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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. Today, we are starting a new series, One that is gonna take us through to the start of Lent.
Jeremy Duncan:And looking ahead a little bit, when we get to Lent, we are going to return to the gospel full of Mark and pick up where we left off this fall. If you remember, we're doing Mark in 2 parts this year. And if you ever want to go back and pick up anything that you might have missed From the fall earlier in season 10, you can always do that online. We have a podcast and a YouTube channel, and that's always there for you to access the archives. Today though, we're actually going to do something kind of similar.
Jeremy Duncan:In that last year we started First Corinthians with a series called Make Good Choices. This year, we're gonna pick up that letter again to look at the back half of the letter. And this is something that we're always thinking about in the background of our planning. We wanted all to feel pretty seamless throughout the year. But as a team, we're thinking multiple years ahead and working to have a teaching strategy An outline that moves us as a community through the Bible in deliberate and thoughtful ways.
Jeremy Duncan:And so sometimes it's nice to kind of start a conversation, Then set it aside to let it rest and metabolize, and then we can come back and pick it up again down the road with some new energy. And so that's where we find ourselves today starting this new series on the back half of first Corinthians. First though, let's talk quickly about our last series, picking up and letting go, because I thought that was a really helpful pair of conversations to start the new year. I got to kick it off 2 weeks ago, talking about letting go of old stories. And I did that by reflecting on the story of Jacob and Esau, How Jacob is undeniably the main character.
Jeremy Duncan:I mean, he's the guy who gets renamed Israel after all. But it's really Esau that kind of comes out of left field with the big w. Jacob is actually pretty awful to his brother in the first half of the tale. And so, when they meet again, Jake expects Esau to kind of be just as hot about all the drama as he was all those years ago. And yet what we find is that Esau has moved on.
Jeremy Duncan:Somewhere along the line he got on with his life, and he Put himself on a new path. And when he reunites with Jacob at the end, he's successful and wealthy. But not only that, the guy is mature, and he's healthy, And he's made peace with his own past, and he's ready for a new future with his brother. And yet there is Jacob all those years later Still expecting Esa to be the aggrieved brother from when they were kids. And I think that reminder, That sometimes some of our stories are actually out of date.
Jeremy Duncan:I think that's a really important reminder from time to time. Maybe for you it's a relationship, like that example in Genesis, and they're not who they used to be anymore. Or maybe it's a story. You've told yourself about yourself, and now that story is starting to hold you back from taking on new opportunities. Maybe it's a story of hurt.
Jeremy Duncan:And something legitimately terrible happened to you. And you've been holding on to that identity to keep yourself safe for a very long time, except maybe now it's not serving you anymore. And seeing yourself exclusively through the lens of how you were hurt, that's actually become part of the problem that's holding you back. There are so many of these old stories that we need to do the work of letting go of, and we need to do that work precisely So that we can get on with the work of picking up what's ahead of us. And that is where Scott took us last week.
Jeremy Duncan:I really loved his take on the story of Nathaniel, this Skeptical disciple that can't imagine why his friends are so intrigued with this traveling preacher from Nazareth of all places. Like, can anything good come from Nazareth is to this day one of my all time favorite Bible verses. And so, for that alone, Nathaniel ranks in my mind. But in listening to Scott, I was struck by the gentleness of a Jesus who calls with intention in the background, And then in some sense walks his friends home. All these little epiphanies along the way, these Moments of clarity that Jesus friends are picking up, and they're holding on to, and maybe without even knowing it being prepared, or Maybe perhaps even a better way to say it is preparing themselves for what's coming.
Jeremy Duncan:As much as there is a gift in the letting go sometimes, there is Equally divine goodness in the work of deciding what you will pick up and what you will bring with you into tomorrow. So, new goals and aspirations for a new year, or new grace and humility for yourself And those around you, new imagination for good things ahead, even if they are just only a hope at this point. Sometimes even when we wonder can anything good come from this? The willingness to move forward With optimism and hope is what helps us discover what's possible on the other side. So letting go and picking up.
