3 Epiphany C sermon

What does it mean for the Church to be the Body of Christ?

3 Epiphany C

Sermon given on January 22, 1995

At St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Luke 4:21-30

            We are the body of Christ. Could there be a better reading for the Sunday of our annual meeting? Could anything better express what it means to be a part of a church, part of The Church?

            We are the Body of Christ - each a different, unique, necessary, honored, glorified, valued, and loved part of One Body. We are all needed to fulfill the purpose of Christ - to be Christ in the world, to be Christ’s feet and hands and eyes and ears. What a wondrous, awesome thought - to be the body of Christ.

            What does it mean to be the body of Christ, or better, how are we to live as the body of Christ?

            Today’s Gospel gives us the answer. Jesus reads “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is the quote from Isaiah that Christ chooses to use to introduce his ministry.  Through this quote he in essence says:

                        - This is who I am.

                        - This is why I am here.

                        - This is my role, my responsibility, my calling from God.

And we - as the Body of Christ - are here to continue that mission, to complete that call. We, as baptized Christians, as part of the one Body, are anointed to bring good news to the poor. We are to bring hope to those who are both materially poor and to those in spiritual poverty. We are to bring the good news of God’s love and forgiveness, the good news of our unity with God through Christ.

We are also sent to proclaim release to the captives - to proclaim that we are each and every one of us free beings, not captives of sin or fear, or even death - but free through Christ’s Love. And we are to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, that those who are spiritually blind might see once again. We are to proclaim, to encourage, a new vision. We are to see all things in their new and glorious form. In the words of the hymn Amazing Grace, “I once was blind, but now I see.”

We are to let the oppressed go free. We must fight injustice and oppression wherever we find it, whether people are oppressed because of politics, or bigotry, or poverty, or racism, or sexism.  We must fight injustice whether the oppressor is government, business, religion, unions or ignorance.

And finally we are to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. We are to proclaim the Good News that God Loves Us. We are to tell the world of this love as shown by Jesus Christ.

            That is what this is all about. That is who we are. That is our purpose, our calling as the Body of Christ.

            Each one of us has a unique and necessary role, whether as an ear to hear the cries of the poor, an eye to see injustice, a brain to plan and reason, a mouth to speak out, a foot to carry the message of Christ to the world.

            Paul says that the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. Indispensable! The apparently weak, the young, the old, the ill, the poor, the disadvantaged are INDISPENSIBLE!

            This is who we, the people of St. Alban’s, are. This is our mission. All that we do, all the decisions we make, our vision, is in response to this call, for we are the body of Christ. The Book of Common Prayer, in its catechism, puts it another way. It states that the mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. That is what we, the body of Christ, are all about, to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. The catechism goes on to say that the Church pursues its mission as it prays, worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace and love.

            This is who we are, or at least what we should strive to become, for we are the Body of Christ.

            But we are not the whole body - we don’t do it alone. We are part of a greater body. We are part of the diocese of CA which supports us and whom we represent in the far East of Contra Costa County. And the diocese is part of the entire Episcopal church. and the Episcopal church is part of the world wide Anglican Communion, and the Anglican Communion is just one part of the whole Christian community. The Body of Christ is made up of all Christians. Even though we disagree and sometimes fight bitterly among ourselves, we all make up the body of Christ. The CHURCH with a capital C is the body of Christ

            Paul says that God’s desire is that there may be no dissension within the body, but that 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.

            This is who we are called to become, this is our call from Christ, for “we are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”