Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Jemima L. Yeggs, a.k.a. Stinker.  Pink Lady Apple Yeggs, my landlady and my auntie, wants to read about how younger people, especially couples respond to what the Bible says.  And she wants to know how God is at work at Lily the Pink.

B.B. and I were talking in the ‘green room’.  The ‘green room’ is Aunt Pink and Aunt Gwen’s restroom outside the den where the Sunday school class was now held.

B.B. said, “You know, Stinker.  You look pretty good today.”

I gasped, “I don’t look good the rest of the time?”

B.B. laughed, “No, my friend, in your way, you are always wonderful.  But I do not think I need to do any touch up on your hair.”

I shrugged, “I brushed my hair the same way I always do.”

B.B. said, “Maybe it’s not your brushing.  Maybe the hair is simply cooperating today.”

“I will admit.  My hair seems to have a mind of its own.”

We were laughing as we went into the den.

Joseph led us in prayer.

Emmett’s band was great, as usual.  The lead was sung by Sally Mae, Wilma, Arabella, Menzie and Carla.  At alto, there was Brooke, Mercedes, and Mags Lothrop Kildare.  At tenor, Michael, Mike Lothrop Kildare, Emmett, and Samuel.  Dr. Ben, Brenton, and Darrell sang baritone.  And then Dr. Kildare sang bass.  The song was Head to Toe (the Armor of God Song).  Mike Kildare kept the beat with the tubulum, and he even played the tune before everyone started singing.  He’ll be Mr. Tubulum soon.  Mags played the cello.  Darrell played the guitar.  And Emmett was at the keyboard.  And Fred played the trombone.

Emmett added, “That may not match the theme, but in a way it does.  Was it okay, Aunt Jemima?”

I asked, “That was wonderful.  Mike is learning how to play his new instrument.  The song has the word head in it.”

Samuel said, “Aunt Jemima, what Attribute of God are we studying today?”

I laughed, “Samuel, we are looking at God – the Head of the Body.  Arabella, do we need Mr. Dictionary?”

Arabella asked, “Aunt Jemima, I have no idea.  Emmett says that my head is well rested except for the mouth part.  So, I think I can go without a dictionary answer.”

Easy, my husband, a.k.a. Mr. Dictionary, said, “That’s good, Belle.  This is a figurative thing, a metaphor.  The metaphor is used in a lot of things, not just the Bible.  Sometimes, the president of the United States is called the ‘Head of State’.  The CEO is often called the head of the company.  You might call the boss the head honcho.  So, for Arabella’s sake, we are not saying the God is a very big head.”

Arabella shrunk her head between her shoulders, “Yes, I think I understand.  Thank you, Mr. Dictionary.”

I grumbled, “Okay, we are starting the class with Mr. Dictionary trying to out goofy Fireball.  Great!”

Dr. Ellie (Colossians 1:18) “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”

Dr. Ellie said, “This verse has layers.  This verse uses the expression that God is the head of the body.  Then it defines the body as being the church.  God is the beginning, because through Him, everything was created.  But then, He was the firstborn from among the dead.  I guess since we are those who are consigned to death due to our sin, we are the dead.  And we all follow Jesus, and we were once dead in our sin.  Mary’s firstborn was Jesus.  Is any of that correct?”

Arabella giggled, “I don’t know, but it sounded good to me.”

Dr. Ellie groaned, “Oh, no!  Belle liked it.  Please, Pastor Joseph, what was wrong with what I said.”

Arabella growled, “I can like something whether it’s right or not right.”

Michael suggested, “Right or Wrong?”

Arabella chided, “I do not use that word.”

I cleared my throat, “Belle, cool it.  Dr. Ellie, that is a unique interpretation, and maybe not totally off, but remember that the body is the church, and the church was created with Jesus as its foundation.  Thus, Jesus was there from the beginning.  And Jesus was the first to be dead and then rise from the dead.  Yes, Jesus brought people back from the dead, but Jesus was the firstborn of the resurrected church.”

