You can easily 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 know I haven't posted in a while...but after the day and week I have had, it kinda’ seems appropriate. This week and the next couple of weeks are going to be reasonably crazy, simply put. The first and MAIN reason is the primary election, and with that the constitutional amendment being considered. If you haven't heard about the Marriage Amendment or “Amendment 1” yet, it is pretty bad. In short, it states that the marriage of ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN is the only LEGAL DOMESTIC UNION recognized in the state of North Carolina. Proponents of the Amendment say it is to protect society from the perils of gay marriage <insert all of the standard arguments here>. If it was only that simple, I don't know what kind of response this Amendment would be receiving. Almost every group or organization is taking a stand on it, and it is pretty standard how they are lining up. On the proponents side, we have the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist, NOM, etc., etc. Basically, all of the fundamentalist Christians. Those of us against the Amendment are liberals, conservatives, Libertarians, etc. All of those against the Amendment are saying so because of several reasons. I am sure 10,000 blogs have covered those points in detail. So I am moving on to other news......which relates to BIG chunk of information......
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 own significance from getting blown up into self-importance or pride. For no matter how significant you are, you are only significant 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 it is. 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 is 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"-----I Corinthians 12.12-26(Message)
The first chunk of news came out yesterday. when on Facebook I noticed a video labeled "Man Films Himself Firing A Shotgun into Neighbor's Yard Sign Against Amendment One". Apparently, a teenager from the Piedmont of NC took it upon himself to fire a shot gun into an Against Amendment One sign. Cops were called, the whole nine yards. As I said, I am getting into a bigger point here, so I don't want to drone on and on about all of the details because I don't want to be to wordy.......(well any wordy then I have to be) .
The
Second chunk of news came out earlier today when a minister's sermon from
Marriage Sunday (some big deal the Proponents came up with to push parishioners
to support the amendment. In it, he basically droned on for about 30 minutes
according to reports, about a long list of stuff. The biggest chunk that
grabbed everybody's attention was when he advocated violence against gay
children. To paraphrase, he said
"If your little 4-year-old boy all of the sudden has a limp wrist, then
you should pop that wrist". He also said if a little girl is "too
butch" you should "rein her in".
The point I am trying to make here is that, in short, tensions are running high. When you consider all of the items that are normally on everybody's list when in the midst of a a recession, pointing toward gay people and allies and doing violent acts and advocating for violent acts, is not the message you need to send. There are pretty much two factions in the church at this moment. There is the mainline denominations (which contains liberals and conservative), and in most cases liberal denominations. On the other side, you have more conservative and fundamentalist churches. If you look back in history, these two groups have been discussing issues since the beginning of time. Parts of the same body you could say have always argued on one matter or another. And from that body, there are 10000000s of individual cells, and from that our body is able to walk, talk, sing, and pray.. Our body is able to love, to reproduce, to be artistic. When you look at the individual cells, and individual body parts, each has a function and has capabilities of their own. In this paraphrase of Paul we see his words clearly.
The point I am trying to make here is that, in short, tensions are running high. When you consider all of the items that are normally on everybody's list when in the midst of a a recession, pointing toward gay people and allies and doing violent acts and advocating for violent acts, is not the message you need to send. There are pretty much two factions in the church at this moment. There is the mainline denominations (which contains liberals and conservative), and in most cases liberal denominations. On the other side, you have more conservative and fundamentalist churches. If you look back in history, these two groups have been discussing issues since the beginning of time. Parts of the same body you could say have always argued on one matter or another. And from that body, there are 10000000s of individual cells, and from that our body is able to walk, talk, sing, and pray.. Our body is able to love, to reproduce, to be artistic. When you look at the individual cells, and individual body parts, each has a function and has capabilities of their own. In this paraphrase of Paul we see his words clearly.
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 it tends to be. (21-24)Every part of the body of Christ is important to the work of God, and not all Christians have to agree on every issue to get something done. Certain denominations are great at some things, and others are great other things. Different denominations even disagree on what certain verses in the Bible even mean. I am not saying that to be critical, mind you. I am saying that say we are different. Opinions are great, everybody has them. I also believe we need to at least respect them, and allow them to exist, and not batter them, label them as "breaking-wrist offenses" or "rein them in offenses". Our children do not need to be exposed to that. A child should not be punished for who they are.
In
closing, I pray that we will all live in the Peace of Christ which surpasses
all understanding. And I want to close with a few lines from “You Can't Stop The Beat” from Hairspray
the musical...
You can't stop today
As it comes speeding down the track
Child, yesterday is history
And it's never coming back
Cause tomorrow is a brand new day
And it don't know white from black
Let's us be happy to live in a world where all opinions matter and there is no black and white, gay and straight...Let us live as Paul inspired the Galatians to........
Pax et benedictus
You can't stop today
As it comes speeding down the track
Child, yesterday is history
And it's never coming back
Cause tomorrow is a brand new day
And it don't know white from black
Let's us be happy to live in a world where all opinions matter and there is no black and white, gay and straight...Let us live as Paul inspired the Galatians to........
Pax et benedictus
