We are many parts 

On Easter Leigh spoke of the great cycle. Life to death to life. Seed to flower to seed. When we got home Leigh reminded me that we find resurrection in the starting of new phases of our lives.

You enter college and live in a new place and make new friends. You graduate from college and say goodbye to who you were, where you lived, and how you lived. You enter a career. You have a job title. You have work friends. You make a home. You retire from a career. You start new hobbies. You volunteer. You build a new role.

Last year I spoke on Jesus’s appearances. Jesus appeared to many people after his death according to the scriptures. It happens ten times by my count though some occurrences are listed more than once. He is seen by as few as one at a time and as many as 500 at once. It’s not clear in most of these cases whether Jesus had a body, but he was clearly a person. Paul adds himself to this list, but seems to have seen a bright light rather than the form of a person.

The orthodox view the resurrection, that is the traditional and generally accepted view, is that Jesus had a physical body upon resurrection. You can see this in some specific passages. Jesus’s body was not in the tomb (John 20:24-29 John 20:1-12, Luke 24:1-12, Matthew 28:1-10, and Mark 16:1-7) with the implication that he was walking around in that body. Jesus also does ordinary human things.

Jesus eats fish on the beach (Luke 24:42-43). Jesus shows wounds of his hands and feet to Thomas (John 20:25-27). In Emmaus Jesus broke bread and shared it. Here the body of Christ seems like a standard human body mostly, but he can sometimes do peculiar things like go through locked doors. Occasionally in the scriptures, there is a sort of body spoken of beyond pain and decay (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, Philippians 3:21). This is sometimes called a glorified body. There seems to be little difference between these two types of bodies at times and at times it is significant.

In our scripture for today we consider a different sort of resurrection. Our scripture today is particularly relevant to me because I have frequently been an outsider and called weird. The scripture poses a challenge: what if everyone has a purpose and a place? What if everyone is necessary? We are the body of Christ. Christ is not envisioned as having his own body in the traditional sense. He’s not even particularly described as a person. Is this a Paul thing? No, Paul speaks of Jesus as a person after death elsewhere. Is this a 1 Corinthians thing? No. Later in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul does speak of a resurrection more typical kind involving multiple appearances.

In the version of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 12, we are the body of Christ and individually members of it. While we are all part of the body each of us has different gifts. The same Spirit for all distributed those gifts. 

We need each other even though we are different. Sometimes as a part of the body we don’t feel like we fit because we are not a particular part. A foot wants to be a hand or the ear wants to be an eye. When I was young I started speaking late. I got sent to two years of kindergarten. I was a foot that wanted to be a hand.

 At my elementary school I was a conundrum. I was gifted and talented with my mind, but I was behind physically. Maybe I wasn’t exactly a hand nor a foot. I didn’t fit in the body, but that was society. The church should do better. 

I was in the special education classroom for what I could or rather what I couldn’t do with my body. I was in ENDOW, a program for academically advanced students a year before it was available to other kids my class year and I was pulled out of class for physical and occupational therapy. 

I was an ear that wanted to be an eye. I would have loved to be popular. I wasn’t always good with social skills, especially in elementary school. I actually took a class at my elementary school about how to have friends. I found adults a lot easier to relate to. I didn’t fit. That was society. The church can do better. 

Early on, kids were mostly my friends by virtue of being in my neighborhood. My mom bought me Legos and had the kid next door teach me how to put them together. In my next house I was friends with kids in the house in front of mine and the house behind. By junior high there weren’t other kids in my neighborhood. I didn’t have the skills to make friends without it.

I was a mind that wanted to be a voice. I wasn’t always able to look people in the eye and speak clearly. Back in elementary school, I was not a good public speaker. During my first speech I spoke with my chin tucked to my chest and soft enough that they could barely hear me. This was despite the fact that I was talking about the actor Patrick Stewart who was very important to me. Have you ever wished to be like someone else?

I am grateful for all the ways I have grown. I am a public speaker. I am physically fit. My supervisor at the hospital says I have natural charisma of a kind that cannot be taught. As grateful as I am for all of the different ways I am capable as an adult, I needed to hear what Paul says later in the chapter when I was a child, “the parts of the body that people think are the weakest are the most necessary.” As a child I needed to hear that I was necessary. I needed to hear, “The parts of the body that we think are less honorable are the ones we honor the most.” I needed to hear I was honorable.

What happens when the eye says to the hand, I don’t need you? I remember clearly three times this happened to me. It’s no fun being the weird one. Three times I was forced out of a friend circle: elementary school,  high school, and college. Have you ever been pushed out for not being an eye? That was society. The church must do better.

What happens when you are welcomed as a part of the body? I remember at a protest outside the School of the Americas. My friends and I stopped by a Catholic Worker house for a free meal. Not only were we welcomed by food without cost, we were immediately put to work cooking for others. We were absorbed into the community. In college, I became part of the Phelps Scholars. We existed to celebrate a diversity of backgrounds. Each year of Phelps Scholars joined together with past years of students uniting to build a family of students. No one had to be lonely. I have felt tremendous unity singing in choirs over the years. I have found a place in the body. I now have many friends.

We are the church. When we look at our meeting we can privilege particular roles, but we need one another. What if the body were all head? The presiding clerk who leads our business meetings is important, but if everyone was summarizing and reflecting the sense of the meeting then who would be voicing opinions and sharing leadings?

What if the body were all ears? The Recording Clerk would face a similar challenge to the Presiding Clerk. If everyone were Recording Clerks who would give the committee reports?

What if the body were all eyes? If everyone was the Clerk of Ministry and Care then whose ministry would she guide? Whose care and worship would she oversee?

What if the body were all hands? The pastors are important, but what use would we be if there were no one to minister to? Who would we counsel if no one talks to us?

Stewardship is important, but without the community’s resources then what would they steward? They need you to share your resources to do their work.

Peace and Social Concerns is important but our primary purpose is to offer opportunities to make a difference to the people of the meeting. What use is it to organize volunteering at the Warming Center if no one from the meeting comes? Who will be the feet? 

The ordinary people are the meeting. You are not less important if you have not taken on an official role. You do not have to stand in front of people. You do not have to speak during open worship.

Our concepts, dreams, and ideas flow through the committees to the Monthly Meeting. There they are guided, shaped, and sent back to the committees to be done. We share time, talents, and financial contributions. We work together. Our resources do what we could not do alone whether by scale or in the way we inspire one another. 

We are the body of Christ and parts of one another. We cannot be Christ’s body without one another. All parts of this body deserve honor and respect. All parts have purpose. We are Christ’s presence in the world.

Queries:

• When have you felt honored and needed?
• When have you felt like a part that didn’t fit?