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 would 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 would 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.

1 Cor. 12:12-18

One of the ever-present barriers to church unity is the unspoken (sometimes spoken) expectation for uniformity. When other Christians believe or behave differently than us, or when other churches apply the Biblical text in a way in which we disagree, we’re all too eager to charge them as fake Christians. The conversation ends when we do this. There are times when we need distance. Sometimes the toxicity is so thick that we have to care for our mental health. I’ve had to do that. Generally speaking, the lack of unity we create in the church is usually over the need for correct beliefs.

Preserving our Traditions

Many times we simply hang around people who practice the faith like we do because it makes sense and it’s comfortable. Churches also carry various rich cultures from one generation to the next. We wouldn’t want to lose those traditions in favor of one neutral practice–that would be uniformity as well. So what does unity look like?

First, let’s set aside the analysis of all the reasons the church self-segregates. It should still be possible to have different roles in society, a different look and feel, and still have unity. Let’s look at the body metaphor itself.

How Does a Real Body React?

When my son was three he graduated to a twin bed with no rails. One night I woke to the sound of him crying. In my half-sleep state, I believed he had fallen out of bed (he hadn’t) and was hurt (he wasn’t). I ran to his room in the dark and as I entered his room I whacked my little toe on his drum set. I immediately fell to the ground, cradling my foot in both my hands, rocking back and forth trying not to scream.

The next day my toe still hurt and I was limping. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I tried to put my shoes on for work. My foot had swollen, so I found my roomiest shoe and tried to stuff my foot into it (I was part-time hourly, and we desperately needed every dollar I could earn). I was determined to get that foot into that shoe, but my whole body rebelled–I became thoroughly nauseated from the pain. It wasn’t going to happen.

I think about this event often when I think about the Christian church. Part of us is broken and inflamed, and another part of us is determined to keep plugging away, business as usual. Most likely, we all see ourselves as the “broken and hurting” part and “the other person” as the ones trying to move forward, “business as usual”.

The Body of Christ

What we really need to do is respond to each other like my body’s first instinct the moment I broke my toe. My toe didn’t have to convince my body it was hurt. My body was in enough communication with all its parts that it knew the moment my toe broke. I fell to the ground, my hands covered my toes—a self-protective instinct to prevent further harm. My voice held back a scream. At first, I was holding my breath, my body rocked to dissipate the pain that my whole body felt.

Now, I know that Paul’s point in describing the church as the “body of Christ” is that we all belong, we all have a part to play. Yes! The Christian church hasn’t been good at realizing that to this day. That topic will be another post for another day.

We Start By Caring

Before we can appreciate the reality that we have different roles in the Body of Christ, that we look and act differently, that we believe and practice differently, we first have to care about each other. We need to acknowledge that we are all a part of one body, whether we like it or not.  When we act as a body, we will know each other, we will be there when the other is in pain, and we will care. We will weep with those who weep, whether or not they interpret the Bible the same as we do. If one part exacerbates the pain, the rest of us should react to stop the damage that’s being done.

We are all imperfect. We are being transformed, so this is messy work. Even in the midst of the messiness, we can care and empathize, maybe even help, our brothers and sisters who are in pain. We can stop trying to press on as if nothing’s wrong, expecting people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. How we treat each other is the gospel in action.

Reflection

Do you see your sisters and brothers with whom you disagree as part of the same greater body–the body of Christ? Would this perspective change how you interact with people? Do people around you care about your pain like it was their own? How would you feel if they did?

Crowd photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Android photo credit: by Franck V. on Unsplash

I’m not being clever or relevant–this is what’s happening here. The religious leaders find something on which to charge Jesus. It’s clear to Pilate that Jesus is not a threat to the empire. He tries to push this trial off onto the local courts because to try him for treason would mean execution. Jesus and the disciples obviously aren’t making a power grab for anyone’s throne, but since his accusers push for this trial Pilate has no choice but to have Jesus executed.

