JourneyOnline
WHEN the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in what we know as 1 Corinthians 12, he speaks to a Christian community struggling with both spiritual and social issues.
Writing to those specific pathologies, Paul uses the analogy of the human body to illustrate the nature of the church in a highly accessible way which provides insights that remain relevant for our church today.
Dave Andrews is an Australian Christian anarchist, author, speaker, social activist, and community developer who, along with his wife and family have lived and worked in intentional communities with marginalised groups of people in Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India for over 40 years.
Mr Andrews said when Paul talks about us being the body of Christ he is reminding us that we are called to embody God’s love.
“The heart of the universe is a heart of love and that heart has been embodied for us to see and hear and touch in the person of Jesus,” said Mr Andrews.
“Jesus is the embodiment of the reality of God’s love in the universe.
Paul, in using this image of the body, is reminding us that we too are to embody God’s love in the world in which we live.
And that’s non-negotiable- that’s the central call for all of us, to incarnate God’s love in our lives.
“All of us have different ways in which we can live that out in the context of our lives.
It’s not about competing with each other, it’s about recognising that love can be incarnated in multiple ways and we need to cooperate, support and help each other to do that in ways which are beautiful, noble and practical as the body is meant to.”
At the time Paul wrote to the people of Corinth, he was combating a spirituality which was disembodied, where the Spirit was good but the body was bad.
“Paul is confronting that directly here saying, ‘No, in fact the Spirit and the body must come together because for the Spirit of God to be made incarnated, it needs to be embodied’.
So he’s challenging Gnosticism there and looking at a radical incarnation that is far more effective and productive,” said Mr Andrews.
“Paul is also seeing the whole world and everyone in it, particularly those of us who are called to follow Jesus, as people who are called to embody that Spirit of radical compassion that was incarnated in the person of Christ.
And therefore, whether we’re rich or poor, male or female, masters or slaves- we’re all called to play a part in the process of embodied spirituality.”
Such a message continues to be relevant to us today at multiple levels.
By embodying the love of God, it enables us as a whole to embrace those who are lonely, support those who are struggling, help those who need to be lifted up and give them a hand.
“If we try to make it a reality, it will be counter productive.
It already is the reality, and we need to be sensitive to the ways that the Spirit is at work trying to bring us together and mobilise us.
We need to honour that, acknowledge that, celebrate that and collaborate with the way the Spirit is actually already at work in the world and in our lives trying to bring us together.
We don’t need to make that happen or manufacture that. We only need to develop the capacity to be sensitive to the way the Spirit is already working to enable us to live this reality.”
Mr Andrews said the image of the body helps us consider the way in which the Spirit is incarnated in the context of our community.
“It’s important to be sensitive to the ways in which the Spirit is seeking to be embodied and through our individual and collective lives.”
Part of the challenge of this passage is that people will embody that spirituality in different ways, at different places, at different times.
“Rather than play people off against each other in that process, we need to acknowledge that there are multiple ways of embodying spirituality and each of those ways meets a need that the other embodiments don’t.”
International publishers Wipf & Stock are re-releasing six of Dave Andrews’ books.
The Dave Andrews Legacy Series can now be purchased from Mosaic in Australia or from retailers such as Amazon.
Photo : Christian anarchist, author, speaker, social activist, and community developer, Dave Andrews. Photo courtesy of Dave Andrews
