January 2: There is One Body
♫ Music:
Day 32 - Wednesday, January 2
There is One Body
Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-7, Galatians 3:26, 28-29
I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Poetry:
Carol of the Infuriated Hour
by David Brendan Hopes
The stab to the heart that is such music,
the light beyond brightness that is such sight—
For the sake of this season in the stories
I will cease my wars with God tonight.
I will choose, with open eye, the talking beasts,
the white-in-the-snowdrift Christmas rose,
the legends of wandering a bitter way,
high hill and desert, for what? —God knows.
Someone turned the rose-tree to a cross
and the angels’ thunder into penitential song:
such is the ancient sorrow: they who stole
the stories have the stories wrong.
What saved the old ones in the tangled land,
amid assorted enemies, is what saves still:
to see the white stag in the tangled wood,
the Cross and the Rose on the same snow hill
We are saved in our infuriated hour—
by cunning blackened, by omnipotence beguiled—
by the newborn cosmos crooked upon our arm,
motherly murmuring to him, child, my child.
INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED FOR ONE BODY
Dear follower of the Way: What are the core facts of your existence? Go beyond mere appearances or satisfaction with eyeball-sight. De-clutter the 'senses of self’ that collect around ‘who’ and ‘whose’ are you. Attend to the invisible yet consequential, spiritual reality of your life.
The Apostle Paul has a way of crystalizing what is important: Jesus’ people are union-ized into a worldwide body; a fitted-for-belonging communion of life-giving-life that flows from the very Spirit of God (Eph. 4:1). This is not merely about participating in a weekly congregational gathering, although those rhythm are important for the gathering-and-sent health of this dynamic organism called, ‘body of Christ.’ Paul’s apostolic vision-casting in Ephesians 4 is not about getting more people to merely ‘go to church’; he doesn’t suffer from that failure of imagination nor is he satisfied with merely ‘getting’ people to do something for the sake of being churchy.
Notice the manifesto-like declaration of Ephesians 4:4-6: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Paul is doing far more than mere mental ascent to some very important ecclesiological affirmations. He’s helping us see the wonder and majesty of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the holy significance of their union for all that is (vs. 6); it’s as if he’s painting a deep metaphysics at work.
In Western contexts, especially modern and late modern, it’s tempting to see ‘church’ or ‘body of Christ’ identity as some sort of religious add-on to an otherwise ‘secular’ self. The demonic strategy: church as a kind of cosmetic, a religious veneer, or maybe just a hobby that some fervent people are really ‘into,’ while others are really into sports, recreation, food, family, entertainment, travel, etc.
But Jesus’ union-communion defies typical social constructions and ‘group identity’ expectations. First, it’s not in spite of our ordinary, everyday life in the world, but our union-communion in Christ and with His body actually centers the very integrity/integration of our life with others. For one thing, it has a reordering effect on our loves as we see the world that God so loves more clearly. Paul never says, “don’t be in the world,” and Jesus himself prays that his disciples would be “not of this world” but “sent into it” (John 17:14-19). Paul reasons toward a comparative shift in being and mindset . . . you were that, but now you are this (Eph. 4:17-18, 22-24). He wants us to anticipate whole-life transformation.
Second, our union-communion is designed for abounding in sacrificial love and not reduced to ‘likes’ of affinity groups or social types we approve or find impressive. What a devastating tragedy if church amounts to no more than just another club or gets reduced to a way of styling our life and its desire-fulfillments. Instead, what if the body of Christ is designed to be an agape society, an ordered freedom of self-giving sacrifice for the good of others? What really is the point for “making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) IF our ‘unity’ is merely with the people who are already like us?! [Paul tackles these sorts of issues with the churches in Galatia; see his main claim in Galatians 3:28].
Third, our union-communion steps into a grand story that grasps, by faith, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1); namely, Jesus’ people are sons and daughters - heirs! - to the promise spoken to Abraham and his descendants that 'they' and ‘we’ would become a blessing to the nations [Galatians 3:6-9, 14, 16, 18, 29; cf. Gen. 12:3, 18:18, 23:18]. The mission of our being, doing, coming, and going is rooted in an authority not of our own, not of this world.
