Decolonizing the Body of Christ

By: Ellen Morey

“What the soul is in the body, … Christians are in the world.”1

i.

On the first day of a pastoral role I was confronted with a man saying what he believed to be true about people who lived in Japan during WWII. “They starved our prisoners of war and then they cut them open at the chest and cannibalised them! I don’t care to see them here.”

 I sat there, wondering how to pray open-heartedly with this couple, having already listened to the man’s wife relate a story about not receiving adequate medical care (due to the American system of heartlessly turning vulnerable populations away).  I had already decided I would approach this role with a posture of deep listening, and where I disagreed with a parishioner’s views, I would only respond with a theology thoroughly grounded in the biblical text.  

“Hmmm...” - I was careful to show with body language I was listening - “I learned recently, the US military didn’t just drop bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but we dropped bombs on the churches in these cities, our brothers and sisters in Christ.  I wonder what you think about the passages in the Bible where we’re told the vision of heaven includes all nations and all tribes in every language. ” The woman immediately lit up with a mischievous grin, but the man frowned.  “Yes, that’s in the bible, too” he said glumly, and changed the subject.

Over the course of the year, I visited with many older white parishioners, all home-bound due to age-related health issues.  And I was continually befuddled as to how to reconcile their cultural theology of white Christian supremacy focused on life after death, with the G-d2 who created and loved every soul before the mountains and stars were formed.  How can we be members of the same body together?  I certainly wasn’t going to be able to convince or persuade them by either silence or simple outspokenness.

Last autumn, I participated in a conversational curriculum addressing the church’s affirmation or exclusion of people. The curriculum presented us with stories of people who did not fit neatly into categories, rather, the people had more than all the nuance and complexity of any human being.  Carefully selected disagreeing participants would reflect and share their reactions, and we were instructed to let go of the urge to bring about a resolution, but instead focus on carefully listening to one another.  I found this practice to be mysteriously life-giving and began to notice some peculiar patterns in how people speak, patterns difficult to describe - specifically related to discernment.

Also during this time, I practiced contemplative prayer while running and began to listen to the thoughts running through my mind following the same patterns.  As a result, anxiety melted away.  I began to be able to really run.  When I heard my internal  voice using patterns I could now identify as unhelpful, I could more easily suss out the truth about the embodied power of G-d.3  

This is when I began reading the biblical text with new eyes - the bones of the text had always been there, but now I could see how the blood of the text pumps nutrients and the muscles of the text move us to action and the word breathes into our lives today.  Truly, we worship G-d in spirit by caring for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. All kinds of warm, cozy, cut-to-the-core faith formation. 

But these motifs of speech aren’t easy to describe.  When I would try, people gave me some serious side-eyes.  They would change the subject.  Or they would say, “you should read Wittingenstein.”  Some folks who followed these patterns regularly seemed uncomfortable when I would bring all this up.  One person whom I greatly respect told me, “in time, you may realize the wisdom in not speaking.”  The best I can explain for now is when people talk about synesthesia, I hear something similar to what I experience.4  What I know is words matter more than you might think, and I don’t mean we shouldn’t cuss, but that we should speak from an authentic heart.

Then, I began to notice the same devices in the politicians’ talk.  Things people would make fun of for being word salad, fit into these patterns, even sound convincing in these patterns, but are clearly not of the substance of Christ’s love in the real world or by any stretch of the imagination.  Their actions and the results of their policies go against the grain of G-d’s Kin-dom.  People who may or may not be aware of these patterns are mesmerized by the brilliance of the words, and many many of us are left dumbfounded, wondering if they are hearing the same sounds as we are.

 I truly believe that these politicians are heftily aware of the power of words, and are taking advantage of large swaths of the population.  It’s not because they are uneducated, it’s because they believe being disconnected is better. After all, “this earth shall pass away” and the bible says to “set your mind on things above.” Thus, what happens to our earthly bodies shouldn’t be important, according to my hypothesis on what politician-fans are thinking.  Thus, the connection between the preachers’ pulpits and the politicians’ podium is once again cemented.  These are the places where we are told to disconnect from our bodies because our spirits belong to an all-powerful G-d.  Is it so different from being told to disconnect from your body because you belong to an all-powerful state?

The big problem as I see it with that logic applied to the gospel is, if you center your faith on Jesus, one important note is Jesus had a real body, and instructed us to care for the vulnerable - who are in real bodies. Not only are we to be G-d embodied in loving care for all creation, but everything we do to a person with less power, we do to Jesus.5  

For the moment, let us set aside the contradiction of giving allegiance to the most powerful person in the land even while Jesus is embodied in the person with the least power, and let us lay beside that the pauline understanding we don’t fight against flesh and blood but powerful systems which are “fallen” or disfunctional; the more central point being: Jesus came to heal the sick and blind, to find the lost and outcast, to free the prisoner, to forgive debt, to return the land to original caretakers (this is jubilee); do you see this Jesus-bourne good news for the poor happening anywhere in the realm of current events?

“Who among these does not know? Without the body there’s no soul”6

ii.

What I noticed as I sat with folks in late adulthood is these elders speak about bodies: so much! There are so many health concerns as we age.  Today I invite you to consider the metaphor “we are Christ’s body.”  What does this metaphor hold for us?  And how does this relate to decolonizing our religion, education, families, incomes and relationships?  Decolonizing our real bodies will refract into all these areas.7  I believe learning about anatomy and carefully considering the functions of parts of the body holds a richness of wisdom for us as we seek to be compassionate and wise.  Our bodies are a portal between the physical and spiritual realms, and for this reason, they are both impossible to commodify, and heavily sought after to commodify.  We are tracked, hunted, and outlawed the more we openly decommodify our bodies, which is to say, when we decolonize our bodies. 

In a previous chapter of life, I received anatomy instruction at a massage therapy school.  This past year, I began to consider the functions of the physical body and how they relate to the Body of Christ.  I wrote the following liturgy based on the systems of the body.  One could just as easily write about the stages of life in the body of Christ or conflict resolution and functional medicine or positivist psychology.  And I will continue to write about this in the future, applying massage therapy principles to the Body of Christ.8  

For today, I invite you to think about your needs (or more traditionally, what you would call “prayer requests”) in terms of the anatomical systems of the body.  Rather than looking for something consumable to immediately fill your need, find out what might spring up from the wild and holy goodness, the way you don’t have to think about “filling the needs” of the healthy systems of your balanced body. When we encounter G-d by beholding mystery, we are stripping away the ability to commodify G-d.  I invite you to encounter the mystery of G-d in your own body.  As you bring honor and life to each system of the body, your body and your soul are less and less commodifiable - and you know what? G-d is right here with the most vulnerable, colonized, oppressed, abused people.9  G-d commands you to comfort the people.10

With the respiratory system, the movement of G-d and the church might be to bring a fresh wind or spirit. In relation to the nervous system, the Holy Spirit might warn us or bring calmness.  Many of our eldest adults suffer from cardiovascular issues - we can ask G-d to be a constant life-giving presence in the rhythm of their lives.  Our bones produce blood and store and release minerals, so we can pray that in our church structures we embody, we both promote renewal as well as preserve memory.  Encounter with “other” - you know, like food? - in the digestive tract requires careful process and a definite letting go - but careful process is a way to nurture one another.

The urinary system can remind us that balance means letting our excess “gold” go, and affluence is a dangerous imbalance.  The excretory system is constantly at work in our sweat glands and can remind us letting go on a small scale happens naturally when we have been working hard and requires being washed afterwards (if we care about the sensibilities of the people around us).  The endocrine system could show us to let G-d bring us back into delicate balance.  We need our muscular system in order to stand firm in this frenzied world.  Our gentle immune system is constantly flowing to protect us.  

The integumentary system - skin and hair and such - This physical boundary between ourselves and the world around us is how we are able to sense. Where do you sense G-d in this moment?  The reproductive system shapes all of our primary formative experience - being birthed and nurtured.  When you are providing pastoral care with our eldest adults, they may be experiencing many emotions around this intimate system. We can pray G-d will draw people into loving communion and oneness with G-d, who is making all creation new.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers...”
“The whole earth is full of the glory of G-d” - this includes our bodies!

iii.

L-rd G-d, 
we invite you here to be in this place with us.  
Be the center of our circle.  
All thanks and praise be to you, 
Who are the Knower of hearts.  
Where we bring concerns, 
bring us peaceful, calm minds 
in all wisdom.  
Where we are processing, 
let us nurture one another in kindness, 
guiding each other toward you.  
(Free prayers for one another)
L-rd, hear our prayer. 

