Baptized Into One Body by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

Not too many years ago there was a TV movie that the kids were all crazy about. It had great music. You know the songs. The ones that get stuck in your head and you just keep singing them over and over again. It was called “High School Musical.” (The groans were loud here, as was Kurt’s when he read this) Oh sure, in retrospect, it sounds cheesy and outdated, but at the time, my kids loved it and so did I. The show stopping song at the end was the one with this refrain: “We’re all in this together.” It was a feel good song about kids coming together and living their dreams. 

We’re not the same
We’re different in a good way
Together's where we belong.

We've arrived because we stuck together.

We’re all in this together
And it shows When we stand Hand in hand
[and] Make our dreams come true.

In the movie of course, there are conflicts but in the end they all pull together, in true Disney movie fashion.

The message of the song, and the show, that comes through is this: being different is good, but even in our difference, there is great value in coming together.  This is the value the apostle Paul is saying in his letter to the church at Corinth (we read I Corinthians 12:12-26 in worship today). 

They were having some conflicts in their young church. They were having trouble holding their community together. Paul was writing to them and trying to encourage them to come together so he gave them this analogy. You are the body of Christ, he said. And the body of Christ, just like the human body, has many parts.

·         A foot doesn’t say “Because I’m not a hand I am not part of the body.”

·         Just because an ear is not an eye, that does not mean the ear is any less part of the body

·         If the whole body were an eye, how would it hear

·         If the whole body were hearing, how would it smell

But God arranged the body to work together as a whole. There are many members but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand “I have no need of you” nor the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” You can try, it won’t work.

This is where it gets really good, when you remember that this is an analogy for the church.  Paul says: the parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable. The members that we think are less honorable and are less respectable? We give them honor and respect, because the more respectable members don’t need it. God has arranged the body to give greater honor to the inferior member so there may be no dissension within the body and the members may have the same care for one another. The he really brings it home with the last line. If one member suffers, all suffer together, and if one member is honored, all rejoice together.  Wouldn’t the world be better if we lived this way. We take care of one another. And there is no room for envy.

This scripture became clearer to me the other day for me as I was driving down the highway. I was going down I-75 south toward Perrysburg and I crossed over the Maumee River and over to the right I saw this small floating dock. There was a dock attached to the bank and then out a few feet from it there was another on out a short distance. And I began to think, “I wonder how they make that dock stay there in the water so still? Is it anchored to the bottom with a chain and a big anchor? But then it would be floating around like a big raft.”

Then I thought to myself: “I would have absolutely no clue how to construct something like that.” Then again, I have no clue how to construct the bridge I just drove over.  Even if you held a gun to my head, I could not tell you how the engine in my car works.

But I can give comfort to a parent whose teen-ager has just been arrested for DUI, I ‘ve done that.  Last year, I did a funeral for a 20 something who died of a drug overdose; as we waited for a funeral to start a retired teacher said, “I don’t know how you will do this.”  I know how to do this.  But I said to him, I don’t know how he taught biology for years.  I don’t know how Travis plays the guitar the way he does or how Frank plays the bass or Justin plays the drums.  I don’t know how John Starr does the tedious work of keeping our books. And I am so glad that Shelly came along to pay our bills, because I used to do that when we first started up. 

I am so thankful that Teresa runs the tech team and gets the power points on the screen every Sunday. It’s like magic to me.  For 18 months Rock ran our set up team in this space. I know how to do her job. But I can’t do her job and mine every Sunday. I could go on and on, all of you who bring food and help with set up and hospitality and greeting. Our Village Kids leaders and TAVYG, outreach in the community.  I am sure I am leaving out someone.

Every person that participates in this community of The Village church is a vital part of our body. We all have something to contribute. It’s like this. If you were not here, we might as well be missing an eye or a hand. Each one of us is here for some purpose. You have a purpose. You are of value.

At the beginning of the scripture reading for today, Paul reminds the people that they are bound together by one Spirit. As members of the body of Christ we are baptized into one Spirit. In baptism, we claim presence of the Holy Spirit for the person who is baptized. And in baptism, we become part of the community. Our contribution may not yet be known, because for many of us, we are baptized when we are infants, but we are claimed as a member of the community who is valued. Once you are baptized, your baptism is never taken away from you. That’s’ why we don’t re-baptize you.  You may step away from God, but God never steps away from you. You can do nothing to erase this blessing, this relationship with God.

But this we do know. You are always of value to God and to the body of Christ. You are unique and your unique gifts are important to this community. And so today we celebrate the unique gifts that we each have. I want to invite you to think about what gifts you have that you might not be using. Perhaps you are ready to serve in this community in a way you haven’t been. We try to let you know about opportunities to serve on a regular basis, but sometimes people don’t respond to announcements and things printed in the program because they think “Oh they don’t really mean me.” We really do. We mean you.  We invite you to serve. We keep this community humming when everyone pitches in. But if you do not hear about anything offered that fits your gifts, then I would be happy to meet with you and discern with you where you might best use your gifts to serve in this body.  It might be a way we have not thought of yet. I would be happy to meet with you to discuss this.

We really are in this together. Our differences really are a gift. Even though they sometimes cause some tensions they also give us the creativity to be the community that we are. God knew something when God created such a diverse world. So let’s give thanks and honor the diverse gifts in our community. And let’s use our gifts to make our church even more amazing. Amen.