Feel Each Other's Pain

Transcript

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[0:00] Thank you, Pastor Victoria. And I'd like to invite you to, we're going to keep on reading. So basically we're reading all of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 today. So I'll be finishing off that chapter and that's what our preaching text is. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 through 31. It's a bit longer, but we'll read through it. And I want to give you a little bit of introduction. As you know, we're in this series on 1 Corinthians. Fascinating stuff, very interesting stuff. And here's a quick sort of bring us up to date on what's going to happen and what we've seen so far. So today we're going to read that the Corinthian church has found yet one more way to draw distinctions between themselves and try to figure out who was the greatest among them. And by the way, this is a common theme in the Bible. And so even the disciples of Jesus did this. They have these, they have several conversations amongst themselves. Sometimes when they think Jesus isn't listening. About who is the greatest among them. And Jesus gets kind of annoyed at them for having discussions like that. It's a very human discussion. Who's the best? Who's the greatest in this group? Who's number one, right? And that wasn't all, but sometimes their mothers

[1:10] would come to Jesus and advocate for one of them to have a better place at the table. And that was also annoying to Jesus, but it is completely understandable because, you know, what mom doesn't, what mom or dad does not advocate for their child? So totally understandable. But also Jesus must have been saying, have you learned nothing from our time together? That's just not the way it is. And so he showed them a different way. He washed their feet. He served, he went to the cross for them. So we have the Corinthians. They've elevated themselves by all these ways. And I'm going to actually count them for us today. And I might've even missed one or two, but one was how much knowledge they had would put them at the top or who originally taught them the gospel would put them at the top. And the other one was how much knowledge they had would put them at the top, whoever it was, how much sin they could get away with in their flesh, how they could disregard the flesh and eat food sacrifice to idols without compromising their conscience. So they were elevated by how clean their conscience felt about doing something that was questionable, how much wealth they had and how nice a meal they could bring to the Lord's supper while somebody else ate nothing. And now today, the question is,

[2:24] how spiritual they were, including what spiritual gifts they could display in public worship that other people couldn't display and how the focus would go on them. So that's like five things right there, but there's probably more. And I would say like with the disciples, with this church in Corinth, this jockeying for position in the church is completely toxic. It's a messed up way of having life together. In fact, life together doesn't work. If we're always focused on who's on top and hoping that it's us. Paul keeps telling them that they really need to rethink how they value themselves. And this is a huge theme all throughout the Bible and it's worth us looking at some other time, but how do we find value? The scriptures tell us it's not always by what we do or the gifts that we have. Primarily, it is that we are created in the image of God. And if that's not enough, I don't know what else is. That is the ultimate right there. And from there, everything falls into place. Well, what does Paul tell them to do? And I'm going to give you a list of now all the things that he's told them to do up to this point. First of all, he says you need to focus on the cross as a sign of self-sacrifice and self-emptying. So he was always about the cross as we saw.

[3:44] He told them they need to curb their fleshly sin because the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. So he's correcting their misunderstanding about how the Spirit works. He tells them to focus on the cross as a sign of self-sacrifice and self-emptying. He tells them to watch what they do in front of people who are newer in the faith. Pastor Victoria preached on this. So that they need to set their own freedom aside for the sake of the salvation of a weaker brother or sister and not do things that that person would be confused by or cause them to stumble. He tells them to decide, and this is the hardest thing I think, decide that it's okay to lose every now and then in a dispute with a brother or sister, not take it to court, but actually lose one. It's okay to lose once in a while. And whatever they thought back then, I think that's even harder for us right now. We hate losing. It's so ingrained in our culture and in our DNA to not lose. But it's okay to lose once in a while. Not all the time. You got to be careful, but once in a while.

[4:48] He tells them not to flaunt their wealth in front of the other people in the church who have less. And he tells them to be mindful of the body of Christ in the meal and to receive the meal in a worthy manner. And that includes awareness of their own sin and that the meal is for the community and that the meal is an act of obedience.

[5:10] It's not a place to go when you're super hungry and you fill yourself and get drunk. So that's already one, two, three, four, five, six things. He's already told them the seventh we're going to hear today. And today he's going to tell them, You know what? I want you to consider that the whole body, the whole body is more important than the individual parts of it. The whole body is more important than the individual parts of it. So with that introduction, let's go to our reading. It's 1 Corinthians 12, 12 through 31.

[5:44] Here's how it goes. St. Paul writes, The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part, but of many.

[6:10] 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. 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.

[6:26] 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? But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

[6:42] If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 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. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable, we treat with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

[7:18] But God has combined the members of the body and has made them one. He has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. Now listen to this, 26.

