Body and Spirit
 based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
by Richard Gehring

            The human body is an amazingly complex and intricately designed instrument.  If you stop and think about what all our bodies are made up of, it is truly mind-boggling.  For example, an adult person has somewhere around 60,000 miles of blood vessels running around inside him or her.  And amongst that vast web of veins and arteries and capillaries, there about 15 million blood cells being produced and destroyed every single second. 

            And that's just the beginning.  Did you know you've got some 640 muscles in your body? And they account for about half of your weight.  They're all bundled together in groups as large as 200 in your buttocks and as small as five in each eyelid—five tiny muscles that keep you blinking at a rate of 17,000 times a day or 4.2 million times every year.  It's amazing what all is going with your body that you never have to think about.

            And then there's your skin.  The average adult is covered with twenty square feet of skin.  If it were all stretched out flat, it would be enough to blanket a queen-size bed.  It's constantly renewing itself, too.  Every minute you shed between thirty and forty thousand dead skin cells.  In fact, seventy percent of the dust in your house is your old skin.  Over an average lifetime, a person loses forty pounds of skin—and yet most of us still seem to be gaining weight.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we still have enough fat in our bodies to produce seven bars of soap.

            With all the intricacies of the human body, however, a strikingly small change can have drastic results.  For example, a child's body only has about three grams of iron in it—significantly less than you'd find in even a very small nail.  Yet if the child doesn't get enough iron, it can cause improper brain development.  On the other hand, too much iron can be highly toxic.  As few as five or six of mom's iron pills can be fatal for a kid.  Indeed, 3500 children under the age of six are poisoned each year by taking too much iron.   It's truly amazing how intricate and delicate the human body is.

            Now, none of this information would have been known to anyone living a couple thousand years ago.  But the Apostle Paul in our New Testament passage for today shows that he still knows a thing or two about the body as he writes about the value of eyes and ears, hands and feet.  Of course, his main interest lies not in the human body but in the Body of Christ.

            Paul addresses his remarks to the church in the Greek city of Corinth—a church that had all kinds of problems and disagreements.  There was a controversy over what kind of role women should be allowed to play in the church.  There was a large gap between the rich and the poor.  There was tension and conflict between people of different ethnic backgrounds.  In other words, it wasn't too much different than a lot of churches today.  Perhaps as we prepare to gather for our annual meeting this afternoon, we would do well to take a fresh look at what Paul had to say to the Corinthians and see what we can learn about creating communities of faith and compassion in our own time.

            The image that Paul uses of the church as a body is now a familiar one to many of us.  It may have become so familiar, in fact, that we think we understand it and may miss some of the deeper connotations of the metaphor.  Actually, before Paul talks about the church as a body, he first spends some time discussing the importance of the Spirit.  The first 11 verses of the chapter leading up to our passage today are about the gifts that are given by the Spirit. 

            Now, it is helpful to recognize that in Greek, the language that Paul was writing in, the word for "spirit" is the same as the word for "breath."   That's significant in understanding what all Paul is saying here.  Today we have technology that is able to peer deep inside the body to see exactly how everything is functioning.  We can do EEG's to measure brain activity.  We have EKG's to measure the beating of the heart.  We use X-rays and CT scans to look at all sorts of internal bodily functions.  We've even made a distinction between “clinical death” when someone is unable to breathe or maintain a heartbeat on their own and “brain death” when there is complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity.  But back in Paul's time, the measure of whether or not someone was alive was fairly simply.  You just checked to see whether or not they were breathing.  The breath or spirit is what was seen as giving a body life.  And it's absence, therefore, meant death.

            That understanding, I think, is implicit in Paul's analogy of the church as the body of Christ.  This body of the church must have the Holy Spirit in order to be alive.  Without this Spirit, the Breath of God, the body of Christ is dead.

            And just as the breath of life enlivens various parts of the body in different ways, so also the Spirit of God gives life to the various parts of Christ's body in different ways, too.  Some are like eyes, with the gift to perceive the vision that God has set forth.  Others are ears, particularly gifted in listening to the needs of others.  Some are feet, constantly propelling the body forward.  While others are hands, doing the work that so desperately needs to be done.  The point is that each ope is a part of the same body and each one is given life by the same Holy Spirit.  Without that Spirit, however, the parts cannot function together and the body will eventually die.

