Body Language...

 “Body Language”

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

12:13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

12:14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

12:15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

12:16 And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.

12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

12:18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

12:19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?

12:20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body.

12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

12:22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

12:23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect;

12:24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member,

12:25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.

12:26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.

12:29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

12:30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

12:31 But strive for the greater gifts.

 

 What do you think of when I say “body language”? Most of us have learned somewhere along the way that a disproportionate part of communication is “non-verbal,” and this would be one way to categorize “body language.” I’ll bet some of you use it and don’t realize how much you are “saying” through it, or better yet, can immediately name someone you know who is a master at it. My wife is that way. Over almost 45 years, I have learned to read Dara’s body language, but then that is not rocket science. Moreover, she would say that I’ve learned to ignore it quite expertly. One look at her, and I pretty much know what she is thinking, and the intensity of the message is directly proportional to the amount of trouble I’ve gotten myself into. Sometimes her non-verbal communication is just becoming profoundly non-verbal. As in total silence. When that happens, I’m tempted to use William F. Buckley’s old line he used in a particularly passionate argument with Gore Vidal—“May I ask, what’s my current offense?”

 

One of the problems with body language is that it often sends a different message than any words being conveyed. Children are great with this. “Did YOU break the lid to the cookie jar, Charlie?” Charlie, with his hands in his pockets and his heading hanging about as low as it can go, says, “N—O—O…” Spouses may also be good at sending each other “mixed” messages, with the dichotomous split between the words being spoken and the body language demonstrated. And, of course, most of us will ignore the body language and argue with the words, which is most often an near fatal mistake. You think we’d learn.

 

Body language is not limited to our species, either. Some of the funniest posts I’ve seen on social media were of dogs that were guilty of a major infraction, and whose body language was either humorously incriminating or in a few cases accusatory of another animal in the household.

 

The psychology of body language is quite a serious science. Albert Mehrabian, a noted researcher of body language, is famous for the “55/38/7” formula of face-to-face conversation: 55% of that communication is non-verbal; 38% is vocal (intonation, volume, etc.), and only 7% is words. 

 

Another researcher suggests that people express their body language in one of four ways:

 

·      A light and bouncy movement

·      A soft and fluid movement

·      A dynamic and determined movement

·      A precise and bold movement

 

If you were to watch videos of my sermons (pre-COVID when I preached out of the pulpit), you would guess that I felt a “good” sermon ought to use all four of these forms! I would call it ADHD preaching.

 

There are many different types of non-verbal communication or body language, including, but not limited to:

 

·      Facial expressions (our faces are AMAZINGLY gifted and “plastic”)

·      Body movement and posture

·      Gestures

·      Eye contact

·      Touch

·      Space

·      Voice

 

The study of body language even has its own syntax. Witness this paragraph from an article I read:

 

“There are ten types of non-verbal communication: environment, appearance and artifacts, proxemics and territoriality, haptics, paralanguage, chronemics, kinesics, and eye contact.”

 

Yeah, if you could see my body language after reading that, it would best be summed up, “Huh?” Interestingly, another element of body language researchers tell us is that it is the same in ALL cultures. As such, it is considered the most “honest” form of communication, and yet most people don’t even pay close attention to others’ body language. 

 

Why all of this about body language? Because in the Apostle Paul’s words in the Corinthians passage today, Paul employs a whole new understanding of body language in an effort to help “tame” the raging church in Corinth.

 

Most of us know from our study that that church was born into a major seaport and center of commerce, meaning it was an extremely diverse city in about all ways possible. The church was made up of former Jews, pagans, agnostics, and philosophers, either learned or amateurs. There were people from all over the world who had settled there, and rich, poor, and everyone in between. And samples of all of these populations had become early Christ followers and had gelled into the fledgling church. So much of what Paul writes to these people is about how to deal with the resulting problems and issues.

 

Paul takes this “body language” approach of which we are quite familiar from this I Corinthians text. He’s using the human body as an analogy for the church, in an attempt to draw the factions in the congregation together. He uses it to help them understand the “gifts” God dispenses to each “member” of the church, and how as a “body,” each gift and each “member” is important, but only as much as each contributes to the “health” of the collective whole. Integration is the key to a healthy, happy church. 

 

Paul describes how each “member” is very important to the “body,” but that God often “honors” the perceived weaker members by giving them even more important functions in the church. And yes, this certainly smacks of Jesus’ pronouncement that the “least of all will become the greatest of all,” and that servant ministry is the ticket to making a real difference. This emphasis serves to help affirm and elevate the “weaker” members, as well as to humble those who are all about themselves and their showier gifts. 

 

Paul strongly emphasizes how important integration of the members and their gifts are to the wider “body,” but he holds this in balance with the affirmation of the individual members. A symbiotic relationship between the members, the gifts, and the health of the whole church is necessary, if the church is to be vital, assimilate growth, and offer meaningful and productive ministry to its community and the world.

 

Errors happen, even today, when we over-emphasize the individual and its needs over the needs of the congregation, or vice versa. Churches that develop a consumerist culture, supremely meeting the needs of the individuals—especially the newcomers—soon find themselves struggling to launch and maintain mission and ministry. Churches that are all about “church growth” and employing all of the latest organizational science to “engineer” a strong, well-funded “ministry” soon find themselves losing members to burnout or neglect. 

 

Paul intrinsically knew this, and details some of the more important things about what the adolescent “Body of Christ” needs to build itself up, and we read his clever summary in today’s passage:

 

·      Baptism is what “births” the church and holds the body together (“one baptism, one faith, one Lord”). This may be one of the reasons the modern Christian church struggles—we argue over what baptism means, how it is administered, and have had to make it “portable,” as, unlike the early church, people move around so much, it has lost much of its “corporate” binding power.

 

·      Paul says that GOD is the one who does the “arranging” of the gifts and members. I have always believed that each “healthy” church is given the right people and set of gifts to minister effectively to the community and to each other. This means that each church may have a “personality,” based on this “arrangement” of people and gifts, and that it is important that each church rely upon the Spirit to help them discover and use its uniqueness. It is a futile and ungodly pursuit to try to make every congregation “look the same.”

 

·      The idea that the “weaker” members are the most indispensable is a powerful one, indeed. As mentioned earlier, it sounds like Jesus, and it serves to develop an important patience and sensitivity in a healthy church “body.” As families with a special needs child evolve into more cohesive, kind, and caring units, so churches that value their perceived “weakest” members and help them find their niche in the body will have a more compassionate and loving impact.

 

·      Paul lists several “goals” of his body language: that there be “no dissention within the body,” and that “members may have the same care, one for another” (verse 25); that suffering, when it occurs, be shared by all; and that honors or accolades, when they come, be shared by all, as well.

 

Please note that in all of what Paul writes, there is no room for pastor cults or pedestal pastors! Churches that are strong because they have a popular pastor, or a great preacher, don’t fare well when the “strong pastoral leader” leaves or falls. Unfortunately, it is often the elevation of such “gifted pastors” to the pedestal that sets them up for the biggest fall. Effective pastoral leadership is more anonymous than idolized in a healthy church.

 

So, to summarize Paul’s message to the church at Corinth, and all of the “Corinths” of our time: Strike a symbiotic balance between the “needs of the many or the one,” as Mr. Spock might say; activate and affirm the gifts of the members, but integrate them to edify the whole body and empower effective ministry; and learn to share the suffering, when it comes (and it will), as well as the honors, if they are bestowed (and they might be). 

 

Oh, and NEVER FORGET that the “head” of the “body” is not the pastor, not the Church Council, and not even the Conference or the Bishop, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Start with Jesus as the “head,” and it will be much easier to put the rest of the “members” in place!

 

One final prejudice, on my part. It is my conviction that since we are ALL members of the Body of Christ, and that the Holy Spirit has gifted EACH of us with a gift or gifts, that every single member of the church is “appointed” a ministry, for the common good. I urge all of us to find that ministry! And remember, since each church body has a unique “personality,” as God has appointed to each the members and gifts it needs to be in ministry to that community, a given member’s gifts may find different uses, should she or he move to a new community of faith. 

 

If you can’t yet define what your spiritual gift(s) is/are, go to UMC.org and type “spiritual gifts test” in the search field. A simple test that only takes a few minutes on your part may help with the “big reveal,” sending you then on a journey of finding out how your gift may be used in your congregation. Your pastor may be most helpful, once you do a little homework. Prayer doesn’t hurt, either, in discerning this, but put some feet to your prayers. It will bear much fruit! Amen!