CHRISTIAN A & P (Anatomy & Physiology) 101
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
1. Last Sunday afternoon, on our drive back home to Issaquah, Anne and I stopped in at our middle daughter, Gabrielle’s home to visit with her, her husband Scott, and our little grandson, Kyle.
• Barely 3 minutes into our conversation they let us know that Gabrielle’s doctor had confirmed on Friday that she is pregnant. Naturally, we rejoiced with them over this wonderful news.
• With Scott being the technology and photography enthusiast that he is, we will no doubt be treated to ultrasound pictures or videos of the growing and developing baby from the moment that a meaningful image is first available.
• Isn’t it amazing how technology has permitted us to have a live audio-visual presentation of the physical formation and development of our children virtually from the moment of conception?
• A Reuters news health report on the Internet on Friday carried this headline: Babies show signs of crying in the womb. The report went on to state “An infant’s first cry may occur not in the delivery room, but in the womb, researchers have found. With the help of video-recorded ultrasound images, the investigators found that a group of third-trimester fetuses showed evidence of "crying behavior" in response to a low-decibel noise played on the mother’s abdomen. Fetuses showed a "startle" response to the noise, along with deep inhalations and exhalations, an open mouth and a "quivering" chin -- all signs of crying. The behavior, seen in 11 fetuses, began as early as the 28th week of pregnancy.”
2. The development of our bodies is just an amazing miracle of God’s creation. Out of the union of the ovum and the sperm, that one new cell divides and subdivides until our bodies are fully formed – with all the DNA programming built into each cell about exactly what body part it needs to form and to which other body part it needs to be joined. That is just amazing! And in the great majority of cases all the parts end up being where they are supposed to be and functioning as they should.
• But of course total health and wellness in the pre-natal period, infancy, child- and teenager hood, and throughout our adult life is by no means an automatic given.
• In the process of us having our three lovely daughters there were three other new little lives that began and ended before they got to enter this world.
• Sadly, sometimes, we have to contend with all kinds of physical and psychological growth and developmental complications, abnormalities, diseases and injuries that place a wide variety of limitations or restrictions on us or that even shorten the lifespan.
• I still have an uncle back in South Africa who turned 89 this past April but mentally and emotionally has been an 11 year old throughout all his years since. He had a severe case of meningitis at that age at a time when medical treatment for this disease was very limited.
3. Now of what possible relevance is this information to us this morning? Well, in the Scripture lesson Steve read to us, and in other places in his letters – in Romans, Ephesians, and Colossians – the apostle Paul uses the image of the Body to refer to the relationship of Christ with His church and of the members to one another. He doesn’t say we are “like a body” – similar to - he says we “are the body of Christ” – a statement of reality.
4. So commencing this morning, and continuing over the next three Sundays, we will examine and apply some of the lessons we already know about our physical anatomy and physiology to the greater reality of our spiritual, Christian, or ecclesiastical (another word for “church”) anatomy and physiology. My purpose over the next few weeks is that we will come to have a greater understanding and appreciation of our ONENESS or UNITY, the SUPPORT we are responsible to give one another, the NOURISHMENT and COMMUNICATION we are to share with one another, and our responsibility together to OBEY AND CARRY OUT THE DIRECTIVES FROM THE HEAD.
A. OUR ONENESS OR UNITY
1. Aren’t you glad that your body is pretty much a single unit and that all the parts are exactly where they are supposed to be? We are not just a bundle of parts thrown together any old how. Every organ, every bone, every muscle, every tissue, every nerve and cell is exactly where it is supposed to be. And they all operate and cooperate to maintain the structural unity and integrity of our one body system.
2. I know that as we age or have injuries or diseases certain parts wear out or quit functioning and have to be replaced or enhanced – teeth, eyes (with glasses or contacts), ears (with hearing aids), hips, knees, and ostomies and especially when we have removable parts, remembering where we placed them is absolutely vital.
What a nuisance when you can’t find your glasses or your teeth!
