One Body Many Parts

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” – 1 Corinthians 12.27

From Toni Clark:

This is a favourite verse of mine. I love how it reminds us that we are not alone we are all part of the body of Christ even though we are all different.

I have always thought we have a wonderful mix of people at St Pat’s. There are so many different jobs that need doing that require different skills and abilities. There are those more visible rolls, those of us upfront leading services, or sung worship, those who read the Bible and lead the intercessions. But there are a lot more things that happen behind the scenes, cleaning the church, flower arranging and moving chairs to name but a few.

During lockdown a whole new set of skills have been needed to enable us to worship together virtually. Today I was leading the livestream service from church for the first time and am in awe of  those people who made it all happen seamlessly from behind the scenes – the screens they sit behind look like they should be in Mission Control guiding a rocket to the moon not ensuring we can all simply worship together! Over the week, I have discovered just how much work they put in to get everything ready for today, their skills and willingness to serve in this way mean that the rest of the body of St Pat’s are able to worship God together each Sunday. 

I love the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul creates this wonderful image of how all the different parts of our human body work together to make our one body and how we would be useless if our whole body was just an ear or an eye. He reminds us that each part of the body has a different purpose, a different skill, and that no one part is better than any other. Paul wants us to realise that although we are all different, we all have different gifts and skills, different ways of serving, and we cannot do everything on our own, we need to come together and work together to bring God glory. 

When you read this you might be thinking that at the moment you are struggling to see where you fit in to the body – you aren’t using your particular gifts to serve God in St Pat’s as you would normally, the group you help at isn’t meeting, or the role you have on a Sunday morning isn’t required at the moment. Please don’t be discouraged by that; as Sam preached a couple of weeks ago, may be use that time to have a Sabbath rest, spend that time with God, recharge the batteries for when we can come together again, give thanks to those with the gifts needed to ensure we do stay connected as the body of Christ, give thanks for your own gifts and ask God how you should use them at this time. Be encouraged that we are all together part of the body of Christ, rejoice and give thanks for that.