Called to Proclaim the Mighty Acts of the Lord

I Corinthians 12:1-11, 1 Peter 2:9-10

by Rev. Callum R. Tabada, as preached on January 10, 2016
Good morning! As announced, our celebration today is in line with the worldwide celebration of the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity. This celebration was first observed officially in January 1908 in the chapel of
a small Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Protestant Episcopal Church on a remote hillside fifty miles
from New York City, USA. However, earlier experience of Christians desiring to pray together for Christian
unity were recorded in the 19th century when groups were already alarmed by the division which
weakened the power of Christian witness.
In 1846 the Evangelical Alliance emerged in London developing both international and inter-church
relationships. In 1857 the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians was founded for "united
prayer that visible unity may be restored to Christendom." This involved the Angelical, Roman Catholic
and Orthodox churches. Many efforts followed thereafter bringing the desire in their consciousness. In
1913 the Faith and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church published a leaflet promoting
prayer for unity. In 1920 the preparatory Conference on Faith and Order at Geneva strongly pushed
among the different church the celebration of the special week of prayer for Christian unity.
Many other Christian groups have since joined in the prayer and today, through the sponsorship of the
Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, of which the UCCP is a strong
member together with other protestant churches worldwide, and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity
of the Roman Catholic Church, the desire to pray for Christians to come together in unity has never been
stronger.
On the side, let us not forget that this church is very much privileged to have with us in our
membership people who have officially worked with the World Council of Churches, for church unity and
many other advocacies, and I'm talking about the Senturias couple, Dr. Linda and Pastor Al. This church,
through its membership, is indeed a global church.
Looking at our very own experience, this prayer for unity is actually espoused and lived out in our
very own history as United Church of Christ in the Philippines. Inspired and guided by the prayer of our
Lord in John 17:21, "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you," let us not forget
that the UCCP is a product of the coming together of different mainline Protestant denominations who set
aside their differences, finally came together in unity and actual union to form the Protestant Church of the
Philippines, that is UCCP, in 1948.
As a product of Christian unity, the UCCP is and will always be ecumenical, always seeking and
praying that churches come together in the name of Christ. This is why as a church, as UCCP, we say
that we are a united and uniting church, and the work of coming together will never stop.
This is the reason why as a church, divisions are considered scandals in the church and should never
be given a chance to take over the essence of the church. For as a church, we are called the Body of
Christ, and as a body, should always be together and united in Christ our Lord.
This is the scandal that the Apostle Paul tried to address and correct in the church in Corinth in our
Scripture Reading today. For in that particular church, the people experienced divisions-people were
trying to put each other down and each of them was saying that he or she has the better gift compared to
the others. They were trying to claim that they have the spirit, the better spirit while others have not or
have the lesser spirit or gifts.
It just seems coincidental that the church in Corinth is in a sense a cosmopolitan church, with people
from all walks of life in a metropolitan setting. So you can imagine the kind of people in that church,
perhaps much like our church today. Perhaps if we do a detailed study of the church in Corinth and the
most recent history of our very own UCCP Cosmopolitan Church, you can very well see the similarities,
with people claiming they have the spirit while others do not.
The Apostle Paul sets this straight in his letter by saying, "1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers
and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed." Then in verses 4 and following Paul continues, "There
are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but
the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same
God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."

As members of the church then, nobody can say that he or she is not a part of the body, for whoever
professes Jesus as Lord, whoever is in Christ Jesus our Lord is a new being, and now a part of Christ's
body, endowed with spiritual gifts that he or she can use to help bring and lift up the body of Christ.
Nobody should therefore say that he or she doesn't have anything to contribute to the upliftment of the
body of Christ, for as a new being, as one who is born anew in Christ, God's spirit is in that person, and
the Spirit gives one who is in the body of Christ, a gift that he or she can use to build up the body of
Christ, to serve God and God's people.
You, who believe in the Jesus as savior, have therefore been given a gift, and your task is not only to
discover what that gift is, but more especially to discover how you should use that gift, however simple or
extravagant that gift is, to help build the body of Christ.
As a church we are likened to a body with members as parts of that body, and one cannot live without
the other, we are inter-connected, we are united, we are one in the body of Christ. Indeed as Christians,
as believers of Jesus our Lord, we are united in him, and as one body, we should live this identity and
reality in our lives as a church.
The body cannot function well if one or more of its parts are not working fully. For those of us who
cannot seem to appreciate what we are doing here in church, perhaps this is the reason why we cannot
fully move forward, because there are those who are not fully participating in the life and ministry of this
church.
The same is true with the larger church, the Universal Church. Perhaps this is the reason why the
world is in turmoil and the church is losing its influence and relevance. By not coming together, by not
joining hands and moving together, we all lose the opportunity to be salt and light to the world around us.
Our celebration therefore of Prayer for Christian Unity is a wakeup call for churches to come to our
senses, to remember our call and our very purpose. We are all part of the larger body of Christ,
empowered by God through the same Spirit, to do God's will in the world.
And what is God's will for us in this world? The second reading today in 1 Peter 2:9-10 actually
defines this year's theme for the Prayer for Christian Unity celebration which is the title of our sermon
today. This is the reason of our calling, of our coming together as a church, of our being one and united in
Christ. As a church, according to 1 Peter 2:9, "you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God's special possession." And then, continuing that verse, we receive our mandate, our very purpose
as a church and it says, "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light." We are therefore "Called to Proclaim the Mighty Acts of the Lord."
As the body of Christ, we always take cue from what Jesus our Lord himself did when he walked with
us on earth. And what did Jesus do? Jesus proclaimed the Good News - forgiveness, reconciliation,
justice, love, peace, healing, and many more. And Jesus proclaimed these in word and in deed, not just in
speech but in actually doing it.
In our Bible Study session at the Delgenta Office of our Vice Chairperson Gem Dela Calzada, one of
our discussions was on the question of Jesus' healing ministry. Why was Jesus healing people, and why
didn't he just put up a healing ministry or a hospital of sort that would just heal all the sick people in the
land? After looking into the scriptures and the different healing stories, we discovered that Jesus' healing
of the sick is not the end purpose of it, Jesus didn't heal for the sake of healing, Jesus and later on his
disciples, healed people for the purpose of glorifying God, and manifesting the power of Jesus as God's
Son and our Savior, to lead the people to believe in God and be saved.
As a church, we are called to do the same, to preach the Good News of God's salvation through
Jesus Christ our Lord, to Proclaim the Mighty Acts of our Lord. Let us do this and be true to our calling a
Church, the body of Christ. Amen.