Honoring the Body Preached on January 23rd, 2022 For Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a In our reading this morning from the letter of the Apostle Paul to the early church in Corinth, Paul uses an analogy. The human body represents the Body of Christ, the Church. Each member of the body has a different function, and all work together under the leadership of the head, to perform the work that the body must do. At the time Paul was writing, this was not a new idea. The notion of members of the body working together at an organized group was well known in the ancient world. The “society-as-a-body” metaphor would be familiar to Paul’s congregation. Only in the Greco-Roman world there was a clearly define hierarchy or caste system. The slave class was dispensable. Individual members of it were unimportant. When one slave was hurt and could not work, there were many others to replace them. The Greco-Roman family also operated under a strict hierarchy with the patriarch at the head. When everyone functioned as they were supposed to, being appropriately subservient, things ran smoothly. But this is not what Paul is saying about the Body of Christ. Paul address peoples who have been deemed “unimportant” in the body of society. Paul tells them, that while they may be seen as weak and dispensable in the culture, they are to be honored in the Body of Christ. He says “God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the (supposedly) inferior members.” The recipients of Paul’s letter need to hear this message, because instead of being honored, their own bodies are being dishonored by the community. Even today, there are bodies that are not honored in our culture and in our religious communities. And, when individual bodies are dishonored, the Body of Christ is dishonored as a whole. Perhaps you have heard the expression “put on your own oxygen mask first.” This is the guidance offered by airlines in the event of an in-flight emergency for which oxygen will be needed for survival. Anyone in a position of caring for someone else should not delay accessing their own oxygen supply. Once a parent has put on their own mask, they have the ability to deal with their infant’s need for oxygen. If they prioritized the infant, the parent may suffocate in the process. If the parent dies, the child would be orphaned. And there would be one less capable adult to assist the vulnerable ones on the airplane. Caring for self is not only a matter of emergent life and death situation, though. Self-care means understanding our own wholeness as being intrinsically connected to our bodies. And self-care is essential if we are to recognize the value of other bodies, and indeed the value of the whole Body of Christ. Stephanie Paulsell, a professor at Harvard Divinity school, is author of the book “Honoring the Body.” Paulsell describes honoring the body as a Christian practice, with chapter titles like: “Bathing the Body”, “Clothing the Body”, “Nourishing the Body”, “Exerting and Resting the Body”, “Honoring the Sexual Body”, and “Honoring the Suffering Body.” Paulsell says that “by choosing the metaphor of the body to describe themselves, early Christians acknowledged that it is through our bodies that we love and serve one another.” [1] She cites the fourth century Christian scholar, Jerome, who taught that “the body was a great equalizer of persons [saying] ‘He whom we look down upon, whom we cannot bear to see, the very sight of whom causes us to vomit, is the same as we are, formed with us from the self-same clay, compacted of the same elements. Whatever he suffers, we can also suffer.’” [2] Even with the benefit of modern healthcare and the opportunity for a healthy lifestyle, things can go wrong. Our bodies are vulnerable. We all experience sickness and injury at sometime or other. When we are suffering, though, we are still honored members of the Body of Christ. Jesus was at one with the bodily suffering of all humanity, when he suffered and died on the cross. Paulsell reminds us that it is Jesus’s wounded body that gathers us for the Lord’s Supper, saying “this is my body [broken], this is my blood [shed].” [3] While the goodness of the human body is baked into our faith, Paulsell points out that “many people have experienced religious traditions … as repressive institutions that deny the goodness of the body and its pleasure.” [4] This especially applies to women and those who identify as non-male as well as people of non-white races and ethnicities. These bodies have been designated as weak and dispensable by oppressive institutions and cultures. The western world has inherited negative attitudes toward the body thanks to “The Protestant Work Ethic” and “Catholic Guilt” among other things. Honoring our own bodies in our world today means swimming against the tide of our culture. Our culture tells us that sleep is optional and nutrition is a luxury; that healthcare is a choice and driving is a necessity. Our culture tells us that