One of my earliest memories is sitting on the end of a pipe organ bench listening to my mom practice the organ and lead the choir. I remember being amazed by how each person seemed to be singing a different thing, and yet somehow, when it was all done right, produced something that seemed almost magical to me. I discovered that there was a sound, a sound that no one person in the choir was making, it was a singular voice that emerged, though many voices were singing.

It only existed when each member sang their part in perfect harmony.

I learned early on that, there are no lead singers in the choir. (Though many try to the ruin of everything).

The choir has a voice all its own.

Eph 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The Choir and the Body of Christ.

This memory of my mom and the choir got me thinking about the connection between the “voice” of a choir and the “voice” of the church. The unity we see described in the book of Ephesians speaks of a body with various members with various gifts. Paul describes this in Rom 12 as well, it seems to be a favorite analogy of his. But when these members are all connected and using their gifts properly something magical happens. That body starts to look and function like Jesus. When the members are all working together that is when we are truly grow into the “full stature” of the body of Christ. The visible manifestation of the living Christ on earth.

We too often look at these analogies simply as encouraging sentiments. That’s a shame. I believe they are much more than that. Another mistake we frequently make is to read passages like this as purely personal encouragement for our personal maturity. When in fact, this passage is speaking of maturity in the corporate sense. It is talking about the whole church growing up and using the gifts Jesus has given it to fully reflect Jesus to this world. To truly become the body of Christ.

When Jesus said to his disciples that, “it is necessary that I leave, so that the helper can come”. Or when he said that we who believe would do greater things than he did, this was not hyperbole. Through the Holy Spirit we become the “body of Christ” or put another way “the physical manifestation of Christ on earth”. We do greater things than he did because now we cover the earth, then Jesus was limited to one tiny spot on the earth.

Let’s do this - Today

So, like the choir we need to find our voice - together. Forget about how beautiful our voice is for a minute and try to blend our voice with other voices in the choir. When we do that, we will hear another voice, it will be the voice of Jesus.

May we all, together, today, speak not with our own voice, but with that united voice of Jesus to this lost and tired world. We do that through humility and active love by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. There is nothing we lack.

So… be your part of the body today, and have a great day in Jesus!

Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe