Anatomy 101
I Corinthians 12:12-31a
January 21, 2007
Our bodies are truly wonderful things, yet they can also be the source of some really gross smells, noises, and other stuff. I think that I have told you before that I spent seventeen days in the hospital at Mayo Clinic back in 1996. My time there convinced me of the truth that if you want to get rest, stay away from hospitals.
Every morning, sometime between the hours of 2 and 5 o’clock, they would come in and wake me up. Every night, they would take me down for x-rays. I would just get back to sleep and then they would come to weigh me. After I settled down again, they would wake me up to take blood. This went on for seventeen days! I finally had a good night’s sleep after I got home.
I am sure that there was a reason for all of this early morning poking, prodding, weighing, and picture taking. I am sure that it was so the doctors could have the results first thing in the morning when the arrived on the floor. Still, I joked with the nurses (actually, I’m not sure I was joking) that they had to find stuff for the night shift to do, so they went around thinking up ways to keep us awake.
Isn’t it funny the things you remember? There was this one nurse on the night shift that I came to dread. She was a lovely young woman, very skilled, very kind, and always gentle with me. The problem was that she was Indian and I learned that Indian people like to cook with curry. I also learned that curry gives you incredibly bad breath. I smelled her breath the moment she walked in my door. It was really awful.
You may think I’m joking, but in 2000, an Indian farmer was charged with manslaughter after killing a police officer with his breath. The officer was trying to arrest this farmer when he smelled the curry on his breath and died on the spot from an asthma attack.
I don’t know if you know who Dave Berry is or not. Dave Berry is the humor columnist for the Miami Herald. He and I are just about the same age. I first read of him when, on my fortieth birthday, I was given a copy of his book, “Dave Berry Turns 40.” Ten years later, I got a copy of new book, “Dave Berry Turns 50.”
My daughter gave me a copy of his new book for Christmas this year. He begins by writing about snoring, and then digresses from there. He writes this.
“Women…can be the worst snoring-deniers, because women are taught from an early age that it is not feminine to emit any noise or aroma that would indicate that they are biological organisms. Men, on the other hand, consider bodily functions to be a highly masculine form of manliness. That is why men are not afraid to haul off and let go of a hearty burp, often as a way to emphasize a rhetorical point…
There is some other stuff here about other bodily noises and smells that I think I’ll leave to your imagination (or you can go out and buy the book and read it yourself – “Boogers are My Beat” 2003. New York: Crown Publishers).
There is a traveling exhibit going around the country to children’s museums and museums of science titled, “Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body.” This exhibit allows children to climb through giant noses to see cilia and mucus up close to discover how the body defends itself against airborne pathogens. Take a trip through the intestines to how bacteria breaks down food, complete with stomach gurgles and burps. Kids can watch the process of stomach acid regurgitating up the digestive system.
Let’s face it. Our bodies, as wonderful as they are, can sometimes omit odors and sounds and fluids and other stuff that is less than pleasing. I’ve been thinking about our bodies for a while, in light of I Corinthians 12.
The Apostle Paul is speaking about the body here – the Body of Christ. One of the things that we have learned is that sometimes the Body of Christ can be difficult, to say the least. Like our human bodies, the church can be less than pleasant at times. We do not always live in harmony. We do not always love each other well. We don’t always care for each other. We argue, and fuss, and fight with each other. We are sometimes arrogant, thinking that we are somehow better than someone else. Maybe we think, because we’ve got a leadership position in the church, that we are more important. Maybe we think that because we put a large financial gift in the offering plate, we are somehow deserving of more respect. Maybe we think, because we are always here to wash dishes, or teach Sunday School, or bake cookies for Vacation Bible School, or help out mowing the lawn, that they ought to pay more attention to us. Being the Body can sometimes be pretty gross.
One ancient Greek historian compared the human body to the “polis” or the commonwealth. His point was that there are parts of the body, which are given less honor than other parts. For example: the stomach. He was making a political analogy to say that those members of the body that are less honorable shouldn’t object to be ruled over by the parts that are more important.
