The Reading:
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
12 For 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. 13 For
in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or
free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of
many. 15 If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to
the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the
ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that
would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an
eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would
the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body,
each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the
body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot
say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I
have no need of you.’ 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to
be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think
less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members
are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do
not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to
the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but
the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers,
all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together
with it.
Questions
for Reflection
A priest
that served at my first church had a slightly off-color joke about this
passage, but it makes a serious point, so I’m going to repeat it here. If you are offended by profanity, you might
want to skip the rest of today’s question.
The priest picked up on the idea of the “less honorable” parts of the
body still being necessary and in fact being "honored" by being covered by more clothing. He said, “The body of Christ needs an ass
just as much as it needs any other part, so keep that in mind next time you get
mad at your fellow church member (or priest)!”
Yes, it’s crude. But think about
it: don’t we all need each other even – maybe especially – when we disagree or
when one of us is making an ass of ourselves?
It’s not when things are going well that we need to be reminded that we
are all one body! Have you ever learned
from someone whom you originally thought was one of those “less honorable”
parts of the body of Christ? Have you
ever come to realize that such a person is as much a beloved child of God as
you are? Or, have you ever come to
realize (in hindsight) that you were acting like a “less honorable” part of the
body – maybe due to stress or anger or sadness – and were glad your church
family loved you anyway?
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