1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Where do I belong?

You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his “body”:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.

But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called “important” parts.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you. – The Message -
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“You’re not the boss of me!”

We should all agree this is one of the hardest parts of the redeemed life…living in the Body of Christ. We all aspire to free agency. We don’t want to serve anybody but ourselves.

It’s why so many of us go “church hopping”. We can’t find a church that does things our way.

God desires us to live in an interdependent community and…we don’t have a choice. It’s a “done deal”. We’ve already been given the Holy Spirit and He’s in charge. Paul says by means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. Curiously, God established an organizational construct that challenges our core sinful nature…selfishness.

Ironically, Paul says this submission to authority makes us more significant…not less. And, only a sinful nature would fail to understand the premise. The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

But, true to form, a little significance goes a long way. So…we are happy to say we were on our High School State Champion baseball team but…not so quick to say we rode the bench all season. We wear the letter jacket (with the championship logo) until we’re 50 years old and just look pathetic. We encourage people to think more of us than historical fact warrants.

And we don’t even feel guilty. Aren’t “sins of omission” curious?

So Paul reminds us our lives should be filled with pleasure and significance because we are part of the Body. It’s always about the Body. In 1979 I was invited to become an active duty Air Force Chaplain. I remember looking at my image in the mirror…resplendent in my uniform…feeling so lucky to be part of a team I’d wanted to join for a decade. I couldn’t actually concentrate on myself because I was so consumed by the blessing.

The awesome responsibility to hold up my end struck me. I was now what God created me to be, but only so I could serve something more important.  Paul says I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of.

But, of course, when we get it right…it’s really sweet!