Becoming the Body of Christ
At that time, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." (10th Sunday of Luke)
This time of year, as we get ready for Christmas many of us are running around doing last minute shopping, planning our holiday meals, and wrapping gifts. The thing that always seems to fall to the bottom of our family’s to-do list is taking Christmas photos and sending out our Christmas cards. From my own childhood I’ll confess, I think I have a bit of trauma when it comes to taking Christmas card photos. I think about my parents working so hard to get that perfect picture. It would go something like this: we’d hustle into place, I’d put my arm around my brother, my mom would come and comb my hair unnaturally, we’d plaster on our best smiles and then “click” we could go back to being crazy kids. That clicking sound is so characteristic of a camera isn’t it? The sound comes from the mirrors inside the camera clapping together. We love that sound so much we even design our phones to make that sound to let us know that we’ve taken the picture.
Kevin Carter was a journalist, a photographer invited by the UN in the early 90s to document a famine in Sudan. His camera had “clicked” all over the globe documenting important events and people. His work in Sudan was meant to serve a “higher purpose” to bring awareness to the starvation of the people there. Kevin Carter was fulfilling his mission to a human institution by going to Africa. As he was traveling through Sudan, he wandered into the open bush. He heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering and saw a tiny child trying to make its way to a feeding center. As he crouched to photograph the child a vulture landed in view. Careful not to disturb the bird, he positioned himself for the best possible image. He waited about 20 minutes, watching that crumpled, starving child just hoping the vulture would spread its wings to make the picture even more “beautiful” - so that he could get a compelling story on film. "Click", "Click", "Click," his camera fired away. When he realized the vulture would not pounce, he chased the bird and watched the young child resume its struggle.
Carter got that perfect shot; he even won a Pulitzer Prize. Kevin Carter was an excellent photographer, uncompromising in his obedience to the institution of journalism. He did not allow any humanity or compassion to come between him and that perfect picture. This is shocking to us – to imagine someone could watch this suffering and not intervene but his behavior is the result of a cold obedience to an institution.
An institution is made by humans for humans: it exists for a time and eventually passes away.
The body of Christ is a gift from God to us: in this body we are the partakers of eternal life promised to us through the gospel.
Are we adherents to an institution or members of the body of Christ?
Are we propping up something temporary or participating in something eternal?
As Orthodox Christians, we should always test ourselves with this question. Jesus Christ, the son of God and God, became man, ministered to us, died for us, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sent us His Holy Spirit not to create archons, senators, councils, committees and all sorts of other administrative groups. He did all of this to join us to His body. As Orthodox Christians we are called to partake of Christ so that He may live in our hearts and so that we may live in Him. We are not joining a club. When Christ lives in us and we live in Him as part of His body, when we are joined to Him and depend on Him just as cells, tissues, and organs depend on each other for survival - then we have true life.
This distinction between the way a human institution and a body operates is made clearer to us in this gospel reading. We hear about a woman who was bowed down in half for 18 years. She couldn’t stand up straight but walked bent in two everywhere. Jesus has compassion on her and heals her, He casts out the spirit of infirmity that caused this affliction and makes her whole again. He acts as the source of Goodness and Love to help this poor woman. In stark contrast the leader of the synagogue is blindly loyal to his institution like Kevin Carter was blindly loyal to the institution of journalism. He does not see a woman in pain, he sees arbitrary rules that must be followed at all costs.
To test whether we are becoming part of Christ’s body or merely participants in a human institution we must judge ourselves and look for the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. St. Paul tells us very plainly that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Coming to Holy Trinity Sunday after Sunday, we should ask ourselves: Are we progressing in love, or do we still enjoy holding grudges against others? Are we becoming more patient, or do we still lose our tempers over petty problems? Are we kind or do we enjoy manipulating others for our own benefit? Do we have control over ourselves, or are we slaves to our screens and stomachs? Our hearts, our consciences, will judge us if we look in the mirror of our soul and look for this fruit. If we see the fruit of the Spirit working in us, then we are growing our connection to the body but if we do not perhaps it is because we are just part of a human club.
Making this distinction between the institution and the body of Christ is so vitally important for us to grasp in the 21st century because there is a growing trend in the Orthodox Church to conceptualize ourselves as an institution and not a living, Spirit-breathing, organism. This trend is unfolding nationally as we manufacture layer after layer of group and committee that obscure the life-giving mission of the Church. On a parish-level as the world becomes increasingly secular and filled with the spirit of the anti-Christ we are tempted to conceptualize our parishes as insulated clubs that need to build higher, thicker walls to only allow those whom we deem worthy to enter. We have become fixated on ourselves like Narcissus staring at a pool of water infatuated with our own image. At Holy Trinity in Lewiston, we are not protecting a venerable and historical institution, we are nourishing and growing the body of Christ in synergy with God Himself. This is not our church, our building, our institution, it is Christ’s body. We offer all these things to Him, for His glory and in return He sanctifies them and returns them to us. If instead of making offerings to God we start to worship those objects, we have turned them into idols, and we are no longer building up a body we are propping up a lifeless institution.
As we reflect on this miracle of healing in the life of Christ, during his earthly ministry, we also call to mind the need to support our parish through stewardship. As we reflect on the ways and amounts that we are called to support this community, I challenge each of us to think differently about stewardship. When we give to our parish it is not to support a club to make sure it exists for our own children. We are making an offering that grows a body that is both divine and human: the body of Christ. Investing our material goods back into a body is different than investing in an institution. An institution is run from the top, the dollars and cents flow upwards but with no guarantee of trickling down. In a body, cells produce proteins that trigger responses that support other systems that return oxygen and nutrients. This is the difference between investment in an institution versus investment in a body. In the body of Christ we offer to God something earthly that He then sanctifies and returns to us for us to use so that we may offer more to Him. It is an infinite loop that never ends, bringing us a new life from on high. Through this loop of offering, Christ will transform our lowly body so that it may be conformed to His glorious body.
Kevin Carter’s camera “clicks” no more. A few months after his Pulitzer Prize winning photo was taken he took his own life, traumatized by the terrible things he observed because of his obedience to the institution of journalism. Let us resist the temptation to prop up lifeless institutions in the place of Christ’s body. As we journey towards Christmas may we have a renewed calling to join ourselves to the body of Christ. May we increase our fasting, prayer, and love for the poor to new heights as we yearn to grow closer to our Lord. May St. Nicholas, a paradigm of holy generosity, inspire us to bring forth offerings so that God may bless them and multiply them for His glory.
