Scripture Passage
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Sermon Script
When St. Paul met Christ, he became a new person.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Yes, when we meet Christ, we become a new person.
But St. Paul was not only talking about himself as a person. He was thinking beyond just himself.
He was thinking about our existence as people.
In Christ, our whole existence becomes new. How we live together is new.
Today’s passage that we read is a concrete metaphor for the new kind of community that is created in Christ.
He describes it as a new humanity:
For he (Christ) is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two… (Ephesians 2:15-16)
A new community, a new humanity – that is what we become in Christ.
In this new community, everyone belongs.
You are valued for who you are. You are treated with respect and honour. You are valued for the unique contributions you bring.
Differences are valued and appreciated and embraced.
This community belongs to everyone, and everyone belongs to it.
It wasn’t always this way for St. Paul.
Before he met Christ, belonging meant something different.
Belonging was an exclusive possession. Belonging was conditional on meeting the right requirements.
Before he met Christ, he belonged to the chosen people of the Jews. This is how he described his belonging as a Jew:
Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:5-6)
He belonged to the exclusive community of God’s chosen people because he met the requirements.
In the old way of thinking, there is a high barrier to entry for belonging. It is an exclusive club. It is a closed belonging.
If you belong, then you’re in. If not, then you’re out.
If you’re on the inside, you get the benefits of belonging. If you’re on the outside, you’re left out.
Everyone tries so hard to belong, because we need to belong somewhere to survive.
Human beings need to belong.
We need to belong to a company or organization that will provide a living. We need to belong to friend groups that meets our social needs. We need to belong to a family that provides love and support.
But even when you belong, you don’t necessarily have it easy.
You have to continue to meet the requirements. If you start slipping on the basic requirements, then your standing becomes more tenuous.
I see this in our kids sports teams.
If you’re a good performer, then all is good. You’re valued for your personality. He’s a funny guy, a great character.
But all of that won’t matter if you’re not good and producing.
In this kind of community, you belong to survive, not thrive.
There is pressure. There is fear of losing your standing.
In this kind of community, what’s valued is what will make that community strong.
It’s not about you. It’s not about the unique gifts that you can offer. It’s whether you offer the right gifts that the group needs.
Uniqueness and diversity of gifts don’t matter. It’s about having the right gifts. Offer the right gifts, then you belong.
In this kind of community, there is a clear pecking order. Honour and respect are given in that order. There is a hierarchy of value.
In this kind of community, belonging is often defined by who you’re against.
Sometimes, belonging means you don’t really know what you’re for, but you definitely know what you’re against.
You prove that you belong by how strongly you’re against those who don’t belong. The stronger you’re against those who don’t belong, the more you belong.
For Paul, belonging to the Jews also meant opposing and persecuting the church. More zeal for persecuting them meant he belonged even more.
All of this changed after he met Christ.
After meeting Christ, his understanding of belonging changed.
In Christ, belonging changed from closed belonging to open belonging.
Whereas in the old world, belonging was closed and exclusive, in Christ, belonging is open and inclusive.
All belong. All are sinners. All are forgiven. All are invited into the kingdom of God.
It is not about having the right gifts, it is about discovering your unique gifts. Your unique gifts and personality are what will bless the group.
Honour and respect are not given according to the pecking order. Rather, everyone, especially the weak, are given honour and respect.
No one is considered dispensable.
St. Paul saw this very clearly:
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. (1 Corinthians 12:21-24)
The end result of this kind of community is unity and harmony.
But 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. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-31a)
This is a very different kind of community than the one we see in the world.
In the old world, exclusive belonging creates competition, rivalry and division. It stirs up jealousy, hatred and animosity.
In the new humanity, no one is left behind. Everyone is cared for.
What Paul is describing in today’s passage is the church.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27)
The church is the body of Christ. The church is the new community, the new humanity.
In this new humanity, we are one body comprised of many members; many members yet one body.
We are unified as a community but only in our diversity, not through uniformity. We are diverse and different, yet unified as one.
Everyone belongs and is welcome. There is enough room at the banqueting table for all that.
God provides. We may have only five loaves and two fish, but God will provide an abundance for all.
That is the nature of the new community in Christ.
The people of Corinth found new life in Christ when Paul came and proclaimed the gospel.
The church began with great joy and enthusiasm. But they were still living in the old world.
The values and ways of the old world kept creeping into this new community.
Paul was teaching them how to live as a new community in Christ.
This is the church today: we live in the old world, but we live together as a new community, a new humanity that’s not of the world.
We live as a new community that’s set apart from the old world.
People of St. Timothy: you belong to the new humanity!
Do you believe that?
That is your calling, that is our mission.
The church exists for mission. Our mission is to be the new humanity in this world.
To live a new way that’s different from the old way. To model a new way of treating one another. A new way of living with one another.
You belong to this new humanity. You are the new creation.
You have something valuable to contribute. Not necessarily by what you do, but by who you are.
(Joy of discovering unique quirks and personalities of congregation)
You don’t need to be something other than who you are. There is no one who has nothing valuable to contribute.
If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. (1 Corinthians 12:15-16)
If you’re a foot, an ear, a hand or an eye, it doesn’t matter.
Each one of you is needed. Each one of you is a part of the body.
But as it is, 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. (1 Corinthians 12:18-20)
To be part of the new humanity, offer yourself for this community.
Don’t hide yourself.
You will bless this community, and you will be blessed as you discover gifts you didn’t know about.
There are many demands these days that make commitment such a challenge. This world pulls us in so many different directions.
It is so difficult to exist as a new community. The church is going against the ethos of the world.
But the world needs the new community.
But to be the new humanity in this world, we must continually be shaped into it. We must be shaped as Christ’s body.
That requires consistency.
Consistency in worship. Consistency in being rooted in the Word and teachings of the Word. Consistency in practicing life as a new community.
In our consistency, Christ will shape us and form us as a new community.
This is why the Christian journey cannot take place apart from the community. It’s a fallacy that you can cultivate faith on your own.
Christ shapes us together in our journey together. Christ shapes us into the new humanity for this world.
One body, many members. You belong to this body.
We are called to be a light for this new way to live.
This year more than ever, let us be a new humanity that welcomes others.
A new humanity that shows there is a different way to live. Different way to be a community.
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