On being a body
“One of my biggest reminders of God’s unconditional love is my body. It does not judge an injury. It simply moves towards healing and life.” - Joe Davis
When Joe said this in our Perspectives Listening Session earlier this month, I just about fell off my chair. I have never had this thought in my entire life. Like many of us, my relationship with my body is complicated. I’ve been learning to embrace my own embodiment, but it is slow and difficult work.
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul paints a picture of human community as a body. As Joe taught us from this passage, I realized that I had never put my own physical body into this imagery.
How are we to embrace the body of a community if we cannot even hold our own embodiment with tender care?
As we wrestled through this passage in a Scripture Circle the following week, verse 25 stood out,
“there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.” - 1 Corinthians 12:25
“Care” is the Greek word “merimnao,” which is to be troubled by or anxious for. Meaning, we aren't just supposed to abstractly love each other, but to be so concerned with one another’s well-being that we literally are anxious or troubled by someone else’s problems as if they are our own.
I think about what happens if I stub my toe. It does not matter what my brain wanted to do before that point. Or what my hands are holding. Or what my eyes are looking at. When my toe hurts, my entire body is consumed with that pain until it subsides.
What if we moved towards an embodied human community?
What if I could deeply feel the value of my body inside this bigger body? What if my instincts were to move towards the healing of whatever part of the greater body needed it most? What if my emotions and thoughts were wrapped up in the well-being of others with the same force with which my whole body gets wrapped up in the pain of a stubbed toe?
What would this kind of embodiment mean about how I respond to systematic racism? Or the plight of refugees? Or a global pandemic? Or vitriolic politics?
That’s a challenge I want to keep holding and pondering as 2020 keeps marching on.
In hope,
Steph
One of the many gifts a communal way of studying Scripture gives us is to see and hear the experiences, perspectives, and struggles of other people.
The deepest way to experience that kind of communal understanding is through our cohort experience.
In the cohort, 12 people journey together for 40 weeks, wrestling, studying, and making space for each other’s experiences. We are at the time of year when people are making commitments to join the next cohort, which will begin at the end of January. Take a look at our cohort page for more info, and reach out to Steph or Lisa if you want to talk more about what it’s like or whether it would be a good fit for you.
Another important way to experience growth from hearing voices from a broader community, is through Perspectives.
In Perspectives, we are learning from the wisdom and experiences of BIPOC teachers. Our November teacher will be Jia Starr Brown. Read more about Perspectives and register today.
May we hear each other, hold space for each other, and move towards healing,
Lisa & Steph
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash