There is a movie out right now about a young man who gets his arm trapped by a rock. He finally has to cut off his arm in order to survive. He lives but his arm dies. That might seem like a silly statement… of course his arm dies. Unless that arm stayed connected to the body, where it is nourished and given oxygen through the flow of blood, it couldn’t possibly survive. The death of that arm holds an important spiritual truth for us.
God tells us that each one of us is a part of a bigger body…the Body of Christ. We too get our nourishment from being a part of that Body. You might be an arm…perhaps a big toe…or an ear…there are many, many parts to the Body and each of us is just one of those parts. Amazingly, many people have decided to remove themselves from this most important Body. Oh they have excuses…someone offended them, all that Church wants is money, that place is filled with hypocrites (I love that one…it is like not setting foot in a hospital because it is filled with sick people! The Church is a spiritual hospital and God is not finished working on those hypocrites either!).
Perhaps you have heard friends tell you that they don’t need to go to Church anymore because they can worship God in the mountains all by themselves (or at home if there aren’t many mountains around). I often ask such folks the same question: “So, do you? Do you really worship God when you go to the mountains? Do you go to those mountains every Sunday and worship God?” In all likelihood, they don’t really worship God on a weekly or even monthly basis up in the mountains. They just came up with an excuse that sounds good and lets them do as they please on Sundays. Instead of worshipping God in the mountains, they are likely sleeping in and watching sports on television.
If we decide to cut ourselves off from the Body of Christ, there will be serious spiritual consequences. Like that arm that was cut off from the young shriveled and died, so to, the same thing will happen to our spirits when we remove ourselves from the nourishment of the Body of Christ. A dear friend sent me the following story that illustrates well what happens when we decide to separate ourselves from the Body of Christ:
THE SILENT SERMON
A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the priest decided to visit him.
It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his priest’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace...and waited.
The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, he took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone, then he sat back in his chair, still silent.
The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lonely ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.
Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The priest glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
As the priest reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek: “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I will be back in church next Sunday.”
May the spiritual embers of our spiritual lives be glowing brightly each and every day!! Here’s what the Holy Scriptures have to say on this topic (1 Corinthians 12):
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
