Sun, August 21, 2005 - The Work of the Church

Isaiah 51:1-6
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20


So. "On this rock I will build my church." What is this church that Jesus is building? "We, who are many, are one body in Christ." What does it mean that we are one body? What, in short, is the meaning and purpose of the Christ’s church?

Well, Jesus gives the church a purpose straight off the bat - "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven," he says to Peter, "and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." These are odd words - binding and loosing but what Jesus is saying, essentially, is that he is giving the church the authority to decide what is to be forbidden and what is to be permitted - what is to be bound and what is to be loosed - on earth, and he is saying that whatever decision that church makes here on earth will be respected and followed in heaven. That is terrifying, overwhelming power, don’t you think? That the church should have the power to make decisions that, up until now, have only been made by God? No wonder Paul prays in Romans that the church "may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."

But this work of forbidding and permitting that the church is to do doesn’t have as its goal the condemnation of the world - the upholding of the law. Rather, its goal is to proclaim the love of God in Christ Jesus in word and deed. You see, in the verse immediately following our New Testament reading for today, Paul says, "let love be genuine... love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour." The goal of the church in forbidding and permitting things on earth, the work that the church is to discern from the will of God, is the work of love. The work of showing God’s love to the world.

And Paul lays out that the church is to do this in several ways, according to the gifts given to its members. The work of the church is to be carried out in prophecy - that is, in speaking out when we see evil in the world, and speaking words of hope when we encounter despair. The work of the church is to be carried out in ministering - that is in serving others in need, in their poverty, their sickness, their isolation. The work of the church is to be carried out in teaching - something that needs no explanation, and in exhortation - in unceasing encouragement of the disheartened and disillusioned based on the resurrection of Christ. The work of the church, the work of love, is to be carried out in giving - in being generous with money, resources, goods, time, in leading - equipping people with the tools they need to do what is right and guiding them in that work, and finally in being compassionate - in showing God’s mercy to all people, especially when they fail.

Now that’s a tremendous amount of work for the church to do. This work of love that God calls the church to is no simple task. But it is the task that the church is set to do, and we are each one of us called to take part in that work. Yup, this is not some task for "the church " out there to carry through, but a task for each one of us here today, for each one of us who have been baptized into the body of Christ that we call the church. "So we, who are many, are one body in Christ," says Paul, "and individually we are members of one another." "For just as the body is one and has many members," he repeats again in 1 Corinthians, "all the members of the body, though many, are one body." Any call extended to the church is a call that is personally extended to each one of us.

And this isn’t a call we can just ignore, because it comes to us individually in baptism, when we receive the Holy Spirit and become a member of the family of God. And, lest we forget, every Sunday we are reminded of this call when the assisting minister exhorts - encourages and calls - us to "Go in peace, serve the Lord." We are called, over and over again, to take part in the work of the church, both inside these walls and outside of them, everywhere we go, proclaiming the love of God for all people.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I frequently find that call overwhelming. There is so much work for the church to do, and it can be such hard work, that I don’t always respond the way I should. More often than not, my response is one of reluctance, or fear, or sometimes both. I know, though, that I’m not the only one who responds this way. I have good company in people like Peter. Peter, the rock, to whom the call was first extended was at first reluctant - when Jesus told him that his work would lead him to the cross, Peter’s reluctance was so strong that he actually tried to forbid Jesus from his path. And when Jesus showed that he meant to follow through on his plan, to die for the world, Peter got frightened, ran away and refused to take part in what was happening.

We have similar reactions when we’re invited to participate in the work of the church. When someone calls us to this work, we’re reluctant, "Well, I’m kind of busy. I don’t really have the time." We don’t want to take on anything new because we’re afraid that if we do one small thing, we’ll end up having to do everything. We’re reluctant and we’re afraid. "I can’t do this work, what if people find out I’m incompetent? What if people find out that I’m a bad Christian? That I have no gifts? What if I screw it up and the church blames me for failing? Surely there must be somebody better than me to do that." We’re afraid that we’ll be exposed as being unqualified not only for the work, but unqualified even to be a member of the body of Christ. Our reluctance and fear get in the way of us not only saying yes to the work of love that the church is called to do, but also in the way of us being joyful and enthusiastic when we do say yes.

