Body Parts

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.  

Genesis 2:7

An adult human body consists of slightly more than 200 bones and 78 organs.  Five of the organs are considered vital to life, heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and brain.  Now, those are the rudiments of biology, the basics of structure and function.  However, life is not all biology, just the physical mechanism of the species; there are also the metaphysical (abstract) body parts, without which we could not exist.  There is spirit and soul to go with those body parts, and let us not back-shelf what gave life in the first place, God breathing His own breath into Adam’s assembled body parts.  Then, and only then, did he become a living soul.

God made humankind.  God also revealed to Apostle Paul the analogy that, as a human body functions in concert with all the bones, organs, and resident breath of God, so the human race, with all its different and unique parts, is to function inter-dependently, working together for the good of the body. 

Applying that principle to the “body” of Christ (the church), God’s intention is that the differences that form us into groups, male/female, nationalities, social strata, religious sects, etc, fade into the background.  As in Adam, Spirit supercedes flesh.  As a species, we have light years more in common than that which divides us.

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.  

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

In the Gospel accounts we find Jesus under attack by (supposedly) spiritually-wise religious teachers.  They accused him of being satanically-inspired, because Jesus had healed a demon-possessed man.  Jesus, ever the master of logic, as well as truth, told them their diagnosis was ridiculous…Satan casting-out Satan?

A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse.  Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.  Mark 3:24-25

For You Today 

Our human bodies were created to have bones which support and protect the inner body parts, and those inner parts strengthen the bones.  All of that structure was formed to cooperate with the breath of God inside our spirit and soul.  We were created for better than feuding and dividing into camps. 

The smallest bone in the human body has a great responsibility to the rest of the body’s health…the stapes bone, which is commonly called the stirrup.  Located in the inner ear, the stapes bone is the link which connects sound waves to the auditory nerve.  In short, without this bone’s function our brain is cut-off from sound.  Without that little bone’s service, our communication with others is drowned in a sea of silence.

So, here is a word to hear; gird-up your stapes bone and let it sink-in:

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  John 13:34-35

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:   Out of the Dust  and  Trans-Creation

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Where the Nut Lands

 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

When we were studying for ministry at New Orleans Seminary we lived on campus.  The road circling the campus was just about a mile loop, and, being exceedingly typical students, Elizabeth and I were also exceedingly poor.  Walking the loop was our entertainment mostly.  During the months of October through December, nuts fell from the pecan trees that encircled that loop, and we learned to bring bags along on our nightly walks.  It was there I developed my addiction for pecans.

In a previous pastorate there was a husband and wife who had pecan trees.  Being fond of my addiction to pecans, each year at the church’s annual benefit auction I would make sure we got some of Joyce and Jack Fagg’s crop!  For a month or so after the auction I munched day in and day out.  I stashed them everywhere.  I am truly a nut – nut! 

                       (O.K., I got that out of the way…now to the main point.)

The old saying about a nut not falling too far from the tree is true, except if there is a sower, or gardener, who wants to do something with the nut, and, in that sense, where the nut lands is a matter of what hands hold the nut.  Joyce and Jack always dedicated part of their crop to raising funds for the church’s mission.     Once I got my hands on them, they were likely to end up on top of vanilla ice cream, inside pancakes, or the top right drawer of the desk where I wrote sermons.  Ultimately all of them found their way into the ministry…that is, the minister!

Paul’s point about the body of Christ can’t be ignored; we may look different from each other, talk differently, and have vastly different gifts, calling, and background, but we are ONE body with differences, and that is the Sower’s choice.

Paul wrote a companion sentence to this concept of one body that the church (and this violent, turbulent, self-destructive world) needs to hear:

No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.  Ephesians 5:29

Nut trees, like every living, growing thing, can get infected.  If the church is like a body with many members, all deserving care, so our human family tree needs care from the infection blight of hatred and violence.  It is a self-inflicting illness that destroys from within. 

But the church cannot do anything at all when it comes to addressing hatred if the church is busy proclaiming hatred.  Sweet and bitter water do not come from the same fountain, in the same way that truth and lies do not come from the same heart and mouth.  If the church is going to truly be the church of Jesus Christ, it must not, in any way, represent the anger and violence we see in the culture today. 

I was once told by a well-meaning friend that I shouldn’t let certain people, who were part of the church I was serving, do what they were doing.  He said, Russell, this is your church; don’t let them do that to you.  I had to tell my friend he was wrong; it wasn’t my church; the church belongs to Jesus.  My job, as a nut from the Jesus tree, was to teach and work with the other nuts God put in my pathway.  It was not my prerogative to shell and crush them.

