Song Review: “If We Are the Body”

I’m doing a hit-and-run on the blog today, so here’s a fast post about one of my favorite songs — “If We Are the Body” by Casting Crowns

One of the things I love about Casting Crowns is that they challenge believers to grow and expand in our faith. They’re not necessarily an outreach-focused band, but rather one that calls for some growth in Christians.

Here’s a video, which I haven’t seen (because I use dial-up), but I hope it’s good.

This is a song that I’ve discussed with my sons, to explain what it means and what the issue is. My church is in relatively-affluent Durham, NH, and so this kind of thing can be a real issue. Of course, I can’t remember the last time I saw two of the five ministers wearing ties on the same day … our worship pastor was wearing blue jeans on Easter Sunday … but I digress.

The song jumps right into it …

It’s crowded in worship today
As she slips in trying to fade into the faces
The girls teasing laughter is
carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know

Who is “she”? We don’t know. About what are the girls laughing? We don’t know. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that a person showed up in a church, and became the target of someone’s laughter. Is she dressed wrong? Is she someone that “the girls” know? Handicapped? Maybe this is her first time in a church and she doesn’t know where to find the Bible reading. Is hymn # 35 on page 35? Maybe she just can’t sing.

There are all kinds of possibilities, but the point is that “the girls” laughed at her, and that ends the first verse.

Chorus:
But if we are the body
Why aren’t His arms reaching?
Why aren’t His hands healing?
Why aren’t His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren’t His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way

The Church is the Body of Christ. What we do is done on God’s behalf. If we are the Body, why don’t we always act like it? When Christ was walking around, He healed people. He lifted up the poor, the weak, the sinners, and the nobodies. Why don’t we do that?

A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat and quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances
Tells him that his chances are better out on the road

What’s with the judgment? I’ve always had the impression that this traveler didn’t look right. You know, he didn’t have a jacket and tie, he just came in his turtleneck or something.

But it could be anything … even that he’s showed up in church and no one knows him.

Sometimes, we aren’t welcoming, we forget that we all had a first time in church. As the chorus repeats, you have to spend some time on the real question “Why?” Is it just our own attitude, or is it something more? If the Body of Christ should be boundlessly loving, and we aren’t, are we really as good as we think we are?

On to the bridge …

Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ

No mincing words, there. Remember that price Jesus paid? Easter was two days ago, we just talked about it. So, if He was willing to go through Hell for us, why are we sometimes hesitant to put up with people whose clothes we don’t like? Doesn’t that seem a bit … well, … selfish?

I remember a story my pastor told a few years ago. It was about a woman who had been invited to our church several times, and finally came. She enjoyed the service, she thought that people were pretty friendly. As she left, she was thinking that she might come back. After all, the church wasn’t anywhere near as bad as she feared an evangelical church might be.

As she was driving away, she realized that there was a piece of paper stuck under her windshield wiper. Expecting a note inviting her back, she pulled over and read the note … and began crying.

Someone had noticed the bumper sticker on her car, supporting a political candidate. The note said that no one could be a Christian and support that candidate. The weight of the judgmental note told her that her chances were better out on the road.

It was two days later that the woman spoke to her friend, and then when the friend who had invited her spoke to the pastor.

More than once, I have cringed as people in churches have said something exclusive. I once visited a church in downtown Dover (Congregational, I think). The pastor made some comment about talking to the pastor of Dover Baptist Church. “I know,” he said. “But sometimes you even have to talk to Baptists.” The congregation laughed.

I am a Baptist. I felt pretty unwelcome.

On the other hand, I have seen some good moments. On the Sunday after the 9-11 attacks, a couple that I didn’t know was at my church, and he was wearing a turban. He certainly looked to be of Middle Eastern descent. I saw a number of people make their way over to greet them. There are many other stories, in each direction.

But let’s take some time to think about that principle: Do we act like the Body of Christ? If not, why not?

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