(Picture) Rebecca Cory is a standup comic. She is best known for her appearance on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”. I do not vouch for her brand of comedy because I have never heard her personally. I mention her because her routine is apparently quite engaging and she draws large audiences. Part of her success is attributed to her body language that accompanies her jokes.
Body language is a means of communication through body movements or gestures. Folding arms, a leaning posture, or a squinted face all protray a message without use of words.
There is a message that the Body of Christ emits to the world. We give off Body language through the non-verbal communication of our presence and interactions with people on a daily basis. This is true whether we look at the global community of Christian faith or our own individual interactions with our neighbors next door. The question we must ask ourselves is what message are we communicating through our Body language?
In today’s text, the apostle Paul uses the physical body to illustrate three particular aspects of the spiritual body or the body of Christ and how we relate and contribute to that body. These lessons are presented with a funnel effect to my mind. The lesson begins with the Body of Christ in her global context of our spiritual heritage, finally arriving at the relationships that we have every day. He goes on to speak of love as the one sure thing needed for us to communicate the right Body language to all citizenships, cultures and faith communities because the language of love speaks to hope, acceptance, forgiveness, and relationship to God.
Paul first speaks to the issue of
1. Ethnic Origins
• Verse 13a (Jews or Greeks)
The Christian and Missionary Alliance Church recognizes “A Unique Opportunity to Share the Gospel through Church Planting.” Quoting a U.S.A. Census they offer that “Ethnic people constitute 31 percent of the United States population. Hispanics represent 12.5 percent, African-Americans 12.1 percent, and Asians 3.6 percent of the United States population. More Jews live in America than in Israel. More Cubans live in Miami than in any city in Cuba except Havana. More Polish people reside in Chicago than in any city except Warsaw, Poland. More Amenians live in Los Angeles than in any city in the world. Multiethnics are a majority in twenty-five U.S. cities, including 61 percent of Chicago, 73 percent of New York, and 78 percent of Los Angeles. According to future projections, by 2060, the Asian population of the United States will surpass 42 million and the Hispanic population 115 million.” Their stated vision is an intention to train Great Commission leaders who will plant and grow Great Commission churches.
http://www.cmalliance.org/ncm/intercultural/1stgen.jsp
In this account we have a solid representation of how God would have us view the global community. He would have us see all people as his people, created in his image. It is amusing how we generally have an image that God is of our own ethnic origin. Glenys and I spent three years in Bermuda as pastors of a local church. The first Christmas was a fascinating experience! Santa arrived Christmas eve on a motorcycle! Not only that, but Santa was not white! Obviously there is no reason to think he would be, except for the perceptions that we generate in our own minds.
My spirit is troubled when I interact with people, especially those more closely connected with a metropolis like Toronto. Racism is rampant as people crudely stereotype non-white communities of people. Friends God is not only the God of Anglo-Saxons. When he created us in his own image he meant everyone ever born. Our problem in trying to understand this is our limited ludicrous notion that we understand and comprehend God.
What is the Body language of our church in relationship to our treatment of differing nationalities and ethnic communities? In Owen Sound we have a growing population of Chinese, South Asian, Black, Filipino, Southeast Asian, Latin American, Arab and Japanese communities. This number is likely to grow and we need to be communicating through our Body language that they are welcome with us – not welcome to come and adapt to our way of doing things – but welcome to come and live their own ethnic experience in our fellowship. This is that experience Paul speaks of in verse 13 about being “baptized by one Spirit into one body.” There is a definite work of God that brings us together as one community, not multiple communities. We are one community with multiple expressions and ethnic realities. We are the work of God on his canvas of creation that is the color and bright variety of all the work he has done! This gets lost when we focus on the nation or denomination as having specific characteristics. The only underlying emphasis in ethnic community should be our baptism by the one Holy Spirit into one body.
Paul moves from the Body language regarding Ethnic Origins to
2. CULTURE
• Verse 13b (slave or free)
When Paul spoke of slave or free, we must understand its context was not one of slavery as we understand it in our western hemisphere. Dr. Bruce Power, Biblical scholar notes, “Some slaves were quite honored and had higher status than they might have had if they were free. They were provided for, and had resources that would not be guaranteed if they were freed. So overall, slavery was not like modern slavery for the most part, though it did often contain elements of servitude and abuse. People might at times be enslaved to pay for crimes, or as prisoners of war. Such slaves might be assigned terminal jobs, such as labor in the mines, rowers on ships that would most likely eventually claim their lives.”
All of this offers a possible explanation why Paul charged Philemon to receive back his run-away slave as a brother. Paul did not advocate for the release of Onesimus because having a slave/worker would have been an accepted, honorable cultural practice.
When the Spirit of God filled the disciples in their closed room experience, he gave them the ability of speaking different languages (Acts 2). This ability allowed them to communicate to the many nations who had come to Jerusalem for the annual Passover. God anointed his disciples during this time, with his Holy Spirit. It is in this newly realized experience of God that the Spirit had them move out from behind closed doors and share the good news of his gospel!
