The Apostle Paul’s marvelous image of the Church as Christ’s body with many members (1 Corinthians 12) is well worth our pondering again and again. What it stresses, of course, is the communal nature of the church, rich in its diversity and richer still in its unity. No human body is whole without the parts that make it the living instrument it is. Yet each part left to itself, all alone, would hardly be useful for anything.
A version of the Covenant logo used last month to illustrate the mosaic we are as a people of God (see My Blog, January 8) is actually a multi-form image credited to Chris Hagberg that movingly symbolizes both our unity and our diversity. I find myself often paging through it, to be both reminded of and inspired by our life together in Christ.
The basis of the logo design is symbolic of four people facing north, south, east, and west. Note that each one's arms are outstretched, indicating the church's outreach in mission and service to the world. The four are part of the whole, yet their hands do not touch, symbolizing their unity in the freedom and evangelical warmth that characterizes the Covenant. The geometric arrangement of the four figures results in a cross-like pattern, representative of the center of our faith.
The center circle symbolizes the unity and the bond of fellowship which we call "the Covenant." Take a few moments now and throughout this month to page back and forth through it yourself. Celebrate first the unity of the art form as it appears, the gratitude it expresses for our being “conjoined in Christ,” as the official Covenant Seal has it—brought together, as Karl A. Olsson points out in his two-volume centennial history, Into One Body … by the Cross. And give thanks
no less for the amazing spread of our forebears’ primal vision throughout the earth, reaching now to peoples and tribes of every nation.
Be warmed by the communal spirit that still prevails among us as “companions of all those who fear God” (Psalm 119:63). Contemplate what the logo expresses--both our freedom in Christ and our responsibilities for one another. And as for his will that we all reach out to those yet without Christ, ask yourself how the Lord might be leading you to prosper his handiwork among us --a work, as all Christian work, still obviously in progress.
February, 2009
James R Hawkinson
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One Body, Many Members