            So perhaps we  we would do better to spend less of our energy on looking and listening and walking and working, and concentrate more on breathing.  Most of the time, of course, we don't really have to think about breathing.  It just happens naturally.  But when our bodies have colds or allergies or asthma, then we realize just how important it is that we continue breathing, and also how hard that can be.  Or if we exert ourselves by running faster or further than we are used to, we soon find ourselves gasping for breath, especially if we're a little out of shape. 

             The same is true for the Body of Christ, the church, when we're not exactly in top condition.  We could stand to be much more intentional about our breathing.  The church needs to keep itself focused on the Spirit that gives us life, and to allow that Spirit to infuse every part of the body of Christ.  For if that Spirit is not with us, then none of the parts of the body are able to do what they are meant to do.

            It can be difficult to recognize that the Spirit is with another part of the body when that part's function is so different from our own.  That's exactly what's happening in Corinth as Paul writes to them.  As he says in verse 21, "The eye cannot say to the hand, `I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, `I don't need you!'"

            But just as that occurred in Corinth in the first century, so it happens all the time in North America in the twenty-first century.  Granted, some of the issues are different.  We no longer argue much about circumcision or about eating meat offered to idols.  Instead we debate issues like homosexuality and abortion.  Then again, as I noted earlier, some of the issues do remain the same.  We as the church across the United States still have not reached consensus on questions such as the role of women in church leadership.  And we still struggle with including the poor and ethnic minorities in an institution that is largely dominated white, middle class leaders.

            But whether the issues themselves are the same or different, the division within the body plays itself out in a very similar way:  people divide into groups, create labels, and pit themselves against those who don't fit their ideas.  Back in Paul's time it was the Jews versus the Greeks and slave versus free.  Today, we have the fundamentalists versus the feminists, the liberationists versus the literalists, the premillenialists versus the postmodernists and so on.

            Paul, however, counsels the people in these various factions to view one another not as opponents, but as members of the same body with different gifts and functions—gifts that are complementary rather than contradictory.  For all of them are given by the same Spirit.  All of them are empowered by the same Spirit.   And that counsel is still good advice to the church today.

             Just think what the church in our country could be like if instead of looking for how we disagree, everyone would first see where we agree; if instead of pushing our own agendas and making sure others use the words we want them to, everyone would first listen for those things we hold in common; if instead of aligning ourselves with one group or another, everyone would first affirm the unity we all have as Christians and members of the Body of Christ.

            We live in such a deeply fractured society.  Red states vs. blue states.  Baby-boomers vs. Gen-Xers.  Jocks vs. Geeks.  We have all sorts of labels and stereotypes that we use to categorize people and put them into boxes so that we can separate them and sequester ourselves away from those who don't fit into the boxes we've built for ourselves.  And too often we bring that same spirit of factionalism to the church.  Praise bands vs. pipe organs.  Charismatic vs. contemplative.  Mega-church worship centers vs. Gothic sanctuaries.  Community Bible Fellowship vs. First Insert-name-of-your-denomination-here Church.

            But Paul makes it clear that it shouldn't be that way.  The church is a single, unified body.   The church should be a place where all of our divisions are left behind.  It should be a place where political affiliation and income bracket and educational level simply don't matter.  It should be a place where the bonds of unity through the Holy Spirit take precedence over divisions of race or age or creed.  The goal of the church is not to make everyone look the same and do the same things and think the same ways.  Rather the church is a place where all of our different gifts can be affirmed and used for the glory of God through the Body of Christ.

            It is that sort of a community to which Paul invites his readers—a community in which they give up their own agendas and come seeking God's agenda for everyone.  As members of the same

body, but with different gifts all given by the same Spirit, they must find ways of working together.  They must struggle to affirm each other's gifts, as different as they may be. 

