One Body

" Brothers and sisters: There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. Whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. . If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of small be?" The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' . . . If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." -[ 1 Corinthians 3-26].


I remember as a child going through the "It's a Small World" exhibit at Disney, over and over and over again. Was it the vision of all the international dolls, the animatronics, the catchy tune of "It's a Small World"? - all so magical to a starry-eyed little girl? I can still remember my mother tugging me away after we went through that exhibit for the umpteenth time. After all, we would have to go home, eventually.

The lyrics that stick with me are, "There's so much that we share, we can all be aware, it's a small world after all!"

Today, so many seem to resent anything smacking of Christian doctrine. If it comes from the Bible, many folks stiffen, and interrupt, or walk away, before even hearing the message.

The message in 1 Corinthians: 3-26 came from a time when various peoples held themselves apart as "The Chosen Ones", to the exclusion of others. St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, was addressing the community of Corinth on the issues of divisiveness, jealousy, and continual argument.

What Paul was fighting to set aright, in general, was a belief that one could be "a proper Christian", only if one was Jewish to begin with. The logical conclusion to this was that Gentiles, Greeks, Converts, or any other groups could not properly follow Jesus. And yet, Christians believe that Jesus welcomes ALL!

These issues are not new! They resonate, even today.

Today, our politics and our culture align along identity issues. This is a good thing, when Identity Politics serve to remind us that Black Lives DO matter. We CANNOT say, 'One part of the whole body -   [ our world's persons of color] - are not part of the whole body and do not matter!' No- we are ALL one body.

Hence, the famous observation of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, "We are ALL tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."   I must believe that, as a preacher, King was directly paraphrasing Corinthians: "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it."

I was not taught this as a child. In fact, I was taught that people need to take care of themselves. And as for charity, "We don't GIVE our money away."

But in fact, we cannot rightly carve out whole groups of people from the whole Body. "If the Foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body', it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body."

And, "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' ". We DO need each other. As Mother Teresa said, "We forget that we belong to each other."

How our world would change, if we went back to the ancient belief that we are all one body. Never would we abuse each other, hate each other, cut off ties with each other, isolate from each other. In fact, we NEED each other to survive.

There are SO many implications to this belief! Take Climate Change - the developed world spends billions investing in renewable energy, BUT we allow a vast swathe of our brothers and sisters to heat and cook over open fires outdoors! Open fires are a monumental contributor to air pollution. And, we all live on the same planet. Volcanic ash from the Pacific floats along on the jet stream. Detritus from a tsunami in Asia ends up in California. If we think that we are not physically connected, then we are willfully blind!

Then, there are the huge implications from the notion that each body member has its own gifts to contribute.

Today, in America, we tell our children, "You have to get all A's and B's in every subject, or you will never go to college. Or, we say, "Honey, if you work hard enough, you can be anything you dream of."

Today, in America, we tell our children, that the only "true path" to success is if our son or daughter goes to college.

But these are lies! What tends to happen for a child who quite literally cannot be gifted at absolutely everything, is that despair, self-loathing and anxiety set in.

What I believe is that, yes, I can improve my talents in many areas through hard work. But, if it is not my gift, I will never reach complete success. I could "dream" of being an opera soprano but, the truth is, my voice is really not that good. This is not my gift.

What a different place our world would be, if being a construction worker or a waiter or a car mechanic were as valued as being a college graduate working behind a desk. Or, if being a woman were as valuable as being a man.

Here is my analogy-- my Feet are not the most glamorous part of me. BUT, literally, I would be going NOWHERE without them. We tend to forget all about our Feet, or swathe them in socks and shoes, or even make jokes about smelly Feet. BUT, the day our Feet are not cooperating, suddenly we have a newfound appreciation for our extremities!

"Everything God created in the Universe and beyond is connected. In ways we will perhaps never understand, we are all connected. We are so much more together, than we are apart, and infinitely more interdependent that we are independent. When we hurt ourselves, we hurt everyone. Everything we think, do, and say affects someone, somewhere, sooner or later." -Matthew Kelly.

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