The Family of God

“The Family of God”

A sermon on God’s Purpose for the church to fellowship

by Pastor Ron Trimmer

July 8, 2007

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

Luke 8:19-21

19Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21But he said to them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

The Family of God

God calls us, my friends, into a greater body, into the family of God, and the church must be an extension of this family, the body of Christ—to support one another, to celebrate joys and be comforted in our sorrows, to fellowship, to be one in the body of Christ. It’s one of the most important aspects of church life—to fellowship with one another, and fellowship can be a lot of fun too!

Now, I have to say, fellowship is one of our strengths at Friedens. Folks really care about one another here, like a loving family. You can tell. Before and after worship, the church is alive with talk and discussion, folks asking about one another with real and sincere concern. Our lives are intertwined, bonded to one another. Many in our congregation have developed lasting friendships with each other through their entire lives—they are closer than friends, like true family. It is a true blessing and a true gift of God, my friends.

I see it at Women’s Fellowship, also at their fun and fellowship playing chickenfoot and canasta. The UCC Women have fun together, everyone looking forward to their progressive dinner at Christmastime. There are friendships being formed through our Men’s group. And I want to tell you, there is some real community being built in the youth class.

And there’s the chili/stew supper, the Octoberfest, the other get-togethers and times of fellowship.

But why do we fellowship? Is fellowship something we are called to do as a church? What is involved in true fellowship?

I have always been very fond of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. All of his work, indeed, offers important guidance for our faith and especially for church life. It’s amazing to me he had so much wisdom, but more importantly, that we can still learn from how the early church dealt with issues in their faith communities—their struggles, their joys—as they tried to live out in covenant what God had called them to be.

Especially in our society today, we have become obsessed with our individuality, from everything being about my needs and my wants. Even our faith is often focused too pointedly on the individual. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is the utmost important—nothing is more important—than your relationship with Jesus Christ. But with that being said, that relationship is always—ALWAYS grounded in a community of believers. You can’t be Christian all by yourself. You have to understand, Jesus Christ and Paul both envisioned a community of faith, with folks bonded together, supporting one another, working towards unity—to be Jesus Christ to the world.

Paul, with poetic eloquence, makes an analogy between the body of Christ, the Church, and our own physical bodies. All members are different, and yet all our crucial, all are needed. You can’t get rid of a hand just cause you don’t like them, just cause they have different opinions, just cause they don’t look like you. Diversity is a blessing of God—a BLESSING of God, and it is something to be celebrated! But we are called to unity in the body—to see the bonds between us, and to what we can to strengthen those bonds, those relationships, and in so doing, be the body of Christ.

Friendship, support, sharing joys and burdens, through the good times and the bad, just simply spending time together in worship, in prayer, in study, in the work of Christ—it is something we are called to do, called to be.

I think folks are looking for a place to belong, to feel they are a part of something, part of a family. At Friedens, certainly we need to strive to be a church where folks feel like they belong on a very profound level, a place where everyone knows your name.

Play excerpt from “Where Everyone Knows Your Name,” by Gary Portnoy (the theme song from Cheers). You can hear the song at:

Let me repeat those words again:

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,

And they’re always glad you came;

You want to be where you can see,

Our troubles are all the same;

You want to be where everybody knows your name.

The church needs to be that kind of place, my friends, where folks get that sense of belonging, of being a part of something. Folks can be who they are; they can be vulnerable, even let down some of their defenses—be who they are, part of the family of God.

In a family, not only do you feel comfortable enough to be who you are—to share your burdens and your cares, your joys and your struggles, the times of grief and despair and longing, your deepest hopes and wants—but also in a family, especially in the family of God, you can become more than who you are. Everyone has gifts, my friends—we all have gifts, but sometimes we need a little help coaxing them out. In a church, gifts are celebrated. We can be pushed in a way that helps us to realize our full potential—to be encouraged and empowered, to give and to give a little bit more. We are definitely stronger together than apart. We can help and support one another.

Ben has been playing with my old cardboard bricks. Oh how I loved them! I must admit, I find myself playing with them too! Ah, the memories—like building those walls and breaking through them like Superman, but I digress.

