A More Excellent Way
On Sunday, September 4, 2011 I will be preaching at the Maryneal Church of Christ. Below is the sketch of my sermon. The focus of the sermon is simple, God’s oneness creates a future for our diversity. The function follows: To encourage the body of Christ to demonstrate its ontological oneness even in the midst of its vast difference. The sermon was entitled, A More Excellent Way based on the text in 1 Cor. 12:1-27.
Times are changing. In a 1990 book on Educational and Psychological Measurement and Evaluation, the editors noted, “You probably once learned, and then mercifully forgot, the barbarous, tedious procedure for calculating the square root of a number. The computations are so time-consuming that in our opinion it is an unwarranted expenditure of time to relearn the computational mechanics. In 1965, a calculator with the square root feature cost $1400. Today, hand calculators that give square roots silently and more quickly are available for under $10! Stop squandering your riches on things of lesser value and get yourself one.”
The purist will remark, “today’s generation will lose more than just a method, they will lose understanding!” But the generation that calculated square roots long hand criticized the generation who introduced the new fangled slide rule. Maybe we should bring back the abacus? Things of lesser value often cause tensions and divisions between colleagues, families, generations, and Christians. How can we hear anyone speaking in the midst of thundering multiple voices? If there is diversity, change, and subsequent argument on simple things like math equations, is there hope for us in a world of political gridlock, ethnic hatred, and religious division? There is a more excellent way.
1. The more excellent way begins with the Shema: “The Lord Our Lord is One.”
a) 1 Corinthians 12:4-13. From the wholeness of God, God gives a variety of gifts to people which produces diversity in the body of Christ.
b) From a creative God we have Eagles that soar but don’t migrate, Parrots that talk but don’t swim, and Ducks that swim but don’t climb. And somewhere, someplace we have the weird duckbill platypus. God has a wild, creative, and fun imagination.
c) “Some years ago, there was movie about a family reunion. The family was a contentious bunch. They scrapped and split and never got along. Yet, every year, they scheduled a party, a family reunion. At a long table, they’d all sit down together. But, you couldn’t help noticing the sidelong glances, the cold shoulders, the obvious slurs. Perhaps that’s the way it was in Corinth. Though they gathered at one table and shared one cup together, they were at odds. Corinth was a divided church. At the table of the Lord in Corinth, the gift of diversity displayed their shattered unity. These folks did not love one another. At the supper table of the Lord, some struggled with issues of polytheism, others struggled to feed their families. They claimed to possess knowledge, yet could not discern the body of Christ.” [Buttrick, Homiletic, 85]
d) The Lord Supper texts in 1 Cor 10 & 11 exemplify a similar scene. At the table of the Lord in Corinth, the gift of diversity displayed their shattered unity. These folks did not love one another.
e) There is a more excellent way. The Lord our Lord is one. And from his Spirit God has formed each of us differently to his good pleasure due to his great love.
2. Therefore, the table of the Lord is a place where the whole body of Christ is celebrated.
a) Have you ever tried to do a job where two hands were just not enough? You try to use your elbow, and then your knee, and if you become desperate, you use your chin. Maybe if I put the nail in my lips while my knee holds the picture, my left hand holds the level, and I swing the hammer with my right.
b) We spend all our time each day trying to fix up the outside. Trying to fix up what Nature has given to us. We wash, comb, powder, spray, brush, floss, cleanse, cut, manicure, tease, curl, shave, primp, apply, and all over again. The face is the most important.
i) I rarely think about my liver. I have not taken the time, as far as I know, to do anything for my liver lately. But if the Dr. asks for a liver profile, then that which is of greater value takes on greater value. I cannot live without it.
c) Yes, my face, this is what you have come to see — but are there not some things of greater value? And that’s the way it is with the body of Christ.
d) God placed us into this body when we were baptized into it. All of us entered into this body by the same grace. And Paul emphasizes how God has arranged this body as God sees fit. Four times Paul asserts:
i) The one and the same Spirit gives to each, just as God determines (1 Cor. 12:11).
ii) God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as God wanted them to be (1 Cor 12:18).
iii) God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it (1 Cor 12:24).
iv) And in the church God has appointed (1 Cor 12:27).
e) God has not only created diversity within the body of Christ, God has ordered and arranged the body of Christ, therefore we gather around a table because there is a more excellent way—the way of Love.
And what is true of the whole body of Christ, I believe exemplifies what is true for all God’s creation. The church represents a way forward for our neighborhoods, cities, and nations. There is a more excellent way.