A Beautiful Body

By: Kurt and Linda Lantz

She had been limping around with Foot Drop for three years, so Linda knew it would be a difficult journey, but out of love for her husband, Rev. Kurt Lantz, she resolved to make it happen. For their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary they would make the return trip to their honeymoon destination in Atlantic Canada and even take in the one province of Canada which they had never visited, Newfoundland and Labrador. As their marriage had always been a co-operative effort to serve the Church, they offered to conduct communion services for the far-flung members of Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) on the island of this province known as the Rock.

Then, just prior to their departure, Rev. Mark Smith, who had been serving the St. Andrew’s Lutheran mission posts in the Maritime Provinces, moved to Winnipeg to take up his call as LCC’s Director of International Mission. There was no question that the Lantzes would adapt their travel plans in order to help fill the vacancy and conduct services also in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. It was particularly meaningful for Linda to visit these LCC supported missions after her years of service on the East District Department for Outreach. Sharing the body and blood of Christ together at the same altar grants physical evidence for our senses to the heavenly reality of our one communion as the Body of Christ.

With a few days to themselves before their return home, the Lantzes stayed a couple of nights at the Marshlands Inn in Sackville, New Brunswick where they had stayed on their honeymoon twenty-five years earlier. The day of the wedding anniversary, when headed out for supper, Linda caught her toe while leaving the inn, but with no feeling through the deteriorated nerves of her foot not much was thought of it.

A month and a half later it became obvious that something was seriously wrong. Rev. Lantz picked up his wife when she was done her day’s work at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario and took her to see the doctor. He immediately sent them to the Emergency Department at the hospital. Even with aggressive antibiotic treatment, the infection that had begun in her injured toe would not slow down. Her left leg was amputated below the knee just four days after admission.

Linda’s ten weeks in the hospital provided a lot of time to consider what other losses might result from the loss of her limb: loss of her work at the seminary; loss of communion at the altar rail in her congregation; loss of participation at Lutheran Women’s Missionary League-Canada events; loss of connection to extended family, to the members of her church, and to the families at the seminary where her work gave such joy. The Church would surely fill any void left by her amputation, but would Linda still be able to feel a part of the Body of Christ or more like an amputated member? The temptation to despair comes often and with weight.

The Body of Christ

St. Paul assured Christians who did not feel they had much to offer the Church that they were still indispensable members of the Body of Christ. “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body” (1 Corinthians 12:15). The fear of losing your place in the body of Christ as you age or lose any of your faculties is very real. Yet the glory of the Body of Christ is in each member individually, which makes the whole anatomy of the Church all the more beautiful.

The sick, the elderly, the poor, and the children are all beautiful members of the Body of Christ because Christ is in each of them through Holy Baptism regardless of what they can or cannot do for themselves or for others. It is more likely that their contributions to the working of the body are hidden rather than non-existent. The hours spent in prayer, the patient endurance under the cross, the support and appreciation for those who serve them in the Church are just as necessary and powerful a contribution as any made on an offering plate, at an organ bench, or on the mission field. St. Paul continued, “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” (12:21-22).

It was through the interconnected workings of the members of the Body of Christ, that the comfort of St. Paul’s words touched Linda’s heart. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (12:26). A long line of area pastors came to serve her with spiritual care, including Holy Communion. Many of the Niagara Circuit pastors, whom Rev. Lantz served as Circuit Counsellor, took on extra responsibilities and services so that he could spend more time with his wife during her recovery.

Rev. Lantz asked the chairman of Resurrection Lutheran Church in St. Catharines, Ontario whether he might be allowed to make adaptations to the church-owned parsonage. Their options were limited since the Lantzes did not have the resources to purchase their own home, nor could the congregation afford to pay a housing allowance. The congregation determined that they would make any needed renovations so the Lantzes could stay in the parsonage. The East District Board of Directors agreed to provide a Church Extension Fund loan to the congregation if all of the other circuit churches would agree to help the congregation raise the money to pay it back.

Every time a donation is made to someone in need, every time food is brought over to the house, every time you visit someone who feels disjointed, the anatomy of the Body of Christ displays its beauty, and each member sees the reality that makes them indispensable.

As Rev. Lantz looked around the table at the monthly Niagara Circuit Pastors’ Conference (also known as a Winkel), he perceived through watery eyes colleagues who have borne similar crosses as their own wives suffered various afflictions. All of the pastors and seminary professors present immediately stated that their congregations and the seminary would eagerly participate in raising any needed funds. An Epiphany Celebration of Food and Music was held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Niagara-on-the-Lake with choirs and musicians from circuit churches providing a beautiful concert and an opportunity for people to lovingly give.

St. Paul notes at the end of his discourse on the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12 that not all are apostles, prophets, and teachers, but all are members of the Body and have gifts with which to serve. Countless cards poured in so that Linda could not keep them all in her hospital room. Visitors from different congregations in the circuit in addition to her own provided companionship and a reminder that she had not been amputated from the Body of Christ. One of the most moving experiences was when the seminary faculty, staff, students, and their family members crowded into her ward room, spilling out into the hallway to sing Christmas carols. When they all had left with a hug, tears filled the eyes and Linda wondered how she would ever be able to thank all the people for what they have done.

The members of the beautiful body of Christ have served Linda in their regular vocations as well. A former student of Brock University who attended Rev. Lantz’s Bible studies at Lutheran Student Fellowship, Niagara, is one of Linda’s physiotherapists. A member from Grace Lutheran Church, St. Catharines worked on the parsonage renovations as a carpenter for Stay Put Renovations, owned and operated by a member of Christ Lutheran Church, St. Catharines, who is passionate about providing accessibility renovations to help people stay in their homes. These members of the Body of Christ are not just earning a paycheck to provide for their families, but exercising their Christian vocations also as the eyes and hands of the Body of Christ, serving to help other members realize that they too are still part of the Body.

Thousands of dollars toward the parsonage renovations have poured in from all over Lutheran Church-Canada, from people known and unknown, people whom God has arranged as members of the one Body. Resurrection Lutheran Church has been able to complete all the renovations necessary to get Linda home. They have repaid the CEF loan in full and designated the remainder of the donations for further adaptations that would make Linda’s life at home more comfortable. This sudden crisis for one member, revealed the whole body invigorated with the love of Christ, working together so that Linda could return home, begin returning to work at the seminary, and continue her recovery with confidence in the Lord’s care so that she will one day soon (perhaps for Easter) join her church family again at the communion rail in the very real fellowship that we have with one another through the Body and Blood of Jesus.

The members of Resurrection Lutheran Church have also been overwhelmed by the loving support of the church at large, which has enabled them to care for their pastor’s family, and continue their own ministry of the Gospel in their community, reaching out to the students at Brock University, and participating in the formation of pastors and church workers through their close support of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Every time a donation is made to someone in need, every time food is brought over to the house, every time you visit someone who feels disjointed, the anatomy of the Body of Christ displays its beauty, and each member sees the reality that makes them indispensable. St. Paul is not the only one who recognizes a beautiful body when he sees it.

With much love for the whole Body of Christ and each member individually,

Kurt and Linda Lantz

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