Now y’all are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27
In the Sunday Morning Bible Study, lately we’ve been going through Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. The church in Corinth is a troubled one; we believe this is so because the advice that Paul gives throughout the letter points to a church that is divided by wealth, spiritual gifts, and factionalism based on favorite leaders.
I believe that many of the church in Corinth’s problems have, at their root, the problem of hyperindividualism. Members of the church saw themselves as followers of Christ as solo practitioners, disconnected from the spiritual needs and gifts of their fellow church members. Over the course of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Paul time and again urges mutual deference, care for each other, an interconnectedness that is put to the forefront in this famous metaphor about what and who a church is.
I put in “y’all” in the Bible translation to draw attention to the fact that each person of the church is not the body of Christ- yes, we are individually members of it, but the church is one of those things that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Through our relationships of mutual accountability, caring, and respect, we live out being the body of Christ present on Earth. Let’s make space for each other, so we can become whole and holy as the church.
Dear God, ground of our being, remind us that each of us is a part of you, and that we need each other as we grow closer in Holy Communion to you. Let us remember that this faith is team sport, and that we all need to help each other get across the finish line. We pray this through your son, whose body we are one in. Amen.