October 26, 2008
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Without asking for her parents’ permission to share this with you, our 2 year old granddaughter Sage is going through the natural childhood curiosity and humor surrounding the human body. She realizes that she can actually “produce” things all by herself from which she is very proud!
One of those things that you would find strange to hear coming from the senior pastor and in a sermon of all places is that Sage produces boogers! When she produces one, she shows it off and takes great pleasure in giggling and laughing about it.
According to one study, the average human produces one quart of boogers per day. This is hard to believe! While we can giggle together about boogers, what is happening to our 2 year old granddaughter is that she is discovering the various functions of her body. From producing boogers, she is learning what the nose does. From clearing off sandman from her eyes, she knows that her eyes see. From picking off sand and grass from between her toes, Sage knows that her feet are made for walking.
Body of Christ
Paul writes to the Corinthians reminding them that they are the Body of Christ. In the verses that we read, we see that Paul focuses on the various members of the body of Christ and that all of us have different functions and forms. The arm is not superior to the leg, but each of them has a certain role to perform in the body. Sage knows that her mouth is used for eating and she has to first wash her hands before coming to the dinner table.
From understanding that we are different parts of the one body, we believe that we have a diversity of gifts. Some are good at one sort of ministry, but others of us have a gift for another sort of ministry, and so forth. But when I read this passage this time around, what grabbed me by the throat, shook me up and down and became the Word of God to me was when Paul says simply in verse 27, “Now you are the body of Christ.” (12:27)
It is amazing that Paul would have made that sort of statement to this sort of church. For a number of chapters he has been hammering them for all their woeful inadequacies to be the church. They ought to be ashamed calling themselves Christians and acting the way they have acted, with their fussing and feuding and doctrinal ignorance, petty divisions, and cowardly disloyalty to the way of Christ. But even after all of that, Paul says directly to them, “Now you are the body of Christ.”
It really struck me. Paul does not say something like, “You ought to be the body of Christ,” or “If you work hard, someday you might be able to be the body of Christ.” He just says flat out to them, “You are the body of Christ.”
It’s an amazing thing to say about a group of people like the Corinthians. It would be an amazing thing to say about a group of people like us!
Footprints for Christ
The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The body of Christ takes up space and makes footprints.” You and I with our various body parts—our eyes, ears, noses, hands and feet, living people following Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are taking up lots of space in the world. And wherever we go, we undoubtedly are leaving footprints for Christ.
When we are simply talking about religion with all of its doctrines and beliefs, it has no body. But when all of these truths of Jesus Christ are lived out in the lives of Christians, we take up space in the world. As Christ’s body, the church, members of the body, the living Christ is always intruding, going where he is not necessarily wanted or expected, leaving footprints where people did not expect God to be.
In his earthly ministry, Jesus intruded into the homes of the sinners. He showed up at a wedding and caused a scene. He welcomed little children with no status and outcasts to him. He went to the temple and threw out those who made a shame of the house of God. He came into places of death and illness, where people hardly knew him, and brought forth unexpected life.
You might be saying that’s fine but we are talking about the organized church and we know what that is. There was someone whom I was trying to get to come to our church. He said, “Well, I do consider myself Christian, but I just am opposed to organized religion.” I wanted to say to him, “Well you certainly ought to come to our church. We are as disorganized as religion gets!”
But what I really want to say to him is—take it up with Jesus. Like it or not, for all our faults, we are the body of Christ, the only visible form of the risen Christ takes in the world.
Look at what we are doing today. We could have more easily worship God today in our sanctuary where all the electronic equipment is set, where we have our different worship times, where we can understand everything that is being said.
No, we do extraordinary things to be together in All-Church Worship because Jesus Christ has gone through extraordinary suffering, death, and the glory of the resurrection for us. When we worship like what we are doing right now, we more closely display the body of Christ. We are one church and not just four worship services. We sing together and have a joint choir. We have all the pastoral staff persons participate in the one service. We hear the Word of God read and preached in both Cantonese and English. When we come together as we are right now, we are the body of Christ. This is what Jesus said about us.
And when we walk out of this place, we would not only be leaving footprints at Four Seas but all over the sidewalk and across the street, and wherever we live and work.
Leaving Footprints
Today is Pledge Sunday. You have received in the mail the canvass materials to invite you to make a pledge to support the ministry of our church in 2009. In your bulletins this morning, you have another pledge card in case you need one. For you to leave a footprint for Christ, we invite you to make a pledge.
There’s a story of a very wealthy man who rose up to give his testimony.
“I’m a millionaire,” he said, “and I attribute it all to the rich blessings of God in my life.”
“I can still remember the turning point in my faith, like it was yesterday.
I had just earned my first dollar and I went to a church meeting that night. The speaker was a missionary who told about his work. I knew that I only had a dollar bill and had to either give it all to God’s work or nothing at all. So at that moment I decided to give my whole dollar to God. I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today.”
As he finished, it was clear that everyone had been moved by this man’s story. But as he took his seat, a little old lady sitting in the same pew leaned over and said: “Wonderful story! I dare you to do it again!”
You may think that you are already leaving footprints for Christ in the ministries that you perform in the church. You may think that you are already leaving footprints for Christ in the offering and contributions that you give today. But today, like the little old lady sitting in the same pew, I am saying to you: “Wonderful story! I dare you to do it again!”
For a 2 year old like Sage, she can only produce boogers and if God needs that for strengthening the body of Christ, I am sure that God would welcome it.
The church, for all its faults and failures is, for better or worse, the very body of Christ, Christ’s presence in this world. Those of us gathered here, in this church, at this time, taking up space in this world, are God’s answer to what’s wrong with the world.
If we were not his Body, there would be no trace of God’s love and truth in the world. But when we faithfully support the life-changing ministries of our church enabling all of us to serve as Christ’s eyes, ears, noses, hands and feet, we will leave thousands of footprints for Christ!
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for making us the Body of Christ and blessing us with the eyes, ears, noses, mouths, hands, and feet to take up space in the world and serve you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We pray that we will give of ourselves to Christ and in so doing, wherever we may go, we will leave footprints that can say that truly Christ is here because we have been here. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.