Our bodies are an amazing creation of God! St. Paul tells us that God has arranged each of the parts of our bodies just as he wanted so that they would work together. We have strong legs to carry our weight, the little toe to give as balance as well as the inner ear. Eyes to show us where to go. Ears to listen for warnings. We have arms to lift burdens and fingers and hands to manipulate tiny objects. By using the individual parts of our bodies together, man has built huge cities, walked on the moon, developed wonderful inventions, but can still comfort a little child with a gentle touch. The human body that works together is able to achieve great purposes. 

St. Paul compares the church to a human body. Here too we can see that . . .

The Congregation that Works Together 
Achieves God's Purpose.

1. Our congregation has many different members.
2. Each member has a responsibility to all the others.
3. God wants us to work together in spite of our differences.

Context: THEME: Overcoming Problems in the Church 

The letter focuses on the various problems of the church in Corinth, providing solutions for Corinthian dilemmas. Thus, the epistle provides a model for the creative and fruitful handling of many ecclesiological problems. Corinth, the meeting-point of important land and sea routes, was a very prosperous city and the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. The Corinthians were noted for their philosophical and rhetorical abilities and also for their vices, partly because Corinth was the center for the immoral worship of Aphrodite, goddess of love, whose followers practiced ritual prostitution. An undeveloped form of Gnosticism, an early heresy which placed emphasis on knowledge (gnosis, Gk.) and the spirit and regarded the body as evil, added to the problems (cf. Col 2:8, note). A faction in the church was devoted to Apollos (1:12), an eloquent and powerful speaker (Acts 18:24, 28). Others looked to Cephas (Peter) or Paul for primary leadership. Some were arrogant in their knowledge (8:1). The attitude that the body was inferior or evil led to gross sexual immorality (5:1; 6:15), to asceticism (7:1), and to a denial of the resurrection of the body (15:12). Some Christians needed to know whether or not they should attend the meetings of their trade guild, meetings held in the idol temples and involving meat offered to the idols (8:10); others were concerned about meat sold in the market, for that had probably been offered to an idol (10:25). Other problems involved Christians taking one another to court (6:1), the role of women in public worship (11:2-16; 14:34), disorder at the Lord's Supper (11:21), and wrong attitudes and practices concerning the extraordinary spiritual gifts (12:1-14:40). In addition, Paul instructs the Corinthians to take a weekly collection for the Christians in Jerusalem, so that it may be dispatched to Jerusalem when Paul returns to them (16:1-4). The discussion of numerous and varied difficulties in this Christian church makes this an important letter for any historical period of the church, including and especially the present. In addition, the classic texts on Christian love (ch. 13) and the resurrection (ch. 15) make this epistle relevant for any congregation seeking to balance belief and behavior, doctrine and deed. 

With so many problems within the congregation, one might wonder how they could indeed carry out God's purpose of nurturing the saints and reaching out to the lost. St. Paul one by one addresses those various problems and gives direction from God's Word. 

In this section he deals with one problem. The very gifted and talented individuals of the congregation who were of different social backgrounds were not working together in a cooperative effort to carry out God's purpose. Instead of coordinating, dividing the labor, using the various talents, it seemed as though individuals were headed off in one directions while others were going the other. The "more talented" were looking down on the "less gifted" and making them feel as though they were not needed while they themselves were God's answer to the church.

Application: As we look at our own congregation, we can look past the fact that we are WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) and see that we also have differences among our members. Some are highly educated while others have only an eighth grade education. Some are wise in the ways of the world while others don't seem to have a clue. Some members are strong in their faithfulness while others seem to look at church as a "take it or leave it" option. We have members who are white collar, blue collar, retired, and unemployed. Different political views. The gifts of those in our congregation also vary from individual to individual. 

In addition, we have different views on the support of missions, the need for Christian education and its scope, the style of music and liturgy in our worship, need for discipline, etc. 

Transition: Our members are different in some ways. In addition the same Holy Spirit has given to us different gifts. Now we can look at that as a bad thing or we can look at it as a good thing. Actually, as Christians, we can look at it as a good thing when we realize the purpose of different gifts.

2. Each member has a responsibility to all the others.

St. Paul compares the church to a human body. The body has its different parts each with its own function. His point here is that as important as one function may be, it is only a part of the coordinated whole. 

1 Cor 12:12-21 
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 

Romans 12:4-5
4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Application: St. Paul's point is that each part of the body is important and that each part supports the others. Example: The eye needs the hand. Those with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) experience every day the frustration of having good eye sight but not being able to use their hands. Those who have spinal injuries may be 100% in their minds but their feet are useless to them.

This is applied to the congregation. There is no one person in this congregation that is indispensable. No one person is the be all and end all of representing and carrying out the work of the church. Conversely, there is no person in this congregation that is not needed. 

Several Problems: Some people take on too much responsibility. Sometimes we get too high of an opinion of ourselves and too low of an opinion of the gifts and abilities of others. We may think that we alone have the right approach or the right way of doing things so we refuse to let others pitch in and carry out the work that stands before us. We are like the concerned parent who is helping a child on their school project but end up doing the whole thing for them because we want it done right the first time. We are afraid to let go of our responsibilities and we are afraid to give someone else a chance to try. And so we struggle to do all we have done and lament the fact (in our minds) that no one wants to step up and help.

Some people don't take on much of any responsibilities. They have the attitude expressed here in our text, "15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body." Translated: "Because I can't sing, teach, give, clean, greet, count money, etc. as well as someone else, I'm not good enough to serve so I'm not even going to try." 

Illustration: That's like saying, "I can't play basketball as good as Michael Jordan, so I'm not even going to play ever." God doesn't expect you to be Michael Jordan, and he doesn't expect you to be God's gift to the ministry. God doesn't give anyone that much responsibility. We can see that with our own bodies (not one part is self-contained-able to do it all). We need to realize that this is also true with the church. No one person is expected to do it all. But all are expected to serve as they have been gifted.

3. God wants us to work together in spite of our differences.

The coordinated body is able to do great things while the handicapped body needs to know its limitations. If we want our church to achieve God's purpose (Our congregation exists in order to proclaim without wavering the unchanging Word of God to all people in an ever changing world.), St. Paul teaches how this is to be accomplished. God has already laid the foundation. He has united a group of different people, given to us all the gifts that we need, given us a purpose and an opportunity, and encourages us to work together to achieve that purpose.

Illustration: We have an example of how we seek to do that before us this Sunday. We will be installing the new members of the Church Council and thanking those who serve. These men do more than just attend a meeting a month, usher, and count the offerings. Each member of the council has a specific area of responsibility and works to carry out the purpose of the church. (Executive officers, secretary, financial officers, building and grounds, evangelism, stewardship, education, etc.) But even they don't do all the work. Throughout the year they enlist the help of other members in this work as well. My experience with working with them and with other members is that we are indeed able to pool our gifts and work together to do those things which no one person could ever accomplish.

Conclusion: St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 our natural attitude toward our bodies which are made up of different parts that work together to do great things.
29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, 
I like my body. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I like the things that I am able to do with my body. St. Paul goes on to say that Jesus loves his body as well.
just as Christ does the church  30 for we are members of his body. When Jesus was on earth he could use the body prepared for him to preach, teach, comfort, heal, etc. We are now his body on earth. I think one of the most frustrating things that can happen is when the mind says "Go" but the body says "No" because of injury, illness, etc. The most rewarding is when our bodies do what our minds tell it to do. Jesus is the head of our church. He says "Go". Working together in spite of our differences, we can and will carry out God's Purpose. Amen.