Reality

Several years ago we passed near Reading and visited an automobile museum, a factory where some interesting cars had been made during the first several decades of the auto industry.

Some of them were beautiful objects, but there they sat, not moving, not doing anything, just sitting there, getting polished once in awhile.

They ran once; many years ago they scurried through the valleys and climbed the hills; but not now.

They just sit there, beautiful objects in the museum.

With the right fluids and the proper care, they could do their job again; perhaps modified because of changed conditions, but they could be active in some way.

But they just sit there in the museum, beautiful objects with nothing to do.

In science class we learn the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy.

Potential energy would be one of those cars sitting at the top of a hill, gassed up and ready to go.

All that is needed is to release the brake and let it get rolling, engage the clutch , and it would come to life and go on its way,

and it then represent kinetic energy, energy in motion, energy doing what is intended.

There are so many things that can impede the movement of that car.

The brakes might be stuck,

the gas line clogged,

the engine not properly lubricated,

stones in front of the tires,

the tires lacking air,

the keys not in the ignition,

the driver not present, or not ready,

and so on.

It takes all of those parts and all of those actions in order for the machine to make use of the opportunity opened to it.

It is a very complex operation.

I vividly remember the time when I was a high school kid, driving home from a late band trip to an away football game.

It was after midnight, and I was not supposed to be driving then anyway, and so I was on a back country road with no traffic... and then1 ½ miles from home I ran out of gas.

There was nothing I could do but hike home, and then drag myself out of bed early in the morning and go help my father try to get the 1960 yellow Oldsmobile station-wagon refueled and started again.

One needs to pay attention to all of the details, to all of the components of this application of potential to kinetic energy.

You know that I'm not really intending to talk about cars today, but about the love of God and the nature of the church.

Potential energy is God's gift to us, not just once at Holy Baptism, but on a continuing basis.

He fills us with potential energy fuel, lubricates us and repairs us as needed, and is ready to guide and direct us when we are willing to listen to his Word.

And the Word is “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

How do we do our proper job, making disciples?

(1) Baptizing-- for which we prepare and do once, and

(2) Teaching – an ongoing process to shaping mind and body to do what is appropriate and needed.

That part of things will take time, lots of time, indeed, a life-time!

Just the other day I was talking with a person who pulled out the old line “I don't need that catechism stuff; I did it as a youth.”

What would happen if one never did anything with the windshield wipers on the car?

Their job is to make things clear.

But if they are not renewed regularly, they smear the window instead of clearing it, and eventually they can scratch and damage the window.

The purpose of catechetical study is to make our way clear.

Without it, this church would be headed for a ditch.

Without the headlights of the scripture, we can't see through the darkness around us.

Without the breath of God in our tires, we can't move.

When we only talk and don't get around to doing something,

it is as if the brake of reflection and planning is never released, so that potential can become kinetic.

We could go on and on making these kinds of comparisons, but perhaps this is enough to firm up the idea in our hearts and minds.

Each and every part of the church has a role, and if that role is impeded in some way, the movement of the whole church is impeded,

and we have trouble moving the church from potential to kinetic energy.

Paul has a wonderful image that he uses to talk about the church:

Just as the body is one and has many members, so it is with the church. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body....

If one member suffers, all suffer together with him/her. [1 Cor 12]

The whole church is hampered when groups and individuals are spiritually sick, or unstudied, or who have given up on the prime directive of disciple-making.

Paul was particularly peeved with the part of the church that gathered in Corinth.

He knew full well that they were living in a difficult situation,

in a busy cosmopolitan city

with every kind of distraction

and every kind of evil lurking at hand.

In bold and firm language,

he points out all of their failings,

where they have fallen short,

where they are ill-prepared for action.

Each year on these January Sundays

we hear about those problems in 1 and 2 Corinthians.

--jealousy, anger, sexual immorality, following false teachers, laziness, messing up fellowship and communion...

the list goes on and on.

Yet in the section we hear today from1 Corinthians 12, Paul gives out the central Good news of their situation.

In spite of all of these very real problems which do indeed need to be addressed, Paul reminds his hearers

You are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Not “you might be someday”

or, “if you're really, really good”

or, “when you get all of these problems solved”

No, “You are now the Body of Christ!

Here is the extended wonder of the Incarnation which we celebrate especially at Christmas:

that Jesus takes into his Body all of us with all of our problems, our limitations, our willful disregard for the Word, and all of the rest of the mess.

You are the Body of Christ, together, even now, Paul reminds us.

What an amazing thing to say to them.

What amazing thing to say to us as well!

Yes, even though I think he still has a few goofy ideas, we should be reconciled with the Bishop of Rome.

I don't know how, but the task is in front of us....because together we are the Body of Christ.

Yes, even though we really don't know much about each other, we should be reconciled with the patriarch of Constantinople, ...because together we are the Body of Christ.

Yes, even though we are becoming separated, and even though they make me angry,

we should keep some level of engagement with those within our ELCA whom I think are doing things which are disastrously wrong...

...because together we are the Body of Christ.

Like it or not, for all of our many faults, we are the body of Christ, the visible form the risen Christ takes in the world.

That's something to ponder and marvel!

I read a little note about a man named Patrick Bissel.

Likely none of us have ever heard of him.

At age 20, he was already handling roles in ballet far beyond what would be expected at his age.

A rising star, he was proclaimed.

And then his fiancée found him dead in his apartment, with a drug overdose.

And the world is poorer for not having received the gifts he was given by God to share.

... because together we are the Body of Christ.

No matter what kind of a day it is for us as individuals or groups of Christians,

whether it is a sunny day, or rainy, or depressing, or exuberant,

whether we are feeling hemmed in by sin or are reveling in freedom of spirit and mind, we need to keep asking:

Of what use can I make today of the gifts which are mine to manage?...

...because together we are the Body of Christ.

One time the TV host Mervin Griffin had a muscle-builder on his show to be interviewed.

He asked one of the guys with the beautifully oiled and bulging muscles “For what purpose do you use all of those muscles?”

And the body-builder struck one of his poses.

“No, you didn't understand me: For what purpose do you use all of those muscles?”

“I'll show you.” And he struck another pose.

“Read my lips: how do you use them?”

and he posed yet again.

All those muscles, no apparent use for them except display...like a car sitting in a museum,... like members of the church who are content to be names on a list rather than taking active parts.

All that potential energy which needs to be transformed into kinetic.

The continuing question for the day is this:

what part of disciple-making is mine to do.?.. ...because together we are the Body of Christ. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.