One_Body,Many_Members

Here are some thoughts from the conclusion of my reflection on Sunday 26/1/2025. I was considering the teaching of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 about being the Body of Christ together, and I wondered how who we are as the church might bear witness to our nation on Australia Day. The full reflection can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/-sOne7L0YoU?t=2308

At the end of this passage on the body in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul launches into what has been called his greatest moment, 1 Corinthians 13, where he says, we may be many things and feel many things, we may have many gifts or many failings, but there is something greater than all that we are, and all that we do, and that thing is love. The answer to shame is love. We honour our bodies, in particular those parts of us which bring shame, by embracing love, by experiencing compassion, by knowing ourselves beloved. We might need help with that, because for some shame can be crippling – and as well as your friendly neighbourhood psychologist, one place we should be able to find that help and know ourselves beloved is through a sense of belonging to the body of Christ, the body of God’s compassionate, healing love in the world, where every member is honoured, especially those who might otherwise be the subject of shame, prejudice, rejection or exclusion.

Are we that kind of body here? – one but many? – honouring of those people, or those parts of ourselves, which are otherwise dishonoured? Demographically our congregation is similar to Australia, a white majority with a significant, increasing and valued presence of people whose ancestors were born in non-European lands. According to Paul, we need each other, because the body of Christ consists in its diversity. We need our different races and cultures and classes and genders and sexualities and abilities and sizes and shapes and colours. And we need to acknowledge where honour and respect and power and privilege lie among us so that we can lift one another up in love to be the body together.

(from Ian Ferguson)