biblical passages that points toward it.
Here we have the heavenly Father, whose voice resounds from on high. And the Holy Spirit who arrives to be present with Jesus here on earth. And the beloved Son who prays to the Father and receives the Spirit.
So … Father, Son and Holy Spirit communing together in the fellowship of prayer. It’s a snapshot of God’s very being.
The Spirit is an expression of God that resists easy definition. So when I say I want to speak about the Spirit’s importance in our life of faith, I know I’m taking on a bit of a challenge.
Here the Spirit appears like a dove, in bodily form. Which at least gives us something to visualize.
But Spirit is not always visible. The very word Spirit, in both biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) means wind or breath.
Jesus said, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
In other words, there is mystery to this. The Holy Ghost is intangible, ephemeral.
As we think of baptism and our own incorporation into the community of Jesus’ followers, what role does the Spirit play? Has the Spirit of God descended upon you, as it did upon Jesus?
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In our second passage from the book of Acts, we see the gospel spreading beyond Jerusalem to the region of Samaria. Philip had proclaimed the Good News and they believed it! They were baptized in the name of Jesus.
Just one thing remained. The Spirit, we are told, had not yet come upon them. So the apostles prayed. And then they laid their hands upon them. And the Spirit came!
Apparently baptism, apart from the Spirit of God, is not enough! If God isn’t in us and among us, renewing us from the inside out, well what use is immersing, or dipping, or pouring or sprinkling – or any of it?
Baptism isn’t all up to us. It also involves the work of God. It is a divine act of grace.
So I want you to think about your baptism, if you can remember. Was it something more than empty ritual, a formality, a church tradition? Something that happened once but now has been set aside? What’s going on with baptism anyway?
Jesus said, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (John 3:5) There it is again – Spirit matters!
So is the Spirit of God working in you? And if so, how would you know?
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I want to mention four things today about the mysterious work of God’s Spirit. And the first is this: The Spirit is something in us that prompts a movement toward God.
Without the Spirit moving in our lives, none of us would have any inkling about faith. The Spirit works in us before we know a thing. The Spirit draws us to Jesus.
When I go for a hike I sometimes look down at my legs and find these bothersome burrs attached. I didn’t even realize they were there!
But somehow, as I walked through the grass and vegetation, they found me. And when they did, they grabbed hold. They’re persistent! You’ve got to really work to get rid of them.
And it strikes me that’s a lot like the presence of the Spirit. Can we ever get rid of God?
Before I knew anything about Jesus, the Spirit of God was preparing my heart, creating a space, nurturing curiosity and desire.
The Spirit is that niggling something within all of us that won’t ever let go. It sticks to us, reminding us who we are. And so it leads us closer, ever closer, to Jesus.
The Spirit is God working in our lives – to bring us into that loving community with God, and others who are also part of this fellowship of faith.
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The Spirit prompts. And the Spirit is also something within us that empowers. The Spirit strengthened and equipped Jesus, guiding him in all that would follow.
We know there would be many challenges for Jesus. Immediately after his baptism, he was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where he faced temptation.
Being faithful to God does not always make life easier. That’s not part of the deal. Hard times come to everyone. The only way through is to rely on a power greater than ourselves.
The Spirit empowered Jesus for ministry. Later, his disciples found they were gifted with the Spirit too!
The story is told of a man who walked into a hardware store after a windstorm had taken down a number of trees on his property. The salesperson said, “I have just the saw for you, guaranteed to cut up 10 trees a day.”
But the next day the man came back to complain. “I only managed to cut up three trees. You said it could handle ten!”
The salesperson was confused. He assured the man it was their finest saw. He took it, set the choke, pulled the cord and revved the throttle.
“Hold on,” said the man. “What’s all that noise?”
We can do some things by ourselves, but unless the Holy Spirit is part of our lives we won’t be living up to our full potential.
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The Spirit prompts. The Spirit empowers. And the Spirit is also something in us that reveals.
The Spirit enables us to see new things. To understand our lives and the world around us in a new way.
Our scripture reading today is remarkable. Because none of the believers in Jerusalem ever expected a Samaritan to receive the word of God. Yet that’s what happened!
You know the history between Jews and Samaritans. Tensions and hostilities went back hundreds of years. The Jews of Jerusalem considered the people of Samaria to be racially impure and theologically heretical.
When word arrives that Philip’s mission to the Samaritans had borne fruit, they could hardly believe it: “I mean, why would he go there in the first place?” They send Peter and John to investigate.
The Spirit is always leading us in new ways. It was a stretch for the early church to embrace an ever-widening circle of God’s people.
And here we are, early in a new year, on the cusp of a new beginning. I wonder, where will the Spirit lead us next on our journey?
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The Spirit prompts, empowers, reveals. And finally, the Spirit is something in us that transforms our living. It changes us!
One of the great theologians of the previous century, Karl Barth, used to speak of the church as reformed and always re-forming. Semper reformanda.
One reforming of our lives is never enough.
You accepted Christ as your Saviour, and that was good, and you began to grow. But are you growing now? Is there anything that’s changing in your faith or in your life?
It’s one thing for the church to have gone through a reformation 500 years ago. But are we open to reformation now? Do we expect further changes – in our understanding, in our practice. In our discipleship?
God isn’t finished with us, you know! The Spirit is still moving in our midst.
And the only way for the church to change is as each one of us opens our lives more fully to the Spirit’s life Because, after all, the church is us.
And only as we welcome that transforming, re-shaping and renewing wind of God that brings about a new creation … Only as we allow the flame of the Spirit to burn away the chaff and purify what is good and holy … Only then will our collective community of faith be renewed.
In what ways are you being invited to grow and change and become more fully the person God desires you to be? Can you name one way? Take a moment and think about that. Maybe write it down on your bulletin.
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The Spirit prompts, empowers, reveals, transforms. But how do any of us receive this Spirit?
I want you to notice that both our scripture readings today emphasize the importance of prayer.
After his baptism, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus as he prays. In the book of Acts, the Spirit comes upon the Samaritans as the apostles Peter and John pray for them and lay their hands upon them.
Jesus said, “If you who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” (Luke 11:13)
To receive the Spirit, maybe all we need to do is ask. Take Jesus at his word. Pray. And trust that it will happen.
Today, as we remember Jesus’ baptism, and our own, let’s pray for the Spirit to continue to be present in our lives! Amen.
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