Sunday, July 7 ~ Day 1

Sunday, July 7 ~ Day 1

“ONE Body”

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

 

You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.

–1 Corinthians 12:27 

When I get hungry, I get grumpy.  It all starts when my belly growls.  And then my head starts to hurt.  And then my eyes start to dry out.  And then my mind gets irritable.  And then my shoulders tense up.  And then my back starts to ache.  And then I get snappy.  It is just like the ripple effect that happens when a pebble is tossed into a still pond.  The ripple starts with an innocent stomach pang, and before I know it has grown so wide as to impact my actions. 

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul likens the Church, the Christian community, to the human body.  “Christ is just like the human body,” he writes – “a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many” (v. 12).  Each part of the body impacts the rest of the body.  Just as my stomach impacts my entire being, so Paul tells us: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it” (v. 26). 

Oftentimes as members of a Christian community we may not realize how much we impact others in our community.  We may be tempted to think that our private decisions have no effect on our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We may be tempted to think that we don’t really matter – that if we left tomorrow nothing would change in the community.  But Paul tells us otherwise.  “You are the body of Christ and parts of each other” (v. 27).  Once we become part of a Christian community, we become a part of each person in the community – whether we realize it or not.  We become connected in a spiritual way that makes us stronger together than if we were separated.    

This week the mission team and Union Grove UMC will function as one body in Christ.  Some of us have great skills for carpentry and painting.  Some of us know nothing about tools, but we are experts at connecting with people and can reach out with God’s love to the people of Roanoke Rapids.  Some of us will not be able to travel on the mission trip, but will be able to pray, encourage the work team, and continue the important ministry we are doing in Hillsborough.  We can’t say to each other, “we don’t need you.”  For together, we make a strong team.  Together we can be walking witnesses of Christ’s love.

As a mission team and as a church, we are called to remember that our lives, our decisions, our attitudes affect the rest of the Body of Christ.  Our goal is to be a unified walking witness of Christ.  If we can glory in the beauty of our oneness in diversity, Christ’s love can shine through us in powerful and tangible ways.  As a part of this Christian body, how might your actions and decisions be impacting the whole community?  How might you live in such a way as to strengthen the other parts of this body?

Rev. Laura Johnson