the mercy of crumbling bodies?
I've been looking at 1 Cor 12, in preparation for a discussion I'm supposed to lead Sunday. It's about the body of Christ. I really like the imagery of the Spirit giving gifts to each of us and inspiring and coordinating us to provide for each other. "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." And I think focusing on this has also helped me make some sense of the recent experiences here that have troubled me so much.
It's not too hard to see from Paul's descriptions of the body of Christ (or Jesus' descriptions of the kingdom of God) that our organizations and churches and communities are not it. And when our disillusionment with our organizations and leaders is worst, when they may even be collapsing around us, it becomes that much more apparent that this is not the one Body that is Christ in the world, that never dies. But is that as bad as it seems? It is so easy for us to substitute our little "bodies" (families, institutions, churches, communities) for the one community, the one Body, that we long for. We do it all the time (I've often thought it is our persisting idolatry). So it may be for our good that God brings down our organizations, disillusions us about the structures we build and the leaders we elect. To clearly show us the limitations and falseness of the "bodies" that we create for ourselves. I think it can help turn us away from dependence on these and stir a longing in us for the experience of the one Body of Christ. Helping us become better and truer members of it.
At least I hope that is the effect here. In any case it gives me the sense that there may be some important purpose and meaning in the events that have just seemed destructive and discouraging up to this point.
It's not too hard to see from Paul's descriptions of the body of Christ (or Jesus' descriptions of the kingdom of God) that our organizations and churches and communities are not it. And when our disillusionment with our organizations and leaders is worst, when they may even be collapsing around us, it becomes that much more apparent that this is not the one Body that is Christ in the world, that never dies. But is that as bad as it seems? It is so easy for us to substitute our little "bodies" (families, institutions, churches, communities) for the one community, the one Body, that we long for. We do it all the time (I've often thought it is our persisting idolatry). So it may be for our good that God brings down our organizations, disillusions us about the structures we build and the leaders we elect. To clearly show us the limitations and falseness of the "bodies" that we create for ourselves. I think it can help turn us away from dependence on these and stir a longing in us for the experience of the one Body of Christ. Helping us become better and truer members of it.
At least I hope that is the effect here. In any case it gives me the sense that there may be some important purpose and meaning in the events that have just seemed destructive and discouraging up to this point.
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