Being Broken

“If one member [of the body] suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.  Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” -1 Corinthians 12:26-27

The first epistle to the Corinthians tells us a truth that is repeated throughout scripture: we are all one body of Christ.  We dream of and strive for unity, to be one, just as Jesus prayed for us (John 17:21).  As I reflect and pray on the state of the world some thoughts and inspirations occur to me and I want to share them.

This year I experienced the most excruciating pain I have ever known.  I have a high pain tolerance, but I found myself doubled over writhing in pain with such intensity I felt like I would vomit.   I thought I was dying.  In reality, I had a kidney stone.  I was told by everyone, including my doctor that this pain was possibly the worst a human can experience.  It took me weeks to pass it.  While I was praying on the divided body of Christ this kidney stone experience came back to me.  Body’s, although one, really can be a pain.  Anyone who has experienced physical illness, chronic pain, or mental illness, can understand what I mean.  We certainly know that when part of the body suffers, all of it suffers.   I wonder why do we expect being the body of Christ to be peaceful and joyful?  Why do think unity is a state of tranquility?  If it is a body, of course it hurts.  We are broken in our own physical bodies and so we can understand why division in the body of Christ hurts so much.  You just cannot shake it.  You can try to ignore it, but some pain is just too bad to ignore.

I pray about this division and the words of Jesus come to mind, “This is my body broken for you.”  I begin to wonder how I have never seen this connection before.  I have heard and read both passages countless times.  I think in a new way.  Perhaps Jesus was talking about more than just his own sacrifice for our sins when he said, “This is my body broken for you”.  Perhaps he was telling us about how the body of Christ, his people, is broken, for us.  We a separated and broken because of our own self-righteousness and Jesus is saying, “I’m putting up with you people’s stubborn need to be broken.”  This is my body broken for you.

It is of course, impossible for me to not think about the next thing Jesus said, “This is my blood, shed for you.”  I think about the word shed.  I love words.  It hits me differently in this context than ever before.  My dictionary says the word shed means:  to discard something undesirable, superfluous.  I wonder if Jesus is telling me something I have been missing yet again.  Maybe Jesus is talking about more than just his own sacrifice for our sin.  Perhaps to be whole, to restore the broken body, one must shed.  Perhaps we must shed our need to be correct and our need to correct others.  I thank God that our God, Jesus Christ, has grace enough to willingly break and shed for us.  I wonder if maybe it should not be too much to ask that we try to do some shedding ourselves.  I wonder if perhaps we can be united and broken simultaneously.   

At a recent church meeting we were discussing unity and what it means to be one body of Christ.  One of the pastors said that for them it was like harmony in music.  Being, a musician and a composer I immediately thought, yes, but some of the best harmony in music does not sound good.  It is dissonant.  Dissonance is necessary for the beauty of resolution. 

I think about conversations I have had with other Christians who fundamentally disagree with my Christianity.  They are very convicted people.  For a lot of people that conviction that certainty is what being Christian means. That conviction makes them forget about Christ. That certainty leads them to argue, “Well if I love my neighbors, I can’t allow them to sin.”  I have heard that argument countless times.  It is a Christianity based on correction.  It is a Christianity based on judgment.  It is not Christian.  Jesus never taught anything even close to “If you see your neighbor sin, point it out and exclude them if they do not abide your judgment of what is sin.”  It is in fact, literally the opposite, of what Jesus taught.  “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged… (Matthew 7:1-5). He who is without sin cast the first stone (John 8:7).  Anytime we draw a line of separation in the sand Jesus is always on the other side.

I wonder if perhaps to be the body of Christ is to learn to be broken and to learn to shed.  To allow brokenness among us in our neighbors while at the same time praying and working to shed our own sins instead of calling out those of our neighbors.

I hope this reflection lends you food for thought as I had not ever considered how the eucharist is so connected to being united before.  Of course, the one who taught in parables would leave a gem like this to uncover.  May it help you this day and assist you in more fully living into God’s kingdom on earth.