Sermon "Body Language"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, January 25, 1998
Luke 4:14-21
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Body Language
Paul illustrates the church with a very famous image. It's a very common image, the image of the human body. "You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it." (1 Corinthians 12:27) It's an image that's dynamic, unified and organic. I'd like to take each of these three words in turn -- dynamic, unified, organic -- and consider them as three facets of what it means to live together in Christian community.
The first word I used was "dynamic." "Dynamic" comes from the Greek word dunamis, or power. Something that's dynamic moves; it accomplishes; it achieves; it makes a difference. If you or I call someone a "dynamic" speaker -- or if we admire a friend with a "dynamic" personality -- we mean the person is lively, always in motion, never boring.
They say that when Thomas Edison first demonstrated his new invention, the "motion picture," folks were amazed. Here, for the first time, was something that seemed impossible: photographs that moved. The pictures most people knew back then were stiff, formal affairs. The family in the portrait assumed a rigid, unsmiling pose -- then held their breath while the photographer counted off the seconds for the exposure to take place. The last thing you wanted, in those old-fashioned photos, was someone moving. It blurred the picture. The very word "photograph" had become synonymous with "stiff," "still," "motionless."
All that changed with "the movies" -- as Edison's new invention came to be called. It hardly mattered, in those early days, what the "movie" was about. Edison's first feature, "The Great Train Robbery," is grainy and amateurish. As the desperadoes rob the train, the actors' motions are jerky, their expressions wooden, the stunts unrealistic. But Americans packed theaters from one end of the country to another to see it.
Paul's image of the body of Christ is equally dynamic. He could have described the church in any one of a number of ways, but instead he chooses an image that moves; that acts; that makes a difference in the world. Yet how often, instead, do we imagine the church as something whose whole purpose is not to move -- a rock-solid institution that stays eternally the same -- a great stone dike, holding back the turbulent tides of change?
There are times when the church does need to be a fortress, an archive of tradition -- that's what it was during the dark ages, and for the last few decades in eastern europe -- but that can never be its primary purpose. Always the church needs to be out there ahead of the community, having an impact on the world.
That's one great hallmark of Paul's vision of the body of Christ: it moves -- demonstrating that Christ is alive in the world today.
The second characteristic of the body of Christ is that it is unified. Paul makes a great deal of the fact that the body is made up of many members. Each one has its own function; but each one is also intimately connected to the others. Can the eye say to the hand, "I have no need of you"? Of course not! It's an absurdity. Can the head dismiss the feet, saying, "I have no need of you"? If the head could do such a thing, how would it ever get around? Each of us have different gifts -- but our individual gifts are of little value unless we use them in cooperation with others.
The life of the body, is an exercise in unity. It isn't always easy to set aside our individual wants and priorities, to give ourselves for the good of the community -- but that's exactly what Paul calls us to do. We are called to nurture this unity -- to reach out to those who are hurting, or angry, or struggling in their faith, to strengthen the ties that bind us one to another.
Another characteristic of the body of Christ is that it's organic. I'm not talking health foods and compost here; I'm using the word "organic" in the technical sense, as something that lives and grows. In the church, we are about the business of nurturing new life -- of passing on to others the life we have received in Christ.
The church of Jesus Christ is one great organism, a life form reaching out to enfold the world in love. That means that, like any living thing, the church can suffer illness. If there happens to be an infection -- if one of our number is suffering -- we all suffer. From time to time, viruses -- conflicts -- can ravage our common life.. Then we experience chills and fever (in extreme cases, maybe even hallucinations).
If we are to enjoy good health as a living organism, there are certain things we need to do. -- we must take care, for example, not to neglect our spiritual exercise -- worshipping regularly, cultivating disciplines of private prayer. A proper spiritual diet is essential. We are to pursue the things that make for health. If we find ourselves, as a church, in ill health, there is no magical pill or gimmick that will put things right. It is the basics of worship, fellowship, mission, education that make the difference.
Dynamic, unified, organic -- such is the body of Christ, which is the church. This means that, in the Christian way of looking at things, success means more than individual achievement. Christian success is part and parcel with the success of our neighbors, and community.
There is no achievement you or I can attain that others will not rejoice in; there is no failure we may undergo such that others will not be there to weep for us, and to help us to our feet again. Every action we take touches the lives of others; every word we speak echoes into the thoughts of our neighbors. Amen.
