"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.”

Have you heard the story of the lawyer who was defending a man accused of burglary? The lawyer tried a very creative defense: "My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offense committed by his limb."  "Well put," the judge replied. "Using your logic, I sentence the defendant's arm to one year's imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses."

The defendant smiled. With his lawyer's assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out.

That's certainly not what Paul had in mind when he used the body as an illustration of the relationship that Christians share with one another!

"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....
For in fact the body is not one member but many.
I Cor. 12:12.

This story may not be an accurate metaphor to use for the church unfortunately it is an accurate metaphor for society. When I work out in the mornings I watch the previous day’s sports highlights on ESPN. The highlights always focus on the game winning hit, the break away 62 yard touchdown run, or the slam dunk over an opponent. What you seldom if ever see, is the previous player who laid down the perfect sacrifice bunt to put the runner in scoring position, the offensive guard who cleared the hole in the defensive line for the running back to go through or the forward who set the screen to free his teammate to make the slam dunk. Without the plays of those players there would be no highlights.

Like a sports team, a church needs little-appreciated things to happen in order to get the job done. Some of these areas include thankless or unnoticed activities. If you do not make visitors feel welcome, keep the church clean and presentable, work in the nursery, or visit the homebound the church will suffer.
There is a museum in Philadelphia that puts a whole new twist in the term Gross Anatomy. The exhibit is called Grossology. Visiting the Grossology exhibit will give you quite an education on bodily functions. You can turn the handle of the “Vomit Center” machine and watch the process of stomach acid regurgitating up the digestive system. If that isn’t your thing you can climb into the nostril of the giant nose exhibit to study boogers up close while learning how our body defends itself against pathogenic invaders. Or you can try your hand at “Gas Attack” pinball where bacteria pinballs jettison around the intestinal game table scoring points as they rebound off of digestible food items. Stomach gurgles and burps mean big bonus points!

The exhibit’s real aim is not to gross people out, but advance interest in anatomy and science among kids.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul captures this idea as God’s design for the Church:

“For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body,
though many, are one body,
so it is with Christ”
(v. 12).

In other words we are the body of Christ. We are a living museum where people should be able to try their hand at the mercy of God, the comfort of God, the love of God, the forgiveness of God, the joy of God. Our aim should be to advance interest in Jesus Christ and His Body. How does this affect how we do ministry locally? What is our particular purpose?

“God arranged the members in the body,
each one of them, as he chose”
(v. 18).

Diversity in the body exists because God chose our different parts. We don’t need to create diversity, we already have it. We just need to discover and release it. This is how God designed the Body to function

God created a system of interdependence. We cannot escape the reality that we belong to one another and function in unhealthy fashion without each other (vv. 16-17). This goes against the notion some people have that they don’t need to go to church to worship God. While there is some truth to that statement in order to experience abundant worship you need others to do it with.

Think of it this way. I love to play basketball. I will take a break in the day and shoot hoops for ten minutes. My playing basketball by myself pales in comparison when I was out playing basketball with Adam, Greg and his friends. Certainly a game of two on two or three on three is more fun than me playing basketball by myself. The same is true when it comes to worship and serving God.

Because we are the body of Christ, we SHOULD enjoy unity on a level rarely experienced anywhere else on this earth. There are no "artificial limbs" in the church. We can't break pieces off without affecting the rest of the body. We suffer together and we rejoice together.

"Now you are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it."
(I Cor. 12:27, NIV)

This text reminds us that who we are individually will determine what the church is becoming collectively. The body of Christ when functioning well in design, diversity and display, is something to behold!