What is the church?

1 Corinthians 12:26, "So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." These are powerful words. Sometimes we forget that we are parts of the greater body. When we ask with is church, we need the reminder that Paul says, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are the church. What Paul is doing is painting a picture of the human body. A body that works in unity with each other. A body that feels everything that happens to every members. A body so in touch with itself, that it provides protection and care for itself. A body that realizes that it needs each part to be healthy or it will stop existing. This is the image of someone who receives a cut on their leg and that leg then become infected. This infection left untreated will slowly but surely start to affect every member of the body. This one cut could potentially cause the body to stop existing. This person could draw their last breath because they had a cut on their leg and ignored the pain and trama. In a case such as this we would condemn this person for being irresponsible. We would shake our head and wag our finger. We would stand at the funeral and say, "what a shame, this could have been prevented." "This was such a waste." "If they would have just taken care of themselves." I know this because, I have heard it at funerals before. What is a shame, is this same thing takes place all the time to the body of Christ. It happens and we just ignore the pain and trama. We are like the person laying in the coffin; we just keep thinking things will somehow get better. We don't really know how that will happen, but we convince ourselves it will. So much so, when someone call attention to the injuried member, we just dismiss it. We know we are feeling sick and that we don't have the energy we use to have, but we are unwilling to accept the fact that it is because of this one injury. The infection is rushing through the entire body. We try to treat the systoms, never really treating the cause. Only getting sicker. I was reminded today how this happens at these extremes. I was asked to pray for a fellow pastor who was resigning from the body he has been serving faithfully with. It is worst than that, he is not just resigning from this "body", but from the "the entire body!" He said he was tired, done with trying to lead people who did not want to be lead, and church members being mean to each other. He is actively at an interview with a secular company as I am writing this. See, we say, "That is a shame" or we condemn him for quiting. I want to pause here and mention that this guy was not a novice. This guys has ministered many, many years and has more than proved himself as a faithful servant. Therefore this carries some amazing weight. But I believe it exposes the failure of the body, as Paul was doing in Corinth, to give the members the attention they require when they are wounded. I will assure you that there were many signs that this pastor was hurting. Many signs of infection, but the body chose to ignore it. By doing so, the body has now been disfigured. Yeah, that is what I meant to say, disfigured. Communities look at our church and they see bodies that are disfigured. To them it looks gross. To those in the body/churches it seems to be normal. "Oh, you will just get hurt in church." Really, that is normal? When a diabetic can not feel their feet anymore, is that normal? No, it is abnormal. Normal would be to feel when you burn your foot, or when you have a cut or a sore on the bottom of your foot! Normal is when the body feels everything the members feels. Chances are, my pastor friend had been hurting for a long time, but the body chose to take the approach that everything will heal itself, it didn't. Think about your body, when you recieve a cut on your finger, what does the rest of your body do? It responds. It does not continue to operate as normal. It completely shuts down and give all of it's attention to the wounded member. All of its thoughts and other members rush to the aid of this one little member. The whole body begins to provide care services to it in order to secure and rush the healing process. Once that is done, once the member is secure and proper attention is given, the rest of the body goes back to the task. But notice this, as the rest of the body goes back to the previous task, it provides compensation for the injuried member. The other fingers begin to operate in ways they may not normally. But, because this one member is injuried, they provide compensation even though it is "not how things are always done." The focus is a member is hurt. The goal is to care for the injuried member and accomplish the task. This requires the body to priorize what is most important. Is the task more important than the member? Unfortantally in the body of Christ, priorities are not so defined. Too often we rate the task over the members. My pastor friend who loves the body of Christ, tremendously, could not handle the pain anymore. Could not handle the disconcern of the other members anymore. It happens all the time! And we shake our heads, wag our fingers, and say "what a shame!" It is a shame! Shame on us! What if the head of the Church, Jesus Christ, is shaking His head, wagging His finger, and saying "what a shame." What if Jesus is hurting everytime the body hurts? Would we awaken. Would we be willing to shut down and give all our attention to the ONE member that is not healthy?? Would we? Are we? What if Jesus is more worried about the members than the task? We want the honor of the other members, but do we want the suffering? Are we, those who are healthy, willing to forfiet our comfort to care for those who are hurting? Are we willing to tackle infection before we draw our last breath? Paul tells the body of Christ at Corinth, "you must." Basically what he is saying is it is ludicrous not to care for the human body that way, therefore it is ludicrous not to care for the very body of Christ Jesus. I wonder, when the community looks at the church, do we looked disfigured to them? When we leave the church on Sunday and Wednesday, do we look sick? Do we look discolored and weak. Are we limping to our cars? We wonder why they do not want to join us. It may not be them, it may be us! The model church in Acts was attractive to those around them because the cared for their members. Period