The Body

Enlightenment, by lendula

  

Children’s Sermon

26 January 2025

Have you ever stubbed your toe?

Hurts like the Dickens, doesn’t it? It’s amazing how much pain can fit into one tiny toe. Did you ever hit your toe so hard that you started to hop up and down? Probably yelled some too, hunh? I know I have. Maybe you cried a little. Any tears from a stubbed toe? A little thing like that, and yet look how important it is.

I think it’s fair to say that if something goes wrong with one part of our body, it affects all of our body, to one degree or another. If you’ve ever had a toothache, or a headcold, or you burned your hand on the stove—that can really ruin your whole day. But as soon as that pain goes away, as soon as we heal, boy, our whole body feels better. Our mind too.

Today we read a letter from St Paul in which he says that the Church ought to be like a body. The same way that our body is made up of many parts, so the Church is made up of many people. And we all have different challenges. And we all have different gifts. But by coming together, by working together, we are Jesus’ Body in this world.

We do Jesus’ work together. We are His hands and His feet and His voice. He’s kind of like the head, Paul says, and we’re kind of like the skeleton and the muscles and the organs that all work as one, guided by the head, to live a full, healthy, happy life. And we shouldn’t get too puffed up about whatever role we play, because every person in the Body is important.

When one part of us hurts—like a little toe—the whole Body hurts. But when all the parts do well, then the whole Body is healthy. And it can do good work.

See, all of our body parts are really part of us. And Paul says that everyone in the Church is really part of us as well. And if we can learn that, then maybe we can see that all people everywhere are really part of one another. And not just all people but all life. And not just all life but all of Creation, all of the cosmos! We are one.

And when we see that, when we see how connected everyone is, and that to truly love ourselves we have to all love one another, then we start to see the way that God sees us, the way that God loves us, every single one. And that’s when we are Jesus for the world.