Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 12:
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
One of the greatest challenges in being church is learning to live together. It is also one of the greatest rewards.
I remember at my first church there was a man I had a really hard time with. He was a handyman and on the day I first arrived he was working in my office. We were talking about the usual things you talk about with the new preacher when you're trying to feel him out and he you - where to get a good burger, the schools in town, kids these days, the state of the world. "You know, he said, "sometimes I think we really ought to go back to them Leviticus days." Oh dear, I thought. That was of course just the first of many things that we didn't see quite eye to eye on. When it came to the war in Iraq I was ambivalent, he believed in his country right or wrong. I was good with women being called to pastoral ministry, he said if they had not called me to be their pastor but had instead called a woman - any woman - he would have walked. "Just isn't Biblical." Trying to open him up, I pointed out that a man like him - divorced and serving as a deacon - wasn't quite Biblical either. That of course backfired on me because he told me I was right and that he was thinking of resigning.
We were complete opposites. Only church could have brought us together. And only church could keep us together - long enough to grow together. I grew to respect him for his commitment to the church and see his skills as a handyman as absolutely essential. He grew to respect my counsel and sought it when his son was in trouble with the law. He came to me in tears when the economy went to pot and nobody was hiring handymen. I prayed for him on my knees with both of us in tears and then stood up and hired him to repaint my house. I helped him write his application to become a substitute teacher in the school district. He helped me keep my car running in the Vermont winters. I blessed his grand baby when she came into the world. He blessed me by having the snow cleared when I came into church each morning.
During my sermon where I was announcing my intentions to leave, he got up from his seat in the pews and came and hugged me and told me I was the greatest pastor he ever had. I consider him one of the greatest parishioners I've ever had.
Paul compares the church to a body. Every body part belongs. Every part is necessary. No part can say another part shouldn't be there. And when the parts come together, different as they are, they join to make a blessed and beautiful whole.
I love that.
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