Jeremy Duncan:And today, We pick up a new conversation together. But first, let's pray. God of everything good, and new, And ahead of us in this new year, might we trust you to help us let go of what is unnecessary And to notice what will be needed tomorrow, might we believe that you have good things ahead for us to uncover And that spirit will be with us, nudging us to notice the right moments along the way. And even those small epiphanies Push us in new directions, toward new adventures, where we might notice you all over again. As we speak today of your beautiful body that sits surrounding us even now full Of hurt and pain and joy and celebration, may we learn to honor all of it.
Jeremy Duncan:And in that wild diversity that surprises and sometimes confounds us, we pray that we would see your playfulness and creativity, Your grace and your peace, and that all of that would shine through in new ways to be received by new eyes this morning. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Alright. Today, we are jumping back into first Corinthians.
Jeremy Duncan:And you can check out a series from last year called Make Good Choices, where we worked our way through the first half of this letter, if that's your jam. There we talked about the problem with picking sides, consolation and desolation in decision making, food and freedom, and 1st century sexual ethics. That It was a doozy. But today we pick up in 1st Corinthians 12 with what is probably the most famous metaphor in this letter. And that is the church as the body of Christ.
Jeremy Duncan:Or as Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 12 12, Just as a body, though one, has many parts, all its many parts form one body. And so it is with Christ. So today we need to talk about growing strong, and gifts of the spirit, Trinitarian community, and all the difference within our body. But first, a story. I have 2 kids, a 10 year old boy and as of about a week ago now, a 4 year old girl.
Jeremy Duncan:And both of these kids have bodies. Now, it's a very interesting thing watching your kids grow into their bodies. Right? Figuring out how they move, and discovering all of their appendages, finding out exactly what it is they can do with this thing that we call a body. For example, My daughter's favorite thing about her body right now is farts.
Jeremy Duncan:Farts and butterflies are probably the most wonderful thing in her world right now. Our house is Filled with both of them. And to be fair, they do bring a lot of joy to all of us there. But beyond laughter, bodies are this wonderful, resilient thing. My daughter, when she was born was less than £3 at her lightest.
Jeremy Duncan:There were a lot of complications around her birth. But here she is looking like a beautiful little alien. And to be fair it felt very alien meeting this tiny, tiny little girl that we had adopted that day. But in the 4 years since, she has grown and gotten strong, and you see her now running around the church every Sunday. And, honestly, it's pretty incredible to get to watch this become this, And to be given that gift of a front row seat to see how a body, so tiny and frail and fragile, can become Strong in a 100 different ways.
Jeremy Duncan:I think that alone has taught me more about life than I probably even realize yet. In fact, I have a nickname for my daughter. It's beautiful, as in, hey, beautiful. How was school today? And that's great.
Jeremy Duncan:But that is Certainly not all we want her to hear from us. And so Rachel and I also make sure that we tell her she is strong and she is brave. And Probably my favorite thing is to hear her repeat that to herself. Like, I will hear her going up to the bathroom when the lights are out saying, I'm brave as she climbs the stairs into the dark. Or I'm strong as she moves a chair into position.
Jeremy Duncan:And sometimes even if we know our bodies are wonderful, It's helpful to be reminded of that once in a while. And by the way, if you don't know this, you can remind yourself of that too. It's okay to tell yourself you're brave. By the way, since we're here, this is just for free. But parents, dads in the room in particular, because that's what I know, let your kids, sons and daughters both, know That you're proud of them, and they can do hard things.
Jeremy Duncan:Those messages have a way of sinking in if you say them enough. That said, I think part of the reason that I love the way Paul uses a body as a metaphor for community so much is because, oh, like all of this. From the farts and the laughter, to the premature births and complications, to the growth and strength and unexpected bravery in all of us, All of that is somehow present in this image that Paul uses to talk about us. And I think sometimes we forget all of that. Using a body as an image for us together, Christian community, that says a lot.