Bring a fresh wind to our passions!  
Give us loving hearts.  
Let us sense where you are moving 
so we can let go of excess.  
Make us like gentle water, 
flowing to the lowest place 
In order to bring balance.  
(Free prayers for loved ones and neighbors)
 L-rd, hear our prayer.

Restore our spirits in joyful dance 
so our strength to do your will 
in all self-control would not grow weary
As we patiently grow in faith, 
rooted and grounded in Christ.  
(Free prayers for enemies)
L-rd, hear our prayer. 

You created the expanse of the universe 
and the bonds between molecules.  
You are closer to us than our own breath, 
closer than our own souls.  
(Free prayer for yourself)
L-rd, hear our prayer

Jesus, our Healer, 
Protect our whole selves 
so that we might love you more each day.  
We pray all this in your precious name, Amen.

Notes:

1. The passage this quote comes from reads as follows: “Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of humanity by country or language or customs.  They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life … yet, although they live in Greek and barbarian cities alike ... and follow the customs of the country in clothing and food and other matters of daily living, at the same time they give proof of the remarkable and admittedly extraordinary constitution of their own commonwealth. They live in their own countries, but only as resident aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them, every fatherland is a foreign land. They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed… They love all people, and by all are persecuted….They are poor, and yet they make many rich...To put it simply: what the soul is in the body, that Christians are in the world” - Epistle to Diognetus 5-6
2. I will use the spelling “G-d” throughout both out of a habit to be respectful when using such a powerful word and as a reminder to the reader that “G-d” means many different things to different people.
3. The shape and form of integrity became clarified in boundaries - when we are healed, we don’t have gaping wounds of vulnerability.  I no longer need to harness that coercive colonized power dynamic described as the “power of vulnerability” when I share a story about my life, because I have been gardening long enough to know people will either use my processed shit as fertilizer or not, but we bloom because of a delicate and mysterious internal process between G-d and the body. 
4. To the Body of Christ, are words comparable to what RNA & DNA are to cells?
5. First of all, have you ever tried to learn something while someone showed you by putting their hands overtop yours? Not an enjoyable experience, right?  We cannot expect people to follow our lead if we are too heavy-handed, possessive, or controlling as we govern or teach - but this doesn’t let us off the hook for true authoritative leadership.  And, I have a strong aversion to following that kind of leader - I can learn to do this in G-d’s good time, thank you very much!
6. From “Feel feel feel” by theillilogicalspoon
7. Not automatically, but by giving attention, the rarest and purest form of generosity according to Simone Weil.
8. As you approach a tender spot, you have to know not to jump right in the center with a lot of pressure or the problem could burst and become more widespread.  Also, sometimes the tenderness is caused by something to be worked out in a completely different area, connected to the pain only by nerves.  And even more obviously, you have to know when the issue can be addressed by massage - you would not normally massage a fresh compact fracture or an infected area, for instance.
9. When I am spat on, I’m not alone.  When I am lonely, one might say I’m in good company. Just try and subjugate it! You can’t!  There are good reasons, and not only terrible reasons, why various texts have such lasting power over thousands of years.  These are the same reasons we must be careful not to allow these texts to be misused.
10. Isaiah 40:1 Comfort, yes, comfort my people, says your G-d.​

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Ellen Morey

As a songwriter, Ellen Morey is passionate about the stories we tell - this is how we inspire an imagination which enables us to create communities where the vulnerable can flourish. Ellen grew up next to the Hill branch of the Suisun Slough of the San Francisco Bay Estuary on Ohlone land and now lives right near Pine Creek in the Elkhart River watershed and St. Joseph River water basin on Pottawattami and Miami land. She enjoys careful analysis of systems, which affect our lives in every way. Ellen brings wide life experience having worked as a paralegal, a gardener, a visitation pastor, and most recently a substitute teacher at the local middle school. Enjoying vegan cooking and baking, making puns in Spanish, and creating lace as a contemplative practice, Ellen is committed to education, formation, renewed ecology, and subverting empire. You can reach her through the editors of R!P!S!

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FURTHER RESOURCES FOR APPLICATION

Here below will yield you the history and supporting work behind this reflection, which arose out of designing a spiritual practice suitable for the eldest adults among us as a class assignment.  I thought of this project when the call was made for submissions related to decolonizing the body because this prayer practice names a wild and holy G-d as our source of being and our reason for embodiment, who is over and above any other power, including any government or state power.  In one way of looking at it, our bodies were collectively here before colonialism, so they should be “grandfathered in” - a term meaning if something good existed before the law against it, the good thing can continue without being encumbered by the law.