Joseph smiled and nodded, “Well done, Aunt Jemima.  And Dr. Ellie, you did a good job of putting the ideas together, but the metaphor here is the church being the body.”

Dr. Ben (Ephesians 4:15-16) “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

Dr. Ben said, “So, we have the mature body, and we have Christ as the leader, the head of the body.  When speaking the truth in love, we see the most effective evangelism tool.  We speak the truth.  We do not remain mute while showing them love, but we let them know that we love them while telling them about Jesus.  But the mature body is a hint of what type of body we might have in Heaven.  People think that our bodies will be about thirty-three years old as Jesus was, but this at least says mature.”

Then Dr. Ben paused, “But then, it talks about us being held together.  If the church is the body and Jesus is the head, it mentions supporting ligaments that hold the body together.  We have a lot of talk about how one group says that they want to be the arms of the church to hug people and help people.  Others want to be the mouth to spread the Gospel.  But I have heard some people talk about how in Paul’s mind, us being the body with God as the head, that means the church is the body.  An individual member is the connective tissue.  We have to work with each other in harmony for the church to perform correctly.  Those connective tissues are what hold the body together.”

I smiled, “Thank you, Dr. Ben.  That was very good, and I see Dr. Ellie looking glum.  You gave a good idea, that most scholars do not mention, but the reason why we read the Bible over and over is that our spiritual growth increases.  What we get out of a verse one time may be different when we read that verse again.”

Easy added, “And the verse Dr. Ben read said ligaments.  Ligaments hold one bone to another bone.  But we also have tendons that hold each muscle to the bone.  So, when Dr. Ben said connective tissues, as members of the church, and the church being the body, we hold the bones and muscles of that body together.  That takes a lot of love.  We might not agree with all the believers that come our way, but to connect and bond with them, we need to show that love.”

Blaise (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

Blaise smiled, “Oh, my wonderful sister-in-law.  Thank you so much in trusting me with the long passage.  It shows that you trust me and love me.”

I groaned, “Can it, Bozo!  What does this passage mean to you?  Oh, dear, that sounded insensitive.  Can it, dear precious brother-in-law, Bozo!”  I fluttered my eyelashes.

Many of the people in class looked at each other for a second or two before they laughed.

Joseph said, “Yes, Blaise, Aunt Jemima was being a little bit of a Stinker there, and you were just following your counseling advice to treat everything you receive with gratitude and kindness.  But you can cut back on the syrup a little.”

Blaise sighed, “Sis, I am sorry.  I am getting used to reading these long passages and taking it as a compliment rather than a chore.  So, I thank Pastor Joseph for his help.  I thank you for trusting me.  And I thank God for giving me the strength.  As for this passage, the Apostle Paul sets up a silly analogy that the body parts either reject one another or they all want to be part of the eye.  He even says that cannot happen and the body would not be much of a body if it was just an eye.  So, God made us for a purpose and if we are to see, then we will be part of the eye, but we should embrace our role.  It does not say that God is the head here, but God is acting as the one in charge and wanting each of us to do our part as His plan for us reveals.  Is that good?”

I smiled, “That was excellent, Blaise.  I like the non-combatant, non-whining, cooperative, and very thoughtful, Blaise.  You are a valuable member of this class.”

Easy whispered, “But he’s still a Bozo.”

Bart asked, “I have heard a story about how bosses come into existence in the secular world.  Since I work for an engineering company that supports industry, I see it both in our company and in our customers.  It seems to borrow Paul’s argument here.  Should I share it?”

I asked, “Is it clean?  Oh, never mind.  It is probably not very clean.  Can you attempt at cleaning it up?”

Bart smiled, “I will try.  It seems that a body was walking along a trail, and the body parts all began to argue with each other as to who was the boss.  The heart said that without it pumping blood throughout the body, there would be no life.  The brain countered by saying that if the brain did not send the right signals to the heart that the heart could not pump any blood.  Then, the lungs said that if they did not oxygenate the blood, then why pump the blood?  Then the hands argued that the body could not hold anything without them.  The feet argued that they were needed to walk around.  No one body part could make an argument that they were the boss of the body.”

