Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 23, 2022 “Thank You” First Corinthians 12:12-31 - New Revised Standard Version 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. One day I was perusing the new book section at Borders – remember when we had actual book stores in which to peruse new titles! Anyway, I saw one I thought was intriguing. A memoir by John Kralik called 365 Thank-Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Gratitude Changed My Life. He wrote that he had “found his life at a terrible, frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful second divorce; he had grown distant from his two older children and was afraid he would lose contact with his young daughter; he was living in a tiny apartment where he froze in the winter and baked in the summer; he was 40 pounds overweight; his girlfriend had just broken up with him; and overall, his life dreams seemed to have slipped beyond his reach.”[1] On New Years Day he took a hike and took stock of his life. He had just received a lovely note from his ex-girlfriend thanking him for his Christmas gift. He decided that maybe if he spent less time thinking about his messed-up life and began instead thanking people for their positive contributions to it, he might develop a new attitude. He took on the task of writing one thank you every day for a year. It started out easy. But he found it harder to do than he thought. Once the obvious ones were done – family, friends, neighbors – he struggled to think of who to thank next. Imagine trying to think of 365 people. Do we even know 365 people?! He wrote notes to thank clients who paid their bills on time. He wrote notes to his building manager, store clerks, and the guy who served him at Starbucks; anyone he could think of. He reached back to college roommates, past business associates… He began each day thinking, “Who can I thank today?” It started to make a difference in his life. He began paying attention to people who showed him small acts of kindness. Then, one day while jogging, he kneeled down and stopped for a breath. He found himself literally in front of a church door and decided to go in. Soon, he was going in regularly – and began adding God to his list every day. His life didn’t magically turn around. The thank you to his building manager didn’t get him a new air conditioner; the barista at Starbucks didn’t add an extra shot of espresso. He still struggled to pay his bills. And yet, he had, in fact, become a different man. More confident; more patient. He found truer friendships. He actually lost weight and felt more inner peace. It took him longer than a year to complete the assignment, but he did complete his goal of 365 thank you notes. In so doing, he discovered he could in fact achieve a dream. Now, just one of many. Do you find yourself anywhere in this story? Remember how John Kralik struggled to think of people beyond the obvious? What was it like for you to engage in our exercise of writing thank yous the last couple of weeks? How many thank yous did you end up writing? You may have wished you had more time. But of course you do! Every day you wake up with breath in your lungs is a day you can thank someone. Every year when their terms end, we thank the Moderator, members of Church Council, and members of ministries. Of course we would do that. When do we thank everyone else? For their important contributions to the life of the church – not money but their love and prayers and showing up for people? Putting in a positive attitude. Not everyone’s contributions are quite as noticeable. That’s part of what I think Paul is telling the Corinthians today. I hear him say, a congregation, the Body of Christ, is only a complete when the combined talents, skills, and hardly ever noticed acts of hospitality and generosity combine together to create, as Paul calls it, the New Creation. The One Body. He explains, the Body is not, cannot, be whole without equality among every member. Imagine if the body were just a head? How grotesque that would be. And useless. Or just a foot? Paul speaks this in easy to understand terms of the literal body – eyes, head, feet. But that’s easy compared to the more challenging idea that the more prominent parts of the body are lesser in importance. In fact, the “lesser” are to be valued more. This isn’t big news. None of it sounds very radical, right? Maybe in practice, yes, but as an idea, no. But to the Christ community in Corinth, it absolutely was radical. That’s not how the world worked. Corinth was a seaport, a major metropolis more important than Athens. It was a center of business and commerce at the crossroads of the Roman Empire and everyone played their roles. The church, too, was a crossroads that included all sorts of people. Naturally, as in the world, the rich would be more highly valued than the poor. But, Paul said, not in the church. In the world, the male is considered superior to the female. But not in the church. And of course, it only makes sense that people who are enslaved are inferior. But not in the church. I wish Paul had gone further and declared the whole idea of slavery evil, against the will of God and certainly never acceptable as a practice by people claiming to be Christian. And yet, despite this objectionable absence, Paul did call into question everything about how the world related to one another, which, as you know, is a hierarchy. But according to this text, the way it is outside the church is not how it is to be inside the church. As Marcus Borg said, Paul is saying here, “Hierarchical distinctions from the outside are invalid inside.” Yes, that’s Paul! It may not be the Paul that comes to mind, but it is at least the first Paul. Borg and John Dominic Crossan wrote a book entitled The First Paul. They argue that there were actually “three Pauls in the New Testament:” There is the “radical” Paul of the seven letters Paul genuinely wrote.[2] Radically egalitarian. Including this letter to the Corinthians. And what Paul told the Galatians: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Then there is what they call the “conservative” Paul of the three disputed letters.[3] I think they could have used a different word, a better descriptor that is less politically charged in our day. But in this case, people speaking in Paul’s name begin to dilute the earlier equality practiced in the church. They increasingly establish the very inequalities Paul had previously denounced. And then there is the “reactionary” Paul of the three inauthentic letters.[4] Reacting against equality. Those are the “women be silent” and “slaves be obedient” letters. That’s not genuinely or authentically Paul. And certainly nothing at all like Jesus would have said. Essentially, Borg and Crossan argue, the more institutionalized the early church became, the less it looked like the radically egalitarian Christ communities Paul founded. This tendency toward hierarchy, however, actually started to happen almost immediately. You can hear Paul’s frustration in this letter and others. In fact, it’s in the very next chapter that he has to talk about noisy gongs and clanging cymbals and how love is the greatest of these, the highest ideal, not one spiritual gift over another. But as Borg and Crossan state, “The church slowly but steadily deradicalized to fit Roman social norms regarding slavery, patriarchy, and wealth.” And the hierarchical distinctions outside the church were the same as inside. And once the church gained power under Emperor Constantine, all of these ideals were so reversed, the church actually became the instrument of an oppressive hierarchy, and in many places, it still is. But how it is isn’t how it always must be. Paul ends today’s reading with “strive for the greater gifts.” Keep striving. And so, that’s the idea of Thank You Sunday, to include literally everyone, the greater community – no one more important than another. A time to intentionally notice the small acts that make a big difference as well as those whose service to the church is front and center. We can never say thank you enough. Someone asked whether “Thank You Sunday” would become an annual tradition. Not necessarily. It could, but it doesn’t need to if we use today as simply the encouragement to continue to practice the art of saying thank you on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be written down and sent in the mail. To my mother, yes, absolutely!, but a text or an email does say the same thing. John Kralik said, once he became more intentional about saying thank you, his life didn’t magically change. He didn’t get him a new air conditioner or an extra shot of espresso. But he had, in fact, become a different person. More confident; more patient. He found truer friendships. He actually lost weight and felt more inner peace. Gratitude literally improves mental health. We can start our journey this way: Turn to the persons sitting all around you and say, “Thank you!” [1] John Kralik, 365 Thank Yous, New York: Hyperion, 2010, from the introduction [2] Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon [3] Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians [4] 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus
1 Comment
Judith Mitchell
1/24/2022 12:16:39 pm
Thank you David for being my brother. I am deeply grateful for all that you are and mean in my life. I feel very blessed to be family with you. Thank you for your sermon and your service. I love you. Sister Judy
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