Lent 14

I've decided this is day two of my three day stackpole series. It may be a little lazy to post something I've already written, but mostly, I put a lot of thought into figuring out which three pieces of my theology are so important that if any were taken away that the rest would fall down.

The Body of Christ

My second stackpole leads pretty naturally from the first. It speaks to the embodiment of Christ’s presence. It is pretty easy to look to scripture, look to the ministry of Jesus and like what he was doing. It’s one thing to like his teaching and get behind the example he set, but it’s a whole different thing to be able to get behind the “body of Christ.” UMC Bishop Willimon writes, “Alas for us rugged individualists, the church, for all its sorry infidelities, is the form that the risen Christ has chosen to take in the world. If we are to believe in Christ, we’ve got to believe in him as he is—embodied and embedded in the church—rather than in some disembodied form that would make Christ easier for us to handle” (United Methodist Beliefs: a brief introduction, 2007). I choose to believe that, empowered by the Holy Spirit, Christ’s presence is still real in the world. In Eucharistic liturgy, I take very seriously the petition to the Holy Spirit when I, or some other pastor, speaks the words, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be, for us, the body and blood of Christ so that we may be for the world the body of Christ..”

I think I need to see Christ present in the body of Christ in just the same way I need the incarnation. A far off God is not the God I can relate to, who I can trust and love and be in relationship with. So often, we see the Church get it wrong. We get it so wrong and wander so far from the gospel that it’s hard to see Christ’s presence, but God chose the Church. After Jesus’ resurrection, he returned to those disciples, not to wise men and political leaders, but to the people who bumbled and stumbled, got it wrong as often as they got it right. That gives me hope, hope for myself and hope for everyone.