Mike Lothrop Kildare asked, “But we have been talking about how God is the head of the body, and in certain applications of the word ‘head’ that would mean the boss.”

Bart replied, “This is a non-believer body.  Since this illustrates what often happens in industry, they are a little lost in that regard.  But back to the story.  The one body part that had remained silent this entire time was the backside, the umm.”

Arabella gasped, pretending to be shocked, “The bottom?  The part that does my business?”

Bart nodded, “Yes, the backside finally said that the backside should be the boss.  All the other body parts laughed at the backside.  But then the backside clinched.  The legs stopped walking.  The hands and feet started to sweat.  The heart started palpitating.  The lungs hyperventilated.  The head felt dizzy.  The eyes got blurry.  There was ringing in the ears.  The mouth went dry.  And as the body fell to the ground, each body part relented and let the backside become the boss of the body.”

I asked, “Okay, Bart.  That was a cringe-worthy story, but does it have a moral to it?”

Bart shrugged, “No, but when you go out into this world and you have a boss like that or a customer like that, then you know how they got into the position they are in.”

Tamara nodded, “We’ve had a few of those come to the pharmacy.  Mrs. Standish shows love to them and it works, but not that often.”

Zuzka nodded, “In the bad days here at Lily the Pink, we had almost all customers like that.  While life was hard as result, it drive many of us to accept Jesus to have the strength to go on.”

Rosie and Irusya agreed with Zuzka.

I asked, “But what about now?”

Cassie said, “Now we have the true head of the body in charge.  I do not work here anymore, but my closest friends are the people who work here.  I love all of you.  God allowed these bad things to happen.  Some of us knowingly agree to it.  Some of us were forced into it.  But Mommie Pinkie and Aunt Gwen talked to us about how the Scriptures say that slaves subject themselves to their masters.  Most of the people who wanted to stay at Lily the Pink had already accepted Jesus.  The Gospel was the only way to see any Hope in the situation we had here.  And now, the hope abounds. Many of the workers here are content just in being an operator with a boss who loves them.  But many are finding boyfriends and husbands.  A few have started families.  Mamma Missy was reunited with her family and then married Professor Angus.  So, yes, Bart’s story is a bit crude and you see it out in the world a lot, but here at Lily the Pink, you see Mommie Pinkie and Aunt Gwen who both love Jesus and Jesus as the ultimate head of the body.”

And Aunt Pink walked into the room.  “Thank you, all of you.  I heard enough praise in the hallway.  I could not do what I do without God within me, and my sister Gwen is the same way.  We would have never survived the bad years here without God in our lives.  So, the nasty backsides of this world just think they are in charge.  It is God who is not just the head of the church body.  He is the head of this world, our sovereign Lord.  We either worship Him willingly or we will be forced to bend a knee at some point, when it is too late to change our minds.  But for all those who have hurt others, even my cousin Baldwyn who hurt many of the ladies in this room, I pray that they meet Jesus while they still can.”

I smiled, “Is Grannie Fannie behind me?”

Grannie Fannie snickered, “You know I am right behind you, Jemima”

I asked, “Grannie Fannie, can you lead us in our new benediction?”

Grannie Fannie (Romans 15:13) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Lauren ran up to Menzie and Samuel, “Mommie!  Daddy!  The buses!  The bus driver is here.  And Liam, Lympie, and Ellie Rain are with her.”  Then, she ran to Grannie Fannie and hugged her.

Brooke came over and got Stormie’s carrier.  “Hi, Stormie.  Let’s go to church together.”

Stormie smiled and cooed.

Credits

The nature of the blog from Sweet to the Soul Ministries gives only one verse.  I used various searches and cross references for the other verses.  I used just a few sources.  There were not a lot of verses to choose from doing a search on the word “head of the body”.

Grannie Fannie is making a habit of taking Lance Allott’s grandchildren with her to church.  The middle child is Olympia.  Maybe the nickname of Lympie won’t stick.  But where is Lance Allott?

Here is Christy Nockels singing Head to Toe (The Armor of God Song).

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.