1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
St Paul is teaching the church in Corinth about how they need to accept the fact that every single person in the church is necessary for a full spiritual expression of the joy of God in Christ. The fact that he even needs to do so in the first place is apparent when we consider the pagan culture of the ancient world – a culture not so dissimilar from our own.
We are all familiar with the idea of the “Renaissance Man”, if not with the term itself. It is the idea that we all have within ourselves the means to do anything (or perhaps better, to do everything). And the fact that it is a Renaissance movement should reinforce this idea that it comes from the ancient world, since that is what the Renaissance was all about. If we can each be great philosophers, natural scientists, artists, poets, engineers, architects, political scientists, and great romantics, why bother with other people at all?
And so St Paul, speaking to this culture, teaches them one of his favourite illustrations: that the Church is like a body. Each body part needs every other body part to function to its best.
I think this idea, that every Christian is needed to make the Church the best it can be, is not so revolutionary to us after 2,000 years of Christendom. But I think it might be helpful if we look at the apostle’s philosophy of body parts.
22 “...the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require.”
The weaker parts are indispensable, and the less honourable parts are bestowed the greater honour.
In Brave Two Zero, a book about a British SAS solider and a mission he went on in Gulf War One, he talks about the midnight helicopter ride behind enemy lines. The men were given body armour, which only covered the chest down to the waist. There was some discussion about whether they should wear it as intended, or if they should wear it around their legs – they were thinking about the “indispensable weaker parts” of their body!
So what does this mean for us in the church?
Consider those who seem less honourable, or weaker. Those who cannot “do” as much as others. The harmless weirdo. The one with non-marketable skills. The one wracked with spiritual distress. They are given greater honour, and are treated as indispensable by the Lord. There are no Renaissance Men in the church.
And consider yourself. You may consider yourself weaker, or less honourable. There are those “super Christians” who seem to have it all together, and do so much more than you for the Church. And yet Christ died for you just as much as he did for them. Christ considers you indispensable. Christ has showered you with greater honour. Whatever makes them special makes you just as special, too.
Christ has died for his body, the Church, and we are all weak, and yet all indispensable. He has drawn us all together for a specific purpose, a purpose we discover when we work together. As long as no-one is left out, his mission proceeds as planned. So let us remind ourselves in those dark moments of melancholy: he died for me, he has made me indispensable, he has given me greater honour. I can glorify Christ; the Church needs me, too.