……………….

According to Calling All Years Good (page 142), “Perhaps at no other life stage save adolescence does the body occupy such a premier place in defining the contours of life.“

As I have sat with folks in late adulthood, I have noticed these elders speaking about bodies: so much! There are so many health concerns as we age!  Today I invite you to consider the metaphor that we are Christ’s body.  What does this metaphor hold for us?  I believe learning about anatomy and carefully considering the functions of parts of the body holds a richness of wisdom for us as we seek to be compassionate.  I will briefly mention the systems of the body along with some possible corresponding movement of G-d - and of the church! - and then we will join in corporate prayer with space drawn in for you to pray for yourself, your enemies, your loved ones & neighbors, and for one another (in the same manner as Take Our Moments and Our Days).

I invite you to think about your needs (or more traditionally, what you would call “prayer requests”) in terms of the anatomical systems of the body. I’ve included a sheet here for you with suggestions about how our need for the movement of G-d might mirror our anatomy. As you hear the various functions of the twelve systems of the body, feel free to praise G-d for the intricacy and diversity within our own selves. [Read the Systems + Movement of G-d column: ie. as follows]

With the respiratory system, the movement of G-d and the church might be to bring a fresh wind or spirit…

In relation to the nervous system, the Holy Spirit might warn us or bring calmness... 

Many of our eldest adults suffer from cardiovascular issues - we can ask G-d to be a constant life-giving presence in the rhythm of their lives…

Our bones produce blood and store and release minerals, so we can pray that in our church structures we embody, we both promote renewal as well as preserve memory…

Encounter with “other” - you know like food? - in the digestive tract requires careful process and a definite letting go… [people might laugh] ...but careful process is a way to nurture one another.

The urinary system can remind us that balance means letting our excess “gold” go, and affluence is a dangerous imbalance…

The excretory system is constantly at work in our sweat glands and can remind us letting go on a small scale happens naturally when we have been working hard and requires being washed afterwards (if we care about the sensibilities of the people around us).

...The endocrine system could show us to let G-d bring us back into delicate balance…

We need our muscular system in order to stand firm in this frenzied world…

Our gentle immune system is constantly flowing to protect us.

The integumentary system - skin and hair and such - This physical boundary between ourselves and the world around us is how we are able to sense. Where do you sense G-d in this moment?

The reproductive system shapes all of our primary formative experience - being birthed and nurtured.  When you are providing pastoral care with our eldest adults, they may be experiencing many emotions around this intimate system. We can pray G-d will draw people into loving communion and oneness with G-d, who is making all creation new.

On the handout, [begin with first line from leader - leave several seconds for free prayers]

……………..

I see this prayer as anti-colonial in that we acknowledge spaces which cannot be harmed or controlled, we acknowledge the source of our being as G-d (rather than the state, capital, or a corporation)
A Prayer for Eldest Adulthood: We are Christ’s Body


L-rd G-d, 
We invite you here to be in this place with us.  
Be the center of our circle.  
All thanks and praise be to you, 
Who are the Knower of hearts.  
Where we bring concerns, 
bring us peaceful, calm minds 
in all wisdom.  
Where we are processing, 
let us nurture one another in kindness, 
guiding each other toward you.  
(Free prayers for one another)
 L-rd, hear our prayer. 

Bring a fresh wind to our passions!  
Give us loving hearts.  
Let us sense where you are moving 
so we can let go of excess.  
Make us like gentle water, 
flowing to the lowest place 
In order to bring balance.  
(Free prayers for loved ones and neighbors)
  
Restore our spirits in joyful dance 
so our strength to do your will 
in all self-control would not grow weary
As we patiently grow in faith, 
rooted and grounded in Christ.  
(Free prayers for enemies)
L-rd, hear our prayer.  

You created the expanse of the universe 
and the bonds between molecules.  
You are closer to us than our own breath, 
closer than our own souls.  
(Free prayer for yourself)
L-rd, hear our prayer

Jesus, our Healer, 
Protect our whole selves 
so that we might love you more each day.  
We pray all this in your precious name, Amen.


…………….