Lord, Make us One

Scripture 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 26-31a   CEB   

12 Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. 13 We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink. 14 Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. . . . 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. 

27 You are the body of Christ and parts of each other. 28 In the church, God has appointed first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, the ability to help others, leadership skills, different kinds of tongues. 29 All aren’t apostles, are they? All aren’t prophets, are they? All aren’t teachers, are they? All don’t perform miracles, do they? 30 All don’t have gifts of healing, do they? All don’t speak in different tongues, do they? All don’t interpret, do they? 31 Use your ambition to try to get the greater gifts. And I’m going to show you an even better way.

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Many of you know that I select the scripture reading and message hymn about 2 months in advance.  When I selected today’s message what I knew for sure was that today we would have a congregational meeting to vote on new officers and approve the budget, and the readings I had to choose from included 1 Corinthians 12, which is about as close to ideal for election day as possible.  Many parts, one body, no one part is more important than any other part, all are needed.  Perfect!  

And yes, we did leave out about 10 verses in the middle, which describe several specific parts of the body and their roles.  I asked Debbie and Leah to delete those verses early this morning, because frankly this is a very long passage and since there is no way I’m going to preach on every verse in the time I have available, it makes sense sometimes to shorten the reading.  And I had decided a while back that I will be focusing on the first and last parts of  this passage, the body of Christ parts rather than the body parts.   

So, looking at the body of Christ as it is constituted in this particular congregation, what do we see?  Look around, really look, to see who is here.  Not just to count heads.  But to see all the different people here.  Children are here.  The littlest ones are downstairs having their own church service, but they are here as part of the body.   There are some women here without the rest of their families, and that is typical.  But there are also men here without their families, and that is not.  There are families who have been coming here forever, and there are families who haven’t been here long at all.  There are families with children and couples and singles. There are retired folks and working people, who are able to support the church financially.  And there are the unemployed and students and families just starting out, who are not.  There are some with college educations and some who didn’t finish high school.  There are registered Democrats and Republicans and No Party Preference, and some who don’t vote.   And there are also those who have physical issues that keep them from being here in person, but are still part of this body, because they pay attention to what this congregation is doing, and because this congregation pays attention to them.  There are some who are hyper involved in church activities, serving on Boards and Teams and going to every church event, some who just show up on Sunday and are glad of the hour’s rest and renewal they get while they are here, and some who fall somewhere in between.  Some are happy to preside, and volunteer as often as possible, while others panic just thinking about talking in front of people.  All of those different people make up the body of Christ here at First Christian Church.  And some of those have answered the call to serve this congregation as deacons and elders and team leaders, and Board officers.  Some of these have served many times over the years.  Some will be stepping up for the first time.  Today you will be voting to approve their service for the coming year.

The folks who are being elected to serve on the Board will be facing some tough decisions in the months to come.  You all, in electing them, allow them to make decisions on your behalf.  Not all of them.  Not the really big ones, like buying and selling property or building a building.  But a lot of them.  They work hard at putting together a budge for the coming year - You will be voting on that today, also - and making sure we stick to it as closely as possible. And trust me, that is not always fun or easy.  Your Board has had to make some very tough calls in the last year or so, to keep our expenses in line with our income.  Because just like in our own homes, if the income drops so must our spending.   Sometimes we find ourselves in between a rock and a hard place - between what Jesus would have us do, and what we need to do in order to be good stewards of the property with which we have been entrusted.   Making decisions as a Christian church can be ever so much harder than making decisions as an ordinary business.   For example - What to do about the unhoused people who sleep on the church steps.   

I want to tell you a couple of stories from the church I served before this one.

