“Who are we” 
  1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a, Ephesians 2: 13-22 and Luke 12: 32-34     

 Who among us has not paused -- whether looking in a mirror or not -- to ask “who am I”? At various times in our life -- perhaps when thinking about a career change -- some of us have taken the Myers Briggs Test, the Enneagram Personality Test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or some other assessment to find out whether we are extroverted or introverted, a thinker or feeler, a loyalist or a reformer, or perhaps we want to know if we are better suited to be a teacher or a mechanic.   

Institutions go through the same exercise.  Does a particular college want to focus on the liberal arts or be a multifaceted research center? Is a particular bank going to focus on retail banking or on investment banking? Our sports teams also try to figure out who they are. Is your football team a running one with a stout defense (perhaps protecting a rookie quarterback), or a team with a wide open down field passing attack? Is your basketball   team one to run and gun or one to pound it down low one?

Why do we -- as individuals and as institutions  -- go through this exercise? It certainly isn’t because it is always a fun experience? Who really wants to learn that she is actually not who she thought she was? That his strengths lie in a different direction? Who wants to know she would be happier as a forest ranger rather than a real state agent unless she can easily leave family, friends, and a mortgage behind and head for the wooded hills. Yet, we ought to go through this exercise because it helps us to live fully. Nothing is sadder than the person who has been a square peg in a round hole for years.

Churches are no different. Indeed, what we do on Annual Meeting Sunday is to try and answer again that question, “who we are?” That’s essentially what we are doing when we vote on officers, board members, budgets and resolutions.  The question -- what it means to be a church -- has been around from the being of Christianity. It is the subject Paul writes about most often in his letters to the early churches in Asia Minor. And that is why we have readings from two Pauline letters this morning.[1] 

Through the use of two wonderful metaphors - - the body and the family -- Paul tries to capture the essence of what it means to be the church.  Through his reference to arms and legs, eyes and ears that make up the body, we are reminded in Corinthians that as a church we are defined by the diversity of the people who make up our congregation. Some are teachers, some healers, some good with numbers, and some make wonderful casseroles. Some are the captains of industry and some mold young minds. All people are welcome. The body needs all its limbs and organs to be fully functioning -- so too does a church.

But it is not simply that the church is made up of a multitude of parts but that each is equally important and essential.  I have given each of you a tile. Each of one of them is pretty and often unique.  And yet each is incomplete. Here on the other hand, I have a small mosaic of individual tiles joined in a way which highlights their individual beauty and yet together they become more than their sum. They become unified and interdependent. If you took some pieces out of this mosaic, it might still convey something -- its pattern might still be recognizable -- but it would be less riveting and powerful than when complete. This is true for the church as well. We are a collection of individuals but as the body of Christ we are made more complete, we are enhanced --- not only as a totality but also as separate human beings -- when combined with others. Or perhaps better when we are in ongoing relationship with each other. 

Think of an orchestra. It is a collection of skilled musicians. Certainly, each musician can play music by himself or herself, but when they play together not only does their individual virtuosity shine through but also the combination of all the notes, sounds and tones  is more harmonious and moving  than the music made by any single instrument. Or for those of you inclined to sports metaphors think of a football team. There are a variety of football players on a team-- ends, defensive and offense lineman, running backs, defensive backs, quarterbacks, and kickers.  One can watch each on the practice field and be awed by their skill sets. Some have extraordinary hand-eye coordination, others are amazingly quick and some are remarkably strong. All are needed on a team.  And when joined together – when they are meshed together becoming interdependent – their individual skills shine even more brightly and their skills combine to be more than the sum of their individual talents.

            Now, some of you may be thinking there is nothing terribly profound about the fact that we as the church are a diverse and yet interdependent group. Yet there is, I believe, an important point here, namely that a church is about people. To use Paul’s other metaphor; fundamentally a church is a family.  A church is not a building, though that is very helpful to have. It’s not an endowment though again that is helpful to have. Anyone who has traveled to Russia in recent years can attest to the fact that dotted across the Russian countryside and in its cities are magnificent church buildings  -- now museums.  They are no longer churches -- why because they have no people who attend.

In the 1990s I served as a member of a denominational committee. One of the saddest tasks we had before us was what to do with an old Evangelical and Reformed church in Maryland. This hundred and fifty-year-old church had a beautiful building that had been lovingly maintained. The church was also blessed with a robust endowment that had been cultivated over the years. But it had only three members left -- all of whom were over 80. Its community had changed from German-American to African-American but the church had not changed.  It was sadly no longer a church. And the question was what to with the building and the money.

            Quite clearly Paul is reminding us and the churches in Corinth and Ephesus through these metaphors that a church is fundamentally a collection of people – diverse, yet interdependent. But the same could be said for other people-focused organizations. What makes us different is what brings us together. To go back to the mosaic metaphor -- what is the grout that takes separate folks and turns them into a church?  The writer of Ephesians says this about the church:

                                    It is the dwelling place of God.

                                    Christ is its center – its cornerstone.

                                    It is the place of Christ’s proclamation

of love and peace.  

This means that the church is the place where were we are connected in faith to that which is greater than ourselves; to the God who loves and forgives us no matter what. The church is that body of people who not only receive that gift of divine love but reflect that love outward by caring for one another and sharing the work of God in the world. The church is the universal path to God that is open to all. Paul summarized all this when he called the church the body of Christ

            The First Congregational Church of Chappaqua can be described in many ways. It’s that religious group that meets at 210 Orchard Ridge Road. It was founded in 1912. It is a congregation of roughly 260 active members, roughly 35% of whom attend worship regularly. It has a budget in excess of $470,000, and an endowment of around a $1 million dollars. It educates dozens of young people, has a fine music program and contributes much to outreach. Each of these statements is accurate. And yet I submit the fundamental essence of who we are relates to none of these truthful statements. Instead Paul was right -- we are first and foremost the body of Christ and as such are dedicated to sharing the Good News with the world. It is that good news of God’s love, forgiveness and mercy that is our orchestral score -- our playbook – the grout that binds us together as the First Congregational Church.

Why is it important that we not lose sight of this -- because it is the single most significant basis for the church’s health, vitality and growth. Growth, of course, brings wonderful things in its wake. A growing church has more people who can offer time, talent and resources to the church and its programs. But no one joins a church to balance the budget or to add to the endowment. And none of us will invite a friend to come here for those reasons. Some will come for our church school, others for worship, others still for music, but they will stay if this church – if the non dogmatic and inclusive faith that we share (that grout that holds together the individual tiles here) -- makes a difference and is transforming in our lives and in theirs.

There are lots of things to do to help this church to grow and we need to intentionally plant those seeds and tend them with energy, dedication and enthusiasm. But beneath it all growth is predicted first and foremost on being the body of Christ.

Growth won’t, of course, just happen. We must reach out, we must be welcoming and hospitable, we must have programs and worship that are relevant and we must be role models in participating in the life of the church. If we don’t come, worship and participate,  how can we expect anyone else too?

But that said it is the fact that we make a difference in people’s lives that is important. That is why the faith has grown over the centuries – it transforms people’s lives for the better. Paul captures this when he writes “if one member suffers, all suffer together with [him], if one member is honored, all rejoice together with him.” I think we do that well now. Let’s be proud of what we are about; how it is that we are spreading the good and transforming news of the gospels.  Let’s get on with helping that to happen. In this denomination nobody does it for us – for we are all the church. What happens at the annual meeting is part of that process of being the church – the body of Christ. Let’s joyously get on with it.  Amen