On this feast of the body of
Christ, let's talk a little about what it might mean to be a body.
Not to have a body, but to be a
body.
We have a certain amount of
difficulty with this key concept of the Bible because we don't think in
biblical terms.
Biblical language does not divide
people into body and soul;
it sees us as simple units-
as enfleshed spirits or
inspirited bodies.
That is why the Old Testament
strikes us as being earthy-
why circumcision is a religious
rite, and why menstruation rendered a woman ritually
The Old Testament is a
rollicking, real, vibrant view of humanity in which flesh is given its due --
where sin was punished by bodily
suffering, and goodness was rewarded by long physical life.
The same zest for blood-and guts
living continued into the New Testament times.
They made no fine distinctions
between body and soul, inside and outside, and thought and action.
Whatever you thought and did was who
you were.
Jesus was never more Jewish than
when He said "If you hate your brother you're a murderer-
if you lust after your sister
you're an adulterer."
Being more finicky-or more
philosophical-
we divide ourselves into body and
soul.
So we experience ourselves as
split in half, dichotomized, made of two parts that have to be brought back
together.
But we never quite make the
match, and our bodies always come off second best.
We may pamper our bodies, like
spoiled children,
but we don't take them
seriously-like spoiled children.
We play with them, we use and
misuse them,
but we don't let them in our
highest and lowest experiences B
precisely those experiences that
make us human.
We do not cry over our sins nor
do we dance before the tabernacle.
Our language belies our theory at
every turn.
We say, 'My stomach hurts,"
but that is not entirely accurate.
My stomach does not hurt the way
my car is broken.
My stomach is me, so I hurt.
This is not a medical nicety;
it is also the way we experience
ourselves on the spiritual level.
We say, "I stole
something," the same way we recite, "The cow jumped over the
moon."
But it is not the same thing.
When I steal something, I am
a thief.
Or we say, "I told a
lie," as if that lie were lost somewhere in the universe far away from us.
No, that lie is lodged in my
craw.
I didn=t tell a lie: I am
a liar.
My body is not something separate
from me that I may use or not use,
recognize or disown as I choose.
Whatever I do with my body, that
is what I AM.
Of course, that also includes the
good that I do.
When I do a kind deed, I AM
kind.
When I have patience, I AM
a patient person.
To appreciate fully what this
means, it might be a good experiment next week to pay attention to the way we
speak.
Instead of saying, "I did
this or that," try saying, "I am this or that."
It ought to give intensity to our
lives.
Enough said about our bodies-
what about the body of Christ?
His body is just like yours and
mine-
whatever he does with his body is
who HE IS.
Only there is so much more to
him.
His divinity is so much bigger
than his humanity that he cannot fully express himself through one physical
body.
So he makes all of us parts of
his body.
And
because we are his body, whatever we do, we force him
to do.
If we laugh, he laughs; if we
cry, he cries;
if we do good, he does;
and if we sin, he sins.
Is that a little strong?
Don't listen to me -Read
Corinthians, where it clearly says that if you lie with a whore, you make the
body of Christ lie with a whore.
Paul may be a prude, but he is
not squeamish.
We started by talking about
language, and ended by talking about body language.
Both are very delicate things, so
we should be careful.
It is true that there is a
difference between the body of Christ and our own bodies.
But it is equally true that the
connection between him and us is so close that God calls us his
body.
If words mean anything at all,
that surely means that whatever we do to any member of the body we do to him.
So be good to your bodies-
they don't belong
to you.
They ARE you.
And they are
CHRIST.
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