Ode to the Church

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 Speaking to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul says this about that church - You are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it. Christ is the head, the heart, mind, the soul, and we are the body. Contemplating this poetic truth produced a poem I share as my short meditation:


We hear him sung about a lot. That old

hymn comes to mind. We sing it in church.

O how I love Jesus, O, how I love Jesus,

O how I love Jesus because he first loved me.

But do we love all of Christ or only his

mind, heart, and soul, that which rests in heaven,

Invisible to us?


What about the rest, though?

Do we love the whole of him, soul and body?

Do we love we his body or just Christ in part?

Do we love just the heavenly stuff

But not what labors and toils here on earth?


I spent much of my life not seeing the connection,

stuck in the easier stuff of loving just Jesus

because he loved me, and you, friend, neighbor,

even enemy. Loving someone who loves so purely,

loving the perfect heart of Jesus, why would I not?

But his body, his church, us, that’s where the messiness

starts. I fled, repelled by the body’s imperfection.

I turned away from Christ like Simon Peter,

denying the whole of him, knowing not what I was doing.

Father, forgive me, too.


An epiphany appeared. Eyes opened by his light, 

I then saw the whole of it, the beauty in the mess.

I see I must love the church if I am to love all 

of Christ, all of the people, if I’m to love completely.


In the messiness of this body there is beauty.

The thorny work and heartaches, this humanness

that we cannot cure is a good teacher.

Our imperfection necessitates grace. And guess what,

my friends? Grace is the point!


Christ’s heart and mind over matter and might -

in the end, what is imperfect is made right,

loved to the light by the Light, by the one

who never gives up on us, who always finds us, 

and brings us home.


I love you, O Body of Christ.

Loving you means loving myself.

Grace says, I too am the church.


Hear these prayerful words, O God.


May we your church be for you keepers of your flame.

May each of us see this duty as individually our own.

May we stay near the tender flame to feel its light,

and warmth, and even its burnishing.

May we ensure the flame’s continuance,

assuring it doesn’t burn out from our own apathy

despite the sacred duty we know.

In turn, may we be the bearers of your light

as we here keep it, shining forth Christ,

and the continual glow reflected in his Church.


Amen.  

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