Reflections on "Contacts" I Corinthians 12: 12-31; Psalm 133

I thought this sermon went well.  The Yogi Berra illustration is a really good one.  I thought the conclusion added a nice finish.  I had it worked out better for the Sanctuary service.  the Powerpoint in the Sanctuary added to the sermon, instead of being a distraction.    It would appear to me that some people are tired of the iPhone comments, but others seem to connect to it.

“Contacts” October 25, 2015; FPC, Troy; iPhone theology series; I Corinthians 12: 12-31; Psalm 133

Introduction: We continue the sermon series on on iPhone theology, which grows out of my experience over the last year of learning how to use an iPhone, and reflections about God from those lessons.

This week, I have been reflecting on the Contacts section of my phone.

The contact section is a way to identify and organize by name those people whom you want to be able to contact.

When someone on your contact list calls your phone number, their name shows up on your phone (Actually, what shows up is whatever you label that phone number. I have a friend who told me about putting “Do Not Answer” as the name associated with phone numbers she did not want to answer. It backfired, though, because she was so curious about who she did not want to talk to that she had to answer the phone number to see who it was!)

You can also include information about each person on your contact list, so you can have readily available multiple ways to contact the person – email; Facetime; phone; text

Contact list has me thinking about community.

Move 1: God calls us into community.

a. When I inherited the phone from my daughter, I inherited her contact list as well.

1. I went through and deleted some of them; others I kept.

2. We self-select our contacts, thereby creating our own phone community);


3. You may not be able to decide who calls you number, but you can choose whether that person will be part of your group.

4. We sort of self-select as we go through life, choosing in some ways to the groups to which we want to belong.


5. In fact, we might even say that we choose which church we want to attend and be a member.


b. theologically, we would argue that we do not so much choose our community of faith, but God calls us into community.

1. Psalm 133: he wisdom words of verse 1 -- “how good and how pleasant” -- recall the exclamation of blessing uttered by a traveler or visitor upon entering the home of another in ancient Israel.
2. God had called a people Israel, and that meant any Israelite was part of your community.
3. In its proverbial setting, the word translated “good” is tob, a word that recalls God’s assessment of creation in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1: 4, 10, 12, 18, and 21, the creation story tells us that “God saw that it was good.” Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University Atlanta, GA http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2381
4. you might not know the people whose home you were entering, but it was good and pleasant because they were part of the group, the Israelites, into which God had called you.

100. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds the early church, and us, that we are part of a the body of Christ, that community called into being by God.
     1. As Paul describes the different parts of the body and how they work together, he makes clear that it is God who has arranged this body (12:24).
     2. When Paul then expands the image of the body to the early church and describes the different gifts that are seen in their community of faith, he notes that God has appointed those people and those gifts (12:27).
     3. the human body is not randomly put together; each part has a purpose.
     4. the body of Christ is not randomly put together; each person who is part of that community of faith has a role to play.

d. Changes how we might view community when we see it as a group God has put into place.

1. instead of looking around and asking, “who are these people and why am I stuck with them?” the question becomes “What does God have in mind by putting us here in this place at this time.?”
2. Instead of the community dragging us down, the community becomes the place of opportunity.
Understanding that our community of faith was called into being by God changes how we view community.

Move 2: Do we expand or reduce our community?

a. When I first got a cell phone, way before the iPhone, the cell phone actually reduced my community, so to speak.

1. The way our phone plan worked was I could call anyone else who had a Verizon phone and those minutes did not count toward the monthly allotment of minutes we had before we began to be charged for the minutes.

2.  My circle of friends with whom I kept in contact quickly became my circle of friends who had Verizon phones.

3. Reducing my community of contacts.

b. When I started using my iPhone, I had to decide who would be part of my contact list.

1. The first group was easy – If I called someone frequently, I put their information in my contacts.

2. if it was a number, I seldom called, I didn't generally add it.

3. There is a "Favorites" section of the contacts. Who gets in that group?

4. I'm pretty sure I could create other groups if I took the time to learn how.

5. iPhone can reduce or expand my community of phone callers.

b. Jesus always seemed to be looking to expand the circle, although sometimes he reduced the circle.

1. He invited outsiders.

2.  he told stories about Samaritans, the age old enemy of Israel, and had the Samaritans as the good guys.

3.  Being a sinner did not exclude, but included.

4. The ones whom society shunned, Jesus reached out to include.

5. Sometimes he reduced – if you were taking advantage of people in the Temple, or using your power to oppress, Jesus would send you outside the circle until you would change your ways.

c. Paul's image of the body speaks to an expanded circle.

1. Paul is reversing the way in which Greek writes used the image of body.


2. In Greek world, body image for society is used, but it is to remind people of their separate places. For example, “Plutarch, uses the body imagery to speak to the plebians, the lower echelons within society, to remind them of their place as lesser members of the body as lesser than the Patricians.”


3. Paul uses the same imagery though in a reverse direction. Paul uses the body imagery to remind those at the top of the hierarchical pile that the lesser members of the body have a unique and important place as well and should be valued for their place within the body.


d. In General, Building community is about expanding our circle.

1. Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame baseball player;
2. Robert Burnes, a St. Louis baseball writer, once went with Berra to a church father-and-son banquet. Every son received a bat and a ball and came up to have Yogi autograph them.
3. At a corner table were some kids from a local orphanage. They sat there with no balls or bats. "Aren't they getting anything?" Yogi asked. An organizer of the banquet told him that a couple of balls were being sent to the home for the orphans' use. "We think it's enough of a thrill for them just to be here," the man added.

4. Yogi got up from the head table, went to the orphans' table, sat down and began autographing whatever the orphans had. Someone at the head table finally said, "Yogi, we'd like you to come back up here and say a few words."

"Go on with the program," Yogi snapped. "I'm busy. I'm talking to some friends."

And he stayed with the orphans the rest of the evening. As he and Burnes left, Yogi said, "I'll never forget that as long as I live." http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/09/16/yogi-berra-si-60-rou-blount-jr; “Yogi,” by Roy Blount Jr., which originally ran in the April 2, 1984 issue of Sports Illustrated.

1. one of our ongoing challenges as a community of faith is how to we expand our circle?

2. how do we invite people to hear God's call to be connected to us, instead of seeing that which separates us?

Christ’s example was one of expanding the circle.

Move 3: We need all the people in our group.

a. Contacts –easy to access and call

1. Am I going to need to call that person again?

2.  My contacts in some ways is the group of people I need.

b. That’s the point that Paul makes with his image of the community of faith as a body.

1. The hands need the feet.

2. the eyes need the ears.

c. Paul extends that image to the community of faith.


1. We need the different gifts.


2. We need all our gifts to live out the tasks to which God calls the body of Christ.

Conclusion: Psalm 133, as one of the Songs of Ascents, prepared the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate together as family, as kindred living in oneness, the festivals of the Lord their God. Nancy deClaissé-Walford; Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2381

Imagine that you are one of those people who is in Jerusalem. You are in a parade of people headed to the Temple, singing this psalm as you go.

You look around and see some family; you see some people you recognize, but don't really know; you see others who are strangers.

But you are bound together by God's call to be a part of this community, God's chosen ones.

And it is good.