Sunday 07/15/12 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “Corpus Christi: The body of God’s People”
Scripture Lesson: 2 Samuel 6: 1-5
Gospel Lesson: Mark 6:14-29
Good morning brothers and sisters! I greet you in the name our risen Lord and savior Jesus Christ! I hope and pray that you have all had a blessed week, and as always it’s a great pleasure to be in worship with you today.
This morning I am continuing my five week series on how I think our local United Methodist Churches and our larger denominational United Methodist Church can get back to its historical Wesleyan roots to re-vitalize our church. My first week of this series, I talked about the need for a pastor of a church to love their congregation, and to care for the needs of their congregation. In my second week of this series, I talked about how if we as Christians want to have a fuller and a more authentic faith that we must look to those who went before us, or the Christian democracy of the dead.
This week, is the third part of my series, and this message is called “Corpus Christi: The body of God’s People.” For many of you here today you probably hear the title “Corpus Christi,” and you think one of two things. One you might just say “huh, what did the pastor just say?” Or maybe your saying “is the pastor talking about that place in Texas?” I think there might also be other towns or cities in the U.S. named Corpus Christi.
So while there are town and cities in the United States named Corpus Christi, what exactly does this title mean? More importantly, why would I give a sermon on the name of a town or city? Well, I assure you that there is a good answer to this question! First and foremost, the title “Corpus Christi” is a Latin term. Does anyone here know what this term means?
In English this terms translates to “the body of Christ.” In the bible there are many references to the body of Christ. There are many scriptures that talk about the significance of God’s people fellowshipping, congregating, and being together in worship. We that are here today are the Corpus Christi or the body that God has chosen to serve him here on earth. We are those whom Christ has chosen, and those whom have accepted the salvation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, or 1Corinthians in our New Testament, Paul wrote in chapter 1:12-14, “12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” As a result of this brothers and sisters, we can see here today by simply looking around our pews or at the whole congregation, that we are all unique and in some ways different from one another. As a result of this, don’t we all serve a unique purpose in the body of Christ, or the Corpus Christi? Do we not all have a specific ministry or set of ministries that the Lord of life has called us to? Don’t we collectively represent the hands and feet of the Risen Lord? Did the scripture readings today not discuss the people of David working together, and did they not discuss Jesus sending his apostles to heal and serve as the Corpus Christ?
I saw a shirt last year at our United Methodist Church Annual Conference in Rochester, NY, and I might have told you this story, or I might not have, as I cannot remember. As I was sitting in the massive auditorium and we were voting about random line items in church policy and our church budget, I suddenly noticed a young women a few rows in front of me, who had a very interesting t-shirt on. At first I couldn’t read it clearly, but it was one of those situations where I needed to know what was on that t-shirt! It was bugging me! I was a little nervous though because a married United Methodist minister should not probably be starring at any young woman but his wife! Luckily, I made out the writing on the t-shirt after a few seconds. The t-shirt said, “Sometimes God performs miracles, but the rest of the time he sends me.”
In reflecting upon that t-shirt, I came to realize something. I realized that sometimes when people are sick, when people have cancer, when people are in the greatest need that sometimes God does perform miracles. While God can perform a miracle wherever God wants to perform a miracle at any time, it appears that often God does not perform a miracle directly. I think for many of us, these realities are our personal trials of faith, when we say, “How could that have happened to such a nice a person?” “How could God have let that person die?” For some us, these are great mysteries, but this I know brothers and sisters, suffering does not usually come from the hands of almighty God, but rather it comes from these hands. It comes from our hands. And if God is working through his Corpus or his body, do we not have a responsibility then to serve our community and our Lord in the name of Jesus Christ? Should we not pray, heal, and love in the name of Jesus Christ? You see brothers and sisters, sometimes God performs miracle, but the rest of the time he sends us! He sends us to a broken world that desperately needs the life saving tough of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
It’s always interesting to me to drive through a small area like where this church is. You see nice house, people out and about, and it would appear that everything, everything, in this area is perfect. That there are no problems, no suffering, and no hurting here. We often don’t see the suffering behind closed doors do we? We don’t see the tears shed in one’s private prayer closet. Jesus says to us this day and every day, as he said to the apostles, “feed my sheep,” “feed my sheep.” We can be Jesus Christ with skin on. We can truly be the loving, caring, and compassionate body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can do this by seeing the needs people have and meeting those needs where there at, by visiting the elderly who are sick or shut it. I had the pleasure of visiting sister Jean Reed, who is 96-years young and attended the Methodist Church in Johnsburg for decades. She asked me at some point to visit her sister Mildred who is 97-years young, or as Jean said, “she’s the older one.” My sister Jean last Sunday said she misses the body of Christ, as she can no longer get there. But guess what brothers and sisters, we can go to her and others! The first Sunday of August I look forward to bringing her communion, as she is an important part of the Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ! We must find those who are sick, suffering, lonely, in need of a loving touch, and we must be amongst those people brothers and sisters. For we are the Corpus Christi, we are the living body here on earth! Our church has historically and will continue to grow, because of the love and Christ-like actions and behaviors of the Corpus. While a pastor can give good sermons, and can lead a church well, the Corpus through Jesus Christ has always been the beating heart of the Christian Church.
