I suppose it was in some educational cartoon I watched in school but whenever I hear this passage from scripture, I get a vivid image in my head. The cartoon was about the five senses. The sense of smell is represented by a large nose with two legs. The sense of sight is represented by an eye with two legs; hearing by an ear with two legs; taste by a mouth with two legs. I don’t remember what the sense of touch was represented by; maybe a large hand walking around on two legs.

There was probably a song that went along with the cartoon where each of the senses sang a verse about what they did. Well I learned something about the senses from this cartoon but I’m not sure I understood what a mouth, nose, ear, and eye were doing walking around on two legs. Nonetheless, the image stuck.

But I also thought to myself, how in the world did the nose see to walk or how did the ear sing without a mouth? How did the mouth know it was on key without an ear? These are the type of questions that popped into my mind as a kid. I loved asking the off-the-wall or unexpected questions.

Though, Paul didn’t have the cartoon, he is essentially asking the same question. If the whole body is a hand, how would we hear? If the whole body is a leg, how would we breathe? If the whole body is a heart, how would we eat? Each of these parts is necessary and fulfills a distinct function in the overall workings of the body. We can’t live without a heart or lungs. Our heart and lungs can’t live apart from the rest of the body.

Paul wasn’t the first one to use the metaphor of the body. However, he takes a fresh look at this metaphor. Others had used the image of the body to assert their status as exalted members – or the head. They would say that they were the better parts of the body and that the work of those other inferior parts – the ones that tend to get dirt under their fingernails – were inferior. But that’s not at all what Paul is getting at. For Paul all the members of the body are essential and meant to be honored.

Think for just a minute about the liver. With our modern understanding of anatomy, we know that the liver serves an important function in the body. But to those that Paul was writing to it was another one of those slimy organs that is hidden away in our body. Others would say that since it had to be hidden away that the liver was not an important part of the body. However, Paul would have us see how the liver is protected by the body. It is kept in a part of the body that offers protection to this vital organ. Therefore, it is honored by the rest of the body through its protection.

For Paul, the image of the body isn’t about the head telling the rest of the body what to do and it does it. No. For Paul, there is a mutual relationship between the different parts of the body. The head, the eye, the hand all work together. Think about the simple action of picking up a pen. My brain tells my right arm to reach out. My eye guides my hand to the pen. My hand grabs the pen and feels the surface to know how hard or soft to grab it. Without all of these things working in concert, I wouldn’t be able to do the simple act of picking up a pen.

But Paul isn’t talking about simply picking up a pen. Paul is using this image of the body as a way to talk about how the church is supposed to work.

About nine years ago, Jack Haberer, the editor of the Presbyterian Outlook, wrote a book called GodViews. In this book he details five different ways people understand, encounter, and respond to God. He then fleshed these five GodViews out to talk about how they interact with each other in the context of the church.

For instance, there are some people that really enjoy serving on committees. They like to get together with others and work on something with the church. There are others who are really committed to a life of prayer. They love to worship, meditate, and study God’s word. They also want to share this love of God with others. Well these two types of people can work together in the church. Those who love to serve on committees can be helped by those who have a spiritual knowledge of God. Those who love to worship and study scripture can benefit from the active service of those who like to work on a project with the church.

This is a truly oversimplified example, particularly since no individual holds purely one way of understanding God. But the idea is that there are people who are drawn to one way of serving God or another. Some prefer to be the feet pounding the pavement an advocating for justice. Others prefer to be a mouth telling others about God. Yet others prefer to be the strong shoulders that comfort a hurting world. The point is that the church isn’t made up of just one type of people.

I’ve heard it said, "Things would go a whole lot better if everyone would just see that I’m right, get on board, and move on." Or, "Why can’t everyone in the church just think like me?" These are the types of laments heard from churches and people who are dealing with conflict or disagreements. At one time or another we’ve probably all thought something like this. Wouldn’t it just be easier if everyone thought and believed like me? But, if everybody thought like me, we would miss out on something.

There have been many times when in the midst of a brainstorming session, a Sunday school class, a Bible study, or a session meeting when ideas have come up that I never would have thought of on my own. Indeed if everyone thought like I did, we would have missed out on some really good ideas. We need each other. We need the diversity of gifts and ways of thinking that we have in the church because if everybody thought like me, what a boring place this would be.

In the summer, we get a lot of those little lizards with the blue tails. Last year there seemed to be more of them than usual. We would open the door and let the cats look out of the screen as they scampered across our front porch. Well inevitably, one of those little lizards got inside the house. Luckily I saw it before the cats.

Eric and I grabbed newspaper and whatever else was at hand to try to herd the lizard back outside. I’m sure it would have been quite an amusing scene to any one looking on as we cornered and coaxed the lizard out the door. Unfortunately, in the process of getting him out the door, the lizard lost his tail. It was pretty gross but the lizard just ran off and left his tail behind. Now I know that he would eventually grow a new tail and that this is an escape mechanism for them in nature.

But yet there we stood holding our newspapers watching this tail flop around. Even though it was no longer part of the body it still moved around for a bit. But without being attached to the heart and lungs, it would eventually grow still.

It can be tempting to want to hang out only with people who think like we do but without being attached to the diversity that God provides for the church we will eventually grow still. Without the thoughts and beliefs of others interacting with us, we cannot fully understand God’s desire for us.

[At piano.] When I first took piano lessons, I first learned to find middle C. All of the songs I learned to play were centered around middle C. But even as I was learning and doing my scales to practice, these songs got old pretty quick. But I pressed on an eventually learned what these black keys on the piano were for. Many of you have heard me joke about my failed attempts at learning the piano.

One of the last songs I worked on before I decided that dancing to the music was more my thing than making the music was Beethoven’s Fur Elise. This song would be so much less if not for the sharps and flats. It’s only because Beethoven was able to use the variety of keys that this sang takes on its melody in order to become a classic. We need the sharps, the flats, the majors and the minors all to make music. If all we had was middle C, what boring music that would be.

Paul celebrates the diversity of the body in order to celebrate the diversity in the church. The church isn’t about everyone believing the exact same thing or enacting our beliefs in the exact same way. It’s about working together and disagreeing with each other. It’s about getting each other to see things we would have missed and thinking new thoughts. It’s about working together in ways that strengthen the body, not destroy it.

From the very beginning of the church – indeed from the very beginning of time – there have been disagreements. People don’t always see eye to eye. We aren’t all going to think the same and I thank God for that. We here at New Concord don’t always agree on everything and I don’t think we should. The challenge is what do we do with our disagreements. We have a diversity within our midst. There is a diversity of beliefs. People think that we should do certain things differently and certain things not at all. But it is that diversity – that conglomeration of eyes and feet and ears – that make us the church.

We provide checks and balances for each other in the church. We need people who are versed in scripture to provide the basis for our actions. We need people who are excited about serving in Christ’s name in order to fulfill our great commission. We need each one of you. When you become a part of this church you don’t check your identity at the door. Don’t deny who God has made you. You are a part of Christ’s body and your function is unique and indispensable.

So how do we get this grouping of diverse people and personalities to work together as Christ’s body? Next week we will look at what Paul calls the "more excellent way." May God’s Spirit guide us as we celebrate and rejoice in the amazing diversity we have in the body of Christ, the church.