“Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12 MSG)
I always took the Body of Christ analogy fairly literally: we are all part of the same club, but everyone has different talents and responsibilities. And some are cooler than others.
For a while I strove diligently to find my calling. I tried missions, teaching Sunday school, leading a small group, singing in church, helping at youth, etc. But I always had the sneaking suspicion it wasn't my “function;” that there were others better suited to those roles and I was just taking up space.
Thinking about the Body of Christ this way put me into a bit of a catch-22. For you see I always figured I didn't have a very significant role to play, and, therefore, never felt it terribly important to be involved in my church or the larger Christian community.
So, after moving away from my home church, I stopped trying. Whenever I went to any sort of Christian service or function I didn't seek to be involved and no one asked me for much. It was a lonely, isolated time. And I fell through the cracks.
Moving away from comfort and stability often shakes things up, but I didn't expect my faith to be challenged so much. My ideals fell apart and I was not only disenchanted, but also a bit bitter about it all. Why wasn't this easier? Why weren't people friendlier? What was I doing wrong?
“I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together…. If Ear said, ‘I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head,’ would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.” (1 Corinthians 12:14-18)
My attitude reflected my effort. I sat around expecting the Body of Christ to meet my needs, yet offered nothing back. I was essentially acting like Ear, saying I wasn't really a part of the Body because I wasn't Eye. Looking at my reasons for avoiding church involvement in this way makes me see how ridiculous they are. I can't show up and automatically get connected. I have to try. And if I fail, I have to try again. And again. Not because I'm the most talented or the most qualified to serve, but because it is my responsibility and calling as a member of the Body of Christ, as it is every Christian's.
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to a church whose members felt they could do without each other. They were arrogant, argumentative, proud, and jealous of each other. By comparing the Church to the human body, he was saying no one member has all the qualities needed to successfully live the Christian life. We need each other.
With Christ as the brain, every body part needs to be in direct contact with Him. Without that connection we don't have a chance of survival. Think of an arm: if you were to lose it your body would still be able to survive. But what about the arm, if it's disconnected from the body can it keep living? No way.
What if you're still connected to the Body, but are inactive. Essentially you're a dangling limb—dead weight. Sure, you're still a part of the body, but you're being dragged along. Not only that, you're slowing the rest of the body down. It's when the entire body is working together towards the same goals that it is most effective.
For some reason many of us forget we serve others in obedience to Christ. Being involved in church, volunteering your skills, and helping others however you can aren't actions specially set aside for the chosen few or the super religious. This is a calling for each of us and if we think we can strike out on our own, or just show up for nourishment but give nothing back to the Body, we are missing the point.
“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't…. You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this.” (1 Corinthians 12:25, 27)