overwork is honorable and that the need for rest shows weakness. Thinness and extreme fitness are idealized, but care for one’s average body is considered to be selfish and unnecessary. Most of all, our culture tells us that we are not members of a body. Instead, the culture says, we exist individually and alone separate from one another and separate from the rest of the world. Because of these false assumptions, the health of our population is worse than that of many other developed nations. And still, individuals are not to blame. In our culture too many people work multiple jobs with no time for exercise or to cook from scratch. Too many people live in unsafe neighborhoods, where walking out is dangerous. Too many families live in food deserts, where only unhealthy processed snacks and sugary drinks are available. Food and drink companies focus on sales of addictive products, rather than quality nutrition. And, ironically, in this nation we then spend far more that the rest of the world on the medicines and treatments that keep our neglected bodies going. We are often shamed when we suffer from ill health. And at the same time, individualism leads us to believe that care for our bodies is a private choice. The repercussions of this thinking are playing out right in front of us. A philosophy of individualism runs counter to the necessity of a vaccination campaign for the health of the human population. My family of origin did not put much emphasis paying attention to our bodies. My meals were regulated by how much was put on my plate, rather than how hungry I was feeling. Leaving food was considered wasteful. I got used to eating more than I needed. I was also discouraged from complaining when I didn’t feel quite right. Trips to the doctor were time-consuming, but thankfully there was no financial charge. My mom would become impatient with me if I said I felt unwell but the doctor could not find anything wrong. I internalized the idea that I imagined pain and sickness, and if I ignored it would probably go away. I’ve spent years trying to undo this assumption. It’s taken me a long time to re-connect with my body, and I still have a ways to go. Before Christmas, I met with the Wollaston Congregational Church Pastor Parish Relations Committee: Mary Treacy and Mary Phillips. I’m thankful for these two wise women who have career backgrounds in healthcare and healthcare education. Together we decided that I should work on goals for the upcoming year in my ministry with the Church and that I should base these goals on the United Church of Christ Ordained Ministers Code. In my times of reflection I worked through the code, identifying areas where I needed to improve. The section entitled “Covenant with Self and Family” includes the item “Attend to my physical well-being by adopting a healthy life style including diet, exercise, and rest, setting aside time for Sabbath and vacation.” [5] I confessed to Mary and Mary that this is an area I needed to work on. I had been putting off some routine healthcare, partly due to the pandemic, and partly due to my own procrastination. I resolved that one of my goals would be to make appointments for those visits in the beginning of the year. When I visited my healthcare provider, I was a little surprised to realize that I’m now in an age category that requires more routine tests. And so I scheduled and had a couple of these, which were done in the hospital over the past weeks. I am not used to being on the receiving side of care. But I was moved by the nurses who provided dignity and care for me. They brought warm blankets and crisply laundered cover-ups to comfort me in my vulnerability. The machines they use for diagnostics may be cold and impersonal, but human care is healing in itself. And the nurses’ care encouraged me to show respect, even honor to my own body. I have to thank them for this gift. Of course, you are not required to make goals for this coming year. But it might not be a bad idea. If you do, I suggest you start with honoring your body. How will you covenant with yourself and God to attend to your physical and mental wellbeing? How will you nourish your body, exercise your body, clothe and bathe your body? Will you ignore aches and pains or pay attention? Will you clothe yourself lovingly, or quickly throw on coverings in shame? Will you blame your lifestyle for weakness, or will you seek out respectful, dignified care? However you feel about your body, remember God treats those members that seem to be weaker and dispensable with the greatest respect. May all God’s people say, Amen [1] Stephanie Paulsell, Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice, (Minneapolis, MN: John Wiley and Sons, 2002), 5 [2] Ibid., 11 [3] Ibid., 8 [4] Ibid., 7 [5] https://www.ucc.org/what-we-do/justice-local-church-ministries/local-church/mesa-ministerial-excellence-support-and-authorization/ministers/ministers_ordained-ministers-code/
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