Jeremy Duncan:Like bodies are funny, and bodies are painful, and bodies sometimes don't work the way we expect them to or hope that they would. Sometimes it's embarrassing to have a body. Right? We have parts of our bodies that we give playful names to, so that we don't have to talk about them directly. And if you don't think Paul has all of that in mind, what do you think he's imagining when he says that the parts of the body that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor, and The parts that are unpresentable, we treat them with special modesty.
Jeremy Duncan:And Paul is leaning in to all of the body metaphor he can muster here to get us Think about what community really is for us. So today let's start by going back to the beginning of chapter 12, and Let's see how Paul gets to Christian community as a body, and how that can help us perhaps shape this life together. This is 1st Corinthians 12, starting in verse 1. Now about the gifts of the spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. And let's pause here quickly, because Paul is going to get to the body metaphor, but this section actually starts by talking about our Gifts.
Jeremy Duncan:What it is that we bring to each other. Keep that in mind. Now, you know that when you were pagans, somehow you were Influenced and led astray to mute idols. Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
Jeremy Duncan:2nd quick pause here. You can't read this mechanistically. Okay? As if these are somehow magical words and anyone who repeats the syllables, Jesus is Lord, is now somehow automatically being led by God's Spirit. That's not what Paul means.
Jeremy Duncan:What he's talking about is the difference between your life in Christ and the life that you had before. The difference between quote unquote mute religion and religion that speaks through your presence in the world. That that's what Jesus is Lord is about in this sentence. It's not saying the phrase. It's living the life that speaks that reality.
Jeremy Duncan:And you can see that because that's exactly where Paul goes next. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. So when Paul uses this phrase, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit, he then immediately explains what all of that means by talking about gifts, and service and work and everything that God does in and through us.
Jeremy Duncan:This is already a very embodied practice of religion that Paul is talking about here. How you use the gifts at your disposal, And how you serve those around you, how you participate in the good work of community, that's the difference between a silent religion And the presence that screams, Jesus is Lord, without having to say a word. All that, and he hasn't even gotten to the body metaphor yet. Truth is, if you read chapter 12 as a whole, you kind of get the feeling that the one body many parts is really just him riffing on the idea he's setting up here. Faith is an embodied practice.
Jeremy Duncan:It is what you do. Still, if you're paying close attention to the word choices here, I think Paul is showing his hand already. Listen to this. There are different gifts, but the same spirit, verse 4. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, verse 5.
Jeremy Duncan:There are different kinds of work, but the same God, verse 6. I mean, we've got Spirit, Lord, God. That is an explicitly Trinitarian framework for community. Now, we've talked about Trinity before. It's this very complicated theological topic with Reams and volumes of pages written over centuries to explain how this topic can be both absolutely central to faith, and yet also at the same time Completely incomprehensible to everyone.
Jeremy Duncan:But for me Trinity is important, not so much as a doctrinal definition, But as a central metaphor through which we approach what God is. See we say things like God is love. But for God to be more than loving as a descriptive statement, that means that God has to somehow be capable of love on God's own. In other words, God must somehow have a capability for gift and reception within God. God must be versed in love before there was a universe to love.
Jeremy Duncan:And that mysterious reality that God is somehow loving community from before anything, that's what we call Trinity. One of the very first attempts to communicate this mystery was from a guy named John of Damascus. He used the term perikaresis. Literally, what that means is the dancing around. Think choreography on the perimeter, perichoresis.
Jeremy Duncan:But it's the idea that the primal reality of everything has been forever, since before there was time in a perpetual state of gift and reception, speaking and listening, leading and following and influencing all at the same time. That's reality, that is Trinity. And for Paul, that is now the model for everything that's been gifted to us, including Are communities together? In Christ, we find that we are not only not on our own, but actually we've never been on our own ever. And therefore, however we show up in community with our gifts, or our service, or our works, These are as intimately connected as our triune imagination of who God is.
