Common Good

Back to Disability, Inclusion and Accessibility in Public Life

Every Body Belongs

PentecostDisability, Inclusion and Accessibility in Public Life Week 27 · Day 3

Scripture References

Read First

Old Testament

Isaiah 56:3-8

³ Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people.” Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
⁴ For the LORD says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant,
⁵ I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

Read 3 more verses

⁶ Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD to serve him, and to love the LORD’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant,
⁷ I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
⁸ The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, in addition to his own who are gathered.”

New Testament

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

¹² For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.
¹⁴ For the body is not one member, but many.

Read 13 more verses

¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body.
¹⁶ If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body.
¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be?
¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.
¹⁹ If they were all one member, where would the body be?
²⁰ But now they are many members, but one body.
²¹ The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.”
²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
²³ Those parts of the body which we think to be less honourable, on those we bestow more abundant honour; and our unpresentable parts have more abundant modesty,
²⁴ while our presentable parts have no such need. But God composed the body together, giving more abundant honour to the inferior part,
²⁵ that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
²⁶ When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. When one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

Thought for the Day

Isaiah speaks to those who assume they will always be on the edge: the foreigner, the eunuch, the one whose life does not fit the expected pattern. “Do not say, ‘I am a dry tree.’” God promises a name, a place, a welcome that is not grudging. His house is not a private club but a “house of prayer for all nations.”

Lord, make us a people who practise belonging: not only by words, but by attention, by time, by welcome. Train our instincts until inclusion feels like obedience, not like a project.

Show 114 more words

Paul, writing to a church with its own pecking orders, gives a different image: not a club but a body. Many members, one life. And the shock is this: the parts we call weaker are “indispensable”. Honour is not reserved for the visible and celebrated; it is given where it is needed.

There is a public wisdom here. A society can be built as though certain people are footnotes, or it can be built as though every neighbour is necessary. The Church has been given a language for that second way. When one member suffers, all suffer; when one is honoured, all rejoice. This is not romantic. It is realistic about our shared creatureliness.

Prayer Points

Respond

Draw near to those who feel like outsiders; give them a sure sense of being held by you.
Teach the Church to honour those we have treated as marginal, inconvenient, or unseen.
Give humility to communities and institutions, that they learn from those most affected by barriers.

Show 2 more prayer points

Comfort those who are weary from constantly having to explain themselves or fight to be included.
Make public life more reflective of your house of prayer: patient, hospitable, and open to all.

Continue Reading Journey