Paul takes that analogy and turns it on its ear. He says that the body has many members, yet we are all one in Christ Jesus. He then goes on to give some practical teaching about the proper functioning of this body because being part of Christ means something. This was teaching that was certainly necessary because the church at Corinth was a church bathed in controversy and conflict. People in that church just had trouble getting along. I laugh sometimes at people who want to get back to the New Testament church. I hope they are not talking about the Corinthian church, because it was certainly not a healthy gathering. I’m not sure how they looked or smelled, but they sure did like to fight with each other.
So Paul addressed the proper and healthy functioning of the Body of Christ. He did it by talking about three “D’s” – Design, Diversity, and Display.
Did you ever think about the design of the church? Back when I was in high school, Simon and Garfunkle had a song on the radio titled, “I Am a Rock.” They sang, “I am a rock. I am an island.” For another perspective, I would remind you of the 16th century poet John Donne who wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.”
Paul writes, “our 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.” God’s design for the Body was one of interdependence. The reality of life in the church is that we exist for each other and cannot be completely healthy without each other. God has made us for each other.
The church’s DNA is what makes us the same. We were all created by the same heavenly parent. The blueprints for each of our lives were drafted by the same master designer. We are designed so that we are fundamentally the same.
At the same time that we are all designed for the same body, there is a great diversity in the parts. The same DNA that has made us the same has also given us this diversity. God has designed some of us to be eyes, some to be ears, some to be feet, some to be hands, and so forth. That is the great diversity in the Body. Think about it. If we were all eyes, how would we hear? If we were all ears, how would we see? If we were all hands, how would we walk? If we were all feet, how would be grasp a hurting brother or sister?
Can you imagine if everyone in the church were a preacher? If you are like me, you are probably thinking that one is enough. Can you imagine if everyone was a teacher? Who would be students? If everyone was a student, who would be a missionary? If we were all off on the mission field, who would take care of the needs of the local church? If we were all tied to the local church, who would take the message of Christ to the world?
When I was growing up, my red hair and fire red freckles made me feel really out of place. There just isn’t that many red heads around and I felt really self-conscious. I really wished that I had any other color of hair except red. But it was in my DNA. We can’t choose our DNA any more than we can choose our spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is just that…a gift. God has given each of us different gifts to use in the building up of the body.
According to Paul, those who bake cookies for the coffee time following worship are just as important as those who sing in the choir, who are just as important as those who crawl up on the roof to patch a leak, who are just as important as those who teach Sunday School, who are just as important as those who mow the grass, who are just as important as those who crochet prayer shawls, who are just as important as those who usher, who are just as important as those who dust the window sills, who are just as important as those who do hands-on ministry among the poor.
Do you get it? The diversity of the Body is what makes us strong. We all have different gifts and pooling all of those gifts together is what makes us complete and whole.
We’ve talked about design and diversity. Now let me spend just a minute taking about the display of the Body of Christ. Most churches, and this church is really no different, need to find ways to lift up the contributions of everybody.
I just read a story about Harry Connick Jr. who is among today’s greatest jazz musicians. During his concerts a decade ago, he would have his whole band leave the stage, at which time he would sit down with all of the instruments and play a solo: the piano, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, string bass, and even the drums.
Today, if you go to a Harry Connick concert, there will come a point in the show when he will turn the spotlight on each of his band members in turn, and give them the stage for their own solos. Connick is still the best musician on the stage, but he is the one who is doing all the cheering for the rest of the band.
The church has got to find a way to make sure that the talents of all members of the Body are utilized, appreciated, and celebrated. Most churches that I know have a long way to go with that. And we will continue to try to do a better job around here.
Sometimes our human bodies don’t always work the way they are supposed to work. Snoring and bad breath, along with other assorted noises and smells are less than pleasant. In that way, they are just like the Body of Christ because we aren’t always that pleasing to be around either.
But Paul lifts up for us the beauty of the design, diversity, and display of Body of Christ when everything is functioning properly. Who we are individually will determine what we become collectively.
The church cannot survive, flourish, and grow without the entire Body functioning individually and together as was intended by God. When we fully become what we were designed to be, it is indeed a wonderful example of God’ s intentions. I pray that it may be so.
