Thursday, March 31

Strength of Unity – How the Heart and the Congregation Are Strong As a Unit

Heart muscle is unique. Without being redundant I might add that heart muscle is only found in the heart! It is unique in location and it is unique in construction.

Because of the physiology of heart muscle, it has the capacity to work as a unit – it communicates between cells differently than skeletal or smooth muscle. It does this through a variety of mechanisms which both conduct signals and literally hold the heart together.

Unlike most cells in the body which typically have a smooth wall between them, heart muscle has something called intercalated discs. Which frankly I don’t find very descriptive. If you want to look at a picture of these things check out this helpful website:

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cuny-csi-ap-1/chapter/cardiac-muscle-tissue/

These intercalated discs at the end of muscles fibers are similar to the villi in our small intestine; they greatly increase the surface area between the two structures which multiplies both the communication between them and the ability to bond together. In woodworking, it’s similar to a dovetail joint which has many different surfaces interconnecting.

God has designed within these joints fascinating smaller “bridges” across the gap between muscle cells which connect one muscle cell to the next electrically (“gap junctions”), and also mechanically similar to a surgeon’s stitch, connecting two pieces of tissue, (“desmosomes”).

When we consider the Church as “The Body of Christ” (I Cor. 12), we appreciate many different aspects that strengthen unity or do the opposite. As we consider the integral strength of the heart itself to “hold together” it seems as though God has similarly arranged the Church with communicative bridges (“the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit…” (Rom 8:16). He is also given us more concrete logistical bridges of: compassion and accountability.

And probably the greatest chapter about the Church as the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12) St. Paul writes – by the Spirit – “…but God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, that there should be no division in the body, but that the member should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it…” (I Corinthians 12:24b-26a). In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus spoke definitively about how the Church needs to also hold itself together through discipline, accountability, and ultimately forgiveness and love (Matthew 18).

One more amazing thing about the heart, is that it lacks nerve cells, which typically are the communication center of the body, but both muscle and other conductive/communicative special dedicated tissue enables the heart to work both as a unit, and also fluidly. Although the upper and lower portions of the heart seem to pump “lub/dub” in perfect sequence, there is a bit of a “peristalsis.” Think of the way a snake swallows a rat and it moves slowly down its digestive tract. The heart allows the flexibility of timing for other portions of the heart muscle to come along in a fluid pumped like manner to increase efficiency.

Not every person in the Church has the same spiritual knowledge or maturity. The Church accommodates for that, and gives others time to grow – through mutual communication. Luther called this, “the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.” To him it was almost sacramental.