We are all born with it, but until recently scientists did not know its function.   The appendix is a thin, finger-shaped appendage attached to the beginning of the large intestine.  Its name comes from the Latin word which means “to add on.”  In the history of medicine, it has been viewed as an unnecessary part of the body with absolutely no clear function.   Proponents of macro-evolutionary biology have long argued that it is a “vestigial” organ which offers evidence of human evolution.   It is merely an add-on.  A part of the body with no part in the body’s function.

Yet as is often the case, scientific advance has rewritten the story of the appendix.   Scientists now believe the appendix contains a particular type of tissue associated with the lymphatic system.  The system which carries white blood cells to fight infections.  We now know that such lymphatic tissue encourages the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, which play an important role in digestion and immunity. Studies have also shown that the lining of the gut contains a biofilm — a thin layer of microbes, mucus, and immune system molecules — and these biofilms appear most pronounced in the appendix.  So contemporary theory contends that the appendix protects beneficial gut bacteria when diseases wipe them out elsewhere in the GI tract. 

Far from being vestigial or simply an “add-on,” the functions of the appendix are indispensable for digestive health.   There are no parts of the body which are unimportant.   Every part serves a function.  Every part is indispensable, crucial to the optimal functioning of the body.   And even the language of disability makes this clear.   When someone is missing a part of their body, they are considered “handicapped.”   As in everything that God makes and does, there is no waste in His economy.  No mere appendages to the body.  

And what is true for our physical bodies is even more true of the body of Christ, the Church.   The Apostle Paul often compared the church to a physical body.   The Bible describes the community of faith is essential to Christian life.   And like the body, each and every member is absolutely vital.   He describes this most decisively in 1 Corinthians 12 to illustrate the proper use of spiritual gifts.

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

1 Corinthians 12:18-25

The Christian life is not a solitary pilgrimage to an ethically higher plane.   Monasticism is a distorted expression of the Christian life.   As Bonhoeffer would write, the Christian life is “life together.”  The Church, the body of Christ has no spare parts, no rugged individualists.   The Christian faith is the ultimate expression of Psalm 68:6 which says that “God settles the solitary in a home.”   Every believer is called to live in the covenant community.  

And we see this first expressed in the Exodus.   The promise of the Exodus was not a call for slaves to find freedom on their own, but for the Lord to create a people who are His “treasured possession among all peoples.”  One of the foci of God’s redemptive plan is to create a redeemed community.  

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Titus 2:11-14

The first major step of God in creating the covenant community comes in the Exodus. And the goal of the Exodus was Sinai not Canaan.   It was there at the base of Sinai, that the Lord transforms Israel from a mass migration of refugees to a “kingdom of priests.”   But before the Lord meets with them to give the Law, their gracious constitution, he uses a new convert, Jethro, to give a plan for shepherding and care.   And remind them they are not just a mass of individuals seeking a better life. 

They are a body of believers and a covenant community.   There are no spare parts, no indispensable members, no mere appendices.    Join us as we examine Exodus 18:13-27 as we consider Jethro’s counsel and its implications for our life together as believers.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.