Epiphany 3C 2010
St. Dunstan's
January 24, 2010
The Rev. Patricia Templeton

"We're In It Together"

There are weeks when I look at the scripture readings for the coming Sunday and wonder how in the world I am going to make any connection between these ancient texts and our modern life.

Then there are weeks that it seems like the committee of biblical and liturgical scholars who put together the schedule of weekly scripture readings years ago had a crystal ball into the future that let them know just what divine words would be what we needed to hear that week.

This week is one of the latter. Paul’s words to the Christians in Corinth may have been written almost two millennia ago, but they sound as if they could have been written this week, as people around the globe have gathered as one to watch and pray and weep for the people of Haiti.

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it,” Paul writes. The 12 days since the earthquake struck have proven the truth of Paul’s words.

But I am acutely aware that there are degrees of suffering, that the tears I have wept while sitting on my couch watching TV in my comfortable home can in no way be equated with the suffering I am witnessing.

At times it has felt almost obscene to be able to sit in comfort and watch such raw pain and grief and misery, to be able to turn it off when it gets too overwhelming, to be able to walk away to a well-stocked kitchen or comfortable bed.

At the same time I know it is important to watch, that the tears we shed are signs of our common humanity, that the images we see move us to action to help another part of the body.

In our witness we are telling the people of Haiti that we have not forgotten them, that we do “have need of them,” as Paul puts it.

Almost everyone I have talked to since the earthquake has said the same thing, “I wish there was something more I could do to help.”

We have opened our hearts in prayer and opened our checkbooks to make donations, but that response feels inadequate. Surely there is something more important we could be doing?

Here again Paul’s words offer wisdom. We each have different gifts to offer and all are important and needed.

The Episcopal bishop of Haiti, Jean Duracin, echoes Paul’s words in recent comments about the country’s needs. Duracin and his wife survived the quake, which destroyed their home and the Episcopal cathedral.

He refused an offer to evacuate and is living in a tent on a school soccer field with 3,000 other people, trying to minister to those in need.

The bishop understands people’s desire to do more. But he sends these words through Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal priest and missionary to Haiti who was in this country when the quake hit.

“Unless you are a first responder, now is not the time to come. Pray, be generous in your financial assistance, and begin praying about how you can respond in the future.

“The Diocese of Haiti will need your help for many years. This crisis is a marathon, not a short sprint, so we must be prepared for the long haul.”

The gifts of prayer and financial assistance, gifts we can all give to some degree, are what the people of Haiti need now from each and every one of us. No gift is too small to be of help.

The Red Cross says a $10 donation buys a first-aid kit that contains enough antibiotics to treat 20 people, potentially saving that many lives.

Our gifts of prayer, in ways that are beyond our understanding, help give courage and encouragement and strength to the people of Haiti.

Each of us, as Paul says, have gifts that are needed.

Paul’s words are so appropriate for Haiti’s terrible plight that it is hard to remember that when he wrote them he was not thinking of, indeed, could not have imagined, the kind of instant global interconnectedness we now experience.

When he wrote the words of our epistle today Paul was thinking locally, not globally.

In fact, his words were addressed to a congregation he knew very well, and had helped establish in the city of Corinth, one of the most important cities in Greece.

But that was years ago, and now the church is divided into factions, each claiming that they have the gifts the church needs, that they are the important ones.

Paul’s admonition is clear. The gifts that individual members have are from God, and so should not be boasted about. God has arranged it so that all members would not have the same gifts. Diversity is part of God’s gift to the church.

More than that, the church needs diversity. The members of the body need each other, need the gifts that another brings. “I have no need of you,” is not legitimate language in the Christian church. The gifts of all are needed.

And, Paul adds, there is no one gift that is greater than another. Christian communities are not to be based on hierarchy, but on mutuality and interdependence. We are all distinct, but equal in the eyes of God.

The church in Corinth with its dissension and factions is in most ways very different from our situation. Parts of our denomination have been at odds with each other in recent years, but that has not been the case at St. Dunstan’s.

We are lucky here, really. For the most part we get along with and respect one another. There are no large factions, no great divisions, no major dissensions.

Sure, we have our squabbles, but they are for the most part minor. In general, we do care for one another, suffer with one another, and rejoice with one another.

I don’t think I have ever heard said or implied what Paul accuses the Corinthians of saying -- “I have no need of you.”

But Paul’s words are still vital for us to hear in this congregation. I imagine that if Paul were writing to us, to this congregation, in these suburbs of Atlanta, his words might be similar, but the emphasis might be different.

In Corinth, Paul was concerned about the in-fighting, about those who thought they were more important than others, about those who were saying to their fellow Christians, “I have no need of you.”

If Paul were writing to us, I imagine he might instead warn of the danger of members of the congregation thinking that they were not needed, that the congregation could do without their gifts, without their presence.

I think Paul would remind us of the importance of faithful commitment in the Christian life. A financial commitment, of course, but even more than that a commitment to be present, to be active in the life of the community.

I am not advocating a return to the days when people were chastised and made to feel guilty for not attending church. But maybe we as the church have been too reluctant to say what soccer coaches seem to have no problem saying – we need you.

When you’re not here, we miss you. We are less than we could be without you.

Paul reminds us that every member of the body of Christ has something to contribute, and when any member is missing, the body does not function as well as it should.

Whether you walked through these doors for the first time this morning, or you have been a part of this church since its very beginning you have a contribution to make.

Sometimes you may not even know what it is. You may not be aware that your prayers, your voice raised in song, your greeting to another at the peace has given comfort or strength to another.

You may not know that your comment in Sunday School or at coffee hour is just what some other person needed to hear.

Your contribution may seem small – like the $10 donation to the Red Cross that has the potential to save 20 lives – but it is needed.

So whether we apply Paul’s words today to the tragedy of Haiti, in all its brokenness and need, or more locally to the needs of our own community of faith, we are all part of the body of Christ.

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Readings

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

Jesus began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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