            There is also a flip side to this issue.  On the one hand, recognizing the value of every part of the body means finding ways to appreciate and affirm those who are very different from us.  On the other hand, it means that our gifts, too, are important and must be used in order to make for a healthy body.  Some of us may be able to identify with the eye in verse 21 who tells the hand, "I have no need of you."  But others of us are more like the ear of verse 16 who says, "Because I am not an eye, I do not

belong to the body."

            Perhaps it is because the eyes of the world have been telling us for so long that we are not important, but sooner or later we begin to believe them.  We think that our gifts are not as valuable as others.  We see ourselves as some insignificant part of the body like a little finger or a big toe.   Of course, anyone who has injured or lost such an appendage can attest to the fact that such body parts, while often overlooked, are not insignificant.  Any part—no matter how insignificant we might think it is—causes distress to the whole body when it fails to function as it was meant to function.

            Likewise, Paul says there is no such thing as an insignificant part of the body of Christ.  Every body part, no matter how small or how hidden, is important.  In fact, he goes even further than that.  He says, starting in verse 22, "those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,while our presentable parts need no special treatment." 

            In other words, it is precisely those parts of the body that we are least interested in flaunting that are among the most important in the proper functioning of the whole body.  And the same is true of the church, the body of Christ   Many of those who are least interested in drawing attention to themselves are precisely the ones whose gifts are most needed in the work of the church.  Those of us who fall into that category need to be encouraged to share our gifts.  For the gifts we possess have been given to us by the Holy Spirit.  And if we refuse to share them, then we are depriving the body of Christ of some crucial organs.  Often times, those who refrain from engaging in certain ways think that they are being  true to Christ's call to humility.  But if we deny others the benefit of our gifts, we are not being humble.  We are being selfish.  We are depriving the body of Christ of the full measure of the Spirit that gives it life.

            That was a challenge for the church in the first century.  And it continues to be a challenge for us today.  But meeting that challenge is greatly rewarding.  For it means that we are able to find the sense of belonging and connection that we so desperately seek.  It means that we become a part of a true community—a community that represents the broad spectrum of humanity rather than merely a self-selecting interest group made of people who think the same and look the same and shop in the same stores.

            Indeed, perhaps the biggest challenge we face is not to work harder, but rather to do less.  You see, the church is not primarily a human institution.  It is rather a gift from God.  And while we might be tempted from time to time to return the gift or exchange it for something that better fits our taste, the better course of action is simple to accept the gift for what it is—a loving and faithful expression of God's Rule in this world.  And perhaps the real challenge we need to face is not to create unity where there is disunity, but to recognize the unity we have by virtue God's Spirit dwelling with us and fashioning us into the Body of Christ. 

            For the hard truth is that the Body of Christ is not something we create.  Nor do we control it. With our own bodies, there are certain things we can and should do to keep them healthy—exercise, a good diet and so on.  But the fact remains that most of what goes on in our bodies is something that we have little or no control over.  Our heart keep beating.  Our neurons keep firing.  Our eyes keep blinking.  We don't even have to think about it.  We just need to keep breathing.  The same is true with the Body of Christ.  We just need to keep breathing, taking in the life-giving and life-sustaining presence of God's Spirit and exhaling our own used-up spirits that no longer have any power.

            We are all a part of the same intricately designed and unfathomably complex body, all of which is empowered by the same Spirit.  And being part of that body means that we recognize and give thanks for the gifts that others bring, no matter how different they may be from our own gifts or how difficult it may be for us to comprehend how they even work.   Being part of the body also means that we each must share whatever gifts we have.  We cannot selfishly hide our talents and use them for our own purposes.  We must each recognize that we do indeed have gifts and that those gifts are valuable enough for us to use and share with others.  Withholding our gifts makes the Body of Christ less healthy and less functional than it could be.

            To participate in the church is to recognize one's participation within a community of compassion, to affirm one's role as a part of the Body of Christ.  For, as the apostle Paul himself

wrote over 19 centuries ago, "We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body . . . and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."(v. 13)  Let us therefore drink deeply of that Spirit and so be empowered to be the community of compassion which Christ as the head of the body has called us to be.