Connections
1 Corinthians 12:12–31a

January 21, 2007


In September of 2005, I had the opportunity to complete the requirements for my Bachelor of Social Work degree in Hanoi, in North Vietnam. My home base during the internship, which lasted approximately three and one half months, was at the University of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. The university is located in the Cau Giay district, a very poor, very old part of Hanoi. Some of my work included assisting in the development of curriculum for the Bachelor of Social Work Program at the University, developing teaching program modules and writing several research papers. The most gratifying experiences I had included teaching English language to children in orphanages and to children with cognitive and physical deficits residing in an institutional setting.

The internship irreversibly changed my view of life and of the journey God was asking me to take. Every day I encountered a new adventure or a struggle of some sort or another because the culture and way of life in Vietnam was nothing like I had ever experienced before. I had to learn to do the majority of my communication with people using a Vietnamese – English dictionary. I had to become accustomed to frequently being stared at. It appeared to me that I was the only Caucasian person in the Cau Giay area. I had to get used to the intense heat – 105 F most to the time I was there with humidity so high that, at times, my glasses would steam up as I walked to my places of work. I had to get used to sharing my rooms in the university first with a family of mice, and then with several lizards, before they were removed by the university maintenance department. I also, at times, experienced anxiety, loneliness and fear. I persevered by reading my bible, praying, keeping a spiritual journal, and meditating.

Through God’s grace, I had friends from this church regularly and consistently emailing me about the weather, the church events, the Roughriders, even about the flea market. But, most importantly, those who emailed conveyed to me that they cared about what I was experiencing. I could feel, through their writings, that they did want to hear about both the good and the bad things that were happening to me. They gave me strength to cope when things got really bad and when I was struggling to keep going. The Internet was my lifeline at times, as members of this church reached out to me and let me know that they were still there for me, no matter what the distance was between us.

On my long plane flight back to Canada at the end of my internship, I wondered if I had made a difference in someone’s life during the time I was in Vietnam. Had I helped anyone to understand that it does not matter where you live in the world, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are Asian or Canadian, whether you are Christian or Buddhist, but what matters is that people need to love and care for each other without any barriers? I decided that, yes, I did make a difference in someone’s life, even by just having the courage to reach out to them, and show them that I cared for them as one would for their flesh and blood brothers and sisters. However, I am also certain that my kindness, openness and respect for some people did not phase them a bit because I was not what was important in their lives. And that is ok. I was willing to take the risk, no matter what the outcome was. But, from all of my reflections I came to the conclusion that, if I were not part of a church, that if I had not been able to experience the love and caring of this faith community in my life - and share it with others outside of the doors of this church - I most likely would not have even considered the idea of going to Vietnam for my internship. Although I was far away, I was still a part of this church, and those who wrote to me were constant reminders of that. I was still part of the body of Christ.

The Epistle reading today is 1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 31 a. In this reading, we find Paul writing to first church Corinth, and he is comparing the church to a body. As a human body has many members or parts, so there are many different and unique members to a church. As William H. Willimon, a Bishop in the United Methodist Church in the United States and one of America’s best known preachers, writers and theologians points out, this church in Corinth has its share of troubles that, he says, “made this group a candidate as poster child for Paul’s worst congregation.” And yet, Willimon continues, “with all their problems, Paul says to them, “Now you are the body of Christ (12:27).” Paul was saying that it does not matter what your limitations are, through your faith you are the body of Christ. We do not need to be perfect before we can be loved by God, to be good enough to serve him. He loves us just the way we are because although we have weaknesses along with our strengths, through our love and faith and our community in the church, we can do whatever it is that God asks of us – all we have to do is try, to be willing to take a chance – to take a leap of faith.

Jim Wallis, founder and editor of the Sojourners magazine and community, once said, “The greatest need of our time is koinonia, the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world. The creation of living, breathing, loving communities of faith at the local church level is the foundation of all other answers.”

Anthony B. Robinson and Robert W. Wall, who combined their experience as pastors, scholars, writers and friends to write the book, “Called to be Church: The Book of Acts for a New Day,” discuss how in recent decades both scholarly and popular interest in Jesus and spirituality has increased. But, they note, the theology and life of the community of faith – the church – has been largely neglected. Of course it is easy to see that the life of Jesus can be a much more interesting and exciting topic than the life of the church. The authors say that this points to our society in which individualism is often valued over the community. And, they say, although it can be noted that in many ways Jesus’ life and teachings do challenge such individualism, it also seems that the study of Jesus lends itself more to an individual, “spiritual” appropriation of him than a consideration of the nature of the Christian community or the church. But this risks a distortion of the Christian faith and the biblical story – a distortion that accommodates it to a culture of individualism.

The consistent witness of Scripture is that God’s intention is to form a people, a community, a visible body. Beginning with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis and continuing through to Paul’s letters and to the book of Revelation, the nature and life of the community of faith is the focus. God means to have a people who will be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth (Gen 12: 1 – 4). Robinson and Wall point out that the concern of Scripture is not the spiritual state of individuals, their holiness or even their salvation. The focus is God’s ekklesia, God’s community taking form in the world, which even provides a new world and a new vision for those who share in it. This move to community, to a people, and even to enduring institutions that carry and express our shared memories and hopes, is a central but neglected theme of the Christian faith. We often tend to focus on ourselves, to measure ourselves against one another, to plot our progress on some sort of spiritual growth chart. But a good case can be made that God is less concerned with how “I” am doing than how “we” are doing. Indeed a good part of the purpose of any congregation is the challenge to call us out of ourselves into some larger community, to some greater venture, to learn about Jesus by learning to be part of his people in the world.

We do not need to go to Vietnam - or even to Alberta - to gain an understanding of God’s call to each and every one of us. We just need to be the church and to realize that we are - imperfections and all - the body of Christ. And like Christ, we need to take the love we give and receive, through our community of faith, out into the world and share it with others. Amen.

Preached by Heather Rogers
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan