Body as Metaphor and Fact

Frederick J. Streets

e have only one body and one life to

live with and in it. Our bodies are
both metaphor and fact. These two
ways of thinking about the body are
important to keep in mind when
we refer to the church as the "body of Christ" and to the
"body of Christ broken" for us in our communion litur
gy and preaching. The use of the body as a metaphor
comes with all the dangers and potential power embed
ded in its use as a symbol. I want to comment onfirstthe
"body of Christ" and then our use of the phrase "body of
Christ broken" for us as a part of our preaching.

The Church as the Body of Christ

The Greek word for church found in the New
Testament is ekklesia. It designates those who assemble
themselves as the body of Christ or the faithful in Christ.
(Acts 19:32) The word "body"soma in Greekis used
to refer to the church literally andfigurativelynumerous
times in the New Testament (Eph 1:22-23, 5:23, 1 Cor
12:12-27, and Col 1:18). In fact, the word "body" is
referred to more in the New Testament than in the
Hebrew Bible. Generally we use the image of the church
as the body of Christ in an attempt to describe the
church as a group of people whose sense of God's grace
in their lives creates for them a community to which they
belong, determines how they relate to one another, and
shapes how they relate to those outside of the church.
The church as the body of Christ is not about the
gathering of people who know no sin. Rather, it is people
who know more about the presence of God's grace in
their lives. The church as the body of Christ in its orga
nizational form is like the human body with its various
parts, each of which has its own purpose. It strives to
function as a unified whole under its understanding of
the headship of Jesus Christ. Like the wide variations in
human bodies, the church varies widely in size, appeal,
and effectiveness in carrying out its mission. The quality
of health and functioning of the church as an organiza
tion in the world will, like the human body, fluctuate.
The church is composed of us, and as human beings we
are bothflawedand wonderful creations of God. We may
be disappointed when problems arise among and
between church members, but the reality is that the
churchthe body of Christis a human organization
that seeks to be led by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There
are also many ways that we as members of churches

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TkE LIVING PULPIT

function to nurture and sustain and give hope to one

another. We and the church communities we are a part of
are in this way no different from those churches and
their members mentioned in the New Testamentfor
example, the churches at Corinth, Galatia, Philippi,
Rome, and Thessalonica. Each of these churches had its
corporate weaknesses and strengths and its individual
personality.
We, as friends of Christ and members of the church,
are to embody the values for which Jesus lived and died.
Attempting to do this in daily Ufe is what makes us mem
bers of the universal churchthe Body of Christ in the
world. Our task as Christians and as the body of
Christthe churchis to live and function with
integrity rather than with wholeness. I say this because
wholeness or feeling complete is misleading and human
ly impossible. The idea of being whole is at least decep
tive and at its worst false because it implies we do not
understand or are not willing to accept our limitations
andfinitenessas human beings and the natural constraints
of the organizations, such as the church, that we establish.
This denial lessens our experience of humility and increas
es our chances of promoting religious intolerance.

The Body of Christ Broken for Us

Our current interests in and popular discussions
about the connections among the mind, body, and spir
it and their relationship to our sense of well-being were
also the concerns of those who lived in antiquity. I, like
many of you reading this commentary, have known and
worked with people who have experienced tremendous
emotional and physical suffering and whose visible
wounds were caused by illness or the hands of another
human being. Their invisible scars are as much a
reminder of what they have experienced as are their
physical wounds. Their bodies as a result of what they
endure have changed and, in some cases, been deformed.
Some people express their invisible pain by behaving
badly or live Ufe as though they are living atop an active
volcano. Their way of being in the world threatens our
notions of beauty, comfort, fairness, and justice. Some of
them are challenged by our negative reactions to their
condition to develop a sense of self that includes, but yet
goes beyond, what they may look like to themselves or to
others. Our response as Christians can help them in this
effort and is at the heart of preaching about the body of
Christ broken for us. The idea of Christ's body broken

for us is a picture of healing and not of wholeness if we

mean by wholeness being restored to our original condition or capacity. It is in the power of our witness of faith
that those who feel broken may find help to become
exemplars of what it means to have a body that is in fact
broken in some way, yet they can feel alive and that life is
worth living. It is the message of the Gospel that Christ
loves us in the body that is ours right now. It is a message
that does not ignore the reality of evil, pain, and suffering, but neither does it give in to despair because of these
conditions. Rather, it assures us that we can live a transformed authentic life.
None of us knows fully in advance how we would
react and adjust should we become seriously ill or physically disabled. The passion of ChristChrist having
experienced suffering and his body being brokensignals that the meaning of healing in this life does not
always include cure or a return to a formal state of wellThe Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Streets is the Chaplain
being. Healing means the capacity to live with an integriof Yale University, Senior Pastor of the Church of
ty that is not a function of the conditions of our body,
Christ in Yale, and a member of the faculty at
but that is rooted in our deep, wordless appreciation of
Yale Divinity School and the Clinical Social Work
what it means to be a creation of God. This is not a matFaculty at the Yale Child Study Center. He is the
ter of rationalizing our physical difficulties to cope with
author of Preaching in the New Millennium (Yale
them or romanticizing our physical or emotional sufferUniversity Press).
ing. It is acknowledging that both our fragility and our
strengths are equally limited in their
capacity to define who we are in
Christ. Knowing that we are not
alone in our experiences, that we are
members of a communitythe
churchand believing that God is
with us increases our openness to
the possibility of our being transAtlanta, September 7-9,200G-Peachtree Road UMC
formed by the very things that excite
and scare us. Perhaps the ultimate
Anne Lamott
Joanna Adams
symbol of Christ's body broken for
Emily Saliers {Indigo Girls)
Donald Davis
us is its power of letting us know
that we are loved by God.
Grace Imathiu
Don Saliers

Growing in the Spiritual Life!

A Conference far All Bad's Paaple

When we preach and use the

body as a metaphor for the church
or use examples of our bodily experiences, we have the opportunity
and the obligation to proclaim that
possibilities are not bounded by our
body's limitations. We can say that
we will not allow our sufferings and
our physical limitations to keep us
from feeling, believing, and affirming that God has given us glorious
capacities in this world and the one
to come. After all, God declared after
making us that we were not perfectbut good. This is enough to
sustain us on this earthly portion of
our faith journey.

Barbara Lundblad
Phyllis Tickle
Nora Gallagher
Marjorie Thompson

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