Jeremy Duncan:Which is why I find it Kind of fascinating that for some reason whenever the idea of gifts comes up in the church, or spiritual gifts, if you've ever heard that term before, People all of a sudden want to get very exotic. Like, why they want to talk about things like prophecy and speaking in tongues and miraculous powers, as if Somehow those mean more than serving lunch to someone who's hungry or silently sitting with someone who's grieving. Now at the same time I get it. Right? Because that's exactly where Paul goes next.
Jeremy Duncan:I mean he lists off a message of wisdom, a Word of knowledge, gifts of healing and miraculous powers, prophecy and distinguishing of spirits, speaking in different tongues and the interpretation of those Tongues accept that that list leads directly into the big finale, which is just as one body, though one, has many parts. Still all its many parts form one body, so it is in Christ. Like the very specific reason That Paul lists off all those sexy gifts is precisely to say, actually, really they're no more important than anything else. Remember, it's 1 spirit, 1 Lord, 1 God, one triune imagination of gift and reception that informs our life together. So let's reign it in boys.
Jeremy Duncan:In fact, Paul even uses this gifts conversation here to hit on one of his other favorite talking points. That's The idea of our social differences being reconsidered now in Christ. Verse 13. For we are all baptized by 1 spirit who is to form 1 body, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free. We are all given 1 spirit to drink from.
Jeremy Duncan:So Paul says, look, your gifts, your service, your works, your baptism, your ethnicity, your economic status, None of it ranks. There is no hierarchy in trinitarian community. However, I think the real beauty of Paul's rhetorical flourish here in Corinth is that he finds a way to, in one wonderful swoop, Both invalidate all of our attempts to enforce hierarchy on each other, while at the same time Absolutely affirming the beauty of our difference. Here's the real heart of the metaphor. It starts in verse 15.
Jeremy Duncan:Paul writes, now, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part. And if the ear would say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong, it wouldn't stop either. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? And If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell come from? Though God has placed the parts, every one of them, just as God wanted them to be.
Jeremy Duncan:So the eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, even those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are In the end, indispensable. And that's why if one part suffers, we all suffer. If one part is honored, then Everyone rejoices.
Jeremy Duncan:And I love this because it brings me back to where we started with all of the complexity of our bodies. Whatever you think you have that lifts you up over and above another, that's an illusion. An arm is meaningless on its own even if you have biceps like me. But at the same time, Paul says you are absolutely a unique gift To those near you, the body is incomplete without you. So hierarchy may not exist here, But difference certainly does.
Jeremy Duncan:Jew or Gentile, that affords you no status, says Paul. But your lived experience as a Jewish person, your unique perspective as a Gentile believer, well that absolutely is a gift to those near you, so make sure you bring all of it with you. Like, don't let the apostle Paul Here you talk about being color blind. That's not what he's getting at here. In fact, he's explicitly stating that we all have something to learn from those with Different experiences than us because that is the gift that we bring to each other.
Jeremy Duncan:It's Paul that made the leap From our gifts to our lived experience, and all of it fits in together. And look, if we're going to be honest with ourselves here while we're here, Leveling the ground between slaves and free. That's not a culturally neutral act. I mean, Paul is aggressively challenging the status quo in Corinth here. But again, this is the beauty of this idea of Trinitarian community, because while exchanging one ranking system For another ranking system that comes pretty naturally to us.
Jeremy Duncan:We are, all of us, very comfortable in defining ourselves over and against someone else. That way forward, says Paul, won't actually heal us. And that's really what Paul has in mind here. You see, in the background of this letter is something called the Temple of Asclepius, the Asclepion. And it was one of the primary focal points in the city of Corinth.
