Introduction

God’s family is beautifully diverse, with each member playing an essential role in the body of Christ. Revd. Mark Fletcher explores this truth through Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians, showing how God’s family functions best when we recognize that every person has vital gifts to contribute. Rather than seeking personal recognition, we’re called to encourage others’ ministries, creating the unity through diversity that makes the church truly reflect Christ’s love.

Have you ever considered how amazing it is that in almost every town and city, from one side of the world to the other, you can find there a building, often very beautiful, often very ancient. In fact, some of the greatest architectural achievements in human history. That exists simply to remind the world of where the most important things are to be found.

And everywhere you go, you will find hopefully a warm, welcoming community there. Church is an amazing thing. I think we take it for granted. In fact, I’ve got some examples for you of some of the great ones and it’s a little bit of a quiz and so you have to try and work out which what it is. So, guy, can we have the first one?

So I think it’s quite an easy one to start with. Do you know what that one is? Notre Dame in Paris. Very good. Easy one to start with. What’s the next one? It is, in fact, the Vatican, isn’t it? It’s St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Very, very impressive. Next, perhaps one of my favorites, the astonishing Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the holy wisdom of God. Wonderful. Next, what do you think? It is Westminster Abbey in London. Very good indeed. Next. Right there in the heart of Milan. Very good. Next does anybody know what it’s called? Sagrada Familia, the holy family. In Barcelona. Okay. And one last one. Anyone? Yes, Sienna. Yeah, the Duomo in Sienna, they are utterly astonishing, wonderful pieces of architecture, aren’t they? But of course, in almost every town and city you will find, not just sometimes more than one remarkable building, which is there simply, hopefully the doors open to remind you what really matters in life.

The existence of the church is an amazing and frankly, unlikely thing. Where does it come from? How is this possible? There’s an interesting clue in the original name of church. So the Greek word for church, which Paul uses here in one Corinthians is Ecclesia. And it means? Does anybody know what Ecclesia means?

It means the gathering. So church is not primarily the building or the institution. It is a response by people to a historical event. Church breaks into history at this point in the middle of the first century and rapidly spreads across the world. Someone once said, “Church is what happens when people encounter Jesus and commit themselves to sustaining that encounter together.”

And the buildings are a response to that encounter. Church was not instituted by Jesus. Church is what happens as a result of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection and these amazing buildings and the communities that surround them bear witness to that. And that reading that we have by Jane, is from the earliest days of that event. So this is a letter from the Apostle Paul to a church in the Roman city of Corinth in Greece from about 53 AD, which is how long after Jesus’ death and Resurrection? That’s right. Within about 20 years. And by this time, churches have sprung up all over the Roman Empire. This is one of them.

And what Corinthians reveals to us is a remarkable, dynamic, young, exciting, and unfortunately, deeply dysfunctional church. And maybe that is the first thing that we should notice that church is not easy and churches go wrong. And when they do, it’s particularly problematic because they’re supposed to be pointing to Jesus.

But when churches do go wrong, it’s not a new problem. They have been doing so since at least 53 AD and they can be put right. So how are the Corinthians dysfunctional? Well, it seems from the letter that what they had essentially done was imported the kind of cultural values of the society that they were part of uncritically. And so they were obsessed with status. They were selfish and often attention seeking, and they were using spiritual gifts as a way to show off.

Instead of living lives of service and love, they were arguing and falling out like children in a playground squabbling for attention. And there’s an amazing line. In fact, if you’ve got Bibles in your pews, it’d be well worth having them open at one Corinthians. It’s on page 1052 in my Bible ’cause I’ve got a few little references in this to look at. And one of them, chapter 11, verse 17. Paul says of them, “Your meetings do more harm than good.” What a thing to say. Paul is basically saying, listen, it would be better if you didn’t meet together, because you do more harm than good. You see what I’m saying? Dysfunctional churches can go wrong. And so in order to help them to put things right, the apostle uses what is quite a familiar, but at the time would’ve been an utterly revolutionary image of what it means to be church.

So he is saying, listen, church is not all about you. It’s not an individualistic or a consumer thing, but neither is it made up of people who are all the same. Verse 27, he says, “Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.” The church in the true sense is something organic made up of different parts, perhaps different organs, each one of which has a different job to do, and each one is essential.

