Thoughts for the Day

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. 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.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. 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. 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? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Paul, you will remember, writes to the Christians at Corinth because the church there is full of division, and he seeks to unite them. In Chapter 12 he uses the imagery of a body to talk about the way that the people of the Church should be united. It's a wonderful picture. He argues that our human body isn't whole without each limb, and if you look at last year's Thoughts on this subject, you will see what fun I had using this theme when working with Prison Chaplains (see February 2021).

However, we can widen this image today to look at different Churches and their congregations. Some Churches have only a few people and are struggling to find the finances to keep going, but this passage tells us they are still a part of the world-wide Body of Christ. Many small churches can be made up of people who have been faithful Christians all their lives, and subsequently are power-houses of prayer. The world, and the world-wide Church, need these tiny hubs as much as they do the vibrant congregations of thousands of people. Each one of us as well as each church, needs to play its part in keeping the whole body of Christ healthy!

Heavenly Father,
may we never forget
that we are one body,
and that each church
and every christian
is important to keep
the body of Christ healthy.
Help us to remain in contact
with the most vulnerable
people and congregations
in our area.
Amen