I know that sometimes not finding your hearing aid or pretending that the battery is dead or low is a convenience to some :-)
3. Another important and obvious reminder is that our bodies are made up of many, many parts – both external and internal and those that can be seen with the naked eye as well as those that can only be examined under a high powered microscope. We are an incredible organizational system of many different parts all performing their own unique and distinct functions.
And when they are all doing their bit and functioning as they should, we are healthy and able to perform the various tasks and activities we have to do.
We don’t regard any body part, no matter how small, as unnecessary and useless
As you get older and the hair on your head starts to get thinner, there is even a special sadness and grief over every hair that is lost!!
4. Paul writes to the Corinthians that “just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” And he goes on to add that “there are many parts but one body”.
So the church is not an exclusive club for noses or an eye or ear bank. We are not intended to be a gathering of clones all made in our image. Instead, we are a multifaceted, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-generational, diverse and yet integrated system of all different kinds of people.
Paul writes “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” and in Galatians 3:28 he adds “male or female”. And we could go on to add adults and children, city dwellers and rural people, affluent and poor, “red and yellow, black and white”, those who grasp and understand things quickly and those who take longer time. Those whose perspective tends to be more analytical and scientific as well as those who see things from a more poetic and artistic viewpoint.
And our differences and uniqueness need to be celebrated and rejoiced over and acknowledged as essential to our growth and effectiveness in proclaiming the fullness of Christ – they are part of God’s marvelous creativity and diversity.
5. Now in our human anatomy we take that kind of diversity and unity for granted. We are delighted that our face isn’t made up of one huge nose or even a collection of noses!
But when it comes to the church and our appreciation of the differences that exist between all the various members – that acceptance is not always immediate and automatic – and sadly cannot always be taken for granted. It takes work, it takes persistence, it takes commitment, it takes patience and perseverance.
My goodness, it takes all of that and more just for one man and one woman to become one in marriage! Yes, they become one on the day they stand before God, the pastor and congregation and declare their love for each other and to each other. But that oneness and unity has to be worked at and strengthened and defended and nurtured throughout their life together. When each of them comes into that relationship they come with all their own “stuff “ – their own baggage – that if not lovingly and patiently and persistently attended to and dealt with can eventually become sources of conflict and irritation, alienation and eventual separation between them.
The same is true within the local church, multiplied many times over by the number of its members – we all have our own baggage and issues that we have brought into this relationship and if we try to pretend that it is not there, or avoid it or ignore it then to that extent the barriers will go up between us and the degree of closeness and unity will be minimized or effectively neutralized.
And if that stuff never gets looked at and dealt with and confessed and repented of in the safety and loving commitment of a small, close-knit cell or care group, we will have to forever keep “walking on eggshells” with those individuals for fear of upsetting them, having them angry at us or even leaving the church.
6. It is for this very reason that Jesus prayed for His Church – in fact prayed specifically for us here at Morton Community United Methodist Church, in John 17:20 we read His prayer not only for His disciples back then, but for us... He said: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me…I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one…”
So I want each one of you to hear and know this morning – whoever you are, that you are loved, valued and appreciated just for who you are.
Whether you are a more recent addition or have been here for ever, you are God’s unique and distinctive gift to this body. You make a contribution that no one else can make in quite the same way as you do. You are vital to its effective functioning and operation. When you are missing or absent, the body struggles as others, who do not have your unique personality, gifts and graces have to try to pick up the slack.
You do not have to become like anyone else in order to be accepted. Just work at becoming the very best you that you can be and encourage the same in others.
7. As you and I commit to doing that, three things will begin to happen:
We will begin to reflect more fully the glory of God that Jesus said He had given to His Church
We will become more completely the answer to Jesus’ prayer for us to be one as He and the Father are one – where we regularly seek each other’s best and well-being and seek to serve and honor one another
And the world will be more likely to believe that the Father has loved them even as He has loved us.
To be continued…
Next Sunday we will examine in more detail the support that the members provide for one another.
