Many Parts of one Body! Do we really honestly believe this?

I've taken a very long long break from blogging. But I have been getting the itch and that doesn't mean I really stopped thinking about stuff to blog, just haven't gotten them down. Welcome back me!

If you've not been subjected to my writing, know that it is ranty. It isn't out there to please. You don't have to agree with it as I don't feel the need to agree with you. It is often incomplete and the ideas are just ideas (my ideas, which shouldn't be associated with anyone else around me, like my employer or my church), which are still open for molding. It is not polished, publishable writing.

Ok, on with it. Today we heard a good sermon at our church's weekly gathering about the many parts of the body of Christ. All that stuff about how hands are different from, eyes and livers, etc etc etc--but that they are all necessary.

This is a good illustration from scripture. I think it does capture some of the nuances of life among a community of people who follow Christ. I don't know if people really grasp the extent of it though.

I think this is often understood like this

1) You have a unique gift, so use it to build God's kingdom through the church.

2) You need to understand that other people's gifts are important.

I think those are both right, but it just seems that we fall so short. We are so good, in the Church, at saying these things and I really not believing them or maybe understanding the depth that this metaphor can have in a number of ways:

1) Not only are there different parts of the body, but differences between two instances of the same part. Just as two hands don't look the same as each other, people often have different ways of serving. However, in the Church we often look for certain types of gifting in people. Certain types of speakers are invited to speak, certain types of worshippers are invited to lead worship.

2) Some parts of our body are there to bring disharmony to our bodies. Our nervous system often sends very painful signals to other parts of our body because it doesn't like the state that the body is currently in. Many churches don't like to hear hard things and change course. Just as it is vitally important that our nervous system sends pain to our hands or that our ears tell our feet move out of the way, there needs to be people who bring up the 'not positive things' in the church. Most church communities just won't have that. They would rather take an asprin to shut up the nervous system rather than move their hand off the burner.

Incidentally, this is one area where I feel the most out of place in the many church bodies I've been a part of. I do enjoy and feel gifted in thinking and feeling things from different points of view. I enjoy finding holes in ideas, try to look out for people who are under served and I try to say them with as much love as possible. People don't like that though and will often take a pill to disarm the pain (usually by saying something about unity or love).

3) Even though it is important that the many parts communicate and work together, an eye knows nothing about how a hand works. Taking item 1) a bit further, you can also say that a hand shaped this way doesn't fully understand the strengths and limitations that a different shaped or sized hand may have.

I call this issue in the church "On Who's Terms?" So often, in the Church, certain parts dictate how other parts should be doing their jobs, but don't really understand how those parts work best. I think to best use peoples' gifts, though, we need to ask them how they can best do their jobs (and give them the space, tools and power that they need). A hand may want to include a foot because the bible tells them that feet are important, but if the hand only gives them jobs or contexts that hands do well, the feet are not going to do their best work. They'll be able to slog through, and it will be fun and exiting for a while, but they'll get really tired.

An example of this is visual artists. We want to include them in our worship, but we always try to have them serve on someone else's terms (usually the band). So visual artists get relegated to powerpoint backgrounds or painting a picture to a song--they are asked to serve, but only if they can do it within the music team's context. Problem is that many don't work in a medium or have the specific skills that it takes to do these things.

We need to be asking how we can empower each of the parts to do their work the best. In many cases this is going to mean that the other parts don’t get everything they want. Even if the eyes really like to look at something, in order for the feet to work well, they eyes need to allow the feet to carry them to a different place.

4) In order for some parts to work best, other parts have humble themselves. The human body equivalent is the relationship between the hands and our excretory system. Some parts of the body, when working well cause a great deal of mess for other parts to take care of. (this is kind of like #2 above, but seems different enough to include as a separate item--and is a nice pun)

There are parts of the body that are really important, but not much fun to have to deal with. A part of the Church that exposes people to ugliness often requires the help of people who are good at processing and comforting. However, in many of these situations, other parts of the body simply asks that person to stop doing its job. It would be really bad if our bodies worked that way.

Personally, I know what many of these feel like. No matter how much people say you are valuable in the Church, it really doesn't mean anything unless they help you do what you do best. So be on the look out for that. It is going to be really hard for you because you are selfish, as am I, and we both think we know the whole picture-but we really don't...

Mike