But God has a response to our reluctance and fear. And that is to remind us of the gifts that God has given us to accomplish this work. You see, God doesn’t call God’s people without equipping them to answer that call. And so in our baptism, in addition to receiving the call to love, we are also given gifts, or tools if you will, to carry out that work. And everybody gets their own specific tool. "To each are given the manifestation of the Spirit," says Paul. To each. Each one of you has been given the Spirit, manifested in a particular way, so that each one of you can help. The tools are all different, nobody gets exactly the same one - but Paul helpfully lays out a list for us of what some of them are - the gift of prophecy, of faith, of ministering, of teaching, of exhortation, of generosity, of diligence, of cheerfulness, and of course, there are others, too. But every single one of you has one of these gifts.

And that is great news for us as a group. For one thing, it means that, none of us is alone in carrying out the work of the church, but for another thing, it means that none of us has to be good at everything. At Shepherd Lodge, where one of our shut-ins is, there’s a sign posted outside of the elevators on the main floor, and every time I get off the elevator I read: "Noone can do everything, but everyone can do something." You see, we are none of us called to carry out the work of the church all by ourselves. We are all given different gifts so that we can work together, each person helping with a different part. Even pastors and leaders of the church aren’t given all the gifts at the same time. Not even we can carry out the work of the church by ourself. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit," says Paul, and then he adds, "for the common good." We aren’t given gifts so that we can go off and do our own little thing, but so that we can work together to help one another and to be helped by one another in the work of the church.

You see, God designed the church so that each one of us needs and is needed by each other in order to answer God’s call. Paul likens the church to a body. "Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many," he says. "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. 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." The gift that God has given you, even though you might think it small and not worth much, is vitally important to the church’s work. "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? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? . . . 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." On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable." Every single one of us is necessary and vital to this work of love that we are called to carry out, and fortunately, none of us is called to do this work alone.

Not even Peter. You see, a little while after Jesus gives such great authority and privilege to Peter, he then goes on to say the same thing to the disciples. "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Peter isn’t meant to do the work of the church alone, to discern by himself the best way to loose God’s love on the world. The rest of the disciples are commissioned and given gifts along with him, so that together they can give each other aid and encouragement, and use their varied gifts to carry out the work of the church. And, guess what, God does the same with us.
God has extended a tremendous call to the church to proclaim God’s love in the world, but God does not call us to the work of the church without first equipping us, and God does not call us to carry out this work alone.

I want to encourage you now to sit for a minute and think of what gift God has given you for this important work. What has God given you to help the church in proclaiming Christ’s redeeming work of love for the world? Maybe it is the gift of hospitality - of making people feel at home among the people of God. Maybe it is the gift of construction - of building and repairing the physical structures that shelter the church. It might be as specific as being able to perfectly balance a chequebook on the first try, or as general as being good with children. What is the gift that God has specifically given you? I’ll give you a minute to think about it, and please don’t feel you need to be humble. [pause] And now, I’m going to ask you to write down that gift on a scrap of paper, maybe the back of the bulletin - I think there are pencils in the back of the pew in front of you - and if you are feeling bold, you might even write down your name. I’ll wait while you write it down. [pause] And then, when the time comes for the offering and the plate comes around, I’m going to ask you to put that paper in the plate as a way to offer your gift back to God, as something the church can use in carrying out the work it’s called to do. And finally, I encourage you, knowing that when it comes to the work of the church you are both called and equipped, both valued and vital, to seek out opportunities where you can use that gift - not waiting to be asked, not reluctant or afraid, not hoping that somebody else will do it instead of you, but joyfully, trusting that the Spirit is working through you to carry out this work of love, here, within this congregation, and beyond these walls in the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.