When you
hear the word "body," we think of the "physicalness" every person
possesses, right? This is because, by definition, that is what a body is: the
wholeness of our parts. We also use the term to
describe the wholeness of things: like the sum of an author’s works as the "body" of his work. For the sake
of this discussion, I want to talk about the collection of believers known as
the church (ecclesia), and described in Scripture as the Body of Christ.
The term
"Body of Christ" (1 Cor.12-13) is Paul describing how we all
fit-together as His church. Just as Jesus' physical body performed His
ministerial tasks while He was here on earth, we as His church, are to be the ones
doing the physical parts of His ministry until He returns again. This is a
critical thing to get our heads around: "we" are supposed to be His "body"
- the physical representation of Christ on earth. That is some responsibility.
I believe
being Jesus' body is more than some responsibility, I believe it is the most
awesome responsibility a person can take on. But just as movement is evidence
of life in a person's body, the
absence of it is evidence there is no life. When a body stops moving for
extended periods of time it is either asleep or deceased. This means that until
Jesus comes back, His body should be moving, right? There is no argument here.
If we all
can agree that as His body we should be moving, then why do we spend so much
time in groups, sitting around talking about Him? If we are not using our time
gathering together to encourage each other to keep moving as His body, then
what are we doing? This is not a chastisement about meeting together, it is a
pointing out, asking if we as His church - each individual - is moving as well.
The
church as the Body of Christ was not designed to either be moving or gathering
for one or the other, but both. We should be gathering together as often as possible, to celebrate
who Jesus is and what He has done. In addition, we should use that time to encourage one another to keep moving.
So church, let's move already, gathering and go, gather and go!
In His grip,
Pastor Pat
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