Coach’s corner

Explorations VIII: Being the body of Christ

I have been receiving reports about our first round of exploration group meetings and I take these results seriously.  Most of the reports have been overwhelmingly positive. However,  some of the feedback I was given had to do with concern about our congregation’s involvement in the community beyond our walls: William Land School,  Loaves and Fishes, My Sister’s House etc. and how these activities are coordinated by just a few people in our Parkview family. In other words there is concern about continuity. To what extent are we going to extend ourselves into the community in the years to come?

The Christian Church stands in the world and at the same time it is not of the world. Thus it comes as no surprise that Christians over the centuries have always struggled with their relationship to the world.  The young theologian Jennifer McBride (“The Christian Century, December 11, 2013) explains that Christians often communicate that we are especially favored when we position ourselves as judges over society and as standard bearers of morality. One popular way of looking at the world is by seeing the Church as combating the world as an enemy; this includes our society and its institutions and world institutions.  McBride has a different take on this. She points to the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a twentieth century German theologian who was martyred under Nazi dictatorship.  McBride says Bonhoeffer took literal the idea that the Church is the Body of Christ as the apostle Paul claims in I Corinthians 12).   McBride’s point is that this is the witness of the Church: not to be judges, but to be Jesus’ presence in the world, knowing full well that we are flawed human beings who will fall short.

Let’s imagine that as we continue our explorations this Spring we were to ask ourselves how well we were living out our calling as a congregation literally as a body?  That would mean that if we were to deny that we stand firmly in the world and belong to it, we would be a body without feet planted on the ground. This would mean that if we were to abandon our engagement in the community beyond our walls it would be like being the body of Christ with our hands tied behind our back.  In a similar way if we were to stop reflecting deeply about our role in the world and the meaning of our faith we would be a body that would refuse to use its brain.  Consequently, if we were unable to find and maintain our passion as a congregation, we would be a body without a heart.  If we were to neglect our spiritual experience, we would become a body without a soul.  I think these are legitimate questions: how do we see our soul, heart, brain, rootedness and outreach as a congregation and to what extent is our body a healthy organism with each part connected to and impacted by the other?

As we face the New Year and reflect critically on the health of our bodies in the wake of this holiday season of food and in a season of flu, it might be helpful to reflect on our future health as the “body of Christ.” I wish you and the church a Healthy New Year! May God bless our ministry. Aart

P.S. On behalf of Carolyn and myself thank you for your Christmas cards!  We apologize that we did not get around to responding in kind.