Say what you want about being a disciple of Jesus. Unfortunately, and far too frequently, the body language of some of his believers tells a story far different from his gospel.
Season three of The Raceless Gospel podcast looks at the North American church’s body language. From what’s costing it an arm and a leg to the undivided “kin-dom” to come that is right on the tip of our tongues, each episode examines how we have mishandled and marginalized some of our members.
Employing 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 as a prescriptive lens, each episode addresses a member’s issue while highlighting the need to accept all limbs.
Not reserved for the highest givers because power should not rest with the highest bidder or perfect attendance, every member has a voice and a vote. “Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but many” (1 Cor. 12:14, NRSV).
Yes, your podcast pastor is calling all limbs to listen in. When your issue with the church is called, join in. But if it’s not, then call the church office, and we will put it in next Sunday’s church bulletin.
This season of the podcast lays it all out for listeners in hopes of laying bare our grievances. We cannot claim to follow the Holy Spirit and remain unwilling to clear the air.
Besides, St. Teresa of Avila is right. She said, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; No hands but yours, no feet but yours; Yours are the eyes through which His compassion will look upon the world; Yours are the feet with which He will go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which He will bless others.”
To be sure, church fights are not new. The Apostle Paul was stuck in the middle. Fighting for the bodies he once wanted to kill, it is a strange twist of will. They have switched sides. Us against us, Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you’” (12:21). There are no useless parts on the body of Christ.
Whatever circles we travel in, we are only connected in and through Jesus the Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is certainly right. He writes in Life Together, “Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we entered into common life not as demanders but thankful recipients.”
It is Christ’s hands that bind us together. So, don’t roll your eyes or cross your arms when I call for us to come together. There are no ultimatums here.
The podcast is but an extension of what Howard Thurman calls my “working papers,” and I will not cross your name or theirs off the list.
We cannot storm out, walk out on each other. Every person cannot be for themself. Because we won’t make it without one another: “The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone…”
And this is not about the “survival of the fittest.” That’s not God’s will or an expression of Jesus’ work and witness. All for one and one for all; this is the gospel of Jesus.
We’ve got more bodywork to do and more than a few screws missing. Nobody’s perfect so let’s keep on talking and tinkering.
All are members of the body of Christ, called to bear witness to a world that is listening but also watching our body language.
Season three is set to start on May 5, and you can attend this virtual church service on all streaming platforms.
Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.