So too, when we are completely enveloped by God – we respond to the culture of our environment with purpose and quite intentional focus to share God’s love. What will that look like, for us to be intentional in reaching the culture of our city? In addition to the growing ethnic population of Owen Sound, did you know that 25% (5,470) of Owen Sound’s population is between 25-44 years of age and is second only to 29% of the population (6,360) which is 55 to death. The remaining 46% - nearly half of our population – is under the age of 25. 71% of our population is my age and younger.
We have much to do if we will be serious about connecting with the whole of these cultural realities. We cannot afford the luxury of business as usual. Religion is a smorgasbord of options these days. (Picture) Similar to the eggplant smorgasbord you see before you, religion can be made to look quite attractive as it softens our conviction so that we accept that we are all going in the same direction. Cultures are grasping for truth, for answers, for purpose, for reason and in that quest some embrace what they think to be the truth but it is not. I am so excited that initiatives are being launched to reach that 46%: Pioneer Club has been launched and is targeting non-churched kids; Revo (a.k.a. Revolution) is being started in November to evangelize the unreached teens and young adults of our neighborhoods who don’t meet with the church and are not aware of God’s provision of Life. We are communicating a Body language which is beginning to take the Great Commission to heart in response to the cultural realities of our small city!
Paul moves from CULTURE to speak of
3. COMMUNITY
It has been said, “One can acquire everything in solitude—except character.” The place of faith community in the fabric of our lives is critical to our emotional, social, physical and spiritual health. It is of community that Paul speaks in verses 14-25 – Here he speaks of diversity, relationships and interaction in community using the analogy of the human body to clarify and emphasize his lesson. Community in this context refers to believer with believer; church member to church member; person to person on the same road of faith. Paul then provides a note on the impact of those realities, whether positive or negative, in verse 26.
The story is told of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that “at the age of five years he composed a concerto in one sitting and then played it from memory!” (Coffman Commentaries) There are not many Mozart’s in the world. He is of a unique quality and those like him. That however does not minimize the value of every person in the Body of Christ. Paul reinforces this with his words in verses 15-20 which deserve emphasis…
There is a certain reality however that often we could miss the importance of those verses and some may feel themselves to be of more significant value than others. To guard against this, Paul teaches us of God’s intended design as a preventative measure to pride. Look at verses 21-25…
Let’s suppose you went to your family doctor and he told you that your body was diseased. As a result, there were two parts of your body most affected but he could only remove one part – either your stomach or a kidney – which would you choose? Obviously we would choose to keep the part of the body that we can’t live without. We would be a mere vegetable if we were to live without a stomach (who would want to live if you can’t have the pleasure of eating?!)
It is especially important to hear the words of Paul in verse 26…
When I had severe back pain, it affected my whole body. I could not sit long before the pain affected my neck and even my legs. I was unable to bend to dress myself and was in agonizing pain in getting ready for the day. All of this was caused because my L4 and L5 vertebrae were displaced from its place and function in my body.
The value of the Body working in complete harmony is achieved through the extent that verses 27-30 are adhered to and understood. Here Paul outlines the gifts that God gives to each of us as he desires. The underlying emphasis is not the gifts them selves but the balanced use of the gifts for the good of the whole Body. Each of our placements in the Body creates a language that is distinct and unique to God being exalted in how the church cares for one another. One could place verses 27-30 at the beginning of this section and speak of how the gifts are a means of communicating the Body language needed to effectively touch the ethnic, cultural and community realities that we are called to touch in Jesus’ name.
We must be careful not to visualize gifts with having to be connected to public profile or activity or even something lived out on Sunday. When our gifts are permitted to do their work they affect everything we find ourselves involved in and the relationships we have with everyone.
Finally, in evaluating the Body language of the church and how we present Jesus through our normal language and behaviour, we come to the most important component of everything else highlighted. It is more superior to spiritual gifts and has a priceless value. It is that of which Paul speaks in verse 31: “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” From there Paul offers his teaching on LOVE. This is our highest calling – to love as God loves.
Many years ago Glenys and I served in a church where we preached significantly on love, probably excessively in the eyes of some because we were criticized with the statement, “All they know to preach on is love.” What a wonderful charge to be guilty of! Of everything we have considered – the ethnic realities of our changing world, the cultural diversity of our times and the life of community in our small faith circle – we are to engage and relate with the gift of GOD’S LOVE in each of these realities.
Love will speak to the Body language of the church that should be seen without looking too far. People know how to read us. They know what is real and what an imitation is. They can spot genuine versus counterfeit. This said if LOVE is not the experienced center of our relationships we will have failed in every other respect and our efforts will be superficial at best and burned in the fire of judgement at worst.
Wrap
• Our position in Christ has no bearing on ethnicity, culture or community – its bearing is whether or not we ‘drink’ the one Spirit given us – e.g. have received the gift of God’s Salvation.
• Because we are ‘in Christ’ the parts of the Body of Christ (ethnicity, culture and community) are enhanced as a result.
• The glue that holds the diversity of our community together is LOVE – the most excellent characteristic and attribute which should be desired more than anything else
• Mark Hall wrote a powerful song called “We are the body”. It wraps up everything we’ve been looking at today. It is the very essence of love in its purest form and highest ideals. Let’s listen to his message as we reflect in these moments on our Body language.
