The Body of Christ

The article from this week's FBCR Newsletter:

One of the first songs in my lifetime that carried a self-examining theme was Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence. Verse 1:

Hello darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains within the sound of silence

Diana Ross recorded a song in the ‘70s which repeated the theme. “Do you know where you’re going to, do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to; do you know?”

Bono repeated this theme in ’87 with his song, Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.

In ’91 Michael W. Smith found great success with his version of this common theme with A Place In This World. The chorus:

Looking for a reason
Roaming through the night to find
My place in this world
My place in this world
Not a lot to lean on
I need Your light to help me find
My place in this world
My place in this world

I remember times in my early teens that I would seek solitude when a melancholy feeling would come, and listen to sad songs. There is something cathartic about listening to others talking, or singing, about the same emotions we feel. It helps us understand that we are not the only ones. This is the very reason God designed the Church as a Body. We need each other. Yes, “iron sharpens iron” and we need “fruit inspectors,” but we also need loving arms that embrace and a welcoming shoulder on which to lay our heads without being told, “I told you so.”

Teaching moments will come. Times of rebuke or correction are needed. But, discernment is also needed. I cannot hear your correction if I cannot feel your compassion. Shouting rebukes at me does not convey the core of the message you claim to have: Love others as you love yourself. Maybe that is the problem! We don’t love ourselves anymore.

It is possible that when we walk around, unsettled in our own skin, unable to articulate the purpose we have in life, it results in us spewing vindictive judgment toward others we feel have even less purpose in their lives. A line from one of my favorite movies, You’ve Got Mail, comes toward the end when Joe and Kathleen speak for the last time before being introduced as NY152 and Shop Girl. Joe says, “Let me ask you something? How come you'll forgive him for standing you up and you won't forgive me for a little tiny thing like putting you out of business? Oh, how I wish you would.”

The man standing in front of her had wrecked her life, and of all the people working for her, by forcing her to close the shop that her mother had built. It was her whole life and now it was gone. Joe knew something that Kathleen didn’t. If she had not been able to move past the hurt of losing her business she would not have been able to embrace the amazing future that was waiting for her around the turn in the path.

We all face this same type of dilemma each time we encounter a “…” I leave that blank because it is different for each person. For some it is a person with a different skin tone. Others cannot bear those of a different socioeconomic group. Fans of a different ball team. A different nationality. Culturally different. Less educated. More educated. Etc. Etc. Regardless of the differences we must find a way to be Christ to our neighbor. A quote I use often is from C. S. Lewis. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” (from The Weight of Glory)

Jesus put it a little more succinctly: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” Your neighbor is ANYONE that is not you! In every moment of every day we have a choice how to respond to the stimuli around us. We can retreat into ourselves and ignore the chaos, we can recoil with vitriolic banter, or we can respond as Christ to a hurting world. The only way this is possible is for us to have the mind of Christ, to be in communion with the Holy Spirit, and willing to take every thought captive so we can be obedient to Christ.

It’s not easy. It’s not an event. It is an arduous process that we will have to work for the rest of lives. But the benefits are remarkable, and the peace that will come to you when you respond in this way will be “beyond your ability to comprehend.” Something has to change in this world. Why not start with “me”?

Blessings!

Dudley