You people are something else. You people are something special. You people
are the people of God. I know this because I've seen God work through you. I
know this because I've watched you respond to the movement of God's Spirit. I
know this because I've received Christ's love through you. You people are the
people of God. You people are the Body of Christ. You people are the church.
"Church" - now there's a word that's been thrown around to apply to a
wide variety of human organizations. For some people the word lights up their
eyes and makes their heart beat faster. For others the word fills their eyes
with tears or makes their blood pressure go up. But for most, the word
"church" brings no reaction at al, except maybe a yawn. When a person
decides to join our church, I invite you to enter a covenant with him or her to
be the church together in this place. But what does that covenant mean? A
covenant is a mutual bond, a contract of shared expectations, a collection of
reciprocal promises and obligations. So what do we promise one another when we
enter this covenant to be church?
Paul has some practical advice for us today to guide our thinking. As with most
of Paul's theology, his advice to the Corinthians grew out of a concrete
problem in the church.
The Christians in
But when they brought hamburger hot dish made from the meat sacrificed to the
idols to the church potluck, some people were offended. But the Idol Brand hot
dish bringers just rolled their eyes and shook their heads. They said, "We
know better." They said, "Idols don't really exist." They said,
"There is only one God." They said, "Food has nothing to do with
faith. Food will not bring us closer to God." And with a sneer and a snide
tone they looked down on those they offended as ignorant and stupid and weak.
They even enjoyed offending the prudes. You know, some people like to shock you
just to see your reaction. But they believed in a radical individual freedom
which allowed them to define their own personal theology and ethic regardless
of the opinions of others. And they exercised their individual freedom on a
number of different issues so well that the church at
They wrote Paul a letter. And he wrote back with an answer that probably didn't
please any of them. Some people at Corinth imaged the church on the assumption
that there is only one truth, and we must all agree with it…that there is
only one true ethic everyone must follow, and that is the one we define
because we are the smart and good and true disciples of Jesus and you (whoever
"you" are) are not. So the work of the church is to decide what is
right for everybody and than make everybody conform to it. Naturally, they were
in each other's business all the time. There were others who imaged the church
as a place where every individual was free to decide for him – or
herself. They believed the Spirit would lead each individual to find his or her
bliss without the interference or influence of others. They weren't in your
business, but they also didn't care how their behavior might affect you. They
were the what-I-do-is-nobody-else's-business, stop-meddling, stay-out-of-my-way
group. I'm guessing most of us would have been in that group. But in his answer
to this strange question about eating meat offered to an idol, the apostle
gives us a vision of the church which is both free and obedient. Turns out Paul
agreed with both and differed from both sides.
First of all, Paul agreed with the offended side that being a Christian is a
distinct identity separate from the mainstream values of the surrounding
culture and also that we have to consider how our behavior reflects the one
whose name we carry. The people of God are something else. The people of God
are something special. We answer to a higher standard than just individual
freedom. We follow a different ethic than "Leave me alone, I'll do
whatever I please." There are some idolatries
about our own popular culture which we must together reject and even actively
resist, such as faith in violence, faith in technology, faith in wealth, faith
in our goodness, faith in ourselves. On the other hand, Paul agreed with the
offenders "no foul, no fault" argument about meat offered to idols.
He even quoted them with agreement: "all of us possess knowledge" (v.
1); "no idol in the world really exists" (v. 4); "there is no
God but one" (v. 4).
Paul also recognized that different levels of maturity exist in the church. In
every church there are people whose spirituality is especially fragile, who
lack a mature understanding, who may be more susceptible to temptation, who are
struggling with inner demons or external challenges. There are always "the
strong" and "the weak," but in the church Paul envisions the
strong owe it to the weak to care about them, to be patient with them, to
nurture them, and never to disregard them. Not only that, but the boundary
between the strong and the weak can be very fluid. We are all strong at times,
all weak at times, all vulnerable and needy sooner or
later, all strong enough to give something in support of those whose need is
greater than our own. Paul told the callused carnivores of
Sometimes our need to be right leads us to do wrong even when we really are
right, if we are too proud, if we are not loving in the way we use our
knowledge or power. The news this week
about a girl’s basketball game in
We cannot know God. We cannot comprehend the majesty of God's being. We cannot
know all of God's ways. But we can love God and be known by God. Love understands
that our words and actions affect each other for better or worse. Love does not
intentionally shock or offend or taunt. Love knows better.
Do you remember what Jesus said? "By this all people will know you are
my disciples, if you have what for one another?" What? "Love." He didn't say, "By this all
people will know you are my disciples, if you are smart. He didn't say,
"By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you are always
right." He didn't say, "By this all people will know you are my disciples,
if you humiliate people in their ignorance." And he didn't say, "By
this all people will know you are my disciples, if you are rugged, independent
individuals." According to Paul, according to Christ, what distinguishes
the church, what we owe one another in our covenant relationship, is love. It's
just as simple and just as complicated as that. The Bible recognizes that we
are dependent upon God and interdependent with each other, that individual
freedom becomes a narcissistic isolation if it is not put in service to love in
relationship.
The trajectory of our culture today pushes us more and more to be individual,
isolated consumers. Our technology and economy make us less available to one
another and more and more alone. But God has created us for community. We are
none of us complete by ourselves. We can only learn about ourselves and grow in
healthy relationship. But community takes hard work. It takes patience. It
takes forgiveness. It takes love. Love - God's love in us - is what turns a bunch
of individual persons into a people - the people of God. Don't you want to be a
part of that people?
In this polarized society when we have such different opinions and different
ways of being in the world, in this hyper-individualistic time in which we
orbit so quickly and briefly in and out of each other's paths, God has made you
a community of the Spirit. There are times when we pass each other by. There
are times when our demons get the best of us. But in spite of this, God is
creating church in this place, in us, in you.
What do we mean by the covenant to be church here? What do we promise one
another? We promise in the name of Christ to love each other. We covenant to be
Christ to one another. We promise - as God helps us, when we are strong enough,
as much as we are able - to embody the love of God in the way we are together.
My friends, this is the church. You are the people of God for the
Word of God. Thanks be to God! Amen.
May we pray?
Loving God,
Thank you for freeing us from the oppression of people who think they know you
better than we do. Free us also from the pride of thinking we know you better
than they. Thank you for gathering us to be your church and making us your
people. Thank you for freeing us to the humble obedience and mutual submission
of love. Lead us to love one another in ways that will lead us to rejoice, that
will create a cocoon of compassion which surrounds each soul who enters our
circle with your healing power, that will reveal your
love to a lonely world in the name of Christ. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa