Thoughts on the Body

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, slave or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member, but of many.--1 Corinthians 12: 12-14

The reading from 1 Corinthians is so full and rich that its hard for me to fully grasp where to begin my reflection.

As a massage therapist, any talk of the body immediately piques my interest. To use the human body to paint a picture of the greater body that makes up the church and ultimately reflects the face of God is awesome. And it's what I experience every day in my line of work as I place my hands under a client's head and gently hook my fingers into their occipital ridge. I see before me a representation of the incarnation in the young, the old, the large, the small. Each body is different, and each is a beautiful reflection of God's handiwork.

As a lesbian, any description of the body of Christ being "many members" draws my attention. Paul's attempts to make his case ("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") speaks directly to my long-standing argument that the body of the church must include all members... regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race. LGBT Christians are equally important to the make up of the body as the conservative straight white man. We are not the appendix that needs to be removed!

But above all as a curious seeker, talk of all the above keeps me thinking, pondering, wondering: "What's my place?" This is the constant question on my mind.

... the members of the body that seem weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but members may have the same care for one another.--1 Corinthians 12:22-25

I read these words and I reflect on the role I have been playing the past 36 hours, the role of caring and supportive friend.

I learned late yesterday afternoon about my friend Charlotte's breast cancer. It was a shock to read that the cancer was in both breasts, and was coming as she was ending her career as an Episcopal priest. I had many emotions come tumbling and crashing in getting this news. But paramount in my mind was to pray for her, her medical team and also her partner Betsy. And to get the word around to as many as I could to ask for prayers for this woman who was the first to take the time to seek me out, and model trust and love in my extremely painful teenage years.

My buddy Cameron, who I met through Tim Miller's workshop this past summer, staged a dramatic reading of some of the Proposition 8 trial transcript. Cam had thought he was going to have more people turn out for his performance art piece on Florida State's Landis Green. But he went ahead with his friend Jade and they stood opposite each other, reading aloud the testimony from a very important trial for the LGBT community that is going unseen by most of the country. As Frisbees and footballs zinged overhead, Cam read the words of a gay man asked to testify about the effects of gay marriage in Massachusetts, and why gay people want to be included in this institution. And I stood as a witness to his effort to get these words heard. Such performances deserve an audience.

"Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."--1 Corinthians 12: 27.

As individual members, we are the body that is in the world today. We are the incarnation of God's love... both in sickness and health... in our acts of speech and silence. We are beautiful reflections of the handiwork that gives us the bodies we have. And together we make up the whole body.