Bodybuilding

You are a body part.

Yep, you heard me: you are a body part. Maybe you’re a foot. Maybe you’re a hand. Maybe you’re an ear. Maybe you’re an eye. You are some kind of body part.

You are a part of a body that we call “the body of Christ.”

Paul put it like this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” Elsewhere, he said: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Still elsewhere, he said this: “We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”

You are a body part. You are a part of the body of Christ. You are a member of the household of God – a valuable member of the household of God. You have a role to play in keeping this body functioning in a healthy way. If you’re a foot, you help the body to walk. If you’re a hand, you help the body to write, or to draw, or to hold on to things, or to reach out to somebody else in love. If you’re an ear or an eye, you collect important information and send it on to the brain. The parts are interdependent. They depend on each other. The feet know where to go because the ear listens to directions. The hand knows what to do because the eye sees what needs to be done. We need the different parts of the body. We need all the different parts of the body. We need the heart, we need the liver, we need the kidneys, we need the lungs, we need the bones, we need the muscles, we need the nerves, we need the blood vessels – on and on it goes.
Every part of the body is important. There is not one part that is insignificant or without value! It seems that even the appendix – that supposedly superfluous body part – may have an important role to play in keeping the body healthy, according to a study published a year and a half ago by surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School. Every part of the body has value! Every part of the body has some kind of job to do to help the body function. So it is with the human body . . .

. . . and so is it with the body of Christ.

At least, that’s the theory.

Paul felt it necessary to remind the Christians in Corinth of this truth. “The eye,” he said, “cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” No member of the body can dispense with any other part of the body. If we think some part of the body is insignificant . . . well, we’re just wrong. If we think we’d be better off without some part of the body . . . we’d be wrong again. Every body part matters. Every member matters. Let us never think otherwise!

The unfortunate reality is, sometimes some of us body parts don’t see or understand or appreciate the valuable contribution made by other parts of the body. Sometimes, in our arrogance, we think not-so-kind thoughts about other body parts. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would speak or act more like we do. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would stop disagreeing with us. Sometimes, we wish other body parts would just be quiet, or even just disappear for a while. The unfortunate reality is, sometimes we just aren’t very good at respecting or appreciating the other parts of the body.

A specific example: In one of the several different congregations I have been involved with over the nearly four decades of my life so far, there was a particularly memorable congregational meeting. It was memorable because literally nothing was accomplished at the meeting. It turned out that we did not have a quorum. We found out that we did not have a quorum when one gentleman in the congregation – who had a bit of a reputation for being something of a “troublemaker” – raised a point of order, shortly after the moderator called the meeting to order. He demanded a head count. A couple of ushers stood up and literally started counting heads. The gentleman was right: we did not have a quorum. According to our bylaws, that meant that no business could be transacted at that meeting. We all went home. Many people were frustrated. Some complained about that gentleman who caused the meeting to end prematurely. His actions that day certainly didn’t help his reputation, but he was absolutely right: it would have been improper to conduct business in the absence of a quorum. He performed a valuable service that day; he was doing his part to keep the body functioning in a healthy manner – and when other people reacted negatively to his action and began complaining (mostly behind his back), they were the ones who were causing the body to function in an unhealthy way. And I . . . yes, I’m sorry to say, I was one of those who complained. I realize now that I – and many others – didn’t handle that situation very well. I – and many others – undoubtedly owe that man an apology.

The point is, sometimes other members of the body are doing their job, doing their part to keep the body functioning in a healthy way, and we’re so caught up in what’s going on over in our part of the body that we fail to understand or appreciate the gifts and services that that other body part has to offer. When we’re really involved in one part of the church’s life, we sometimes make hasty judgments about what’s going on in some other part of the church’s life. Sometimes, we question people’s motives. Sometimes, we wish “those people” would just get out of the way so we can do the things that we think are important. Sometimes, we put a lot of time and energy putting together some kind of proposal to send to Session, but Session doesn’t greet it as enthusiastically as we wish. Sometimes, that sort of thing happens because other parts of the body are simply doing their job. Sometimes, other body parts are thinking of issues or implications that we haven’t thought of yet. It’s not that they’re trying to be difficult; it’s not that they’re being mean; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t support the proposal.
It just means that other body parts are asking some questions about the implications this proposal will have on the whole rest of the body. No body would want its arm going off and doing one thing while its foot is headed in a completely different direction – imagine the pain it would cause your physical body if your arms and legs were all trying to head in four completely different and unrelated directions, and each were trying to get there as quickly as possible! It’s important for us to look around at the whole body – at all the other members – and recognize that there are plenty of people who may not think the same way we do or care about the same things we care about, but that those people, in their own way, are performing a valuable service here in this particular local version of the body of Christ. We are all parts of one body. We are, together, the body of Christ. We absolutely must have respect and appreciation for all the other parts of the body – even (or perhaps especially) those body parts that seem particularly far away from us. All body parts are important! Every member is essential! Every body part has some kind of job to do to help keep the body functioning in a healthy way!

At least, that’s the theory. That’s the way things are supposed to be. The reality is a bit different than that. We have, in theory, about two hundred and thirty “body parts” in this particular local version of the body of Christ. I wonder how many of those two hundred and thirty could actually identify what specific job they do to help keep this body functioning in a healthy way. (Can you name your job?)

One of the (many) things I want to work on in the years to come is to help every single member find some kind of meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching job to do in the life of this congregation that helps us to carry out our mission. Some of you reading this already have some kind of job to do here that meets those criteria. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “Well, I have a job to do, but I’m not sure I find it meaningful, productive, satisfying, or enriching.” If that’s the case, we need to help you find some alternative job that would better match your gifts, interests, talents, and skills. Some of you may find yourself thinking, “I’d love to have some kind of meaningful job, but I don’t have a clue what it might be;” if that’s the case, we’ll need to look at your gifts and then match it up with some kind of meaningful task. Perhaps some of you are thinking, “Gosh, do I really want a job?” – and if that’s the case, let me simply remind you that when you became a member of this church, you made a promise to us and to God that you would offer your time and your talents in helping us carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Every member needs some kind of meaningful job to do; every member needs to carry some kind of responsibility, unless physical illness absolutely prevents it. (I bet we can even come up with some meaningful and rewarding tasks for our LAMs to do, ones that they would find meaningful, productive, satisfying, and enriching!) The challenge will be building a system in which we are truly utilizing people’s gifts in the fullest and most meaningful ways possible. It’s a major task, and I know full well that it’s not going to be completed overnight – or even in the next year!

Together, as one body in Christ, as one group of people all united on the same team, we will seek to build this body up to become the strongest and healthiest body it can possibly be. Together, we will seek to find meaningful ways for every body part to be involved responsibly in helping this body to carry out mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Together, we will engage in . . . bodybuilding.

Peace and blessings,

Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor