Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them in fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen.

As I have shared before, I began my service in the church as a youth minister, and as perhaps disturbing as this might sound to some body humor was always a way to keep the kids attention.  I mean anything gross—anything sticky or stinky—seemed to have the power to mesmerize the kids, in particular, unsurprisingly, teenage boys.  Salvation could be offered to any boring devotional or bible study by a properly timed breaking of wind or belch.  The kids would roar with laughter and you could be sure they would go home having had a great time at youth group and would return excited the following week.  With this in mind, foot washing was always a highlight for the kids on a mission trip or some other special occasion—sometimes for the right reason because it is a profound symbolic act of intimacy and service and sometime for the wrong reason—the kids got to show their feet off and laugh about the smell.

Honestly, I am not exactly sure what it is about young people, in particular, young boys that makes the perhaps impolite functioning’s of the human body so entertaining.  However, it did lead one woman, Sylvia Branzei, to write the wildly popular children’s book titled, “Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body.”  Since the book was written it has expanded into a traveling exhibit going to children’s museums around the country.  “Grossology”combines humor, colorful visual display and hands-on learning with boogers, dandruff, and other gross workings of the human body.  The end result is that natural childhood curiosity and humor about the human body is met with legitimate scientific education. 

While visiting the “Grossology”exhibit, kids and parents can play “Urine: The Game,” which helps explain how the body rids itself of toxins.  Or they can climb into the nostril of the giant nose exhibit to study cilia and boogers up close all the while learning how our body defends itself against pathogenic invaders.  The exhibit’s real aim, of course, is not to gross people out, but, instead, to advance interest in anatomy and science among kids.

Well, as we find in our New Testament lesson today, apparently the apostle Paul is also fixated on bodily functions.  In particular, Paul is concerned with how the various parts and processes of the body function interdependently…in a way that contributes to the general health and effectiveness of the body as a whole.  Paul argues that, despite differences, all the parts and processes of the body must be of equal and infinite value if the body is to be fully functional in the world—both those parts that we might consider gross or impolite like our digestive systems, at times, and those parts that we might consider vital and awe-inspiring like out hearts and minds.  Paul writes, “Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many…If all where a single member where would the body be...The eye can not say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’  On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”  For Paul, the weak and the strong, the embarrassing and the lauded parts of the body are all significant and necessary for the overall health and effectiveness of the body in the world.

Now Paul is not a physician or a biologist, nor is he interested in teaching gross anatomy to the church in Corinth, so what is this all about?  Well Paul is using a truth in God’s created order—a truth about the human body—to teach the followers of Christ in Corinth, and us today, a spiritual truth—a spiritual truth about the functioning and purpose of the church which is the body of Christ in the world.  Paul writes, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and 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…you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” 

You see, Paul’s point is that like our human body which is made up of many parts and processes, the church which is the body of Christ in the world is also made up of many parts and processes.  However for the body of Christ, the different members or parts of the body are not organs or appendages but individual people who bear the name of Christ—that is you and me and every single living person who is baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection—every single person who struggles with us to faithfully follow Jesus each and everyday of their lives.  And just as the different and diverse parts of the human body are of equal and infinite value, both those considered gross and those honored, so it is in the body of Christ.  Despite our differences and diversity, each member of Christ’s body is of equal and infinite value—both those people we honor and those we find down-right impolite and at times, embarrassing.      

The 16th-century poet, John Donne writes: “No man is an island, entire of itself.”  As in our physical bodies, God created for the church a system of interdependence between members or parts.  We cannot escape the reality that we belong to one another and need one another in all our individual uniqueness.  God has made you for others and others for you and all for his Body collected. 

Moreover, the Body of Christ is marvelous in its conception and design, as is the human body.  The design of a particular human body is fundamentally encoded in the double helix of our DNA.  While there are similarities in the human body from person to person, there are also a zillion individual variations in our genes that determine our height, weight, skin color, aspects of our personality, and on and on.  Likewise, there are many differences and great diversity that exists among the gifts and talents of individual members of the body of Christ, including every person in this church right now.  And those differences are intended by God and are completely necessary for the church to be healthy and effective in the world. 

As Paul says, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?  If the whole body were hearing, where should the sense of smell be?  But as it is God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he choose.”  You, each one of you, is made uniquely and purposely different from the person you are sitting next to.   And, although you are beautiful and capable on your own—and hear me you are beautiful and capable—when we individuals come together into one body we become breathtaking and can accomplish more than we ever imagined possible.

Henri Nouwen, the late Catholic Priest, writes, “[Each and every life] is a unique stone in the mosaic of human existence—priceless and irreplaceable.”  It is my personal conviction, though I share it with others that the body of Christ which is the church is the primary agent that God intends to use for positive and life-giving change in the world.  However our health and effectiveness to be that agent of change begins when we see each other as priceless and irreplaceable.  It is time to recognize differences between individuals in the church as gifts that make us rich and complex and not something to change about the “other” person. 

What anxieties or biases are keeping you from embracing others in this church or the larger Christian community as priceless and irreplaceable?  And on the other hand, what experience, talent, or perspective of yours are we not currently embracing, celebrating and using to become more healthy and effective as a church?  What gift do you bring uniquely to this community?  We want to celebrate that gift and we need to use it to become the agent of positive change that God has called us to be.

Our human bodies may have functions that are gross—impolite to talk about.  Stuff that’s just better left unsaid.  And the truth is at times the church can be gross and impolite and behave in ways that are also better left unsaid.  But, at its best, when we recognize each member of Christ’s body as priceless and irreplaceable, when we celebrate and use each others gifts to be agents of change in the world, the body of Christ—the Church, is something to behold!  It is far from gross.  It’s beautiful.  Amen.

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