One Body
1 Corinthians 12:21
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
Mrs Yvonne Conolly. You may not have heard that name before, but she was Britain’s first female black headteacher. In an interview she discussed the racist threats that she faced in her career - at times so bad she needed security in her school. When asked how she was able to still deliver professionally, she said that in the classroom: ‘The differences were less than the commonalities we shared and therefore one had to get on with it’.
For Mrs Conolly, commonality overriding differences empowered her to persevere despite all that she faced. As Christians we share the greatest commonality of all - individually being members of the body of Christ.
There are two things I love about Mrs. Conolly’s words:-
Differences exist. When it comes to advocating for equality, it is about unity not uniformity. Differences exist and should be celebrated - we should see colour. We should not fear differences but celebrate how enriched we are as a body because of them.
Commonality is powerful. It’s our being unified in the body of Christ, by the Spirit, that allows us to live as though there is ‘no division’ in the body. The Spirit binds us together and inviting the Spirit into how we relate to people is fundamental to the pursuit of reconciliation and racial justice.
In 1 Corinthians 12:21 Paul addresses the church in Corinth and the disunity among their gatherings. He uses the analogy of the human body to describe how each person, and the spiritual gifts they have, add to the body of Christ as a whole. It is a beautiful picture of how each individual’s contribution, though different in expression, is essential. Equally.
Reflection —This truth challenges us to not divorce the reality of suffering or successes of our brothers and sisters from our own. Black History is everyone’s history.