It is not a hierarchy. It is an interdependent body and each person has a vital part to play. So verse 21, he says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don’t need you.” I don’t know if you have certain parts of your body that you are less comfortable with? In the ancient world, feet were seen as a little bit squeamish and which is why do you remember Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and how significant that is. But in verse 23, he says, “The lesser parts you should treat with greater honour.” It’s this picture of the fact that our diversity is an essential part of who we are. I’m really struck that in what’s essentially a consumer society, there’s a temptation to look for a church that’s full of people just like us. And I’ve certainly seen plenty of those through the years. And as a result, you tend to overemphasize one thing over another. Maybe a church where it’s all head, it’s all intellectual, or a church where it’s all hands.

It’s about getting busy and serving. Those things are essential, but not to the exclusion of each other. And a body which only has one thing is a very weird body. Do you see what I’m saying? There’s this lovely picture of the essential diversity that makes up a church. It means that each of you has a vital contribution to make and a role to play.

There are ways to serve that means that we are diminished, as a body, if you don’t play your part. And without you, the church is less effective. Verse 25, “There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other.” The lesson of the Corinthian church is that we each need to play our part.

Not in order to get recognition, not only concerned with things that are upfront and seen, because the behind the scenes stuff is perhaps even more vital. Think of the example of a heart. You can’t see a heart. If you listen very carefully, you might hear it beating. If you look very carefully, you might just see a flicker of pulse.

But where would we be without our hearts? And it may well be that the less obvious acts of service are the most essential in the life of church. So my challenge for you is how can you do a better job? Not a better job of serving, although that’s a wonderful thing. But a better job of recognizing and encouraging others in their ministry and service and using their gifts. Because that feels to me like a better way round. Being a church where we’re all pushing ourselves forward, trying to find ways to be seen, to serve sounds unhealthy.

But a church which is always looking out for others, encouraging them in what they do, recognizing and celebrating them feels like a really good, interdependent model of church. That’s a body working together. That’s my challenge for you. How can we do that better? All of us. Second thing to notice from this passage, which is easy to miss, we do need to be challenged.

And we need the word of God to do that. The problem with the Corinthians was that they’d imported the values of their society, uncritically, and the word of God is the thing which challenges that. And verse 28 says, “God has placed in the church, first of all, apostles, second prophets, and third teachers.”

You see that there is some priority in the church. Everybody is of equal value. Everybody matters, but we should take really seriously those whose job it is to open the word of God to us. But of course, in the church, leaders are servants. Paul says, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be first, must be last, and be servants of all.”

That to be in a position of leadership is not to elevate yourself, but to model Jesus’ servanthood and raise other people up. Once again, I think it’s a wonderful picture of a body working together. And what does Paul challenge us to aspire to? Verse 31, he says, “Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.”

And we’ll get into this in weeks to come, but the most excellent way, obviously is the way of Christ. It is the way of love. What comes next is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. You probably know it from almost every wedding that you go to. It’s that lovely declaration of the nature of love that we used as a canticle earlier in the service. But the body of Christ must live the way of Christ. And that is the way of love. We are a Christ shaped community. We are the body of Christ. And so we remember always that love is patient, love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Can you hear in those words Paul’s gentle challenge to the Corinthian church who probably were all of those things.

And we live in a society which seems so liable to selfishness and individualism. And there are so many powerful voices seeking to divide us. What could be more important than communities of grace and truth and love, which look out for one another, which put others before ourselves? And in almost every corner of the world, you can find communities like that.

Wherever you go, you will find a welcome there and you will find that you have a role in the churches that you belong to. I’m struck by how radical that was in the first century and I think it continues to be radical in this day and age. One other little aside, point of interest, really. That word Ecclesia, which Paul uses for the church is not original.

It has precedence historically. There was an Ecclesia beforehand. I think this is fascinating. So in ancient Athens, the Ecclesia was the principle assembly of democracy. It was the assembly that could make important decisions and people could vote on strategy things for their city.

But it was open only to male citizens who had two years of military service and who owned property. Do you see that the new Ecclesia is open to everybody, male and female, slave and free, Jew and Gentile. There is something profound and wonderful about this thing that we call the church. It seems so familiar.

We perhaps take it for granted, and yet I think our world needs this more than ever. Let’s be realistic. A community like this will not be easy. We will make mistakes, but church is not an optional extra. Faith is a call to belonging, a call to play your parts. It isn’t just about you. It is a holy community.

It is the body of Christ which needs all of its parts working together to help it be all that it’s called to be. And nothing I think could be more important in this world. You are the body of Christ. Amen.