Some years ago I was at the church and there was a person lying on the grass on the north side of the building. It was in the afternoon, in bright sunlight, and I was concerned for the health of the person. I called out to him and he did not stir.
Being alone, I was unwilling to go too close to check on the person. So I called the non-emergency number for the Humboldt Police Department. These days I would call the Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE) line: 707-441-4196
The person may have just been napping, though it seemed a less-than-optimal location for a nap. I was concerned that the person might need medical help, or worse, was beyond medical help.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
How do we know whether someone is alive?
One way I have seen in television and movies is to put a mirror under the nose of the person. If the person’s breath causes condensation on the mirror, the person is breathing and therefor alive.
Breath is a common way of determining life. In fact, the Hebrew word for breath – רוּחַ – is also the word for spirit. When God breathes life into Adam, it is this same word for breath and spirit. So when we think of breath as a sign of life, we can remember that for millennia breath was life.
Another common way of determining whether someone is alive is by checking for a pulse. If the heart is beating, there is some sort of life going on.
But what if the person is not breathing and there is no pulse?
We have Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, or CPR. We’ve seen this with chest compressions, and sometimes with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, although current practice is chest compressions alone.
We also have Automated External Defibrillators that deliver an electrical current to try to get the heart back into a normal rhythm.
So even a temporary lack of breath and heartbeat doesn’t necessarily mean death.
We also have people who have had traumatic brain injury so severe that the brain is considered dead, even though the heart may be beating and the lungs may be breathing.
Life is complicated.
But in today’s reading from the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the body as a metaphor for the Church. And he writes about the members of the Church as being members of one body.
So is this body alive?
We could look at the movement of the church:
- Is it active and moving?
- Is it reclining?
- Is it prone on the lawn and non-responsive?
- If the church doesn’t look alive, it may be ignored, avoided.
Who do you call about a possibly dead church anyway?
But there are other things we can check.
Does the church have brain activity? Is the church thinking? Or is it just continuing its autonomous functions? I think our church is still thinking, aware of what’s going on in the world.
What about the other signs?
Pulse: does the church have a heartbeat? Does the church have a heart? Does it care? I think our church has compassion for others and love for neighbor.
Breath, or spirit, is about a sense of being as well as the ability to speak. Is the church breathing? Is it speaking? Does anyone hear us?
What I’m asking is: would anyone outside the church think we are alive? Do they see us moving? Do they sense our heart? Is the breath of our spirit speaking?
If we are to be the body of Christ, what does that look like?
Our reading from the Gospel of Luke gives us an indication:
17 [Jesus] unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
- Luke 4:17-19, NRSVue
What good news can we bring to the poor?
How may we proclaim release to the captives?
How may we proclaim recovery of sight to the blind?
In what way can we set free those who are oppressed?
Liberation theology, which comes from Latin American Catholicism, proclaims a preferential option for the poor, as Kira Dault put it in “What Is the Preferential Option for the Poor”:
The option for the poor is simply the idea that, as reflected in canon law,
“The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor.”
It indicates an obligation, on the part of those who would call themselves Christian, first and foremost to care for the poor and vulnerable.
– Dault, Kira (January 22, 2015). “What Is the Preferential Option for the Poor?”. U.S. Catholic.
In this context, the definition of poor expands beyond mere lack of money: it includes anyone without power: economic, social, or political power.
What good news can we bring to the vulnerable?
We might just think of captives as people in prison, but captives include political prisoners, those who are not allowed to leave their homes or to travel, anyone without freedom to move.
How can we proclaim release to people like these?
There are several recorded miracles of Jesus restoring sight to blind people, but this may also be a metaphor for people who are unable to see beyond the small worlds they have lived in.
How do we help people to see a wider, more colorful and diverse world?
Oppressive systems bind oppressed and oppressor alike: the suffering of those who are oppressed may be more obvious, but those in roles of oppressor frequently are trapped for fear of losing power.
How do we set free both oppressed and oppressor?
These are the challenges to a church that is alive in the world: a church that has a brain, has breath, has a heart, and is moving.
So my challenge this week is to consider how this portion of the body of Christ is showing it is alive.
Look alive out there!
Amen.
* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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