Our union-communion in Christ and with His body has a way of (re)ordering time, people, place and boundaries. For the key movement of God in planet earth is exactly what God is doing right now with His body; “for the life of the world” (Schmemann).
And so here we are in 2019, learning to “live worthily of the calling with which [we] have been called,” at the heart of the world that we already live in yet from the body’s Center or Head, Christ Jesus our Lord. What wisdom and wonder from the mind of Christ is to be witnessed, gained, stewarded, and spoken into the world in which we dwell as body of Christ?
What does Christ’s “reconciling all things” ministry [2 Cor. 5:18-20; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20-21] signal for the world in which you embody as church . . . for the world of commerce and enterprise, of design and aesthetics, of education, of family, of local networks of community, of politics, of law, of even religion?
Prayer:
Holy Spirit of God, empower me to live worthy of the new life Jesus has called me to live in Him, and to do so with all humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance in love for others.
Amen.
Joe Gorra
Founder and Director of Veritas Life Center
About the Artwork:
We are One in Jesus Our Lord, 2008
Soichi Watanabe
Acrylic on canvas
23 ½ in x 31 3/8 in
From the exhibition Charis: Boundary Crossings—Strangers Neighbors Family Friends
Inspired by Ephesians 2:18-19, We are One in Jesus Our Lord presents the unity Christ brings to all people despite differences like nationality, race, age or gender. The breaking of the bread in Holy Communion represents the centrality of Christ’s sacrificial love. The artist specifically eliminates indications of gender and age in his figures, leaving only suggestions of the “nations” described in the book of Revelation. This emphasizes our shared humanity as members of the body of Christ transcending cultural and experiential differences to bind us to one another.
About the Artist:
Soichi Watanabe (b. 1949) is a Japanese artist recognized for the elegant simplicity of his style characterized by colorful facets reminiscent of stained glass. Watanabe graduated in 1982 from the Ochanomizu Art School in Tokyo after having earned an economics degree from Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai, Japan. In 1982 he started a private art school. His paintings have been featured in many solo exhibitions in Japan, Switzerland, and the U.S. His books include Jesus Walking with Us (2004) and With Joy and Sorrow (2006). His paintings have been featured on the covers of Gospel and World over many years and in many other publications. He is a member and former chair of the Christian Art Association in Japan (JCA), the Asian Christian Art Association (ACAA), and the Japan Artists Association (JAA). He was the 2008–09 Artist-in-Residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) in New Haven, Connecticut, which published a monograph of his work.
About the Music:
“Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98: 2. Andante moderato” from the album Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
About the Composer:
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including his close friends pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. The last of his symphonies, Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, is considered by many to be Brahms’ magnum opus, and like all his works is filled with emotional complexity. The second movement, Andante moderato, is characterized by melodies played in unison and shared from section to section of the orchestra.
About the Performers:
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), founded in 1904, is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history, it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among its most famous conductors are André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, and Valery Gergiev, who conducts today’s track. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London. One of the most frequently recorded orchestras in the world, the LSO has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema. It is probably best-known for recording John Williams' score for the Star Wars movies.
About the Poet:
David Brendan Hopes (b. 1950) is an American author, poet, and widely produced playwright. He is a professor of literature at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is the author of Bird Songs of the Mesozoic, Abbott's Dance, Man in Flight, Edward The King, 7 Reece Mews, A Dream of Adonis, A Sense of the Morning and A Childhood in the Milky Way which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Hope’s work has appeared in periodicals such as The New Yorker, Audubon, Christopher Street, Connecticut Review and The Sun.
About the Devotional Writer:
Joseph E. Gorra
Writer and Educator
Founder of Veritas Life Center
Joe Gorra is founder and director of Veritas Life Center, a California-based 501c3 religious nonprofit aimed at advancing the Christian tradition as a knowledge and wisdom tradition for the flourishing of human life and society. His writings have appeared at ChristianityToday.com, Patheos.com, EPSOCIETY.org, and various publications, including the Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care, the Christian Research Journal, and the Journal of Markets and Morality.