Highest Common Denominator

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." Paul is explaining to the Christians in Corinth what it means to be a Christian. Not a bad lesson on the day we gather as a community for our annual parish meeting. I wonder if Paul were actually preaching this message, where would he put the emphasis. NOW, you are the body of Christ. Just a few years back, of course, Jesus was the body of Christ, Paul might say to the Christians in Corinth, but NOW it is you. Or he might have emphasized his proclamation a little differently. Now YOU are the body of Christ, and Paul might have let his eyes rest for a moment on each and every individual gathered there in that house church in Corinth. YOU are the body of Christ. Not somebody else, YOU. Paul means all of these things and more. Now, he says, now in this time and place, each and every one of you individuals in Corinth who call yourselves Christians, you are members of nothing less than the body of Christ.

And there is absolutely no uncertainty in updating his words to modern times. Paul would say… does say… exactly the same thing from these pages of Holy Scripture today. Now, Paul says, now in 2007 you, the people of the church of St. John the Evangelist, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

In a discussion of this week’s lessons Ann M Svennungsen (she must be a Lutheran!) writes, "It is remarkable how early the New Testament begins to speak of the church as the body of Christ. Already, in his first letter to the Corinthians, written about 54 C.E., Paul is speaking of the church this way…. To call the church "Christ’s body" is to affirm the church’s identity and its mission. It is to affirm that the risen Christ is at work through the church, his body alive on earth, just as Christ was at work in his earthly ministry.

"In today’s lesson, Paul primarily wants to affirm the unity of the church—the unity of the body amid the diversity of gifts. For Paul, there’s no such thing as a Christian apart from community. Furthermore, this community is wonderfully egalitarian, and its health and effectiveness are dependent on the whole."

These words and ideas are so familiar, and yet so often we actually live as though we had never heard them.

I want to really focus on this concept of membership, of egalitarian membership. Membership. People ask me fairly regularly how they can become members of the church. There are two different answers to that question. The Episcopal church is a formal institution, of course, and the parish is an organization, and there are church laws that define membership, just as there are for the country club or the girl scouts or the WFMT fine arts circle or a model train enthusiasts’ club or the red hat club. Specific criteria or dues or application processes that lead to institutional membership.

The church is an institution, but that is the least of what it is. And yet in our perception, we focus so much on the institution… the institution as something other than ourselves… an institution out there that exists that we may or may not choose to join… an institution that runs programs which we may support or not. Think of how we refer to "the diocese" as something other than ourselves. We really live and act with that same sort of perception about "the church."

That’s not the church Paul is talking about. Of course, there was no institution then. There were just Christians. And to each and every one of those Christians, Paul said you are members of the Body of Christ. And, Paul says, if you are within the sound of my voice, if you are present in this room, if you have gathered as a community to read this Scripture, if you have been baptized any time, any place, then you are a member of the body of Christ. The body of Christ isn’t something you join, it’s something you are. Church isn’t something you attend; it is who you are.

And Paul is also pretty clear on the role and importance of every member of the body of Christ. No member is superior to another. And no member is inferior to another. End of discussion, really. As Ann Svennungsen puts it, it Paul’s perspective, there is no room for boasting and no room for claims of inferiority. I think it’s that second part most of us need to hear. Within the body of Christ there is no room for claims of inferiority. We are all members of the body of Christ. If you are an eye, you are Christ’s eye. If you are an ear, you are Christ’s ear. If you are a foot or a hand, you are Christ’s. We are all members of Christ’s body. All are connected. All are a part, some part. If you are the voice, you are Christ’s voice. Even if you think of yourself as the little toe, you are Christ’s little toe. And there is nothing inferior in that. Every part of the body is equally important and equally valuable.

Think about how radically different this is from our cultural expectations. Culturally we speak of being united, if we ever are, by our lowest common denominator. By the basest, simplest quality that we share. As Christians we are united by a highest common denominator. What unites us, what we have in common, is Christ. By our membership in the body of Christ, we are all raised to the highest of all possible statures. We are all drawn upwards to a full sharing in the presence of Christ. The organizational chart of this organization is absolutely flat, but it is high. By God’s gift, by God’s grace, it is as high as the risen Christ, present and active in the body of Christ. The highest common denominator that we share, that unites us, is the presence of the risen Christ. No, there is no room for personal boasting, or for claims of inferiority.

It is a remarkable, wondrous thing to be a member of the body of Christ. It is within this body, this community, that God’s word is proclaimed and interpreted and brought to life today, just as it was in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. It is within this community that hopes and needs, suffering and rejoicing are shared and made holy. Shared and made holy. That’s another part of what Paul says. Hopes and needs. Suffering and rejoicing. Shared and made holy by the presence of the risen Christ which unites us. And it is as a community, as the body of Christ, that we are called to mission, Christ’s mission. The body of Christ, dependent upon the activity of each and every one of its members, is "anointed to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

Right here, right now, we are anointed to be the body of Christ.

Amen.