United in Christ

Our theme this morning is United in Christ.

And it forms part of a series that over these weeks we're looking at what it means to be in Christ.

That's where we find our identity as followers of Jesus.

There are all sorts of different things you can say about a human person.

But as a Christian the one thing that defines us first and last is Jesus.

It's him in whom we are held.

He is the one who has saved us.

He is the one who promises to hold us for all eternity.

It is God who has created us.

It is God who saves us.

It is God who through a lifelong process makes us the people that he wants us to be.

And so we are in Christ and that is where our identity lies.

But there's a danger that when we talk about these things that it can become very introspective and rather individualistic.

So we just get caught up in ourselves and our own personal individual identity.

And so this morning is a really important part of this series as we think of what it is to be in Christ.

As Paul says that, you know, there's no sort of lone range spirituality here.

It's not about just me, myself and I.

Rather we are part of something bigger.

That as Paul puts it, all the members belong to one another.

United in Christ.

You know, all of this is particularly important because of the cultural map on which we find ourselves in the West right now.

Now, the question of personal identity is not a new one.

Of course it's not.

But what is very contemporary in our Western world is the nature of the struggle and the confusion

in which our culture more widely is caught up in that question of what is personal identity

and how do we identify one another?

Add to that the Western focus on individualism in the extreme sense,

and you've got the perfect storm.

Let me give you an illustration, albeit a rather extreme one.

Several years ago I was reading about a woman in this country who had just got married.

She had baked her own cake.

She'd made her own dress.

She'd done all the invites.

Nothing unusual about that.

Perhaps a little bit more unusual, although not unheard of.

She'd played quite a big part in actually writing the words of the ceremony.

Whilst in a marriage ceremony we might perhaps, sometimes it may be that the people getting married

want to sort of input into the words that might be used.

This was rather more unusual in that she'd written the whole lot.

But the thing that really stood out about this particular marriage

was that the lady who was getting married was marrying herself.

Now you may think I'm joking, but it wasn't intended as a joke,

even though the way the media reported it perhaps made a bit of fun of it,

but actually she was really serious.

And she said that the reason she wanted to be married was that she didn't see herself

finding somebody to get married to in the near future,

and she didn't want to wait to have her big day.

She wanted her wedding ceremony.

She wanted the party.

She wanted to bring her friends in.

But actually, at a deeper level, she wanted to celebrate who she was.

She wanted her family and her friends around her

to celebrate that sense of who she was and is.

Now this was several years ago, and it has become a bit of a growing trend.

Of course, you can't marry yourself and have that legal status.

But actually, going through or having a wedding day

where you marry yourself and you celebrate your identity

is a growing thing.

It's actually called sologamy.

Put that into Google, and you'll see that it's not a few people

that are now marrying themselves.

I even, and it sounds like I'm joking,

I actually read, and I was looking this up, preparing for today,

somebody just recently married themselves,

and the next day announced that they were going to divorce themselves

because they just couldn't cope with being with themselves for any longer.

Better get used to it because you've got the rest of your life.

Now, one I've just described is a pretty extreme example.

Perhaps it's something that maybe might not immediately resonate

with our own experience.

But what I'm talking about here

is our wider cultural obsession with individualism

and the way in which the question of identity gets caught up within that.

And that theme of individualism

is something that I think actually probably all of us

of any age in the West

would have been caught up in.

Ask yourself this question.

When you receive something

from somebody else,

whether that's a gift,

whether it's an act of kindness,

maybe it's just the offer of an act of help or kindness,

what are your instinctive internal reactions?

I'm going to dare to answer the question for you

because I think, generally speaking,

we shirk away from it.

We back off.

Why?

Because we feel uncomfortable

about receiving.

because we have this culture

that we've been brought up in.

I'm talking about a Western reality now

that actually you've got to stand on your own two feet.

Now, there's nothing wrong inherently with that, of course.

But there's something quite dangerous

when we become so individualised

that actually we feel uncomfortable

about receiving help or support from somebody else.

And we feel that actually somehow

the only way we can receive that

is if we're going to reciprocate it

and pretty quickly too.

And it's against that that Paul says

that our identity,

who we are as human beings,

is in Christ.

Okay?

It's a deeply, deeply personal thing,

but it's not an individualistic thing.

He says this,

in Christ,

each member,

and he's not talking about the church as a club.

Often that's how we turn it into,

but that's not what he means.

Paul uses the language of the body

and talks about body parts as members.

So it's an organic living thing, the church.

In Christ, we are a body

and each one of us as members of that body

belong to one another.

It's not an individualistic thing.

John Wesley put it,

none holiness but social.

We are in this together.

Our mission is together.

We are called to serve not just individuals,

but collectively the society around us.

And that we are called to be followers of Jesus,

not just as individual persons,

but as part of a body.

