Over the
past year, my son has been searching for a better understanding of Jesus and Christ,
which I have encouraged him not to conflate. He recently asked me, “How can I
know if all the things they say about Jesus are true?”
I empathize
with him. As a young girl, I often questioned the stories of Jesus. Though they
were quite beautiful narratives, I couldn’t reconcile them with what I knew of
the natural world I live in. What miracles actually took place, if any? How did
these miraculous events happen? Why don’t they happen today? If Jesus suffered
for everyone how could he suffer for the pains and afflictions of women? If all
His miracles weren’t real is there any value in what I was being taught from
the scriptures?
Christmas
can be particularly challenging when fellow believers bear testimonies of
mystical, superstitious narratives that perpetuate escapist attitudes and
relinquish our responsibilities as “joint-heirs with Christ.” Fellow
congregates may bear testimonies of faith in Jesus, but their “faith without
works is dead.” If our faith in a miraculous Jesus is without action on our
part, our faith becomes nihilistic. If Jesus suffered for all of us, broken the
bands of death, and graciously gifted us immortality, what is our role as the
body of Christ? To blindly comply to the latest authoritarian?
In 1st
Corinthians 12, we are taught that we are all the body of Christ, “For as the
body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being
many, and one body: so also is Christ. For the body is not one member, but
many. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one
member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.”
These
scriptures remind me of the song Christ Has No Body Now on
Earth But Yours.
Christ has
no body but yours;
No hands, no
feet, on earth but yours.
Yours are
the eyes through which He looks with compassion on this world;
Yours are
the feet with which He walks to do good;
Yours are
the hands with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are
the hands, Yours and the feet;
Yours are
the eyes; You are His body.
Christ has
no body now but yours;
No hands, no
feet on earth but yours.
Yours are
the eyes through which He looks with compassion on this world;
Christ has
no body now on earth but yours.
Amen.
As members
of the body of Christ all things are possible and events that seem unlikely or
even impossible can be made true. We can suffer with humanity. We can reconcile
with humanity. We can atone with humanity. We can rejoice with humanity. This
is what it means to become the body of Christ—to join Jesus in atoning. Our
doctrine mandates our participation. In a very real sense Christ’s suffering
and reconciliation, when engaged in more thoughtfully, is not limited to Jesus,
but all humanity.
We take the
sacrament every Sunday to remind us we are the body of Christ. Mark 14:22 says,
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave
it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it: this is my body.’” We symbiotically take
on the name of Christ each week in religious ritual. We do it “in remembrance”
as a “witness” to participate in Christ by immersively taking upon the name of
Jesus.
The body of
Christ knows no gender, race, nationality, ability, or orientation. The body of
Christ is unified not in homogenization, but in the commonality of our belief
in the atonement. Just as a human body is composed of diverse cells that have
various functions, each collectively works together in unison to produce a
functional body. We are the cells of Christ.
The
scriptures also suggest that all parts of the body of Christ are an important
and valued member. 1st Corinthians 12 expands on the body of Christ,
“If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it
therefore not the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I
am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an
eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were heading, where were the
smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it
hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now
are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand,
I have no need of thee: nor again the head to feet, I have no need of you. Nay,
much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are
necessary.”
We may each
subscribe differently to appeals of Jesus’ divinity, his miracles, or the
particulars of his life, but I trust his example is worth following. As we
celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas time, it is also important we celebrate
the birth of an idea. Christ. It is the idea that absolutely nothing is beyond
reconciliation, even death. To be Christ we must immersively follow Jesus’
example, atone with humanity, and participate in the work of redemption in
compassion and love.
*Published at Rational Faiths on Tuesday, December 20, 2016
*Published at Rational Faiths on Tuesday, December 20, 2016
