Body

Gracious God, Lord of joy, our strength, open our ears and hearts to hear your word with understanding and follow through with actions, in the name of Jesus the anointed one. Amen.

One year and one month ago today, I missed Christmas Eve worship for the first time in my life.

I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even get out of bed.

The music director at the church I was serving then was very helpful and sympathetic. All I needed to do was give her a call, and she made sure everything was covered.

This was my last Christmas at that congregation – I had already sent out my resignation letter, telling folks that I had accepted a new call to a different congregation on the east side of Madison.

I was looking forward to this Christmas Eve worship as a time of closure, to say goodbye to many of the folks I had come to love over the previous few years, who I might not be able to see again.

But I missed worship that day.

My body wouldn’t let me go.

As an active young-ish adult, I didn’t think much about what my body was and was not able to do. With the exception of the splits, my body had been able to do just about anything I ever tried.

To be fair, I never tried running a marathon or climbing Mount Everest…

But in general, I was strong and flexible and had a lot of endurance. I figured I could do just about anything if I worked at it.

But then, one day, I couldn’t stand, or even sit, without help.

My body failed me.  

I had a slipped disc in my lower back.

I didn’t really even know that that was a thing.

But all of a sudden I learned – not only is it a thing, but it can become something so severe, it can put your entire life as you knew it out of commission for over a year.  

My slipped disc had shown up for the first time the previous spring. That time, I ended up in the hospital for a week before the doctors were able to manage my pain enough to be able to send me home.

Six months later, just when we thought that my back injury was a thing of the past, it reared it’s ugly head again, and I ended up in the ER the day before Christmas Eve. Due to the holiday, and some serious incompetence on the part of the ER doctor, I was sent home untreated, and couldn’t actually get any help until December 26^th.  

My brain wanted to be in worship for Christmas Eve.

But the slipped disc in my back wouldn’t let me.

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.”

The brain cannot say to the vertebrae, “I have no need of you,” nor again the feet to the legs, “I have no need of you.”

On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

My weak back was the most important part of my body when it stopped working – because nothing else in my body could function without it. 

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul describes how each part of a body is essential to its overall function.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts – because if you were to remove even one part, the whole would cease to function.

A body needs every organ, muscle, nerve, bone, and vertebrae to be healthy in order for the body to work the way it’s supposed to.

This Bible passage isn’t really describing the importance of having a healthy physical body, though.

Paul is describing God’s body, the body of Christ.

We are the body of Christ, and individually members of it – us and our neighbors and our enemies.

Since Jesus ascended into heaven, the only body of his that remains on this earth is your body, and the collective body of the Church, made up of the hands and feet and ears and eyes of Christians all over the world.

Together, we make up the body of Christ. Unless we all work together and respect each other, God’s work won’t be able to get done in the world.

We need one another.

Those of us who were at the leadership retreat yesterday heard something about this when we talked about the model of team ministry that we follow in this congregation.

Each member and visitor here is encouraged to use their God-given gifts and abilities to contribute as much as they are able to the life of this community.

In fact, our mission statement printed on the front of the bulletin says it clearly – we embody the Gospel – and so together we are able to do the work of Christ.

Those who like to sing can join the choir. Those who love children can teach Sunday School. Those who have good administrative skills can serve as an office volunteer or on church council.

Those who are overcommitted and burned out in their everyday lives can just come here to relax and renew.

The staff can’t say to the volunteers, I don’t need you!

The choir can’t say to the Sunday School students, I have no need of you!

The charter members can’t say to the first-time visitors, I don’t need you!

Well, they could, but they’d be lying.

We all really, genuinely, do need one another.

By living in community as the body of Christ, we are able to grow together in faith. We can better live out the calling of Jesus – to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

But we need one another in order to do those things well.

The same is true even in the mundane things of everyday life. You know this already. It’s how our society is structured.

The nurse can’t say to the doctor, I have no need of you!

The chef can’t say to the waitress, I don’t need you!

The pastor can’t say to the mechanic, I have no need of you!

Quite frankly, I’m glad that each person brings a different set of gifts to our community.

I’m glad that there are people out there who fix cars, so that when mine stops working, all I have to do is find a mechanic, take my car in, and wait until it’s in good working order again.

I prefer that the mechanic do his job, and then I can do mine.  

He wouldn’t want to preach here on Sunday mornings… and I wouldn’t want to be responsible for repairing heavy machinery. We’ve got a good, mutually beneficial relationship. 

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

Do all work in food service? Do all write computer code? Do all repair cars?

Of course not.

No single one of us can do every activity under the sun.

Society would cease to function if everybody had the same gifts.

The things that make us unique are the things that are most valuable to the world. Our differences are necessary parts of who we are, individually and communally.

First Corinthians 12 gives us a vision for how to live well as a church and how to live well as a community. And this passage has even deeper ramifications for our society as a whole.

Paul teaches us that everyone is necessary and interconnected, even those people we would normally count as less important than ourselves – people who we might normally choose not to have in our circle of family and colleagues and friends.

The women can’t say to the men, I don’t need you.

The whites can’t say to the Latinos, I have no need of you.

The Democrats can’t say to the Republicans, I don’t need you.

This is harder for us. It is difficult to admit that we need those people with whom we sometimes find ourselves at odds.

Have you ever thought that the world would be a better place if everyone just got along?

Realistically, though, when we say that everyone should just get along, we often mean, the world would be a better place if everyone just agreed with me.

That’s an easy trap for us to fall in to.

We want to say that we need other people. We need a fresh perspective or new ideas or creative thinking.

But when we’re face-to-face with those other people, do we still remember that we need them?

If their new perspective goes against everything we’ve ever experienced, if their ideas make us uncomfortable – we can’t say that we don’t need them.

We do still need to hear another point of view. We do still need to value the contributions of other people.

The Americans can’t say to the Syrians, I have no need of you.

The police officers can’t say to the ex-cons, I don’t need you.

We all need each other.

         We might make each other uncomfortable sometimes.

But we still need each other.

         We all make up the body of Christ.

So here’s a suggestion on how we can live as a whole, united body.

Don’t just refrain from saying “I don’t need you” – but make the statement positively – “I need you!”

Women, tell the men – whites, say to the Latinos – Democrats, tell the Republicans – I need you!

You are important to me.

My life is more complete with you in it.

Then, take it to the next level, and push for social change.

Find ways to help our American leaders say to the Syrian refugees – we need you! Work to reconcile those who have been imprisoned and those who have wrongfully accused people of crimes.

Thankfully, my lower back is doing better now than it has since last April.

But it only got that way because I had to take time out to work on restoring it to wholeness.

My legs and arms, and especially my abs, had to work hard to support my back when it was in pain. But by working intentionally on strengthening my muscles, and by being gentle with myself, all the parts of my body are once again able to work well together.

        

God’s body works the same way.

Together, we make up the body of Christ, and together we can work as a single body to do the work of God in this world.

Just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. Now we are the body of Christ.

Let us work together, daring to embody the Gospel.

Amen.

Epiphany 3C, 1/24/16

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21