Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 26, 2025: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21; Psalm 19
“There are many members, yet one body.”
Thus Paul, in the first letter to the Corinthians. What does it mean to be one body when we are clearly divided? This past week we have seen Bishop Mariann Budde reviled publicly for preaching about the dignity of every human being, honesty, and humility. In doing so, she made specific address to the need for compassion and kindness. This is seen as political. At least one person posted on X about the “sin” of empathy.
The truth is, Christians have never been united. The early church was divided as to whether those who were not Jewish needed to follow Jewish law. Later the church was divided about how they understood the nature of Jesus: the Apostles and Nicene Creeds were attempts to craft statements everyone could agree on. Then the church was divided about whether the virtue of the minister determined the validity of the sacraments. And that just takes us to the beginning of the 5th century. I could go on.
How has the church managed these conflicts? There are two ways. Sometimes the church has declared some ideas heretical: thus, the denial of the trinity, for instance, or the idea that those who administer the sacraments must be without fault, are considered heresies. But the church has also divided: the Roman and Eastern churches split over authority, with conflicts between the Pope and the Patriarch. In the sixteenth century, what we now call Protestant churches split from the Roman church, which came to be called Catholic.
Where then in our disagreements is honest disagreement in interpretation, and where is heresy? What is fundamental to our understanding of what it means to be a Christian? We believe that Jesus is the son of God, and became human. As a result, all people are created in the image of God, and we treat them with the respect due to all of God’s creatures. We believe that God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus was crucified, and his suffering is a reminder that God is with us in our suffering. As we say in the creed, we believe that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. And we believe in everlasting life. Different Christians always focus on somes aspect of these propositions more than others, but they are the core of Christian faith.
Paul’s image of the body is a reminder of our need for each other. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” We manage this understanding of the body of Christ best at a local level, in one community where we share our gifts. The challenge for us as Christians, and as citizens and residents, is to build the connections with other groups, whether other churches, synagogues or mosques, or secular organizations. We need to see how we can all work together for the good of all.
Paul’s reminder to the church at Corinth that they were one body is a sign that they were not acting that way. Our current challenges are not, in other words, anything new.
Jesus was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he read:
“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.”
The he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Our calling is to keep doing the work that Jesus named: bringing good news, releasing captives, let the oppressed go free. We do that because we are one body, and if anyone suffers we all suffer. We do it because Jesus taught that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.