You Are (ALL) the Body - Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year C
We have been on something of a health odyssey at my home since last summer. My husband, Matt, had Lyme disease a few years ago and has struggled with what we thought were “flares,” in which he would feel sluggish, achy, a little blue ever since that time. But then he began talking to doctor friends about inflammation and decided to try cutting gluten out of his diet.
And it turns out what we thought were Lyme flares might have been bouts of inflammation caused by a reaction to gluten. I feel like I need to make all sorts of caveats about not being a doctor or a scientist, and not yet verifying this gluten sensitivity with formal testing.
However, my husband is an avid journal-keeper and he began to notice a pattern between how he felt and what he ate. For example, a lovely pizza night (who doesn’t love a chewy and wonderful pizza crust) often led to several slow, low, achy days.
For all my data folks out there, we know that correlation and causation are not one in the same. But our lived reality is that when he avoids gluten in his diet, he feels MUCH better. Much. Much, much better.
(Sigh.)
I love bread. I love pasta. I love a good pizza crust. I love simple carbs.
Anyway.
Our bodies are such amazing and complicated things. I mean, they often run on autopilot decently, but they are also finely tuned machines.
There are things we do to help our bodies function better – and science keeps uncovering all of these amazing and quirky ways that things are interconnected.
For example, It turns out that the bacteria in our gut might affect all sorts of things, from the clearness of our thinking to the presence or absence of chronic pain.
And we know that exposure to certain chemicals causes our cells to mutate and change.
And it turns out that regular exercise, a staple of cardiac health, also helps us to develop healthy new brain cells and can improve memory and cognitive processing.
For people with health issues, the complicated network of interconnected parts can require a lot of careful attention…and sometimes hard work to figure out which thing is affecting which other thing.
Luckily for many of us, autopilot keeps us alive and well for the most part.
Today in our scripture, Paul expands his teaching on spiritual gifts which we explored last week – each of us has gifts that serve the greater vision of goodness in the world.
He expands and explains that our various individual gifts connect within our community of faith to build the complicated and amazing body of Christ in the world. When our gifts connect to one another, those connections (like nerves and veins and cells) animate our movement and thriving and serving in the world.
A key part of what Paul teaches in this text is that there is no “unimportant” part of the body. This is biologically true – and it is metaphorically true. As the church, it takes ALL the gifts. It takes the volunteer who comes in to run copies or stuff envelopes, it takes the people who walk the building nightly to check the doors, it takes the person who signs all the checks, it takes the people who make sure there is oil in the candles on the altar. It takes all the things.
It has me thinking about what the body needs in order to thrive. Because autopilot only takes the body so far.
What does it means to pay attention to the complicated and interconnected needs of the body of Christ?
Because it would seem we might need to pay attention to the body and its interconnectedness in order to enjoy the benefits of maximum health.
If you are taking care of your actual physical body, there are basic things you must do – you must hydrate. You must eat nourishing food. You must have a pattern of rest and activity. For even better healthy, you have to have some regular and intentional exercise. That exercise will cause your heart to function differently, your lungs to function differently, your mind to function differently. You have to eat specific KINDS of food.
And then there is an even higher level of even BETTER health. You have to pay attention to your thoughts and emotions and practice regulating them in order to monitor and preserve mental health.
It has me wondering what investments we need to make in order to love the body of Christ well, to help it to function and thrive.
Might it be that worship is vital to the health of the body?
Not just at Christmas and Easter. Not even just on Sunday. But daily, might we need to set aside a moment for praise and thanksgiving, offering the best of ourselves in some intentional way to God?
Might it be that prayer is vital to the health of the body?
Not just the praying we do as a community during worship, but our daily, individual commitment to placing ourselves in loving relationship with God. Might we need to be very intentional about praying for one another, for the community we are called to serve, for the vision God has for our work in the Kin-dom? For the resources we need?
Might it be that practicing Sabbath is vital to the health of the body?
Not just a nod to slowing down a little bit on the weekend, but the intentional removing of ourselves from the mechanics of an economy that is not God’s, but man’s. Might we need to discipline ourselves to set down our phones, to not make that trip to the store, to read and relate and let our bodies simply be for 24 hours each week? Is it possible that such intentional disconnection opens us up to other kinds of wellness and wholeness?
Might it be that fasting is vital to the health of the body?
Not just in seasons like Lent, but at regular intervals in order to be reminded of what is really important. Might we need to take a morning away from the things we claim sustain us – food, coffee, electronics – in order to remember what we actually need? Like God’s love for each of us shared between us all?
Might it be that regularly studying God’s word is vital to the health of the body?
Not just looking up a passage here and there or returning to the stories and words that we really like or have found solace in in the past. Might we need to intentionally read something daily, and dive into lesser-known parts of our holy scripture, to sit with words and let them wash over us in different ways?
Might it be that regularly celebrating what God is doing through us is vital to the health of the body?
Not just on “high holy days” like Christmas and Easter, but in the regular weekly FEAST that is worship, and in small moments where we pause to remember and give thanks for people and places and accomplishments. Might it be that we need to return to traditions like Feast Days, offering celebratory worship for the lives of the saints and their work?
If we take the time to care for the health of the body in this way, I wonder what we might experience?
I wonder if we might experience a change in energy?
I wonder if our vision might become sharper?
I wonder if we might experience improved flexibility?
I wonder if we might be less tired?
I wonder if we might hear God differently?
I wonder if we might find ourselves more radiant, lighting the world differently? Glowing?
The body of Christ exists to reflect Jesus’ teaching, mercy, compassion and care into the wider world. And that is a really big task! It is ongoing work. It is like a distance run and a resistance workout and yoga for flexibility all at the same time! It requires the very best of each of us and of all of us together.
In this season after epiphany, we are watching for the ways Christ is revealed, and over these past two weeks, Paul has emphasized that Christ’s ongoing revelation is through us, a motley gathering of ordinary people who have glimpsed God’s grace and goodness and have the ability, even through just our fleeting glimpses, to pass that grace and goodness on, to tell the good news.
Love never ends. Thanks be to God. And we as the body of Christ owe it to ourselves to care for the body through practices that help us be strong and well!
May it be so.
Amen.
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