January 28, 2025 

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Daily Lectionary: Zechariah 6:1-7:14; Romans 16:17-27

For 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. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

I sort of wish I could see Paul’s facial expressions as he wrote to the church in Corinth. He had more than a couple of frustrations. Even though bickering over who’s the most important honesty seems trivial compared to some of the other stuff they were doing, this one’s pretty serious. Imagine just conveying, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of the gospel of Christ Jesus, that apart from anything you could ever do by works of the law, you were saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for you and for all. No one in the church can save themselves by works, and nobody has to. But they’ll still fight about who’s the most important based on what they can do anyway. If we are the body of Christ, you are the appendix. Why are you even here? 

If the whole body were a nose, how would you pick it? It isn’t just a call to repentance for all who think too much of themselves. This desire to be the most important isn’t just dangerous for the ones convinced of how much they do. It’s the ones who think they go unnoticed. Overlooked. Forgotten. The feeling of worthlessness that permeates any culture rooted in works. Ironically, it’s the one thing the people who think too much of themselves and the people who think too little share in common. They can only think of themselves. But the whole body is not a nose. And, much more importantly, you are not worth simply what you can do. 

The body of Christ, knit together, works as God has ordered it. But the true worth of each part is not in what it can do but in the cost that was paid to knit us together under Him who is our head, Christ. Our Lord died and rose to give you your worth. It doesn’t have to rest on you doing enough, and it can’t be diminished by you not doing enough. You are worth what was paid for you. So, if you happen to be the appendix, the nose, or the finger, what matters most is that you’re attached to the head who has redeemed and saved us all the same and works good through us, the body, each day. 

Suffer together. Rejoice together. 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

In what You give us, Lord, to do, Together or alone, In old routines or ventures new, May we not cease to look to You, The cross You hung upon - All You endeavored done. (LSB 853:4)

-Rev. Harrison Goodman, content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.