[7:37] If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now, he says, you are the body of Christ. And each one of you is a part of it. And in the church, God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

[8:18] Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? These are rhetorical questions. You should add a no. You should add a no to the end. Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret, but eagerly desire the greater gifts? And now I will show you the most excellent way. Let's pray.

[8:41] Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. What Paul is saying is fairly straightforward. I think we all get this. I'm not gonna actually spend a whole lot of time on the different parts of the body. But this is what he says. The church is like a body. Each person is a different part. Each person has spiritual gifts and abilities. And we see this even in our church today. We have people who are good with numbers. People are good with technology. People are good at prayer. People are good at evangelism. Everybody has these different and varied gifts. And they're all important. they all together make us one body. All the parts are needed to make the body work. All the tools are needed to finish a project, right? And because of that, there is not or no one part that is better than any of the others. Because without all of them together, the whole body is much less capable. And so we can't look at anyone in the church and say, we would function just fine without you. We can't do that. Paul's saying they can't do that. He's saying we can't do that. God has put us together as a body with different gifts. Now, if there is a hierarchy of gifts,

[10:01] and remember, hierarchies are really the problem in this church. They're the problem with the disciples. If there is a hierarchy of gifts, Paul is going to start to tell them what he thinks it is or not just what he thinks it is, but what has been revealed to him that it is. So take a quick look at verse 20. And I'm going to number these for you. And then the numbering and the order is actually quite interesting. And we'll get into that in just a second. So take a look at verse 28. He writes this, and in the church, God has appointed, first of all, apostles. Now, he is an apostle, but being an apostle is a very special thing. It's somebody who has had a direct encounter with Jesus Christ and has received revelation from Jesus Christ. Second is prophets. I'm going to run out of fingers on one hand. Third is teachers. A lot of teachers in our midst. Thank you. Fourth, workers of miracles. Now, why that's not higher on the list is a very interesting question, because that seems pretty good. The miracle workers are better than teachers and prophets. Wow. Okay. Those having the gifts of healing, which also sounds miraculous to me, that's five. Six, those able to help others, which I think also should be higher, although a lot of these things you could argue are helping

[11:18] other people. Those with the gifts of administration, that's seven. And now eight, those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Do you notice that? That tongues, which is kind of an issue in all of our readings here for today, chapter 12, tongues is last on Paul's list. It's number eight. Now, he's correcting what seems to be a part of the problem, okay? And it's great for some people. So if you remember some remember remember remember remember remember remember remember this some other tongue, an angelic tongue perhaps, that was unintelligible to just about everybody else in the world, but to one or two other people in that body would then be given the gift to interpret what was said. And so then what was said became this beautiful and wonderful direct and current and contemporary revelation from God himself. This is amazing, right? Or from the angels at least. So it's possible that the ones who were speaking with this gift of tongues were considering themselves to be the top of the list, even maybe higher than apostles. And that kind of makes sense because if you're in a worship service and suddenly somebody stands up and starts speaking in a language that you don't understand, that grabs everyone's attention,

[13:13] right? That's... Oh, something happened interesting here. And that person might go on, they might be in an ecstatic state, and so they're not even paying attention to sort of what's happening around them, and they just have to get this message out. And if that's being run by the Holy Spirit, then absolutely the church would have to stop everything it's doing and listen to that. And hopefully there's somebody there then who can say, what did that all mean? Because we need to be edified by that.

[13:42] So this gift, in particular, needed special attention, and Paul is giving it special attention. And one of the things he says is if there's another person there who cannot interpret what is being said, then the person speaking has to stop right away. Why? Because if nobody understands, then that speaking there is not edifying or building up the body. It's only puffing up the person who's speaking. It has to be accompanied by interpretation, interpretation right away. And if it's not, then it has to stop. So those are Paul's rules for how to exercise this very interesting spiritual gift. And the other thing, as we just saw, is not only is that a wonderful gift, and as wonderful as it is, it's on the bottom of Paul's list of gifts. It comes after healing and teaching and being prophetic, the gift of prophecy, which isn't telling the future, but is being, is speaking about the future. And so, you know, it's a lot of God's judgment on sin in the world, all these other things. And it's eighth, number eight on the list, and actually is number nine on the list. Next week, Pastor Victoria is going to preach from chapter 13, which is about love, which is the greatest gift. So everything on the list actually has to shift by one place. So being an apostle is second to the gift, the spiritual gift

[15:08] of love. So speaking in tongues comes in last, is actually ninth place. And I think that's good for us to remember, but I think it's also good for us to at least be open. And I'm not, you know, Christians have divided over this, and I don't think we need to divide over it. But if the Spirit were to give one of us the gift to speak in some language and another person to interpret it in that moment, and it seems like what it's saying is in line with scripture, I really do think we would have to stop and listen at least to what was going on. And not despise a gift like that. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it in our church.

