Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 • Psalm 19 • 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a • Luke 4:14-21
When you think of church—when you talk to other people about it—what is the best analogy you use to describe it? It’s not so easy. I’ve heard people talk about church as many things: a home away from home, a faith community, a family. For all his faults, and for all the many ways the apostle Paul has been called out for his views on women and for the ways he has been misappropriated to endorse slavery….for all his shortcomings, Paul offers one of his finest gifts to the world in today’s passage in 1 Corinthians. He comes up with the most enduring, most often used, and probably the best analogy for church out there: The church is the body of Christ, Paul says. You are the body of Christ. This is nothing short of pure genius! All of us have a bodily experience we can relate to; our bodies’ interdependence and functioning as a system and network exactly mirror the inner-workings of Christ’s church; and the body encompasses every aspect of who we are that makes us alive—mind, body and spirit. As strange as it may sound, I like to challenge you to tell someone when they ask, “What’s your church like?” to say, “It’s like a human body.” We can’t get more true to what God does when God forms the church. God makes church when God becomes enfleshed, is made real and is made present as a human body, in all our vulnerability and in all our strength, at our best and at our worst. It is because of Christ’s body that was born, lived, healed, loved, forgave, died and rose that the church still lives as the living and visible form of Christ, alive and still healing forgiving and bringing the world to new life.
As the living, present body of Christ, Christ does what needs to be done with any body: Christ keeps his body healthy. And he keeps all the parts of his body healthy, vital and running. Christ does whatever needs to be done for the sake of the whole. And Christ expects a great deal from us to maintain the health of all the parts of his body, so that his body may continue to grow in its interdependence and reliance upon the multitude of parts in the body of Christ.
Because Christ cares for every part of his body, there is no part of the body that he does not look out and have need for. Paul says, “As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” (12:20-21) When have we said to another part of the body of Christ, “I have no need of you?” What have we declared useless, unnecessary, unwelcome, not a part, when Christ cares for, looks after that person—that part—that Christ depends on for his body to live and function properly? As the church breathes in the Spirit to give it it life, and as it breathes out God’s healing wholeness, all parts of Christ’s body need that air. Christ declares “I have no need of you” to no one because Christ knows all the parts cannot live without the air of the Spirit!
Because Christ cares for every part of the body, no part of the body exists for itself. The body of Christ exists for the entire, whole body—it exists for Christ. None of us has to be the whole body by ourselves, yet all of us—everyone—have a role to play in the shared building up of the body of Christ. As one author puts it, if cells of the body choose to operate with disregard for the body or for themselves only, the body becomes robed of strength and room, and the immune system of the body becomes weakened and threatened by sickness. As Christ cares for every part of his body, he keeps the focus on himself as the head and the lifeblood of it all, he keeps the rich variety of parts in the body focused on the overall health and flourishing of the whole—even if it means that some or all parts are summoned to give something up for the sake of the flourishing of the body.
Because Christ cares for every part of the body—we do not have to be anyone else other than who God intends us to be—that is, we do not have to be any other part of the body of Christ other than the part the Spirit of God enables us to be. If we are a foot, we can be a foot, and will be of tremendous and priceless value to the body. And just because our own bodies are broken and frail—just because we have dis-honorable parts of our body and of ourselves we would rather hide and that we don’t think belong to the body of Christ—that is precisely where the body of Christ comes alive and rises from hiding and death to new life. “On the contrary”, Paul says those parts of ourselves “that seem to be weaker are indispensable”, and those parts of ourselves we “think less honorable,” Christ clothes with great honor because he exposes them to his light, forgives them, heals them and restores us to our Christ-given place in his body with his undeserved grace.
I’m reminded here of a young man who was so excited for a date with this woman. They had gone out a few times, and he could not wait to take it to the next level—to invite her to his place for dinner. He couldn’t really cook, but that didn’t matter—he’d still figure out some way to make it special. He had never invited a woman he dated to his apartment for dinner before, but he really wanted to treat this girl special—he didn’t want to mess this one up. However, he had…a mess of an apartment—I mean an absolute pig sty. He didn’t have time to change his messy habits. So he put everything that he had lying around that needed to be put away into his bedroom—stuffing and throwing away all the trash, all the food, junk, clothes, and whatever else was cluttering the floor. And the date night came, and he had everything laid out perfectly. The place was clean. The expensive wine was poured. The perfect CD was playing. There were flowers on the table. The date was going great…until she asked to get up and go to the bathroom. And she went in the door, turned on the light, and there she was in his bedroom, falling over all of his junk—a complete mess that she had fell into. He was so embarrassed. But she turned and told him, it was OK, it was allright. She knew how hard he was trying to impress her—but she said he didn’t have to. She liked him—even if he left out smelly socks on the floor. He couldn’t believe this woman spoke words that he didn’t even know he needed to hear that night: that he was o.k. as he was, and that he was loved as he was. Even though he needed to work on his cleaning habits—there was no need to hide. It was that kind of love and honor for what was so dis-honorable, that laid the foundation for this couple to eventually join in carrying out that love with each other for the rest of their lives.
No matter how dishonorable our part in Christ’s body may seem, that is the kind of care and love Christ gives to all the parts that belong to his body—even the parts that we want to shove behind closed doors and throw away the key. This is the freely given, best quality body-care that Christ has to offer us. Jesus offers his whole body for our healing, and wholeness, so that we can all belong to his body—even at this tucked away corner of Ridgeland and Greenfield Street. We have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. Jesus cares for every part of us, and for every part of the church—no matter how shameful—for it is his very body. Now it’s our turn. It’s our turn to do what Jesus did: to care for every part of this sacred body, to practice good health, so that Christ’s body, here and everywhere may live, grow, and thrive. Amen.
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