Experience of Minimum Sentencing

Jesus knows the pain of betrayal and the injustice of a false charge. Here Jesus is identifying with those who are targeted by unjust governmental systems. Pilate wants to give him an “out”. You can be sure that Jesus perceives what he’d need to say to tip the scales in his favor. Jesus doesn’t cooperate with Pilate’s musings about truth. He mostly remains silent and receives an unjust sentence as many before him have received and many after him continue to receive.

Yes, this was part of the redemption plan. However, with Jesus, it’s never just one thing. Jesus very clearly identifies with the oppressed. As I wrote in Defender of the Poor, God does take sides. Sometimes God does this through the hard path of experiencing what the oppressed experience.

Our Justice System isn’t Just

I could talk theoretically about what the oppressed people of the Roman empire experienced, but I don’t want to. Today, in America, we are enslaving people through mass incarceration. The numbers of those in prison are the highest in our history. We even have the highest percentage of our population imprisoned in the world—even the parts of the world that we Americans think of as “third world” and barbaric.

Mandatory minimum sentencing allows injustice to occur against minor offenders, without a villain to blame. We as a society can just shrug and say the defendant should have followed orders better, while they are locked up for the rest of their lives, or buried. You can move on without stopping to question whether the punishment fits the crime. We can do this without asking whether there was even a crime.

I haven’t studied the justice system enough to write about the skewed laws that are built into it. I can’t adequately describe the sociological reasons why African American men and women are incarcerated at higher rates than other races or how this is orchestrated by systemic bias. There are books that describe this problem in depth, including Rethinking Incarceration by Dominique Gilliard. My challenge to you is to inform yourself about this system, which you, as a voter, have the power to change.

Jesus Stands with the Oppressed

This short scene with Pilate can be lost in the whole crucifixion narrative. It’s one small part of the Easter story. It may be small, but it’s a significant story for those who have experienced this kind of oppression. Jesus knows what “legal injustice” feels like.

When you have power (and yes, if you’re an American voter, you do have power) you shouldn’t abdicate your responsibility to be informed when people’s lives are at stake. What will you do about it?

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How are you doing? Fine?

Of course the answer is “fine.” When people ask us how we’re doing, the automatic response is fine. Sometimes when discussing this sociological phenomenon, people say they actually want an honest answer. I never know if I should believe them. In the past, I’ve given a more honest answer and found myself in an awkward moment, realizing that I’ve just overshared. I’ve also had very real, impromptu conversations about real pain that left me feeling more connected to my friends.

I think it’s natural to want to blend in and not be noticed. It can make the pain feel worse if the other person is doing fine, or if they don’t understand what we’re going through. It takes discretion to know when to go along with the expected norms or when to break them. I think this goes beyond social norms. We need to have trusted friends because suffering is harder when we’re doing it alone.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. [ . . . ] Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirits intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:18-27

This passage talks about our present suffering, it talks about how things ought to be. It also tells us that one day we will be free from our suffering. Not only us but all of creation. This got me thinking about how the whole range of pain will be redeemed.

A Universal Problem

Everybody experiences suffering at some point in their life. Some of the pain we experience results in good things, like childbirth. Sometimes it makes no sense and never will until we’re looking at it from the other side of eternity. Sometimes our suffering is from our own pain and sometimes it’s over the pain experienced by those we love.

We are in a fallen world and because of this, we experience the effects of sin, which also causes suffering. When Jesus ascended, God sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, to counsel us. Here we see that the Holy Spirit prays for us in our pain. God doesn’t need to ask how we’re doing. We can be honest with God about everything that’s going on. When our pain is so great or confusing that we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit prays on our behalf in ways we don’t even understand.

Sources of Hope

This is another example in the Bible of how we can have hope. We have hope in God who loves us and who prays for us. A God who will go to any length to act out God’s love for us. We need to remember that hope comes along with a restless feeling. How long will it be until the thing we hope for is here?

Sometimes when I’m in a painful situation I ask God, “why?” Instead of seeing pain as a way in which God has let me down, this text shows me a God who helps me carry it. God has entered our suffering through Jesus. These verses show us that God helps us in our suffering through the Holy Spirit. God stays with us in that honest, awkward, gritty conversation and is committed to walking with us through everything. Through the Holy Spirit God experiences everything with us, and it’s all an expression of God’s love.

