Bodies
God loves us, not a hypothetical person, but particular persons, in the flesh.
A servant leader goes to where the Word is needed. That means going to meet people, to spend time in prayer together, to create or build or renew relationships. A servant leader shows up in person and in a place.
Jesus demanded the little children be allowed to come to him, to his physical presence, to his blessing. He did not wave at them from a distance.
When Jarius came and asked Jesus to heal his daughter, Jesus went to her. He did not heal from a distance.
When the 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, were hungry and in need, Jesus did not send them away empty as his disciples demanded. Jesus sent the disciples out among the people, wait staff delivering amazing abundance to the people who prayed for their daily bread as an existential hope.
Jesus was with the people, in the flesh.
He was also with those who aligned themselves with the status quo, the tax collectors, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Their power, property and prestige were dependent upon collusion with the Roman colonizers.
Religious leaders who sought their own comfort were complicit in the death of Jesus. He sought to be with the people, to alleviate their suffering, to bring the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of justice and righteousness, to earth, here and now.
He had to be stopped. His very body had to be lynched, destroyed and put on display, as so many other bodies had been before and after, as a warning to the masses.
His body had to be removed.
But God raised his body, not a spirit, not a soul, his body. God is not interested in hypothetical humans, not interested in humans as an idea. God is interested in our bodies, our flesh, bone and blood.
God’s own body is made up of all human bodies, what we call the body of Christ.
Servant leaders must use not just thoughts and prayers; we must use our bodies to be the Body of Christ in the world. We must show up, in the flesh. We must meet with other bodies to organize together to work for a more just world.
We must organize with other bodies to share the good news of Jesus. We must use our bodies to cook the food and share it with hungry bodies. We take our bodies to the bodies of the sick and recovering or dying in hospital beds, nursing homes, hospices.
Our bodies must God where God is sought and needed or feared absent. We must show up.
On Monday, Rev. Dr. William Barber and some fellow Moral Monday’s leaders showed up in Washington DC in the flesh to pray and to call our political leaders to a moral revolution.
They prayed in the capitol rotunda where numerous faith leaders have prayed in the past. But Rev. Barber and his fellows were arrested. Their bodies were restricted and taken away.
Their arrests serve as a reminder that the anti-Christian bias the Trump administration seeks to eradicate do not extend to all Christians, just the right kind of Christians.
The right kind of Christians will be afforded access to this administration. The right kind of Christians will receive praise from this administration. The right kind of Christians will quote some scripture while ignoring Jesus’ call to care for the hungry, the sick, the naked whom he equated himself with.
The right kind of Christians will never be arrested because they prayed wrong. Their very bodies will be protected while the bodies of some fellow Christians who speak against cutting Veteran benefits, cutting Medicaid/Medicare, the Department of Education, cutting the work of NOAA and on and on will be in danger, possibly restricted and arrested. Or their bodies may be abducted off the streets and disappeared into another country.
Servant leaders who follow Jesus show up, in the flesh, where God is needed, sought or feared absent.
We go where we are called, speak the Word of God, pray and serve. That is what Jesus did. That is what we do.
Because Jesus loves you and so do I.