As for this world, and the so-called movements we see against hatred and racism, whatever is done in the name of Christ isn’t always what the Sower-in-Chief designed.  If you fight fire with fire, you’re going to (at the least) wind up smelling like smoke.  And, very often, that will be the least of it.  Resorting to beastly behavior to combat monsters, makes a monster of he who would combat monsters.  Movements against hatred and racism ought not adopt such as their tactics.

 Let’s Pray Together:

Father, you sent Jesus to be our Peace, and to teach us peace.  He did so by sacrificing his divine rights for us.  He did so without retaliation and vengeance.  Our prayer is for wisdom to know how to be peace-makers, not just people who talk about peace, and for courage to act like the Prince of Peace.

For You Today

If you’re truly a member of the body of Christ, you’ll not fall too far from the tree that gave you new birth.  Stay in the Sower’s hands until he plants you where you’re needed.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!    

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on 1 Corinthians 12 see So, Which Gift? and Holy Mixtures – Part 5 and We Are the Body of Christ

Holy Mixtures - part 5

Friday, May 2, 2014

Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together.  So it is with the “body” of Christ.  Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body.  We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit.    1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (TLB)

Do not quench the Spirit.    1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NRSV)

Diversity, particularly in the Body of Christ, is a strange thing, never uninteresting!  Paul’s image of Christians all being different “body parts” which form the movement of God’s will being worked-out here on earth, is a common, but disturbing picture.

If I might be permitted to spiritualize this metaphor a bit further, if we are the body parts, what (or Who) is the blood that carries life-giving nourishment to those body parts?  Certainly it is the Holy Spirit who permeates the movement of God’s will. 

This is like the blood that flows to and through my fingers moving over my computer’s keyboard at this moment; that blood also brings life-giving oxygen and nutrients to the brain which sends messages down to the hand-writers.  And let us not leave out the feet that brought me into the study this morning; and the eyes which made sure I didn’t stumble over Gracie the Wonder dog who was sleeping in the doorway. 

As my blood is important to continue life in my human body, so is the Spirit vital to Christ’s bride, the Church, if she is to continue. 

I would imagine Paul’s analogy of the Body of Christ speaks clearly enough for itself at this point, but let me state the obvious.

It’s Time to STOP THE BLEEDING!

If you consider how difficult it is for blood to do its work when it is spilled on the ground, think about what damage is done to the Church of God when the Holy Spirit is leaking onto the pew cushions and holy carpets we fight over? 

To the Greek believers at Thessalonica, Paul cautioned, don’t quench the Spirit.  To stretch our metaphor one more time, I believe Paul was making the case against amputation in the body of Christ.  We tend to amputate those members of Christ’s body that are different from us.  And we somehow fail to notice what horrendous assault we cause. 

Quenching the Spirit is like slicing open a femoral artery…the blood spurts down our leg, and in traumatic shock, the warmth of the blood feels good; all the while life is leaving our amputated brother or sister in Christ we keep singing There is Power in the Blood; we don’t have a clue that we’re becoming weaker with each stanza.  What we seem to fail to understand is that when you amputate anything there are two wounds, not one.  It is not just the arm or leg lying on the ground; there is a gaping wound left where once the limb was attached.  Those we deem unacceptable in our churches are somehow part of us because God brings “holy mixtures” into our lives.  When we amputate there are two wounds, whether we see it or not.

It’s time to stop the bleeding!

Triage is the medical art of decision-making about survival probability, deciding who has a chance of living.  It’s time for the body parts of the Church to decide to live…while we still can.  Blood spilled on the political left, or religious right, is still gone from the body.

I do not believe there is a program, movement or motion at General Conference that can stop this bleeding.  While the heart of the Methodist Church (or Baptist, or Episcopal, et al) is growing weaker for lack of the lifeblood of God’s Holy Spirit, no appeals to unity amidst our extant human diversity is going to replace repentance, one heart at a time.  Repentance is not a few tears on the carpet at the front of the church; genuine repentance is born in the heart, but finds true regeneration for the soul in actions.  We must (as John Wesley) give our hand to our brother.

Today…for you

Stop the bleeding!  Be part of the surgical team that stitches the body back together.  God’s in the healing business, and He’s recruiting you to be part of the holy mixture!