[15:48] But the Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will, you know? That's what Jesus said to Nicodemus. And so we have to be open that that could happen someday. It just hasn't happened in my experience of covenant churches or Lutheran churches. But there are covenant churches and Lutheran churches and even Catholic churches that regularly have these gifts on display. So let's leave that. And I want to read it somewhere else. Because what I really want you to look at now is verse 26. And I drew attention to it when we were reading it too, didn't I? Verse 26. And I want to read it again. It goes like this. He's talking about the body, all the people in the body. He says, If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

[16:45] And I think, now just, I want you to just take a mental sort of frame this and give it some space and look at this verse. And my view is that if the people in Corinth could get just this verse right, just this verse, if they could get just this verse right, they could get this whole chapter 12 right. And I think they could get this whole chapter 12 right. And I think they could get this whole chapter 12 right. And I think they could get this whole letter, this first letter to them right. And actually, I think they could get the whole Bible right. I'm not saying that this is the whole gospel in one nutshell, but I'm saying for these people, if they got this thing, I think this is the key to unlocking the whole book. It's even a key to unlocking all of the scriptures. I'm going to read it again. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

[17:44] And the question is, for that body and for our body, is how interconnected are we? How interrelated are we? How present are we to each other? Do we feel each other's pain? Do we feel each other's pain? Do we feel each other's pain? Do we feel each other's pain? Do we feel joy when other people feel joy in the body?

[18:21] Now, I want to tell you a little bit of my own story. And some of you know this, but some of you may not. But the story is that when I was 20 years old, my father died of cancer. And it was very difficult for a 20-year-old. It's difficult for anybody at any age. But at that age, it was very hard on me. And he also happened to die three weeks after my wedding, not to Krista, but to my first wife. And that was such a hard thing in that young marriage. I was 20 years old and married, which is too young. So if you're listening out there and you think you're going to get married at 20, my advice is wait a while and grow up a bit first, because you need to grow up. So not only was I too young to be married, but my father died three weeks after my wedding day. And among other things going on, that marriage only lasted a few years. There was just, there were some things that we just couldn't overcome. And one of those was just the tragedy that I went through in my life. And I wasn't ever able to really come out of that in a meaningful way. So we were divorced. And that's not so much the point, but that's part of my story. But what happened after that was that I found it very hard to be around happy couples. I found that very hard. Especially people my age,

[19:37] whether they were dating or they were married and they were people my age, because they were married. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so happy. And I was so I remember having some some some some some some some some some some And maybe that makes sense and maybe that doesn't. And you know, that wasn't all of it. There were other times when I was envious and upset when other people did well and I didn't do as well. So if other people got better grades than me or people had success in their career or in their work that I didn't have, or even somebody once had good fortune and they won a call-in contest to a radio show and won $500 on the spot, and I was mad. I'm laughing now. But I was mad and I was envious and I would resent them and I would invent reasons not to like them.

[20:43] And I say this, you know, because I'm embarrassed by that, honestly. It's kind of silly. And I guess you could say it was because I was an unhappy person and I was very unhappy or I was living my life too much based on what other people were doing, which is never a healthy move. You have to live your own life. Or I was still growing up. You know what I mean? I was still immature. I was still finding my way in life. It was one of those things or all of those things.

[21:12] But I want to give praise to God because I did not ask for this. But in time. That changed. That stopped being how I was. And I don't even remember when it happened. So it wasn't anything I did. It's just that God, I guess, in his wisdom and in his timing and through the work of the Spirit, just said, Hans Eric can stop acting like that now. Hans Eric can move beyond that now. And I think if I were to guess, it was sometime in the last maybe 12, 13 years or so. Maybe a little bit longer. I'm not sure. And it may be a little bit longer. Maybe it was gradual too. But now when I see people who have far more than me, whether they worked for it or not, I don't care. I'm just happy for them. I'm like, oh, wow, they have this great thing. Like somebody gets a new car and I'm like, what a nice car. That looks great on you, you know. If they know more than me, that used to bug me because I'd be like, I should know more than them. But they know more than me. Now if they know more than me, I can listen to them. I can learn from them. I can be excited that I came across this resource. It's in my past. And I can sit and learn and it doesn't threaten me, right? And if they're happy, I'm happy for them. And if they're in a great relationship, I'm happy for them.

[22:28] Or if they're happy being single, I'm happy for them. Or, and this is the other side of it, which I think is from the spirit too, if they're sad or they're broken or they're depressed or they're stuck, then I feel it too.

