The Improbable Body

Okay, so I’ve been just a little obsessed with the body lately. Not mine, but his. The body of Christ. I don’t think I’m obsessed with it because it’s what I want. For many years, I wanted nothing more than to keep my distance from the church. I was too frustrated with it, too embarrassed, too angry, too bored. I didn’t want to waste my time and my life on something I felt was hopeless and had long ago crossed the line of impossible. Like many today, I liked Christ, but I didn’t like his church. I liked the idea of the church well enough, but not the reality.

Thing is, the apostle Paul probably had at least as many reasons to feel frustrated, embarrassed and angry. Frustrated because he had to spend a lot of time in prison, and couldn’t “go to church,” and because the churches he’d planted were constantly plagued by heresies, divisions, personality conflicts and competing agendas. Numerical growth was slow. Mostly they were immature.

But the apostle Paul just keeps reminding the churches of their call — their call to be the body of Christ. For Paul, no matter what the chances of success, this is too high a calling to neglect, too high not to pour out one’s life for. (It is the body of Christ, after all.) Today’s epistle passage reads: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Become completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit…” (Ephesians 4:1-4a). Make every effort. Paul says that, while recognizing that our efforts aren’t nearly enough. This passage is preceded by the words, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us….”

Then there is today’s gospel reading — the feeding of the 5000. In John’s gospel, this story clearly has sacramental overtones. (A little later in the same chapter Jesus will refer to himself as the bread of life.) Initially, Jesus asks his disciples to do the impossible; find a way to feed 5000 people — now. All they can come up with is this little kid’s lunch. Ends up, our poverty is Jesus’ opportunity. After everyone is fed and satisfied, Jesus tells his disciples, “Gather the pieces (literally, “broken pieces”) that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” These broken pieces manage to fill twelve baskets.

“Let nothing be wasted.”

Symbolically, the number twelve represents the people of God, or the body of Christ,  the broken body of Christ.

How do these fragmented pieces become a single loaf? How do spiritually impoverished, broken people become a single Body? That’s the miracle I’m choosing to believe in these days. Have to. Jesus requires me to. Of course, we already are his body. That’s the thing, that’s the truth. Now it’s simply a matter of becoming what we are. And we are, I’m happy to say. There’s so many signs of it actually happening in our little community called BRC. Signs to encourage us, signs to inspire us to keep moving in the direction of becoming  what we are — the body of Christ.

Paul says we’re not to rest on our laurels. The goal is to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” For that to happen, says Paul, there has to be strong, gifted leaders who can equip each member of the body to do their part, to use their gifts (4:11-12). Please be praying for our elders and deacons as we reflect on biblical leadership at our consistory retreat in January and during our meetings over the next few months.

And be praying for “Seekers,” the Thursday night event that will begin on January 19. Pray and please come. Like those Magi, we will be seeking the body of Jesus. We will be learning from the early church, without idealizing it. We are calling it Seekers because we realize there is a lot we still don’t know about what it means to be the body of Christ. The purpose for Seekers isn’t to create an elite group of BRC members or to create a separate church. (I love our church.) It’s because the rest of the church is doing all the stuff it’s doing that this Thursday night gathering will be freed up to explore, wonder, wander, repent and experiment. We’ll be sure to share with the rest of the body at BRC what we learn.

And none of this is really about BRC. It’s about Jesus, about being the body of Christ — the impoverished but “blessed with every spiritual blessing,” broken but unified, imperfect but becoming mature, improbable, impossible body of Christ.

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