January 18, 2013
Bodily Functions
Steve commented on a
recent blog that the conversation of older folks always seems to turn to aches,
pains and bodily functions. I began to wonder if we don’t somehow open that
conversational door ourselves. When we greet one another we usually ask
something like, “How are you? How are you
feeling?” Maybe we should be asking more thought provoking questions like, ‘How are you finances?’ or ‘How are you doing emotionally?’ Or
better yet, we could truly turn the conversation upside down by asking, “How are you doing spiritually? Don’t just
tell me you’re doing fine. I really want to know how things are going for you spiritually.”
This is not such a farfetched idea, as members of Christ’s body it’s absolutely
appropriate to talk about our bodily functions.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I think there are two reasons for the appropriateness. And I don’t think there can be found a “first” or “second” between them in order of importance. So, sequentially first, is the highly sympathetic nature of being alive in the Lord. I am stuck tightly to the ideas that Jesus is equated with the truth, and God, to whom Christ has reconciled us, is equated with love. Truth and love each boil down to a very simple concept which takes part in all their various connotations. Truth simply is the fact that something is what it is. Bill Clinton dug all the way to this most basic level of truth hoping to rattle even its straight reality when he replied, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.“ But the meaning of “is” is pretty tight. So the nation laughed in unison. This simple level of things provides clarity. And the truth is, Christ stated that the two most important directives for our lives is to love God completely and to love your neighbor as yourself. Dying to yourself ties into this. Laying down your life for others ties into this. It is not that we must lay down and die when our brother answers, “Not well,” but it is that the answer has brought his situation of need into our personal proximity to which, if we are true in having new life, we must respond with some appropriate form of help. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (I John 3:16-17) The basic concept of love then is to do only what truly benefits. Having been given a character which seeks to benefit in all situations, we are truly sympathetic, and therefore, we truly feel the need to know. So we ask.
Second, Paul moved that level of sympathy to and beyond empathy when he wrote, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (I Cor 12:26) Paul states this while discussing the interconnectedness we have within the body of Jesus Christ. Empathy is that special ability to feel what someone else feels, not just on an emotional level, but on a level of understanding, too. What could go beyond that? Becoming one another. Of course, I mean that metaphorically. But when the boundaries between individual identities are first blurred by the sharing of physical provisions, they blur even further by the sharing of mental and emotional perceptions. The body of the Lord is that giant organism of individuals in which all have a mind for the others, and each being an “other” will find it having a mind for his self, too. This is why I thought it so completely ridiculous when, “The church isn’t here to serve your needs,“ came rolling out of a pulpit one Sunday. To know one another’s condition on every level which you suggested makes the body and is the pathway through which Jesus’ headship functions. For, as head of the church, He is going to move physical, psychological, and spiritual provisions to anywhere in the body these are needed from anywhere they are available. There is always a bit of bad happening to every one of us to which must be brought a bit of good by any one else of us. It can only happen if stuff is known, hence the question, then a body.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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