I am always inspired by people like Paul; people who proclaim and sustain hope. You see, there are times when I tend to see the glass as half empty, rather than half full. I tend to be the kind of person who can focus on what is not working rather than on celebrating what is; I guess it is the engineer in me. At times, there is a part of me that can become cynical and switched off to hope. When that happens, I aspirer to pray harder for others and my problems seem to gradually get smaller.
Community is not just a sum of individual parts; there is a synergy grounded in patterns of relationships and interactions that are all connected and affect each other. How people interact in one part of the body certainly has a ripple affect to other parts whether we know it or not; something like these gears and how they interact.
To be a healthy community, a healthy body, Paul says the gifts of all parts are needed. And each part needs to respect and value the gifts that are not their own. Just because an eye thinks that seeing is the most important thing because that is all it knows and has ever done, does not mean that the body does not need ears to listen, hands to heal, a heart to offer compassion, a mouth to speak truth, a mind to see the bigger picture. One part cannot pretend that it is more important, or less important. When that happens it divides. The word in Greek means literally “tears to pieces.”
Paul reminds them that they are better together. Paul asks the Corinthians to orient their differing gifts in unity. They are not asked to eliminate differences but to coming together and interact, to recognize their interdependence and cooperate so that they can be the body of Christ as a community.
We can’t talk about a living body, without talking about health and maintaining health. I know that keeping my body healthy entails paying attention to the mind, body, spirit connection. When my mind is caught in negative critical patterns of thinking, it drains my spirit and my body energy. When I am not attending to my spiritual well-being, I find my mind moving into those very negative, critical patterns which in turn affect my body. We also need to think about how we are affecting our family, our community, and our work place. You know from experience that some patterns and interactions help to create health and wholeness for all the parts and for the system as a whole; and some interactions encourage disease, disintegration and dysfunction.
Community is not just a sum of individual parts; there is a synergy grounded in patterns of relationships and interactions that are all connected and affect each other. How people interact in one part of the body certainly has a ripple affect to other parts whether we know it or not; something like these gears and how they interact.
To be a healthy community, a healthy body, Paul says the gifts of all parts are needed. And each part needs to respect and value the gifts that are not their own. Just because an eye thinks that seeing is the most important thing because that is all it knows and has ever done, does not mean that the body does not need ears to listen, hands to heal, a heart to offer compassion, a mouth to speak truth, a mind to see the bigger picture. One part cannot pretend that it is more important, or less important. When that happens it divides. The word in Greek means literally “tears to pieces.”
Paul reminds them that they are better together. Paul asks the Corinthians to orient their differing gifts in unity. They are not asked to eliminate differences but to coming together and interact, to recognize their interdependence and cooperate so that they can be the body of Christ as a community.
We can’t talk about a living body, without talking about health and maintaining health. I know that keeping my body healthy entails paying attention to the mind, body, spirit connection. When my mind is caught in negative critical patterns of thinking, it drains my spirit and my body energy. When I am not attending to my spiritual well-being, I find my mind moving into those very negative, critical patterns which in turn affect my body. We also need to think about how we are affecting our family, our community, and our work place. You know from experience that some patterns and interactions help to create health and wholeness for all the parts and for the system as a whole; and some interactions encourage disease, disintegration and dysfunction.
- I think we all could strengthen our attitude of gratitude since it is such a key marker in health. What if we appreciated and thanked people for what they do in community instead of looking for what missing or not done according to our expectations?
- What if we each offered our gifts to build up the whole community and its mission of being the body of Christ?
- What if we were to pay close attention to the information loops in our community...the way information is carried from one part to another. What if we all worked to keep these loops healthy and information flowing freely amongst them, building one another up in trust?
- What if we made sure that each person felt connected with the loop of communications that allowed spiritual grow by sharing our gifts to others without the fear of rejection.
It does not mean that there will not be conflict or troubles in a healthy community. That is part of dealing with diversity and growth, and change. But a healthy community is one that does not run away from, but actively and responsively address or heal its disturbances, and grow through them.
BE THE EYES, FEET, AND HANDS OF CHRIST
Christ has no body now on Earth but yours...no hands but yours,no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which is to view Christ's compassion to the world; Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which he is to bless people now.
1 Corinthians 12: 12-31a
