"Just as the body is one"-Sermon for Epiphany 3, I Cor. 12:12-31a
So, a big part of the Episcopal youth program that shaped me as a teenager…and really because of those formative experiences…a big part of the youth program I would later lead at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, included a deep commitment to regular short-term mission trips. At St. Martin’s, in particular, the students, other lay leaders, and I traveled near and far…from the east side of Houston all the way to Bolivia in South America…to learn from and serve alongside those living a very different experience than our own at St. Martin’s, much like the intention for our own annual Pilgrimage, at St. Julian’s, each June to the Episcopal Diocese of Navajoland. These sorts of experiences are, again, uniquely and profoundly formative for all who participate. Nothing provides the opportunity for spiritual growth like getting outside of the familiar and being present to, befriending and learning from those who look and live differently than ourselves. Like Paul suggests in our New Testament lesson this morning from his first letter to the Corinthians, the Body of Christ is indeed huge and beautifully diverse, as big and lovely as the world itself…consisting of people who make up a myriad of experiences and skin tones and languages and lifestyles. And, we all need each other. Whatever our story and wherever we are from, we all, with no exceptions, have gifts and talents and experiences to bring to our shared life that mutually benefits both our own good and the good of all in this world that God loves and made and is forming into God’s peaceable kingdom. We will always be only as strong, as the sum of our individual parts.
And, I want to share a story from one of these mission trips that might speak to Paul’s teaching on the Body of Christ…the one Body of Christ made up of many members. It was the trip I led, while at St. Martin’s, to Bolivia, where we worked with an orphanage in Cochabamba named “Amistad”. Well on one of the last days of the trip, I began to develop a tooth ache. I wasn’t so sure about scheduling a dentist appointment actually in Bolivia and didn’t want to disturb the flow of the trip, so I decided to sort of suck it up and make it home. I figured that I could make it a few days with the help of some ibuprofen and sucking on coco leaves that grow everywhere in that lovely country.
Well the pain grew with each passing day…but I made it to airport on the last day of the trip. I was confident that I could make it to my dentist, Dr. Sutherland, back in Houston, who I had never wanted to see more. But here’s the thing…we had about 20 hours and four flights to actually make it home…Cochabamba to La Paz…to somewhere in Brazil…to Miami…and finally to Houston. And when we took off for that first flight, the shortest flight of the trip, and we began to gain altitude…the air in my tooth expanded and so did the pain. It became utterly excruciating. When we landed in La Paz, I was offered some French painkillers…and I happily took them…and then proceeded to pass out on the floor of the airport. Thankfully, somehow, I got on the next flight…my only memory is waking up drooling on the shoulder of the person sitting next to me on the plane. If you don’t believe in miracles…I do!
The good news was that the pain had become more manageable…or maybe I was just used to it by then. We made it to Brazil, then to Miami…where we had to run across the giant airport because of an earlier delay…to catch our last flight to Houston. It was me, one other adult, and like 15 high school students…I mean it was chaotic and intense. But, at last, we made it home, and, when we arrived in Houston…and thankfully we all did make it…the adult I was traveling with had made arrangements for me to be picked up at the airport by a suburban whose back had been made into a bed. I crawled into the back of the SUV, laid down, and they drove me straight to the dentist. As I laid down in the dentist’s chair, he began to drill a hole in the back of my tooth. Then he paused, took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and said, “That must have hurt.” Understatement of the century!
And I tell this story today, again, in the context of our New Testament lesson, for Paul says, “The body does not consist of one member but of many…the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…If one member suffers, all suffer together with it.” And as my tooth made profoundly clear to me…this is so totally true. A little tooth, not a vital organ, but a tooth knocked me to my knees. The pain it caused was totally overwhelming. I was good for nothing. My whole body could only writhe in pain. Indeed, every part of the body is indispensable and entirely connected, and the health and vitality of the whole body is deeply dependent on the health and vitality of each individual member of it. And this is true not just in terms of human biology, but, of course, for all communities made up from the great web of human interconnectedness and interdependence. As I often say, I need you and you need me and we need each other and all those whose lives are connected with our own…even when those connections are hard to see. In regard to this community, our church, St. Julian’s, this includes those already present with us…those yet to come to us…and those who never will but who live in our neighborhoods, care about the same sorts of things, and share the values we hold dear. We need each other, healthy and whole, if we are ever just move the needle on building God’s kingdom of peace and love on earth, as it is in heaven.
Paul was no doctor. He was the church’s first and perhaps greatest theologian…setting Tony Baker aside…of course. Thus, as you know, Paul was, again, using the human body as a metaphor to describe the Body of Christ, which is the Church universal. And as we find ourselves today, just before or just after, our Annual Parish Meeting…or what I like to call our Annual Family Meeting…it seems the perfect time to consider this particular teaching of Paul. For like any system within the body, say the nervous system or the circulatory system or just the teeth in our mouth, we, at St. Julian’s, are one among many of the important interconnected systems that contribute to the well-being of the whole body. And just like the whole body, this system, that we call St. Julian’s, health and impactful-ness is entirely dependent on the health and wellbeing and empowerment and gifts that each and every single person brings to this parish family.
So when thinking about our future together, beginning with this new year that lies ahead…when thinking about living further into our God-given vision of “growing in relationship, loving all well, and seeking intimacy with Christ”…when thinking and dreaming of what that might look-like through the worship and service and ministry we offer and do together…when dreaming about what fun we will have together and how rewarding it will be to continue to grow and serve together in this life we share…we must remember, that becoming the people and place we are called by God to be, lies in large part in our willingness to make room at the table for every single one of us, young and old…our willingness to call out and use well the gifts that every single one of us brings into this family…to be willing to suffer and rejoice together…to listen with open hearts and minds to each other that we might learn from each other…to care well for each other, which begins by treating one another with gentleness and kindness. And, we must be willing to invite others in to this family whose gifts and insight we need, even if we don’t know it yet. Further, we need to work on our own individual growth and maturity that we might be healthy partners for each other. And, finally, we have to spend as much time together as possible for friendships of substance and working well together require our time and presence.
For in these commitments made to God and one another, we begin to look something like the breathtakingly beautiful and diverse Body of Christ alive and active in and for the world…and it is a sight to behold. Many members, in one body, as Christ as our head, lifting each other up and moving together forward in mission…in a great wave of love that has the power to change any and everything for good and for God…the power to realize our hopes and dreams…to become the very vision that God has laid before us. And, it all begins by remembering that the connective tissue that binds us together as the Body Christ, in the life and ministry we all share, is love…our love for one another. Amen.