Jeremy Duncan:Asclepius was the god of healing and medicine. And If you've ever seen a staff with a snake wrapped around it at a hospital or maybe on an ambulance, that's Asclepius. Story goes that one day he found an injured snake, and he nursed it back to health. And so in return the snake taught him all the secrets of medicine and healing. Those of you who went to medical school here, you could have just gotten yourself a pet snake and skipped all the exams, but good on you for taking the hard road toward that.
Jeremy Duncan:Still, talking snakes aside, the central conceit of the Asclepion was that you needed healing. What you would do is bring a body part to the temple. And not just to have hands laid on you, but to actually leave that part in Asclepius' care. Now, it's not as gruesome as it sounds. What happened was worshipers would make plaster casts of the body part that had been injured or hurt.
Jeremy Duncan:And then those casts would be brought to the temple, Stored in the Asklepion, and you would pay a priest to then pray over that cast for your healing. So centuries later, when the temple was unearthed, and Archaeology just finally got in there. What they found was literally just piles of disembodied parts, Like arms and legs and hips and ears and everything that needed healing in Corinth. Here's an image of actual ancient molds that were discovered and unearthed in the ruins of the Asclepion in Corinth. And here, they're being gathered and prepared to be sent to different museums around the world today.
Jeremy Duncan:But what this means is if you are in Corinth, reading this letter from Paul as a Corinthian and hearing him speak of the futility of disembodied parts. It's more than just a neat metaphor for diversity and unity. It's something that you saw around you embedded in your Control consciousness regularly. So try to imagine that image floating around in the back of your mind as you hear Paul speak of Bodies now coming together and coming alive and set against the imagination of a temple down the street filled with lifeless Plaster hands, empty prayers, and silent gods. Paul is saying That when our parts come together, when we learn not only to bring our full selves to community, but To make room for the neighbors that we don't expect to show up.
Jeremy Duncan:Not only are we better for it, but that we can actually Do the work of healing each other. Not only do we thrive as the hand or ear or foot or leg that we want to be, But we actually now become part of a living, breathing, giving, receiving body that undertakes the work of healing the world. And when I think back to my daughter at 4 days old, her hands barely big enough to grasp my little finger, Her lungs not yet strong enough to lift her chest. And I see her now at 4 years old telling me how brave she is to climb dark stairs and how she'll Do it herself without my interference. I think that will always be part of the image I associate now with First Corinthians, our beautiful Bodies in the ways that all of our parts together become stronger than we ever thought they could be.
Jeremy Duncan:See with care, and with patience, and with kindness, and with time, You and I can become so much more than any of us are on our own, than any of us are right now. The thing is that only happens when we muster the courage to bring our gifts, and our service, and our work, But also our full selves, with our perspectives and our lived experiences, when we bring all of that to community, and then We find that met with open arms. And so here's Paul's prayer in 1st Corinthians is that you might bring your full self To community, and that you might become beautiful because of how that community welcomes you, And your gift and your contribution. It's the both end of bringing ourself And knowing that we are welcome when we get there, and sometimes that's hard work. Let's pray.
Jeremy Duncan:God, for the times that we have been afraid to bring all of ourselves to community. Perhaps because we've been hurt before. Perhaps because there's parts of our bodies that we are embarrassed by. We pray that your spirit would help us find the courage and the bravery to show up. And at the same time, we pray that the community that we show up in would find within itself the strength to welcome us properly.
Jeremy Duncan:To hold the uniqueness and the diversity. The perspectives that sometimes pull each other in new directions. The tensions that come from allowing everyone to be present really together. But God we trust that in the midst of that, the coming together of hands and feet and eyes and ears, Bodies that are finding their place together. We can slowly become beautiful together.
Jeremy Duncan:And then get on with the work of allowing everything you have gifted to us To change the world. With more grace and more goodness, more healing and more repair. Trusting that this is the future that you imagine for us. In the strong name At the risen Christ we pray. Amen.
Jeremy Duncan:Hey, Jeremy here and thanks for listening to our podcast. If If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our discord server.
Jeremy Duncan:Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage Each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.