WELS Walking Together Sunday 2008

Do you believe in miracles? Now that may seem like a silly question to ask when I’m talking to a group of Christians who confess to believe the Bible. It’s full of them. But if you were living in 1980 and were paying any attention at all to the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, that question might bring back other memories.

“Do you believe in miracles?” was the question TV broadcaster Al Michaels shouted when the US Olympic hockey team defeated their heavily favored archrival, the Soviet Union. Just a week before the games started that year, the U.S. had been soundly defeated by the Soviet team 10-3 in an ugly exhibition game. In their matches leading up to the showdown with the Soviets, the U.S. team narrowly escaped defeat in almost every case. Now they had to play a clearly superior team, a team globally respect as one of the best teams ever. The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, “Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle…the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments.”

So what happened? How could this ragtag group of players defeat the Soviets? How could they pull off “the greatest moment in sports in the 20^th century” as voted by Sports Illustrated magazine? Many have debated the answer to that. Some suggest great coaching, others a good game plan, and still others an inspirational team captain. But all agree on one thing—teamwork! Every member of that team realized what it meant to be on a team. Each one subscribed to the old sports motto, “There is no ‘I’ in team.” When they did that, the unlikely happened.

In our text today Paul describes a truly remarkable miracle. He describes a team, a collection of very different individuals, who must work together in difficult circumstances. This team has a perfect coach, perfect captain, and a fool proof game plan. The team Paul is talking about is the Church, the collection of all believers. Those in Corinth and those right here at Emanuel Redeemer. So listen as Paul reminds each of us, who are team members, that “THERE IS NO ‘I’ IN CHURCH.”

Now, in order to reinforce this concept of “team,” the Apostle Paul uses the body as an illustration. To be more specific, he calls the Church “the body of Christ.” He says, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.” And then at the very end of our text, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

So let’s take a closer look at the anatomy Paul describes. He first talks about the anatomy of a losing team, an unhealthy body. He describes a scenario where one team member, the foot, says “Since I’m not a hand, I’m not worthy to be part of this body.” And another team member, the ear, says “I’m not an eye so I don’t belong either.” Here are team members looking around at what they do and what others do and determining they aren’t good enough, or that what they have to provide is of no value.

But how could it come to that - members of the body not feeling they belong? Didn’t other members of the body encourage them? Didn’t they talk to them about how much they were valued team members? Is that all that hard to believe? Sinners like you and me do not naturally think of others. We know when we are feeling down or hurting, but often miss when others are feeling the same way. It is far easier for us to criticize or gossip than to encourage and speak well of. Our sinful selves are experts at watching out for number one. Is it any wonder then that others, even others on the same team, feel like outsiders . . . like they don’t belong? How good we have become at putting the “I” in church. This also goes for the one who doesn’t want to belong – or in other words, the lazy. Isn’t it also true that the one who doesn’t want to be involved, who doesn’t want to make a time commitment, who doesn’t want to learn how to do something they aren’t familiar with are also guilty of putting a big “I” in church.

The next scenario is even worse. Paul describes a monstrosity. “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?” Can you imagine? A big eye or a big ear? Useless, right? The church is not about superstars. It’s not about the pastor, the lifelong member, the highest contributor. It’s not about the most prominent. While all play a part, none is greater than the other.

And finally, Paul finishes off this rather negative look at an unhealthy body with a narcissistic picture, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don't need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don't need you!’” Narcissus was a mythical character who, after becoming thirsty, went to drink from a stream. As he saw his reflection, he fell in love with it, not knowing that it was him. As he bent down to kiss it, it seemed to “run away” and he was heartbroken. He grew thirstier but he wouldn’t touch the water for fear of damaging his reflection, so he eventually died of thirst and self love, staring at his own reflection. The unhealthy body, Paul says, has members that are self-absorbed, who feel they can “go it alone,” who are enthralled with their own reflection.

So which one are you - the critical naysayer; the lazy one who does not want to make time; or the self-absorbed superstar? By nature, we are every one of them. We don’t think we need each other. We don’t think we need to serve. Or we think too highly of ourselves. Worse yet, each of these attitudes are completely at odds with God. Yes, you heard right. These flaws, too, are sins. Forged by original sin and cemented by our own sins each day, they are fatal because they put us at odds with an almighty God who demands death for those sins.

In stark contrast to the anatomy of a losing team is that of a winning team. Here is how it is described. “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

What a beautiful picture of the Church, the body of Christ: no divisions, equal concern for each other, compassion for suffering, shared honor, every part rejoicing. This sounds too good to be true. How is this possible? Because of the head, Jesus Christ. While it is true that Jesus is our perfect captain, he is much more than that. He is our substitute. He is the reason the Church has any members at all. By God’s grace, Jesus became one of us. He lived a life that none of us could ever live, a perfect one. He died a death that none of us could ever die, a death that paid for the sins of the world. He rose from a grave from which none of us could ever escape, a grave that could not hold the Son of God, a grave that, because of its emptiness, is a foreshadowing of ours.

Now with Christ at the head of this team, this body is called to be about the victorious work Christ outlined. A hockey team would call that the “game plan.” The church would call it God’s Word. It contains all the directives we need. And the beauty of it all is that God has put together this team to work that plan. It is a team effort. “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” It is more than a loose collection of individuals united by geography and a membership. It is more than a collection of members in this church. The Church is an organism with life breathed into it by its head Jesus Christ. Through the miracle of baptism, we are teammates who have all been made new through Jesus. We are members of the same body, all with gifts to use in his service. What is remarkable is that God gives us the privilege of doing his work within the visible church body we call the WELS.

Sometimes I think that we make the mistake of thinking that God’s directives for doing his work are only spoken to us as individuals. While it is true that it is every Christian’s privilege and responsibility to share the joy of their Savior with everybody they meet, God has also spoken these directives to his believers as a whole. In other words the Church, the body of Christ, is called to be salt, flavoring a bland world without hope with the message of hope through Jesus. The Church is called to be a light that penetrates the darkness of sin.

All of us together, with our unique gifts and talents, don’t just HAVE a mission; we ARE the mission. It was Christ’s mission to save each one of us. The entire human race was Christ’s mission when he went to the cross. That mission has not changed. Jesus’ team is to be about getting his message out. It is to be about telling others that Jesus died for them. This work is real and concrete and urgent. This work is done best when our team is healthy and working together. This was Paul’s point to the Corinthians. He saw some lousy teamwork going on. People thought their gifts were better than others. There was pride and people who thought they were superstars. There were those who were just lazy. They were forgetting why God formed the Church in the first place: to organize in the name of the head, Christ Jesus, and be salt and light, to grow in the Word, to care for one another, and to put people into contact with the message of Jesus Christ.

Yes, we believe in miracles. After all, each of us is a walking miracle. Every soul that once was lost and now is found is a miracle, made possible on Good Friday and Easter. Now, God has chosen you, and the person sitting next to you, our church, and other churches across our synod to “walk together” as salt and light, as team members, as forgiven sinners with a wonderful story of victory against all odds. Amen.