One of the things Ben and I like to do is build up towers and buildings. I mean, these bricks are great. Now, honestly, I think Ben likes tearing them down more than building them up, but more than that he is fascinated by how it all works together. You can just see the little gears working in his little brain as he pushes the bricks around, maybe takes one out, pushes them together or apart. Now, if you have a nice wall built up, one brick on top of another, each surrounded by others, you start to understand how the bricks are all interconnected. I mean, you take one out, the whole thing could come tumbling down. But you can just tell how the bricks support one another, and how they are that much stronger when they are placed strategically, like they are helping each other out. I have to tell you, I like to build things pretty darn high! Even if one brick gets sort of out of place, often the wall doesn’t come down yet. The other bricks shoulder more of the burden, and they are affected by it too.

Of course, as a church, we must also realize that our church won’t stand unless we make Jesus Christ the cornerstone. The church can only be that true community envisioned by our savior if we make God first in our lives and give ourselves over to doing His will. Jesus talked about the family of God this way, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Paul talks of building up the body of Christ, of coming together to support one another, to help one another. Like any family, there is bound to be disagreement and struggle. All families have arguments. But just like I tell couples who want to get married: conflict is neither good nor bad, but how you deal with conflict will make or break your marriage; it’s the same way in a church. First of all, you can’t be afraid to deal with tension and conflict. It’s better out than in, I always say, cause if left unchecked things can fester. As a society, we tend to run from confrontation. Even during congregational meetings, folks would rather keep quiet and then take it out to the parking lot after all is over. That helps no one, my friends. And if you have a problem, you can always come talk to me. I’ll listen. We might have some disagreements, but that is no excuse not to be respectful and civil—we all love the church and want to do God’s will. So a church must be a place where we can reason together, discerning where God is leading us as a body. Does that mean everyone agrees all the time? Of course not, but it does mean we stick together, that when we decide as a church to do something, we move ahead together, putting our best foot forward.

Related to this is how we treat one another in the family of God. As Three Apart sang to us last week, “If you don’t love your neighbor, then you don’t love God.” As their song reminded us, you can’t gossip about your neighbor, you have to practice mercy, and you have to help each other out. A few months ago I preached about gossip. Gossip is destructive and not Christian. We can’t be tearing each other down. We’re supposed to build each other up. That means being honest and sincere, respectful and courteous—to be a loving family, the family of God.

Think about when someone joins a family, like through marriage: the nervousness, the apprehension, the desire to make a good first impression when meeting the in-laws for the first time. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive when I first met Jan’s brother and sister. You want to make a good impression, to be accepted, to fit in. And let’s be honest, sometimes families have a tough time letting in folks.

Now, as a church, sometimes those strong family relationships can be a deterrent to building true community when the family gets bigger. I think we do a pretty good job, but it is something we always have to be on guard about. When folks join our church, we need to find ways to include them, to make them feel at home, to help them “learn the ropes,” to invite them and get to know them—to accept folks openly. I learned that in St. John in Burton, when folks join the church, some folks “sponsor” them, sort of like a sponsor for a baptism. This sponsor helps them to become acclimated to the church, to meet folks and build relationships. Sounds like a good idea.

The family of God, a true community, for we are stronger together than apart. All for one and one for all. When one is honored, all are honored. When one suffers, we all suffer.

I’d like to close with an illustration. John Beck used to be a football star for the University of Kentucky. Later on he became a preacher and was named as Chaplain of the U.S. Olympic Teams. For a number of years he traveled with our Olympic Teams all over the world, leading in their devotions, counseling & praying with many of the athletes.

As he watched these young men and women train for the events in which they competed, he decided that this was a picture of what Christianity really ought to be. Here were people who were sincere and fervent and dedicated to the task before them. They were willing to pay any price, regardless of how much suffering or pain they had to endure. They were willing to pay any price to be number one, to win.

Then one day John Beck was invited to visit the Special Olympics. Special Olympics, as you know, are made up of special athletes. All of them suffer from some kind of mental or physical impairment. He watched them as eight runners lined up for the 100-yard dash. They all took off when the starting gun fired, and he was amazed at how good they actually were. But as they reached halfway in the race, one of the boys fell down, skinned his knee on the track, and started to cry.

He said that what happened next was both beautiful and amazing. All seven of the other runners stopped, and all seven of them turned around and went to the boy who had fallen. Together they helped him to his feet. And the eight walked to the finish line together. Beck said that he then realized that he had seen the true meaning of Christianity, the true vision of the Church, not in the Olympics, but in the Special Olympics.

That’s the vision of the body of Christ, my friends—the family of God. We are better together, helping one another out, stronger in the eyes of God, than when we are apart, striving only for ourselves. We are called to be one in unity with Christ, to support one another, to live out the bonds of our relationships, our connections to each other, and thus better live out God’s calling for us to be the body of Christ. Amen.