Body

The chattering of children. The aches of the elderly. The breaking of bread. The sound of song. These are but a few of the embodied sensations of the gathered body of Christ.

Every age must wrestle with particular facets of theology. The first- century church faced the question of Gentile inclusion — we read about this in Acts and the letters of Paul. The fourth- and fifth-century church sought to articulate the persons of the Trinity through the foundational creeds. The church of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century wrestled with questions of authority that led to the Reformation.

What are the most pressing theological questions for us today?

In a world increasingly mediated by technology, incarnation is one of the most important theological categories for us to recover. We must remember that ​“the Word became flesh and lived among us” ( John 1:14) and consider its implications. When Jesus came, the transcendent God became a body — the omnipresent God became local. It was because of the local, embodied person of Jesus that John could write, ​“We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” The glory of God was tangibly experienced through embodied reality. This was true for the gospel writers, and it is true today.

Though Jesus has ascended and is seated with the Father, there is still a way in which he remains incarnate on earth. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that, ​“For those who belong to him, Jesus’ departure does not mean a loss but rather a new gift. For the first disciples the bodily community with Jesus did not mean anything different or anything more than what we have today.”1 That ​“new gift” is the body of Christ that we know as the Church.

Despite technology’s gifts, the great temptation of our age is to become increasingly disembodied beings living through pixels on screens. But the Word is meant to become flesh and dwell among us in our localized, embodied expressions of the Church. This is where we are meant to see the glory of God.

In our incarnated fellowship, we find our truest sense of belonging as we share meals, listen to stories, and wrestle with our common faith. Being face to face forces us to reckon with our differences. In mutual presence, we learn to really see one another and be formed by one another so that, together, we become more like Christ. As we are reconciled to one another and seek to love our neighbors, we show forth the glory of God on earth.

The biblical language of ​“the body of Christ” is a beautiful metaphor of mutuality, diversity, organic growth, and unity. It is also a literal invitation to the fullness of life within our local, embodied communities. In the chattering of our children, the aches of our elderly, the breaking of our bread, and the sound of our songs together, may we once again see ​“the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”