[22:45] And again, this isn't anything I've done for myself. I think the spirit was at work. I think the spirit is working for me. I think the spirit is working for me. I think the spirit is working for me. you wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning. So you have to have some way of managing that. And I'm still working on that, but I feel it when other people feel good. I feel it when other people feel bad. And I'm treating this as a gift, some kind of gift. I think this is how Jesus wants me to be. He wants me to engage in the world, to feel what the world is feeling, to connect with my brothers and my sisters. And I'm still learning, and I'm still growing, and I have not at all arrived. And the point of this is not to say that I'm great, because I'm not.

[23:58] But this is something that I've seen has happened, and that's why I mention it. It's a command. It's a standard. And this is, if we can grasp it and do it, this is all the chapter and all the letter and all the Bible wrapped up in one. If one part suffers, the other part suffers. Every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. And notice that it says suffers with it and rejoices with it. The with is important. And I think that means we need to be with people in their suffering. We can't do this from a distance. It's very hard to suffer with somebody from a distance. It's possible, for sure, you can suffer. But we need to go closer to them.

[24:48] And as far as we can bear, and a good bit beyond what we can bear, I think too. We need to enter into other people's suffering, as far as they'll let us. And as far as we can bear, and even a good bit beyond what we can bear, because we might be surprised at what we can bear.

[25:12] Now, I don't think there's a better time than this to have a verse like this. And I mean that. We have brothers and sisters suffering. We have all around the world. We've been touching on this. We have COVID. We have racial unrest. We have nations are at each others throats. We have families. We have marriages. We have children. We have friends who are suffering.

[25:37] And I think we need to take special note again that our nation is rioting again. And racial tensions are raw and our nation is And a man named Jacob Blake was shot in the back by the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And that has opened up more rioting and more looting and more anger. And listen, I am not asking you to condemn all the police or say that rioting and looting are good because they're not good. Those are not good things. And you know what, in the riots that followed that, other people were injured and killed. And so it gets worse and worse and worse and it builds on itself. And the question for us is, how do we stop it from getting worse so that even more people get hurt?

[26:22] Now, how this improves is a long discussion. And we won't do it here from the pulpit. And the pulpit isn't the place necessarily to get into the details of public policy because that happens better somewhere else where more people can have a voice in it. That's not what I'm here to do. But what I am asking us to do is to live like Paul tells us to.

[26:47] So if you remember his great great great great great great great great great great what the Apostle Paul wrote. He wrote this. He said, I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what's happening in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And now the most famous line, I think, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. We should all go to jail, I think, if that helps us to write like this. I mean, there's probably an advantage to going to jail. This is amazing. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, which means we're connected with each other. What happens to one is happening.

[27:52] This is what Paul is saying. We rejoice with those who are rejoicing. We suffer with those who are suffering. And I think that's our response in the body, and that's our response to the world out there. This is what we're supposed to do. We are a body. We need to feel each other's pain. We lament when there's brokenness, when there's violence, when there's abuse. We cry out for relief when there's overlap. We cry for relief when there's overlap. We cry for relief when There's enmity and anger between people. We need to feel it as much as we can and a good bit beyond.

[28:30] And we make some move, some step toward the pain. We have to be always moving toward the pain. This is what Jesus did. He always zeroed in and focused in on the person who was hurting. He was drawn to them. We move toward the pain, toward being with the person in pain, as close as they will let us. And this is to touch the life that God wants for us. It really is to be the incarnation of Jesus to another, to suffer for them and with them. And it's to embody the community of the Trinity.

[29:04] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all those parts need each other. You can't have the Trinity without one of them. They can't do that. I'm not saying this is easy. This is maybe the hardest thing I've ever asked you. The hardest thing I'll ever ask myself to do. I'm not saying I even know how to do this for a community that's halfway across the country. I don't know how we can minister to Kenosha from Los Altos.

[29:32] But I don't need to figure that out because I think it's a spiritual gift to do this. It's the gift we'll hear about next week. It's love. It's love for others that suffer when they suffer and rejoices when they're honored. And if it's a spiritual gift, the Spirit will direct our path. It will direct our feet. The Spirit will direct our voices. We see that over and over again.

[29:55] So what we need to do today is we need to pray for this gift. So that we can exercise this gift. So we can think about how to use the gift. And that's the prayer I want us to end with. Is that God would give us this gift to suffer with others. And to open our eyes to the places where we can use that gift. So let's pray.

[30:16] Oh Father, Give us this gift to suffer with others. Give us this gift. Give us this gift of love. Give us this gift of mutuality. Give us this gift of suffering when people suffer and rejoicing when people are honored. Give us this gift of living in the body.

[30:36] For each other and with each other. Give us this gift. Then teach us how to use it. Amen.