28 July 2005

In this portion of 1 Corinthians, the notion of unity of gifts is put into the image of one body.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one body we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor. 12:12-13)

It was the plan of the day to go farther along in this text but in these few verses, enough is said to send people into a tailspin or lift us up to a vision of new life. I am especially grabbed by this beginning thought knowing that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be meeting at our national assembly in a few weeks and the church will be discussing issues of human sexuality. (That last sentence made it sound like it would be a good, body-building discussion.) Unfortunately, the meeting is preceded by threats of schism...and the schism will not be over the gospel, it will be over something like sexuality. I read recently that the American Baptists met and they were to discuss similar issues. They found that God attended the meeting...and it became a creative conversation where people actually listened to one another and the whole event sounded like it was a prayer meeting. In Paul's day, it was a divide house - literally. the divide between Jew and Greek was dramatic, well-known, and entered into every piece of life together because previous to the life within the church these people could not mix together. And yet, here they are parts of one body. What have we become in the church that we would choose to split rather than live as the one body we are - different, of course, but one body in Christ. One last word: usually there is a group that condemns homosexuality because they say the people choose to be homosexuals (rather than being homosexuals). Well, lets look at this from another perspective, I suppose we could say that those who choose to leave the ELCA are choosing to be something other than the body of Christ. Just think...choosing to be other than the body of Christ...choosing to be the organization they want and not the body of Christ...choosing to be so caught up in human sexuality (think something like circumcision) that they will not let the power of the resurrected Lord, Jesus, be the one Lord of the one Body of Christ. Interesting.

Connection: We all do it. We all point fingers and condemn or pull ourselves away from others. And yet, that Spirit of the Lord never ceases to use its power to make s one.

Continue to tend to the welfare of our hearts, O Lord of New Life. You have brought us so far and yet we know that you intend to take us all the way through our lives without ever turning against us but always walking before us, holding us and encouraging us to have your faith among us. Praise to you, O Lord. Amen.