During our time at Bulimba,
when our children were ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen, we had a bonus – a
fifth child. We bought a people carrier – a Mitsubishi Express. It served us
well, as did its successor.
I recall one time when our
local mechanic replaced the timing belt. Driving the car home, I couldn’t go
faster than thirty kph or the shaking became unbearable. The engine had two
balance shafts designed to make it run more smoothly. But the mechanic had only
managed to align one of them correctly which made the engine unbearably rough!
A wheel that is off-centre is
called “eccentric” – so is a person who is “off-centre” in some way.
What is the central reference-point
of our lives? We are designed to have God at the centre. Because we have
inherited and chosen to put ourselves and “things” at the centre, we have
become sinners and, in all sorts of ways, our lives just don’t “run true”. And
the breakdown in our relationship with God soon manifests itself in breakdowns
in relationships in the community.
Jesus died on the cross and
rose again to bring about forgiveness and a restored relationship with God. His
purpose is also restored community. That is why Jesus emphasised so strongly
that God’s forgiveness of our sin requires of us a desire to forgive others.
In
spite of all its
imperfections and failures, the Church is the Body of Christ, “the fulness of him who fills everything in every way”
(Ephesians 1.23). The word translated “fulness” here
(plērōma)
could also have been rendered “fulfilment” or “completion”. It isn’t as if all
of Christ is now to be found in the Church. That just isn’t so – certainly not
at this point in our history. And yet, the “Body” is an important part of the
fulfilment of his redemptive work. It is also the principal visible means by
which he brings the gospel of his saving grace into today’s world.
Have you noticed? A high
official from
I set out for an evening
service in one of our churches in the parish. I wasn’t preaching that night,
and, as I set off, I decided on a slightly longer route to drop in on a home
where the husband was dying of cancer. I rang the doorbell and the wife just
about collapsed into my arms – “How did you know to come?” I didn’t! The
Body of Christ was at work.
In Romans 12 Paul writes, “as
each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have
the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace
given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his
faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it
is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of
others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern
diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully” (vv. 4-8).
As Christians, we are no
longer independent, but interdependent. It’s not just that, being born again,
we are brothers and sisters in God’s family – though, if we could really grasp
that much, we would have come a long way! Paul’s favourite image for the
Church is the Body of which Christ is Head and Lord.
We need a body, don’t we? We
can’t work without one. And if, for whatever reason, it won’t function properly
or refuses to respond to what we want it to do, we are in a bad way! Without a
body we are not equipped for life in this world. The Body of Christ is the
principal means by which Christ works in this world.
In the Corinthian church each
person was very proud of the particular spiritual gift he or she had. This led
to conflict and chaos because there was no awareness of the Body.
In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul
begins by acknowledging the variety of gifts the Spirit has given to individual
members. Then he says, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts;
and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.” (v. 12). The parts of the human body need one another, he is saying (vv. 14-26). “you
(all of you together) are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of
it” (v. 27). As he goes on to list the gifts again, he is emphasising order and
leadership in the Body. None of the gifts made anyone a “superior” member of
the Body.
The problem, Paul is saying,
is that we are so “me-centred”, failing to understand that any gifts we may
have equip us in our place within the Body so the Body can function. That is
why, in chapter 13, Paul goes on to speak about love. Without love, he is
saying, our so-called spiritual gifts are nothing.
Paul speaks of some of the
members having a particular gift of healing. In the passage from James 5 that
we looked at last week, that gift is seen to act through the whole Body and
ministered through the elders. I am sure that, where an individual has this
gift, it is to be a Body ministry and part of the “prayer of faith” of the
whole congregation.
As we have mentioned
previously, Jesus dealt with each person uniquely. He didn’t have a fixed
“healing” formula or routine. He touches the leper (Matthew 12.2-4), speaks the
word (from a distance) for the centurion’s servant (vv. 5-13), touches the eyes
of two blind men (9.27-31), puts salivary mud on another blind man’s eyes (John
9.6-7), rebukes the demon (Matthew 17.18)... We don’t detect a pattern in the
healing ministry of Jesus. Touch was often important, but not in a formal
laying-on-of-hands sense. At no time is it recorded that Jesus anointed anyone
with oil.
