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Body as Metaphor and FactFrederick J. Streets

We have only one body and one life tolive with and in it. Our bodies are

both metaphor and fact. These two ways of thinking about the body areimportant 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 metaphorcomes with all the dangers and potential power embed-ded in its use as a symbol. I want to comment on first the"body of Christ" and then our use of the phrase "body ofChrist broken" for us as a part of our preaching.

The Church as the Body of ChristThe Greek word for church found in the New

Testament is ekklesia. It designates those who assemblethemselves as the body of Christ or the faithful in Christ.(Acts 19:32) The word "body"— soma in Greek—is usedto refer to the church literally and figuratively numeroustimes in the New Testament (Eph 1:22 23, 5:23, 1 Cor12:12 27, and Col 1:18). In fact, the word "body" isreferred to more in the New Testament than in theHebrew Bible. Generally we use the image of the churchas the body of Christ in an attempt to describe thechurch as a group of people whose sense of God's gracein their lives creates for them a community to which they

belong, determines how they relate to one another, andshapes how they relate to those outside of the church.

The church as the body of Christ is not about thegathering of people who know no sin. Rather, it is people

who know more about the presence of God's grace intheir 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 tofunction as a unified whole under its understanding ofthe headship of Jesus Christ. Like the wide variations inhuman bodies, the church varies widely in size, appeal,and effectiveness in carrying out its mission. The qualityof 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 weare both flawed and wonderful creations of God. We may

be disappointed when problems arise among and between church members, but the reality is that the

church—the body of Christ—is a human organizationthat seeks to be led by the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Thereare also many ways that we as members of churches

function to nurture and sustain and give hope to oneanother. We and the church communities we are a part ofare in this way no different from those churches andtheir members mentioned in the New Testament—forexample, the churches at Corinth, Galatia, Philippi,Rome, and Thessalonica. Each of these churches had itscorporate weaknesses and strengths and its individualpersonality.

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 church—the Body of Christ in the world. Our task as Christians and as the body ofChrist—the church—is to live and function withintegrity 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 notunderstand or are not willing to accept our limitationsand finiteness as human beings and the natural constraintsof 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 UsOur 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 werealso the concerns of those who lived in antiquity. I, likemany of you reading this commentary, have known and

worked with people who have experienced tremendousemotional and physical suffering and whose visiblewounds were caused by illness or the hands of another

human being. Their invisible scars are as much areminder of what they have experienced as are theirphysical wounds. Their bodies as a result of what theyendure 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 ournotions of beauty, comfort, fairness, and justice. Some othem are challenged by our negative reactions to theircondition to develop a sense of self that includes, but ygoes beyond, what they may look like to themselves or to

others. Our response as Christians can help them in thiseffort and is at the heart of preaching about the body ofChrist broken for us. The idea of Christ's body broken

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for us is a picture of healing and not of wholeness if wemean by wholeness being restored to our original condition or capacity. It is in the power of our witness of faiththat those who feel broken may find help to becomeexemplars of what it means to have a body that is in factbroken in some way, yet they can feel alive and that life isworth living. It is the message of the Gospel that Christloves us in the body that is ours right now. It is a messagethat does not ignore the reality of evil, pain, and suffering, but neither does it give in to despair because of theseconditions. Rather, it assures us that we can live a trans-formed authentic life.

None of us knows fully in advance how we wouldreact and adjust should we become seriously ill or physically disabled. The passion of Christ—Christ havingexperienced suffering and his body being broken—signals that the meaning of healing in this life does notalways include cure or a return to a formal state of well-being. Healing means the capacity to live with an integrity that is not a function of the conditions of our body,but that is rooted in our deep, wordless appreciation ofwhat it means to be a creation of God. This is not a matter of rationalizing our physical difficulties to cope withthem or romanticizing our physical or emotional suffering. It is acknowledging that both our fragility and ourstrengths are equally limited in theircapacity to define who we are inChrist. Knowing that we are notalone in our experiences, that we aremembers of a community—thechurch—and believing that God iswith us increases our openness tothe possibility of our being transformed by the very things that exciteand scare us. Perhaps the ultimatesymbol of Christ's body broken forus is its power of letting us knowthat we are loved by God.

When we preach and use thebody as a metaphor for the churchor use examples of our bodily experiences, we have the opportunityand the obligation to proclaim thatpossibilities are not bounded by ourbody's limitations. We can say thatwe will not allow our sufferings andour physical limitations to keep usfrom feeling, believing, and affirming that God has given us gloriouscapacities in this world and the oneto come. After all, God declared aftermaking us that we were not perfect—but good. This is enough tosustain us on this earthly portion of

our faith journey.

The Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Streets is the Chaplainof Yale University, Senior Pastor of the Church ofChrist in Yale, and a member of the faculty at

Yale Divinity School and the Clinical Social WorkFaculty at the Yale Child Study Center. He is theauthor of Preaching in the New Millennium (YaleUniversity Press).

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