Wisdom of the Body (Jan 19)

Readings, Psalm 36:5-10 and 1 Cor 12:4-13
 
Today’s psalm gives us an image of God’s faithful, abundant, and delightful provision. God’s love is declared to provide shelter, light, food, and water. The very building blocks of our survival and flourishing, the very foundation of life itself:
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
   All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
   and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
   in your light we see light.
 
The scriptures emphasise that creation is the good gift of God. Creation, lovingly formed, overflows with what we need to live abundantly and harmoniously together. Creation, as generous and thoughtful gift, brings forth what we need and in doing so, provides for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, worship and testimony to its Creator. When we feast on the abundance of fruits and vegetables brought forth from the earth, we are led to give thanks for the feast of abundance in the house of God. When we quench our thirst and are revived by cool waters, we are led to praise the one leads us to drink from the rivers of God’s delights. When we experience the comfort and safety of homes built from the stuff of the earth, we remember that all people may take refuge in the shadows of God’s wings.
 
But if creation is good and lovingly gifted, made to bring forth what is needed, then we are struck with the problem that large swaths of plant, animal, and human life are struggling to survive. But again, for those with eyes and ears willing to perceive, this struggle provides its own testimony. For the piles of food thrown away, the gallons of water wasted, the thousands of homes left empty, the increasingly rapid depletion of biodiversity lament and testify to human greed, apathy, and pride. Testify to fractured relations between us and the earth, one another, and God. Testify to the way our society insulates the privileged from the rhythms of place and the wisdom of others. Testify to our need to repent and reform in order to better love our neighbour and steward God’s creation.
 
Sundays like this in the life of our church serve multiple purposes. In part they are a response to the brave and faithful witness of Indigenous siblings in the church who ask us to stand with them in the journey of truth-telling, justice, and repair. In part they give us the opportunity to hear the truth, and seek in the truth not shame, but freedom and repaired relations. And in part they help us turn back to Christ, learn anew from members of Christ’s body, and recognise the interdependence of our oneness.
 
How might we learn with each other so that we might respond to the testimony of the earth? Sundays like this encourage us to remember that those from the cultures, traditions, and peoples formed by untold generations of relation and reliance on these lands, might teach us how to live better on country, how to better steward God’s creation in this place, how to better ensure that what God has provided is not squandered, hoarded, or forgotten, but delighted in, shared, and engaged with in God-honouring and neighbour-loving ways.   
 
Because God does not only provide the gift of abundant creation. God also provides the gifts of the Spirit shared through the body of Christ. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Whether Jew or Greek, slave or free we drink of the same Spirit who activates in the church gifts, services, and activities for the benefit of the body. Gifts are varied, fluid, mysterious, and poured out on all for all, without hierarchy or distinction.
 
The problem is that too often the church has done the very thing Paul warns against: telling certain members it has no need of them, nothing to learn or receive from them. It has developed and inherited worldly systems that determine who has wisdom, knowledge, and responsibility and who does not. And too often the have and have nots run along racial lines (just as they so often have run along (and been amplified by) lines of gender, class, or clericalism). And these worldly, sinful designations of have and have nots not only deny the biblical witness, not only blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, but rob us all of wisdom, practices, and knowledge poured out by God and developed through culture. And when we consider the specific question of how we walk on, relate to, and delight in the lands and waters, we see that such robbery is leading to ruin. Ruin to creation, to neighbours, and to ourselves. 
 
But thankfully, and this is one of those great Christian proclamations not only on Sundays such as these: it is never too late to make a change. Never too late to fling oneself onto Christ in hope. Never too late for the church to become more like the body. Never too late for the Spirit to work wonders through its members. For God’s steadfast love extends to the heavens, God’s faithfulness to the clouds. And the one who created all things in their goodness has promised, that despite human folly, we shall be saved. The earth and all that is in it will be restored, redeemed, rectified and made new. The day will come when waters, lands, and skies will sing once more undiminished and unrestricted of the glory of God and the right relations of all things in God’s light.
 
And being part of Christ’s body the church, being part of a people able to hear truth, mourn, repent, and believe the good news, means we do not need to wait until that final day for this restoration work to begin. Indeed, we must not wait. Instead, because we have received the gifts of the Spirit – poured out upon us for the common good – we get to make changes today. Every week there are increasingly disturbing news reports, increasingly disheartening findings… the odds feel stacked against the kind of dramatic upturning we require. But dramatic upturnings are what our faith is based on. And the good news, the really good news is that if we want to step out in search of just such an upturning, we do not step out alone. For we have the Spirit, we have its gifts, poured out on all to be shared and received with and by and from all. So, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we might yet learn from the old and new wisdom of others how to live together well in this place; relating to and delighting in building blocks of our survival and flourishing in a manner that gives testimony to the fountain of life.