We Are The Body

A Sermon From a Physical Therapy Student

Romans chapter 12.
Verses 4 through 6. It says this:

"In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't."

Here we find Paul talking about the various extremities functioning normally and utilizing its components in an ideal state. I like his terminology here because he compares the church to a physical human body. I like the human body. It's so AWWWWWESOOOMMMMMME. Paul said every part of the body is important. He was right.

Boy, what a relief to think that my body isn't just a colossal gall bladder bouncing around a college campus and whenever I bump into some door frame, an embarrassing amount of bile erupts from the external duct protruding from my head.

What. a. relief.

I have a frame. I have organ systems in that frame. I have highly active cells that compose the tissues that make up those organ systems. I have a lovely shade of stratum corneum, epidermis, and dermis that drape over my frame perfectly without inhibiting the necessary range of motion when my joints move.

Praise the Lord. Can I get an amen?

Hallelujah.

I can't just be a gallbladder. I have to have, literally, thousands and even millions of other components to make one body and to make it function normally, regulate homeostasis, and maintain the billions upon billions of chemical reactions that are crucial for me to even sit in this chair and look at a computer screen. Amen?

Something I want to emphasize here is that even the smallest, unnoticed parts--cells, transmitters, muscle groups, bony landmarks, and the like--are just as important, if not, more important than the big parts.

In the biological society, and really just plain society, a lot of anatomical units get ignored big time. I'm talkin'... BIG.... TIME. Take the coracobrachialis for example. The what? Yeah. I said the cor-uh-co-break-ee-al-iss muscle. It's what's BEHIND the big-shot biceps brachii... thinkin' it's all bad... helpin' out all the time with elbow flexion and supination of the forearm. Ooooooh, we're SO impressed. Well, I got news for ya, Breaky. You ain't got nothin' on SHOULDER flexion, now do ya? Oh. Oh. OH!

People always go to the gym saying they're gonna work on there bi's. Yeah, well NEXT TIME, think about his step-sister Cora, kay? Flexing your shoulders is important, too.

You ever think about the concentric contraction of the coracobrachialis when you raise your hand in class?
No.

Do you notice the somewhat hidden help when you have to reach forward to grab the soiled trousers your roommate is trying to embarrass you with in order to quickly stuff them into your bag?
'Course not. Never.

Another thing. There are numerous amounts of indentions, carvings, grooves, holes, and protractions of the bones that hold muscle tendons and ligaments in place. They never get noticed unless you have MRI-vision (?).

Has anyone ever come up to you and said, "You have a nice ischial tuberosity ?" Probably not. First of all, that's very awkward. Second, it's impossible to see without performing spontaneous orthopedic surgery. You know why the ischial tuberosity is so important? It serves as an attachment site for the origin of the biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitendinosous (hamstring muscles, back of thigh). Without your ischial tuberosity, you couldn't climb stairs, you couldn't kick a soccer ball, you couldn't straight-up walk normally. Dig?


Every part of the body is important. If you're a biceps brachii in the body of Christ, I didn't intend to crush you up there--just making a point. Nothing personal.

So, the passage goes on to say that if you're a prophet, then prophesy. If you're a teacher, then teach. If you're a server, then serve. If you're an ischial tuberosity, then hold on tight to those hamstring muscles so the body can walk.

No pride, no jealousy, no self-fulfillment--just Christ.