Once we get into the book of
Acts, we note the awareness that it’s not them but Jesus who heals. So, to the
crippled beggar at the Beautiful gate of the
When Peter and John were taken
to account for their actions before the Jewish Sanhedrin – “It is by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,
that this man stands before you healed” (v. 10). In Acts 19 we read that “Some
Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the
Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed... ‘In the name of Jesus, whom
Paul preaches, I command you to come out’.” One evil spirit answered them,
“Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” (vv.
13-16). We only live, and can only serve “in the name of Jesus”, but it’s a
relationship, not a formula.
There are a number of general means
of grace that God uses to build us up within the Body of Christ. These promote
our spiritual health and growth and are important
in the healing ministry of the Body.
God uses our reading of the
Scriptures and our attention to the Word preached to build us up in our faith
in God and to equip us for life and service.
Just the Scriptures are the
important means by which God communicates with us, so prayer, individual and
corporate, is the vital link by which we respond to God’s presence and grace.
In 1818 James Montgomery wrote,
Prayer
is the Christian’s vital breath,
the Christian’s
native air...
Samuel said to the people of
At its heart,
Fellowship is our inter-relatedness within the Body, our sharing
together in the grace of Christ and the life in the Spirit. That is why we
“rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12.15).
Within the Body we feel the joy and pain of others.
There are two particular means
of grace. We call them the “sacraments” – Baptism
and Holy Communion. The Basis of Union says, “himself acts in and through
everything that the Church does in obedience to his :
it is Christ who by the gift of the Spirit confers the forgiveness, the
fellowship, the new life and the freedom which the proclamation and actions
promise; and it is Christ who awakens, purifies and advances in people the
faith and hope in which alone such benefits can be accepted” (para 6).
Let me tell you the story of
Jack – an eighteen-month-old boy whose family was holidaying at Inskip Point. He was found floating face-down in the water
and was unconscious. Nobody knew how long he had been there. Dad worked for
Telstra Mobilenet, but there was no signal until
forty kilometres along the road.
In the emergency room the
mother, still wearing her muddy jeans, was lying with the still form of her son
between her legs and connected to oxygen. The request for baptism was repeated.
A sterile stainless steel hospital bowl was soon brought and filled with
hospital water. After a few words of introduction and counsel, there followed a
simple service of baptism followed by earnest prayer for the life of Jack.
After the baptism, three
doctors came and explained to the mother that Jack’s oxygen levels were too
low. There was nothing more they could do for him in Nambour. He had to be
transferred to the Royal Children’s in
Almost immediately he pulled
off the oxygen mask – a worry to the nurse! He was offered a toy to distract
him so the oxygen could be kept close to his face. He threw it on the floor. I
saw him next day in a ward, the nurse by his bed saying, “You wouldn’t know
anything was wrong with him!”
Six months later we went to
his second birthday party on the other side of
People have all sorts of
questions about when and how baptism should take place. But we miss the point
if we fail to see that God is at work.
1 Corinthians 11 contains what
is almost certainly the earliest written record of the institution of Holy Communion.
But something was seriously wrong in the way it was happening in the Corinthian
church. There were divisions among them (v. 18). And it wasn’t really the
Lord’s Supper, but more like a meal where some were gorging themselves with
food and drink and leaving the poorer members with nothing (vv.20-21).
We should eat the bread and
drink the cup in a way that recognises the body of the Lord (vv. 27-29). Is
Paul thinking of the elements – the bread and the wine – here? Perhaps, though
I think it is a reference to the Body of Christ composed of those who believe
in his finished work. By their selfish individualism and their lack of care for
their brothers and sisters, they were eating and drinking judgment on
themselves. The result – “many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you
have fallen asleep” (v. 30).
We gather this morning to
celebrate Communion. We focus again on the Lord – on his body and blood given
for us. We are come to receive his grace freely offered and available to us.
But our focus is also on the Body – the people of this congregation gathered
with us and people meeting in other congregations in our region with different
name-tags, different emphases and different styles of worship. We want to be a
healthy and healing Body of Christ in our community – forgiven and forgiving,
receiving and giving, reaching up and reaching out...
© Peter J. Blackburn,
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible
Society, 1984.
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