DISCERNING THE BODY
I Corinthians 11:17-22,27-34

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
September 25, 2005 / 19th Sunday of Pentecost

Think about your right ear lobe. Is yours big and fat and chunky, or do you have almost no ear lobe at all? Do you wear ear rings in your right ear lobe? Have you had a hole pierced in your right ear lobe, so that rings can be screwed through? Or do you use the old type of holders? Or none at all?

Has your right ear lobe ever been scratched, or scraped, or has it throbbed with pain? Are other people staring at your right ear lobe to see if it is large or small? You may or may not resist the temptation to touch your right ear lobe with your hand. What is it like to have a right ear lobe?

Now I suspect you may never had thought so much about your right ear lobe. I have said all this to introduce the text where Paul talks about those "who eat and drink without discerning the body." Since this text is in a chapter where Paul talks about Holy Communion, most exegetes say that Paul is talking about the Body of Christ in the communion bread: do you recognize the presence of Christ when you take the communion bread?

But I think this can be taken farther. Paul in many places talks about all Christians being part of the living body of Christ. "You are the body of Christ." I think he is asking, do we eat and drink without discerning the body, without discerning each other.

And I think this reading is confirmed by what he says earlier in the chapter. When the Corinthian Church had communion they apparently had a big pot luck dinner at the same time. Like Beneficent, they were a Church that likes to eat. But people brought their own meals and sat down at table and ate. They didn't wait for everyone else to be ready. So while one person is getting drunk, and another person getting stuffed, someone else goes hungry.

This is what upsets Paul. People come into the Church and do their own thing and don't recognize each other. They don't recognize the poverty and famine among other parts of the body of Christ. Thus he says, they eat "without discerning the body."

Let's think about this business of discerning the body. I asked you to think about your right ear lobe. That was a new conversation. I could have done the same thing about your leg, or your hand, or your nose. We sort of know that we have all those parts, but we don't think about them very much, we don't even feel them very much. We think of our bodies only when they hurt or when they feel great. We discern the body when we give it attention. We do not discern the body when we give it no attention.

But waiting for a feeling signal may be a dangerous thing. Some parts of our body are not resplendent with nerve endings. If I asked you what does your liver feel like today, or your pancreas, or your pituitary gland, you may have to say, I don't know! We may not even be sure where they are in the body any more. We may have forgotten our anatomy classes.

And then some problems that we have with bodies can be a certain numbness. Even if the body part is hurting, we don't know, because the nerve is not sending a message.

So discerning the body is more than pain or exhilaration. Discerning the body may mean we need a check up. Discerning the body may mean we need to ask the doctor. Discerning the body may mean a cat scan or an x-ray.

Now the same is true in the Church, where each member is part of the body of Christ. We are very aware of those members that give us pain. We are very aware of those members that make us happy. But there may be myriads of other members of the body that we are not paying attention to. We tend to congregate around the same people at coffee hour. We have found those in the place that share our same interests. We pay attention to those parts of the body that make us feel good.

But Paul says, "listen, some people are going hungry." Some people in this room are really going hungry. And some are going spiritually hungry. Are you eating or drinking without discerning the body?

Paul also goes on to teach, in the very next chapter, that if one suffers, all suffer, and if one is honored, all rejoice together.

Suffering, well yes, we feel pain. But eventually the pain of others will spread through the body to all of us. If you have not been discerning the pain of the hungry, sooner or later you will, for we are one body.

The body of Christ is one seamless garment. It does not have seams or ridges where we can isolate ourselves in private feel good spaces where we are protected from pain and suffering elsewhere in the body.

So you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. Are you eating or drinking without discerning the body, the whole body?

Here are some parts of the body. I call attention to them, as I might a right ear lobe.

These are parts of the body:

The little children baptized today.

The isolated Christian Churches in Iraq, whose members daily fear fire fights, clashes on the streets.

The members of Woodbury United Church of Christ in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Plymouth Congregational Church in Beaumont, Texas.

Every person in this room whose name you do not know.

Good friends who have moved away.

Those in nursing homes.

Hungry people in Darfur.

Your brother whom you haven't spoken with since you had a big fight.

If one suffers, all suffer. If one is honored, all rejoice together.

So I may or may not ask you again to discern your right ear lobe. But I call on you today to discern the body of Christ. If you have been acting by yourself, in some private or closed place or way, discern the body of Christ. If you eat or drink without thinking about those who are hungry, discern the body of Christ. If you promote the luxury of one house, the glory of one building, without remembering the homeless, and those who worship in huts, discern the body of Christ.

Discernment is necessary for healing.

Discernment is necessary for love to flourish.

Discernment is the beginning of the Christian's growth in compassion.

Amen.