“The Body of Christ”
Ephesians 4:1-16

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost—July 29, 2018

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Several times in Scripture, St. Paul compares the Christian Church to a human body. Like the many parts of the human body, the church has many individual members, who must all work together in harmony and unison. Like the different parts of the human body, each member of the church is needed, vital, important.

Our text is today’s Epistle Reading, in which St. Paul says the church is “The Body of Christ”: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. . . From Christ the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

One of the most terrible diseases known to man is muscular dystrophy. At my last congregation, a middle-age woman who had been afflicted with muscular dystrophy since childhood would say, “I’m one of Jerry’s kids.”  She’d say that because for many decades the actor Jerry Lewis hosted an annual Labor Day telethon to benefit research and treatment for this terrible disease.

In muscular dystrophy, the different muscles of the body do not function as they are supposed to. The brain sends out commands and instructions, to move the arms or legs, or some other part of the body, but for some unknown reason there is simply no response.

Sometimes it seems that the Christian Church, the Body of Christ, is afflicted with spiritual muscular dystrophy. St. Paul says in our text that Christ is the head of the body, his church. Like the brain, Christ commands and instructs us how we are to serve in the Body of Christ. But, as in human bodies afflicted with muscular dystrophy, we must confess that often there is not a proper response to the commands and instructions that we receive from our head in the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is the Apostle Paul’s favorite image of the Christian Church, used throughout his epistles, as he says in 1st Corinthians, “Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”  This imagery is actually incorporated into the very design of a classic Christian church building like ours.  If you were to stand this building up, the altar, and pulpit, and Baptismal font at the head of the church building represents Christ, like the head at the top of a human body, dispensing his Word and Sacraments as the spiritual head of his church, governing his church like the brain in a human body.  And the people in the pews below combine to represent all the different parts in Christ’s body, like all the members of a human body, receiving their power and instruction from the head.

“Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” In today’s Epistle Reading, St. Paul tells us HOW you were incorporated into the Body of Christ: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one Baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.”

In Baptism, the Holy Spirit washed away your sin, giving you faith to trust the Gospel, the Good News that your sins are all forgiven, because your heavenly Father sent his Son to be your Savior, to take yours sins upon himself, to suffer the punishment in your place by his death upon the cross.  “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one Baptism . . .”  In Baptism, the Spirit incorporated you into the body, made you a member of the Body of Christ.

Another terrible type of human illness is autoimmune disorders, when the body attacks itself.  In today’s Epistle Reading, St. Paul urges us to avoid inflicting an autoimmune disorder upon the Body of Christ: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body . . .”

Now, in a human body a healthy, active immune system is essential, to help defend against viruses, and infections, and other attacks from outside the body, and it’s the same with the Body of Christ.  That’s what St. Paul means when he says in today’s Epistle Reading: “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God.”

The teachings of the apostles, and prophets, and evangelists—found in the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit inspired them to write, and brought to us today by faithful pastors and teachers—is those Scriptural teachings are like the immune system of the Body of Christ.  Just as your body’s immune system rejects foreign viruses, and infections, and other attacks from outside the body, the Body of Christ must reject whatever does not agree with sound teaching based on Holy Scripture.

“Then we will no longer be infants,” St. Paul says, “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ.”

So, it is essential for the Body of Christ to have a healthy, active immune system, based on Scripture, to defend against infections of false doctrine and immorality.  The problem is when the Body of Christ develops an autoimmune disorder, when the members of the body needlessly attack each other, for irrelevant reasons.  As St. Paul warns in Galatians, “If you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other.”

St. Paul gives us the prescription to cure autoimmune disorders when they arise within the Body of Christ: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

“Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Directly on top of the human heart is a little gland called the thymus. Until fairly recently, no one understood what the function of the thymus gland is. At one time medical science incorrectly concluded that the thymus was unimportant, unneeded, a spare part the human body could do without. So, years ago the thymus was routinely removed during heart surgery. But, it was discovered that if the thymus is removed, the body almost always becomes weak and sick. We now know the thymus is not a spare part we can do without, but it is a needed, vital, important part of our immune system. Humans thought it was useless, but God put it there for a purpose.

In the same way, every part of the Body of Christ, each member of his church, is needed, vital, important. St. Paul writes in our text that the body “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” And in 1st Corinthians he says, “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. . . Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are actually indispensable.”

Like the little thymus gland, God called you and put you into the Body of Christ for a purpose. You are needed, vital, important to Christ and his church. He has given you special gifts, talents, and abilities, unique ways you serve the Lord. As St. Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” Just as the human body is weakened if the thymus is removed, in the same way, without you the Body of Christ is weakened.

The human body does have one organ which apparently is unnecessary. We actually call it the appendix, something extra, unnecessary, unimportant. Something we can do without. Perhaps we’ve simply have not yet discovered what the purpose of the appendix is. But, it seems you can remove it with no harmful effects to the body.

But, there is no appendix in the Body of Christ. NO ONE is extra, unnecessary, unimportant. The Body of Christ “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” “Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” “Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

Ask yourself, “How will I serve Christ and his church? What are the gifts, talents, and abilities God has given me? What is the work I will do to help the Body of Christ grow and build itself up?”

Serve the Lord with gladness, always remembering that there is no appendix in the Body of Christ, and in whatever ways you serve, like the little thymus over your heart, you are a needed, vital, important part of the Body of Christ.