The Importance of the Whole Body - 1st Corinthians 12:12-27, Hebrews 10:23-25
We
find ourselves in October. It is a month
that has come to have very little focus on Columbus Day and the discovery of
the New World, and if we can get past all of the Christmas decorations in the
stores, we find that the “big” event of October is Halloween. Halloween is often known for is
bodily-challenged characters: the “peg-legged” pirates, the dis-jointed and
even limbless zombies, the “headless” horseman, and the completely bodiless
ghosts. On the scary side of Halloween,
there is a great emphasis on missing body parts.
If
we take into consideration Paul’s writing to the church in Corinth, in which he
reminds us that we are the Body of Christ, each disciple being a crucial and
contributing member to the Body, then we can almost hear that the author of
Hebrews great concern is about missing body parts.
With
the church in Corinth, Paul has been dealing with many divisions within the
church, one group of folks feeling like they are better than other members of
the church. It seems that some would
consider that their gifts and contributions made them more significant or a
more important part of the church, and that maybe they could have done without
some of those in the congregation that they felt didn’t contribute is as
visible a way. Paul says, don’t look
down upon those folks who don’t do what you do, they are just as essential a
part of the Body—each contributes, each is important. Paul emphasizes that God has put together and
designed the Body of Christ in such a way as to emphasize the importance of
each part. When God designs, there is no
doubt as to the importance of every aspect of the design.
Remember
the words of the Psalmist? “For it was
you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are your works; that I
know very well. My frame was not hidden
from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of
the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed
substance. In your book were written all
the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.”[i]
The
Psalmist understood that God took our human bodies and knitted them together
from the moment of our conception, bringing each aspect of our lives together
and forming us very carefully into who He wanted us to be. If God took that much care and attention to
detail to the forming of our individual bodies, how much more care do you think
that God cave to the forming of the folks He would bring together to form the
Body that would represent His Son to the rest of the world. Just as God brought together our cells and
tissue and organs, our bodies, our minds, and our spirits in such a way as to
make us who we are, He has brought us together, Algene and Frank and Paul, Linda
and Carolyn and Robert, Ken and Cookie and Cameron, and each one of us in such
a way as to make His Body of Christ what He wanted it to be. Each member important, each member
contributing, each member present with one another. Paul says when we are part of each other in
this manner, knit tightly together by God, when one of us rejoices, we rejoice
together, not become jealous of the blessing that one part of the body
receives; and when one of us grieves, we grieve together, not looking at the
other and thinking to ourselves, “that’s their problem.”
Paul
dealt with a divided church. The author
of Hebrews, though, seems to be facing a different situation. The congregation to which he is writing
appears to be wavering on dissolution.
He pleads with them, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to
love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”[ii] It seems as if this Body of believers was
struggling with the practice of assembling together. There is some uncertainty as to why.
Some
scholars suggest that it may have been political pressure. They suggest that the author may have been
writing a group that was facing persecution.
Congregations struggled with whether they should assemble or not because
in assembling, they risked those in authority recognizing them and persecuting
them. Churches may have faltered
gathering because of fear.
Others
suggest that it may have been due to friction within the church. You know those kind of falling outs that can
occur within a gathered body—arguments of the style of worship, arguments over
how to deal with a repair to the facility, arguments over what color of carpet
to put in the nursery, argument over not being recognized for a contribution to
the body…the list is endless, and some scholars suggest that maybe it was an
argumentative division that had the author had in mind as he saw congregations
cease coming together because folks were made with each other.
Still
others suggest that it could have been a sense of social superiority. Sometimes it is hard for those of higher
social standing to intermix with folks of lower social standing. Think of how much talk there is in a
community of “us” and “them”: the rich and poor, the liberals and
conservatives, the educated and uneducated, the legals and illegals, the black
and white and Hispanic and Asian. In
Biblical times it was slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female…and
people often forgot, and still forget, that Jesus came to erase those
lines. The author of Hebrews could have
been seeing congregations in which those present did not want to associate with
folks they saw as “other,” and as they began rebuilding the walls that Jesus
gave His life to tear down, and he watched as they stopped gathering together.
It
could have been that the author of Hebrews was watching as members of
congregations began living out the excuses that Jesus encountered and then
stopped gathering together…remember the churches began gathering with the expectation
that Jesus was going to be right back, and as His return has been delayed,
folks began letting those excuses come back into the forefront of their lives:
the need to go check on family, the need to check out a field that had been
purchased, the need to take care of business, the need to try out their oxen,
and so on. There was probably no
shortage of reasons that the author of Hebrews could have heard as to other
things that people had or needed to do that precluded them gathering with other
believers. It didn’t seem to be urgent,
Christ evidently wasn’t coming back any time soon.
However,
like Paul, the author of Hebrews says, “we need each other. We need to come together. We need to encourage one another in difficult
times. We need to hold one another
accountable. We need to call on one
another to love and do good deeds—Godly work.”
My
brothers and sisters, the concern is no less for us that it was for the author
of Hebrews and Paul in Corinth. We are
the Body of Christ. God has joined us together
for a reason, for a purpose, with a design.
He has intended us to use our gifts together for the furthering of His
Kingdom here in Grove Park, in Burlington, and throughout the world. God does not want us to cease coming
together—He wants us to be with one another to encourage one other, support one
another, hold one another accountable.
When
we don’t, when one part of the Body is missing, the Body is weakened. It can’t stand like it once could. And when another part is missing, it is
weakened even further. It can’t reach
like it once could. It can’t embrace
like it once could. With each one
missing, with each body part pulling away from the body, pretty much what is left
is a whole lot of body parts, but no Body.
It is peg-legged and hobbles. It
is limbless and disjointed and can’t function.
It becomes a formless spirit floating without direction.
My
friends, the Head of the Body, Christ Himself, has drawn us together. The Father has knitted us one to
another. The Holy Spirit has given us
life. Let us commit ourselves anew to
God and to one another, so that what God has brought together, let no one rip
it asunder.
In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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