Let me dispel as well this morning, a commonly held myth. Has anyone ever heard some abuse the scripture, “Were two or more are gathered?” I hear a lot of men in particular say, “Well I don’t go to church, I worship God at home and watch a church service Sunday Morning.” I will then say, “oh really, do you watch it by yourself?” And they might say, “no sometimes a buddy or two comes over, and then we watch football after.” “So let me get this straight I say,” “you sitting in a recliner next to two friends, watching Joel Osteen, and then the NY Giants is going to church?” Here is the thing; can you be fed by God that way? Sure you can. Can you worship this way? Sure you can. If you cannot get here due to health, I am not talking to you, because that is a whole different situation. But if I call you at lunch time Sunday and I ask you why you weren’t in church, will you really have a good answer for me. Especially when you tell me that you visited that new church in Glens Falls called the Bedside Baptist, you know the one that is led by Reverend Sheets.
This is a tough one, because a lot of us would rather just relax on Sunday morning at home, but if we do this how do we fully fellowship and worship with the whole Corpus or body? You see we need to be with our brothers and sisters in worship, not just because we are supposed to go to church every Sunday morning, but because the Corpus Christi needs you here. Your gifts and graces are needed, and when you are absent we are missing a finger, or a toe, or something else, and we are lacking. What we can count on is that head of the body is, was, and will always be present in the Corpus! That head is Jesus Christ, the leader of our body. The one in whom we gather to serve! The one whom created us, and desperately wants his children to gather to praise him, to love each other, and spread the life saving news of his gospel of life!
As it seems, I started a trend and I will close with another short story. This story I have to admit is made up. Before I start, let me put this story into a context. Has anyone here every heard of the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks? You probably remember in that movie Tom Hanks played a character that worked for Fed Ex, and the character’s air plane crashed into the ocean in the South Pacific Ocean in terrible storm. Tom Hank’s character survived for 4-years on this island in the South Pacific, until he finally was able to build a make shift boat and leave the island.
Well I want to tell you a similar story about Steve Henderson, the Christian missionary. Steve was flying to Asia to serve on mission in the country of Vietnam with several other missionaries. In a similar fashion to Tom Hank’s character in the “Cast Away” movie, Steve’s plane was caught in awful storm and crashed into the ocean. Steve was marooned on a small island in the South Pacific, and as far as he knew was the only survivor from the airplane crash. After being on the island for a few weeks, and starting signal fires, screaming help until he lost his voice, and doing several other things, Steve said, “I think I might be here for awhile.” With this realization, Steve was determined to make his new marooned life alone somewhat enjoyable. Since Steve had no Gilligan, Skipper, or Ginger with him, he went to work alone. Using crude stone tools and wood tools, Steve built a hut that was his home, with a bed. He made a building that collected rain water. He made a building to cook in, and tool and work hut. He also made a guest house in the event he ever got any visitors. Steven wouldn’t you know it even made a church. It was a small building and Steve put a nice cross about the doorway.
Steve ended up being on this island for 2-years, living on fish, coconuts, and whatever else he could find. As it turned out, one night a group of fishers a few miles out from Steve’s little island thought they saw smoke coming from the island. With the fishing being not so great that night, the fishers decided to investigate this smoky phenomenon. As they got close to the island they saw the little huts that Steve built, and were then sure that a person or people were there. In docking in their boat, and paddling into shore with the smaller boat, the sun was just starting to rise. I was a beautiful sunrise. All of the sudden Steve heard someone yell “Hello is there anyone here”? At first Steve thought he was dreaming, but then he quickly came to! Steve greeted the three fishers, explained how he got there, and needless to say there were all startled to see each other. Steve proud of the little town he built then showed the fishers around. He said, “This is my house, this is my rainwater hut, this is my cooking hut, this is my tool and work hut, and this is my guest house.” The fishers then saw the last hut with the cross on it. They said, “Steve, is that your own church.” Very proudly Steve said, “Yes it is.” The Church hut just barely fit all four men, as they sat inside. Steve had tried to decorate the church with charcoal from a burnt stick and other natural plant colors on the island. The fishers were very impressed with Steve’s little town and his little church. As they were about to leave to get Steve to a place where he could go home, one on the fishers than saw another small building, down the beach a little bit. The fisher noticed that this small hut had a cross on it to. The one fisher said, “Steve wait, before we go, what is that building down there? ” Steve rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, “oh that building.” “That sir is my old church, but I left it, because they were all a bunch of hypocrites.”
So you see brothers and sisters, while we sometimes struggle and can bicker within the Corpus Christi or the body of Christ, sometimes our struggle can also be within ourselves can’t it? So, let us be open to grace, peace, and mercy that Jesus Christ offers us daily by working through his Corpus or body. May his body continue to grow and strengthen us daily!
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