BOOM! We are Christ's Body

Below is a sermon given by Micah intern Tyler Bridge at The Crossing. It was written in response to Luke 4:14-21. 

Luke 4:14-21

Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."


Initially when I hear this story I want to say, “Boom! That’s my Jesus!”  I want to run around proclaiming to everyone how awesome Jesus is. I want to say, “Did you hear that? Christ is the Messiah. He’s going to bring good news to the poor, release the captives, restore sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free.” But then I begin to dig deeper. I remember that as Christians we are called to not only admire and follow Jesus, but we are called to be like Christ; we are called to be Christ’s body.


       I hear that a lot these days. “We are Christ’s body.” And I find myself asking, “What the heck does that mean?” And it wasn’t until recently that I was able to answer this question for myself.


       I am a small-town West-Texas boy working for the Diocese of Massachusetts in an internship program that holds intentional community living as a key component. I have been thrust into a house with 6 other interns, and we are expected share our space, our time, and our emotions with one another. (Does this sound like Episcopal Church reality TV show to anyone else?)  Every Tuesday morning, rain or shine, happy or sad, awake or asleep, we have a meeting to discuss our community. What is going on, what is going well, what is not going so well, who is overcome with joy, who is angry, who can’t stop laughing, and who is steeped in sadness? (You know the questions one usually gets asked on Tuesday mornings.)

       One Tuesday I had had a particularly difficult week both as an individual and as a member of the community. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and I had just returned from the rather difficult funeral of my grandmother, Memaw is what we called her. My Memaw played no small part in my development both as a person and most importantly as a Christian, and dealing with her death and funeral was enough to inundate me with sadness. But going home to Texas is also something that brings me a lot of pain, and on this trip not only did I have to endure an alter call at the funeral service of my beloved grandmother, but also my mother and the pastor of her church telling me that I should really take a “serious look at my faith, and that I should reevaluate my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” These weren’t words of encouragement. Quite the opposed in fact, they said all this because they fear that the way I choose to practice my Christianity is a perversion, and they think I am missing the mark because I don’t have in their eyes a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ”

      And that’s where I was sitting on a plane, flying back to Boston, questioning my faith, and realizing that the person that had been my spiritual guide for the past 25 years was not longer on this Earth. I came into our community meeting that Tuesday feeling detached, lonely, and broken, and our time together reflected that struggle. As I looked around the room, it was like the members of my community had each been facing similar challenges of individual and community life as well. We needed a sign, we needed love, we needed healing, we needed Jesus, and we got it. We gave voice to our pain, we sat together, we cried together, and with the help of each other we were able to overcome our fear, our loneliness, our brokenness, and at the close of our meeting, as I sat with tears in my eyes, feeling totally reconciled both with my community and with God, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I ceased see specific individuals within my community, but I realized that all I saw in their faces was the face of Jesus. That’s what it means to have a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” and that’s what it means to be Christ’s body.

       I see Christ here in the life of this diocese as well. I hear Christ’s voice when Jamie leads us in the full-bodied worship experience of song. I feel Christ’s footsteps when we gather together hundreds of youth from all over eastern Massachusetts at the Barbra C. Harris camp and conference center for the High School Youth and the Pre-Confirmation retreats to learn about and explore our faith, and we spread out over the entire Jack Dorian Center and dance to our hearts content, I see Christ’s hands in the work of the Hope in Action campaign, a campaign lead by the young adults of the Diomass intern program, and I feel Christ’s open heartbeat in this community today. A community that is willing to throw open your doors to me and Jamie and Rev. Steph to live and share and expand our faith through our common bond of Jesus Christ our Savior. I recognize Christ in all of these things because I recognize Christ in all of you.

       In this story Christ is the one who is going to change the world, but do we just sit at home and let him do it alone? I think the answer is a resounding, no. We are Christ’s body, and if we expect him to reconcile this broken world then we are going to have to mobilize his hands and feet. We are the ones called to bring good news to the poor,  we are the ones called to release the captives, restore sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free.

       We are Christ’s body. We are the ones called to do God’s work on Earth, because we are called to be like Christ in everything we do, everyway we do it. So imagine you are Jesus in this story, you are handed the scroll, you get up to read, and when you are finished you sit down with all eyes fixed upon you, and you say “I am like Christ, and I will fulfill scripture with my life.”