Re: Member
As I am writing this piece, the Fall season is in full swing. This time of year means many things to many different people: everything pumpkin-spiced, football, apple picking, playoff baseball, cider, fall foliage, the list goes on. This year, for me, Fall brings back an association long parted from my mind; high school marching band.
The Lamphere Marching Band saturated my high school experience, and not solely for me personally, but my entire family. All of my siblings were in the marching band over the years. Now we have a multi-generational group of alumni with my oldest two nephews playing on the drumline.
As is the case with any large group which must cooperate to achieve a certain goal, marching bands are structured. All instrumentalists must know their musical parts, all marching members must know their sets[1]; everyone has a job to do. Further, so that everyone can do their job at the right time, there must be structure to keep the band together.
Keeping the members in sync comes down to two roles: the drum major[2] and the center snare[3]. The drum major sets the initial tempo, and the marchers need to keep their eyes on the drum major to stay in time. Yet, when the battery[4] kicks in, the responsibility of maintaining tempo falls to the center snare. The drum major must then keep time by watching the center snare’s feet and hands. The purpose of this composition has to do with how sound moves in a large area. Sound will reach the drum major after the fact, and with a moving band, sound comes from a variety of angles. The sight of the center snare’s movement for the drum major, and the sight of the drum major’s hands for the rest of the musicians, work together to keep the entire band together as a single unit, as one body.
Meditating on my marching days made me think of the church; the body of Christ. Paul, speaking of the church, writes, “As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”[5] Every church member is necessary to make up the body of Christ. In order for the church to function as God designed, we must function in our roles. God gifts us uniquely: preaching, teaching, leading, discipleship, prayer, talents, time; and our call is to use, refine, and offer our gifts back to God in worship. We do so by serving the local church, the body of Christ.
The ways in which we serve in ministry will look different at various points in our lives, but never should we reach a point where we assume there is no use for us. God help us not to become the appendix of Christ’s church.
We, as church members, need one another to thrive. “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.’ ”[6] I need the preaching of the gospel from the pulpit. I need the administration of the eucharist. But I also need those lovely souls who come early and prepare the eucharist for the worship service. I can type endless pages with examples of the members at Christ Community Church living this gospel-centered reality. Thanks be to God! Yet, we must also wrestle with the reality of our sin.
Jealousy and rivalry can come with a hiss, but Paul encourages us with a message of unity. “But God has composed the body, giving greater honor 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 honored, all rejoice together.”[7] What greater encouragement have we than the statement “God has composed the body.” God has designed our physical bodies, God is the architect of salvation, God has formed us from the dust of the “old man” into the body of Christ’s church. The family gathering where we can share laughter and we can share tears.
All of this centers on the pivotal fact that individually and collectively we make up the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). The church is as a tabernacle wherein we form the body of Christ, and through Christ commune with the Father. Though we will fail at times in our roles, we are spurred on by our identity of being found in Jesus. Jesus never failed. Jesus never sinned. We look to Jesus and we rely on Jesus, upon whom all of our hope finds its rest.
I am reminded by my nephews’ participation on a drumline that I was a member of at one time, that just because I graduated doesn't mean the band stopped playing. I will die, and although I will be gone the church militant will continue faithfully on until the Bridegroom returns. Our prayer is that God grants us hands to pass the torch and that we work faithfully so God does not remove it from our hands.
We are all members of one body, and I am just one member who needs all of you members.
[1] “Sets” refers to each position on the field a marcher must reach to create the appropriate scene; i.e. the individual’s position on the field.
[2] The conductor of a marching band.
[3] The center snare keeps time for the band while marching and playing, and when the band is in parade and not playing the center snare taps to keep the band in sync.
[4] Battery refers to the marching percussionist (drumline).
[5] 1 Corinthians 12: 20 (ESV)
[6] 1 Corinthians 12:14-15 (ESV)
[7] 1Corinthians 12:24b-26 (ESV)