And if we're serious about growing in Christ,

about learning more about who we are

and what our identity is

and why we matter to God

and how we can truly flourish as human beings,

we need to understand that

that is not something that we can do

and work out in isolation from others.

If you've ever watched geese fly,

you'll notice they do it in formation,

in the shape of a V.

It's one of those fascinating lessons from nature

that we can all learn from.

Because there is a reason why they do this

in that it enables them to fly so much better

and more efficiently.

The formation acts aerodynamically

like the geese, collectively, are a single wing.

The air drag becomes evenly distributed

across all of the birds,

such that if one of the geese

accidentally falls away from the group,

then they need to rejoin it pretty fast.

Apparently, research says

that when geese fly,

if 25 geese fly together in the shape of a V,

they can fly for more than 70% further

than one goose flying on its own.

Over 70% further.

We are called, says Paul,

to understand and to learn

and to grow in the truth

that our identity,

as personal and as unique as it is to each of us,

is shaped and formed,

not in isolation from one another,

but together.

That is how we fly.

That is how we flourish.

If we really want to grow,

then we need to not only understand

that we are part of something bigger,

but actually get actively engaged

in that bigger thing.

And the danger can then be

that if we get involved in a church,

that if we become just passive consumers

of that church

and we're not actually actively involved with it,

the danger can be that we feel isolated,

we can feel lonely within it,

and this can apply to churches of any size,

whether they're big churches or smaller churches,

but I would suggest that perhaps bigger churches

are more vulnerable to this danger.

That if we're not engaged with it at all,

we can feel quite lonely and isolated within it.

Because we look around us

and we see other people

and we can assume that they're really engaged

and we can feel quite alone and cut off.

And that's why I would really encourage to anybody,

whenever you're joining a church,

wherever it is,

however big or small it is,

that the earliest opportunity,

actually try and get involved.

And there's loads of ways

in which you can get involved in any church

and there's loads of ways

you can get involved in this one.

And if you're not sure where to start,

then just have a chat with any of us.

And look out for the people,

the yellow lanyards afterwards

are on the host team this morning.

The host team itself is a great place to start

if you're not sure,

if you want to just join in and get involved.

But there are loads of other ways,

and not just here on the Sunday,

but throughout the week.

But the thing is, you see,

is when we don't get engaged and active together,

the danger can be that we become isolated from others.

And then the next step can be

we become critical of others,

and then we become cynical of others.

Jesus said that we're to let our light shine.

He said that nobody puts a light underneath a bowl

and covers it up,

but rather they put it on a prominent place

so that it can shine.

And that's true for every single one of us,

that we need to shine.

And when we don't,

well, let me share with you another analogy.

Years ago, when I was a sixth former,

in fact, that wasn't just a few years ago,

that was an embarrassingly long time ago.

But I can remember,

I'm trying to,

I think it was a,

I was trying to write a,

it was British history.

I was trying to write an essay on the corn laws,

I think it was, something like that.

And I was in my bedroom

and had one of those angle poised lamps.

And I'll be honest with you,

I was bored senseless with the corn laws.

And I was just fiddling with this angle poised lamp.

The room light itself wasn't on.

So the angle poised lamp was,

was all the light that I had to work with.

And in my boredom,

I was fiddling with this thing

and I found out that I could dim it

by bringing the lamp closer to the surface of the desk.

And I found it great fun

to see how much I could dim this lamp

without it completely losing all of its light

by just bringing the lamp

against the surface of the desk.

And then I could actually make the light go out completely

and then just bring it back up again.

So it's just like about half a millimetre

off the surface of the desk.

And I managed to actually set this thing

so there's just enough light to see.

So it was just,

the lamp, if you can just imagine,

was just a millimetre or so

above the surface of the desk.

And there I was.

So I went back to my essay.

And a couple of minutes later,

there was an almighty bang

and I was plunged into complete darkness.

See, what had happened

was because I'd messed around with this lamp in this way,

the heat had just built up within the lamp

and the bulb had just exploded.

Never forgotten that.

You see,

there was plenty of heat,

but not very much light.

And that's the danger

when we turn in on ourselves.

Heat builds up

when we're actually,

as Christian believers,

we're called to be people whose light shines.

And we're called to do that as individuals.

We're called to do that as a church.

And it's when people,

and when churches stop doing stuff together

and stop engaging,

we turn in on ourselves.

The heat builds up.

There's not so much light.

And people start to fall out into arguing.

And that's not good.

I saw a documentary a few years ago,

BBC Wildlife documentary.

And it was,

it was out on the African plains.

And there was this,

I think it's called a springbok.

It's like a type of gazelle type antelope.

And there was two of these things.

And they're normally really super alert to predators.

They have to be in order to survive.

But in this particular documentary,

it was showing these two springboks,

springboks,

fighting each other.