Our Response

Let’s be willing to receive comfort from the Holy Spirit. We can know that the Spirit has already turned to God in prayer on our behalf. When we’re able, let’s be willing to walk with each other. Let us weep with those who weep. We should desire to comfort and pray for each other. Committed to passing the comfort we’ve received on to our sisters and brothers.

All Scripture quoted taken from the NRSV translation

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Friends photo credit: Photo by Hian Oliveira on Unsplash

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Hebrews 1:1-4

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,

“What are humans that you are mindful of them
    or mortals that you care for them?
 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
    you have crowned them with glory and honor,
     subjecting all things under their feet.”

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
    in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’

Hebrews 2:5-12

Think of your own pain, your successes, your joys, and anything you overcame to get there. Experiences are intertwined and can be hard to describe. Soldiers who’ve just met can connect immediately if they’ve had similar deployments, because they know the other one “gets” something that most people don’t. We feel “at home” around others who are like us, especially in the areas where we’re rejected or marginalized.

So when advertisers, politicians, or anyone that holds power, tries to use a person’s experience of marginalization as their platform, it can feel mixed. At this point in history, it seems like this is happening with every issue or group, either positively or negatively. Are the people with the microphone raising awareness because they care? Does this issue simply correlate with something they already wanted to do? Am I being used to further this person’s career? These are all valid questions. It’s hard to know who’s an ally and who’s making a name for themselves.

Reconciliation is More than Listening

God knew reconciling us would mean more than listening, it would mean becoming one of us. Jesus left his place of power and became powerless. He wasn’t powerless just because he was a baby–he was a baby that the king wanted dead. Jesus left his place of privilege and was born into a family that carried no importance in their society. People reminded him of that even as an adult when he started to teach,

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?

Mark 6:3 NIV

Jesus left the place where he experienced constant communal love within the trinity, and came to earth where he would have to sneak away to pray to connect with God. In addition to that, Jesus experienced rejection and betrayal.

Jesus took up our cause and invites us into his family. He doesn’t just send a list of detailed instructions on how to be like God. He isn’t content to shrug and conclude that we must not really want salvation if we’re not willing to be perfect. Jesus takes the first step by becoming one of us and living out God’s law, summed up by him as,

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

Mark 12:29-31 NIV

Jesus isn’t using your issues to get your votes, he didn’t listen to your problems to give you better advice. You’re not God’s poster child. Jesus lived your problems. Jesus calls you family, and now advocates on your behalf from a place of power.

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Over the years when I’ve dared to share a rough-patch with friends or acquaintances, I was sometimes met with gravity, sometimes weeping. More often I’ve received blank stares, Bible pull-quotes, Hallmark-esque Christian encouragement, or even a challenge to consider how this will work out for the better. I’ve also been told (years ago) that God was judging me. These responses leave me feeling empty, isolated, even angry. Often the other person is just trying to help, but if they quote the Bible, you’re not supposed to disagree with them or you’re accused of not believing the Bible.

Allow Yourself to Experience Grief

This isn’t a piece about all the sad things I’ve been through, but about allowing ourselves to experience discomfort for the sake of other people. I’m mostly saying that to myself, because when I’ve been on the other end of this experience–hearing about someone’s painful situation–I’m the one who looks like a deer in the headlights. When someone is in emotional pain and they share that with me, often the first thought (quasi-prayer) to go through my mind is, “I don’t know what to say. What do I do?” I try to think of the caring things people have said to me and I say those things. It feels awkward. It feels like I’m making things worse. I don’t always do this well.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:15

Respond Authentically

Weep with those who weep. It’s so simple and powerful. It doesn’t say “cheer up those who weep”, “avoid those who weep”, or make sure those who weep know that God is still in control”. It also doesn’t say that your words or actions need to fix the situation. Responding to grief authentically takes vulnerability for both people involved. It might feel awkward or small. I have experienced sharing my grief and having a friend weep with me in response—it’s powerful. When people have allowed my grief to impact them, the pain is shared, the weight is lighter—even if just for that moment. This is the kind of Christian love to which we’re called.

Be present with people, listen, and when necessary weep.

All scripture quoted is from the NRSV translation.

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