Eusebio lost his home, his family, and his employment after his last DUI.  He slept in the church doorway and stashed his belongings - a bag with some clothes in it and a bedroll - behind a bush when he went out to look for work in the morning.  He was polite and respectful, and always left before the preschool teachers arrived in the morning.  He went dumpster diving and found many wonderful things - like the push broom he used to sweep the church parking lot and sidewalks every day.  And the reflective paint he used to touch up the lines in our parking lot.  And the varnish he used on one of the doors to fellowship hall.   And so many other things that he used to do unpaid and un-asked for work around the church property.  It was his way of paying rent.  We were happy to provide him a safe place to sleep at night (although we never specifically gave him permission to stay) because there are no homeless shelters in La Puente or the surrounding communities, only a cold weather shelter for a couple of months in the winter.  After a few months Eusebio found a job washing dishes, and a few weeks later he moved into a room.   If all the homeless people who slept in the church doorway were like Eusebio, we would never have any problem knowing what to do. 

But then there was Jim.  Jim was fine when he was taking his meds, and really hostile and paranoid when he wasn’t.  He slept behind the hedge alongside the church building, and kept his belongings there also.  He threatened the preschool teachers when they asked him to leave in the mornings.  He would listen to me, most of the time, but I wasn’t always there at 6 am when the preschool opened.  After a few months, many complaints from preschool parents, church members and neighbors, and a couple of broken stained glass windows, the board decided he had to leave.  He wouldn’t, of course, so we had to take legal steps.  We put a sign up saying no overnight camping or parking.  We called the police, and I had to make a citizen’s arrest.  They took him to jail, he ended up in a psych ward for a couple of months, and we had to hire someone to clean up his mess.  He had put so much stuff behind the bushes it took several dumpsters to haul it all away.  If all homeless people who slept at the church were like Jim, it wouldn’t be hard to know what to do.   

But they aren’t all like either Jim or Eusebio.   Most fall somewhere in between.  Some clean up, some don’t.  Some comply with requests, some don’t.  Some are fine when they are on their meds, but not so much the rest of the time.   (And trust me, I am quick to call the police when I witness threats of violence - I learned that lesson well.)  Mind you, we never specifically told anyone that they could sleep there, only that they needed to leave in the morning before the preschool opened.  It was a safe place for them to sleep, especially for women and gay men, who were often victims of assault in the cold weather shelters.  We wanted folks with no roof over their heads to at least have a safe place to sleep. It seemed the Christian thing to do.  If only they would just comply with a few requests - like leaving before people showed up, and keeping their sleeping area clean.   And for folks like Eusebio, who only wanted to get back on his feet and improve his life, that was easy.  

But frankly, many of those who live on the streets - especially in Selma where we have so many programs to help those who want help - aren’t able to comply with requests and rules.  They may have mental health issues, or drug and alcohol issues, that make staying in a shelter impossible.  There are a lot of reasons why some folks are chronically homeless and we as a society have to find ways to solve those issues.   But here, as church, we have to somehow figure out what we need to do to both follow Jesus - who told us to feed the hungry, give shelter to those who need it, heal the sick, cast out demons, love your neighbor as yourself  - and protect the property we are stewards of.  That is really not easy.  Because these too, are beloved children of God.  Your Board, the folks you will be electing in a few minutes, will have to make those decisions.  

You are the body of Christ, and parts of each other.  You are all different from each other, with different viewpoints and different priorities.  But you all have the desire to live a Christian life, to make decisions in accordance with God’s will, to live in the world but not of the world.  It is hard to be a Christian today.  It always has been.  

The hymn I selected for today  has lyrics written by Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette, who writes new words to familiar music.  I selected it a couple of months ago because it was about serving God and congregations, and it seemed appropriate to use on Congregation Meeting day.  But it became even more appropriate when I realized that we had to talk about making decisions as Christians, and about who we welcome and who we help…and who we can’t help.  We want to help everyone, but even Jesus had to ask, “Do you want to be helped?”  (paraphrase of John 5:6)

My sisters and brothers, when we leave this place today, I would ask you to pray the Lord to make us one, to be of one accord on the best way for us to move forward, on this and so many other issues, when the world and the Word, our minds and our hearts seem to come into conflict.