They were so absorbed with their fight.

I don't know what it was about,

but they were so absorbed with their fight,

they didn't notice

the lion

that was prowling around them

and encircling them.

When we turn inward

and just see the conflict

and the differences

between one another,

when we argue,

when we become embroiled

within all of that stuff

that's inward looking,

we don't notice the dangers around us.

it says in 1 Peter

that the devil is like a prowling lion

ready to pounce at any time.

And we need to be alert.

Churches, generally speaking,

when churches are persecuted

by sources,

whether that's the state

or whether that's others

from outside of them,

when churches are persecuted,

generally speaking,

they grow.

because they haven't got the time,

they can't afford

to focus on their divisions.

The big danger facing churches

is when we turn in on ourselves

and we isolate ourselves

from what's going on outside

and we just focus

on the things that are dividing us.

And Paul says that

if we are really to

not just be in Christ,

but to grow in Christ

and to flourish in Christ

as individuals,

as groups and as churches

and as the church

in the widest sense,

we need to understand

this basic truth

that we belong to one another,

that we are part

of something so much bigger

than just our own

personal spirituality.

To be and to grow

as a disciple of Jesus

is to be and grow

as part of something bigger

and to know that we are

united in Christ.

And of course,

this is not just to do

with the stuff that we do.

Most fundamentally,

it is to do,

it has to do

with the fact

that we are,

as Christian believers,

united around one thing

and that is that

we are all receivers

of God's grace.

We don't earn our way

into being in Christ

through the stuff

that we do.

We are in Christ

and we are held in Christ

because we have

one fundamental thing

in common,

that we all need him.

And that it is he

who opens up the way

to eternal life for us

and him alone.

And that all of us

are broken beings,

all of us need his help,

all of us need his salvation.

And it is that recognition,

first and last,

in our brokenness,

that we share that brokenness

and we share that

common grace in God

that unites us,

that holds us together.

I'm going to share

with you one last story

and it's a story

that comes from 1941.

Interestingly,

the words

Amen and Alleluia

are words that

unite Christians

around the world

and are almost identical

in just about

every language.

But the following story

is told about

a Romanian soldier

in the Second World War

named Anna George.

And it was 1941

and Russian troops

had overrun

the Romanian region

of Bessarabia

and entered Moldavia.

And Anna and his comrades

were badly frightened.

Bullets whizzed around them

and water shells

shook the earth.

By day,

Anna sought relief

reading his Bible.

But at night,

he could only crouch

close to the earth

and recall verses

memorised in childhood.

And one day,

during a spray

of enemy fire,

Anna was separated

from his company.

In a panic,

he bolted deeper

and deeper

into the woods

until,

huddling at the base

of a large tree,

he fell asleep

from exhaustion.

The next day,

he tried to find

his comrades

and he moved

cautiously towards

the front,

staying in the shadow

of the trees,

nibbling a crust

of bread

and drinking

from the streams.

Hearing that the battle

was closing in,

he unslung his rifle

and pulled the bolt

and watched

for the enemy.

His nerves

near the breaking point,

20 yards away,

a Russian soldier

suddenly appeared.

Anna wrote this.

All my mental rehearsals

of bravery

served me nothing.

I dropped my gun

and fell to my knees,

then buried my face

in my sweating palms

and began to pray.

And while praying,

I waited for the cold touch

of the Russian's rifle barrel

against my head.

I felt a slight pressure

on my shoulder

close to my neck.

I opened my eyes slowly.

There was my enemy

kneeling in front of me,

his gun lying next to mine

among the wild flowers.

His eyes were closed

in prayer.

We did not understand

a single word

of the other's language.

but we could pray.

We ended our prayer

with two words

that need no translation.

Hallelujah

and Amen.

Then after a tearful embrace,

we walked quickly

to opposite sides

of the clearing

and disappeared

beneath the trees.

let's pray together.

Lord God,

we thank you

that we are in Christ

and we thank you

that you call each of us

as individuals

to know that we are loved

by you

and that you want us

to know that you are

loved by you.

Thank you

that that is where

we find our identity

and that each of us

is individual

and unique.

But Lord,

we thank you

that that individuality

and that uniqueness

does not mean

that we are

to be in isolation

from one another.

Lord,

we are all dependent

on each other.

We are all dependent

on you.

Lord,

forgive us

for those times

when we have

sought to go it alone,

for when we resist

the help

from others,

for when we feel

that we are

on our own

and we should be alone,

for when we become

stagnant,

critical,

and perhaps

even cynical.

Lord,

we are sorry.

But we thank you

that we may know

that we are forgiven

because we are all

dependent on your grace.

So Lord,

help us

to bring what we have

and to bring

who we are

in all our uniqueness

into your service,

that we can serve you together,

that we can grow together,

and that we can join together

in saying that

alleluia

and amen.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.