There used to be a commercial where the tag line was "Every body needs milk." Which is of course good advice. But today we know that not only some people lactose intolerant but that our bodies also need, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, good fats, etc. In short, milk, while good is not as essential as we thought. So what does every body really need?
A head. (Okay, lame opening, I admit, but hopefully it got you thinking in the right direction...)
After hearing of some recent church conflicts, we have been pondering the question “Whose church is it anyway?”
And the simple, direct and right answer is that it is Christ’s church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus even referred to it as “MY church.” But what does that mean for us today? What or who or where is Christ’s church today? (Mt 16:18 is the verse that our Catholic brothers and sisters use to claim that they are in fact the one true church, the rest of us have left the fold to one extent or another.)
The two most common descriptions for the church in the New Testament are that the church is the “body of Christ” (1 Cor 12:12) and the “temple of God” (1 Cor 3:16). In both cases, the implication is that since Pentecost when the Spirit of God was poured out on the disciples, God is present, active and available to the world through the gathered, committed people who have been baptized in the name of Jesus. (See Acts 2:37-47, Acts 4:32-34).
The church’s entire reason for being is to BE God’s presence to the world. To represent (or re-present) God to the world. As NT Wright has famously said, “As Christ was to Israel, so the church to the world.”
So, then, whose church is it today? It’s God’s church. It’s Jesus’ church. It’s Jesus’ body active in the world, it’s God’s temple making God accessible to the world. But we’ll need to consider each of those descriptions a bit more closely, starting today with the notion of the church as Christ's body.
To do so, we must remember that for the first century church, there were a few people who could actually remember Christ's original body. They had seen a smile on his face, they knew what is hair looked like after a few days without a bath, they knew how long he kept his beard, they had felt the touch of his hand.
They had heard his voice, smelled his breath, seen his tears.
And they had seen that body, broken, bloodied, and pierced; lifeless and limp, resurrected and radiant. Of all the bodies that they had ever seen, Jesus' would have been most memorable because now they would realize that that particular body was the one that the One God of universe inhabited to come into the world, to move through the world, to speak to the world, to touch the world.
So, when the first century Christians talk about the church of believers being the body of Christ, they weren't so much using an interesting metaphor or "relevant illustration" as they were proclaiming an mystery no less wonder-ful than the first "incarnation." THEY were God's new body coming into the world, moving through the world, speaking to the world, touching the world.
Pretty cool, huh? Ok, so, what?
Let’s just remember for starters that if we believers are the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head, (Col 1:18), then the single most important thing is the body being attached to the head.
Every body needs a head.
No matter how good, noble and important it’s intentions, a disembodied head is powerless to move through the world and “touch” anyone or anything. At the same time a body without a head is a corpse. A body without life, without spirit. The direction and vision of the “head” Jesus is carried out through the body, the people of the Spirit. The church remains alive and healthy as it stays connected to the head (Col 2:19). When the church is disconnected from the head, it is dead and Jesus is rendered powerless.
A body absolutely needs a head, but there is more to a body than just a head. Which is where we will pick up tomorrow.
