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The Crawling Hand

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When I was a kid I stayed up late one night to watch a movie called "The Crawling Hand". Just in case you haven't seen it, this flick is a classic but very cheesy sci-fi story. As you might have guessed, "The Crawling Hand" is about...yes, a crawling hand! An astronaut and his ship blow up while re-entering the earth's atmosphere, but his hand survives and basically ends up strangling people.

Of course when I was little this movie scared the crud out of me. I really have to hand it to the directors, they really put their finger on how to nail the plot...two thumbs up! (Or maybe just one?)

I saw it again recently, and this time instead of frightening me, it almost killed me with how funny it was. To watch grown men and women act like they are being choked by a fake looking piece of rubber is truly an amazing experience. Then there are the plot questions as well. Um, a metal spaceship burns up when re-entering the earth, but a human hand doesn't? Oh yeah, and I love how the hand bleeds even though there is no circulation.

In short, the image of a body part trying to live life on its own is comical at best and scary at worst.

I wonder if the way some Christians act reminds God of "The Crawling Hand". You might not know this, but the Bible describes the church as "the body of Christ" in I Corinthians 12. Here's what it says:

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ's body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:12-13)

In this passage, Paul is not talking about the church as a building, he's talking about all Christians everywhere on earth who make up what you might call the "universal" church. The universal church is made up of Christians from Albania to Zaire ! The "universal" church then is supposed to regularly meet together in a community setting, and when they do you have the "local" church.

So it looks like this. When God looks down on the earth, He sees all Christians as one group called the universal body of Christ. When believers get together for church, He sees little groups called the local body of Christ. Every single Christian makes up a part of the body of Christ, so when Christians decide to "take a break" from church, they are basically separating themselves from the "body"...they become a crawling hand! They cut themselves off from the life of the church and cease to be useful. Their efforts at living the Christian life apart from the church are as unbelievable and ridiculous as a fake rubber hand cruising down the road.

Every Christian needs the church. Without it you will wither and die because you have been cut off from everything you need to survive.

What do you need to survive? First of all, you were created to worship God, and worship was created to be done as a group. You can individually worship God, but that's only half the picture. You cannot fully worship God outside of the church, because worship involves praising God, hearing His word, giving back to Him, and hanging out with His people. Try all you want, you can't do these things alone in your house or out in nature somewhere. This is why the Bible encourages us to "not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing..." (Hebrews 10:25).

Second, not only do you need the church, the church needs you! Imagine if you woke up one day and your feet decided to take the day off...what a lame day you would have! You're thinking, ridiculous - right? Body parts don't decide on their own. Exactly! Jesus Christ is the head or "brain" of the church, so when you bail out on church it is like a body part bailing out on the brain.

I have an idea for a scary Christian movie. It's about a believer who decides he doesn't need church anymore. The pastor calls to see why he isn't involved any more, and he uses all the lame excuses like "the church is full of hypocrites, my feelings were hurt, I need to sleep in, the worship isn't meeting his "needs", blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is that he's lazy, and over time his spiritual life withers and dies and he ends up ditching his faith.

It's called "The Crawling Christian", but I hope you're not planning on trying out for the part, because your part in life is to be a part of the church.

Head: What you need to know about this truth

The church is the Body of Christ on a universal and local level. Because we are a part of this Body, we need to be involved on a regular basis so we can worship God with His people through singing, learning, giving, and hanging out.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

Either secure or lonely, depending on where you are in your commitment to church. If you are involved on a regular basis, you should feel secure in the fact that you are exactly where you need to be. You should also feel a deep sense of belonging with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you are "taking a break" from church, you should feel lonely and separated. You have "unplugged" yourself from your life-source, and eventually you will wither and die.

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

Go to church and get into it. When people are singing, don't try to show off your voice like you're God's gift to the music world. Don't look around and compare yourself with other people. During the teaching of God's Word, don't evaluate the pastor on how interesting or funny he is or isn't. Picture Jesus Himself talking to you, because He is. See and treat every person at church as your close brother or sister, because they are. When you go home, don't think about what you "got out of" church. Instead, think about how you contributed to the body that day.