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“The work of ministry and of the Church begins and ends in community. Our shared love of Christ and our response to God’s grace compel us to work for and beside one another for the sake of God’s mission. In the United Church of Christ, … We speak highly of covenantal relationships though at times we prefer individualism, in effect saying to other members of the Body, ‘I have no need of you’ (I Corinthians 12).” 1
Many of you know that a prior ministry of mine was supporting the new Manual on Ministry at the denominational level. The quote above is from a side bar in the Manual, and when I first read it, I was taken aback, because of its dismissiveness. The scripture that is quoted is from the verses where Paul describes the community of believers as a human body, and some of the body parts (the eye and head) want to escape the confines and constrictions of a body to become independent. The eye is imagined by Paul to say to the hand, and the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
While there are parts of the body that we can live without, like the appendix or tonsils, the body is generally seen as a wholly integrated biological being with each organ having its own purpose in making the body work. Modern medicine enables surgery or medication to remove or decrease the effects of malfunctioning body parts. This has had a cumulative effect of our bodies living longer. We can say to cancer cells or gangrenous limbs, “I have no need of you,” and remove the offending body part.
However, saying, “I have no need of you,” is dismissive. It denies the wholeness and integrated operation of the unified organism. It raises up individualism and the American idea of “bootstrapping.” It ignores the expertise of the whole. Paul uses the eye and the head as the organs that declare other organs are unnecessary; but spiritual vision and thought without the hands or feet to move and touch leaves the world unchanged. Perhaps we see or believe ourselves to be Christlike, but paralyzed without hands and feet, acting like Christ is difficult to impossible.
In the 16th century, Teresa of Avilla reminded us of this:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. 2
How do we as a Conference live into that integrating wholeness of the body of Christ?
Are we telling others “I have no need of you” or are we welcoming all parts of the body?
In peace and prayer,
Pastor Tony
1 Manual on Ministry: A Guide to Authorizing Ministry in the United Church of Christ (Cleveland: Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization, Local Church Ministries, a Covenanted Ministry of the United Church of Christ, 2018), p 6.
2 Teresa of Avilla, retrieved from https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/3637-Teresa_Of_Avila_Christ_Has_No_Body 04-16-26
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