Come Now, O Prince of Peace,
make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus,
Reconcile your people.
-
Geonyong Lee, tr.
Marion Pope, “Come Now, O Prince of Peace,” ELW 247
Bodies. Everybody’s got one, or
maybe everybody is one? Our bodies grow old and fall ill; they limit us
physically as well as bringing us joy in work and in play. The human body is vastly complex, yet so often
simple and beautiful in its function and movement. I don’t exercise enough, I
eat more junk food than I should, and my sleep habits are irregular at best – like
some of you, I’m not always a good steward of my body, which is to say, of
myself.
The church, widely speaking, has
generally been bad at making sense of human bodies.