Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
We saw Avatar yesterday as a family. I urge you to go if you have not. It is an epic movie with themes that really resonate with our times. It takes place on the planet Pandora where we find miners from earth after a rare mineral that is extremely costly. The planet is inhabited though by a technologically primitive people yet these people are religiously and socially sophisticated. They revere life and see all forms of life as sacred. Like our Native Americans, they thank and bless the animals they kill for food and honor them for their sacrifice. The trees and plants on this planet are all connected into a great ‘brain” of linked nerves. It is as though the earth and its creatures think and feel – almost as though they are one. The people of this planet, the Navi, live at peace with one another and cherish the sacredness of life.
In today’s lesson from 1 Corinthians, Paul too talks about the essential unity of the church in the Spirit. He uses the metaphor of the body. It is a metaphor, but it is more than a metaphor. It is a description of the reality of the church. We are one. We are together. We rely on each other’s gifts. These gifts are not given indiscriminately but by God’s plan and intention, so that we would be strong and flourish. There is a principle from science which says “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. That is so true. When the body functions as a body, as a whole, truly miracles happen.
I have been so amazed at the outpouring of love for the people of Haiti. It truly is as though the world body feels the pain of Haiti and is rushing to help her. In 10 days we have billions of dollars in aid. The TV cameras, which are the eyes of the world body, bring us images of suffering which breaks our hearts. Tiny babies are born out under the sun because there is no roof on the hospital – or even a hospital. Eighty year old grandmas are dug out from the rubble of houses – saved by volunteers from China, Mexico, England or the U.S. We feel the pain of these people who truly are what Jesus would call the “least of these” in a country of the “least of these”. What a miracle! The Spirit has poured out God’s power on us and we are soaked in blessing. Soaked.
As a church we too responded. I was amazed at you, the body of Holy Communion Lutheran Church in Fallston. Even though we had just reviewed the fact that we still have a mortgage of $390,000, without batting an eyelash you gave $5,000 and another $600 out of your pockets in worship. Obviously, the Spirit moved you, but you did not hold back. We are modeling for our children – the future generation of the body of Christ, what it means to live in the Spirit and be Christ’s body. Thank you for being you.
St. Paul is saying to us this morning that we all count; we are all one. We are all critical to the health of the body. Our grounds are clean, beautiful and attractive. Their immaculate condition is a vital, integral part of our outreach. It says, “Come join us. We are expecting you. We’ve “gussied” up to welcome you. The greeters’ who met people at the door communicate welcome invitation and joy. When you see a newcomer and offer your hand during the peace or speak to them after the service and show interest in them you become the vanguard of the body of Christ here’s welcome. It is essential work. We are all one body in Christ. St. Paul says elsewhere “Let this mind be formed in you – the mind of Christ”.
Everyone here is essential to the body’s health. Whether you are singing in the choir, or teaching Sunday School, or trying to keep our peace during a time of controversy such as we are having over the inclusion of same sex oriented people, you are essential to the Body of Christ’s health here. Your listening to the Words of Christ, your trying to abide in peace and be ruled by a spirit of gentleness helps to make this body of Christ resemble the true Body of Christ. We are called to be an icon, an image of the living Jesus, who died yet, who rose and who still reigns with the Eternal God. Each of you count. Each is essential to God’s body and work here.
On Thursday I had lunch with Kathi Parris. We were planning the annual Companion Synod celebration. We are linked as a body of Christ in Maryland, to Lutheran Christians across the vast ocean in East Africa – the Tanzania Lutheran church’s Mara Diocese. Going over seas and forging a link with some Lutheran church body in the developing world had been on Kathi’s “bucket list” since she was a little girl. Probably in Sunday School or because a missionary spoke in her church, the seed was planted in Kathi that being a part of the worldwide church was a dream to pursue. Of course, this happened in the power of the Spirit.
In 2005 she went. God used the visit to sensitize her to the needs of the people of the Mara region. Being a nurse married to a doctor, she had a natural sensitivity to health care concerns. The Bunda Hospital serves hundreds of some of the poorest people on earth. She inspired us to fund well building projects there so that the people could have clean water. Clean water helps them stay healthy. We turn on a spigot, out it comes. They, if they don’t have a well, walk to a river two or three miles away. Our work by her in-spiration has significantly improved the lives of the Body of Christ in Tanzania. Kathi is going back soon to shepherd a sea container filled with hospital supplies through customs to make sure it’s contents get to Mara some 350 miles from the seaport.
At lunch, we laughed about how it’s a man’s world in Africa. She said, “The women do most of the work!” I’ve been there too. There are many, many reasons why the men have so many advantages but the gospel is helping to level the playing field. Inherent in our proclamation is Paul’s core teaching that in the body of Christ there is no slave nor free, no Greek nor Jew, no male nor female, no Haitian nor American but all are one in Christ Jesus. The church always upholds the vision of a just world order – it is integral to who we are. In the confirmation service we call upon each candidate to promise to “strive for justice in all the earth”. Through our proclamation and our witness as a body of Christ here in Fallston we are tying to make justice a reality for people half a world away.
So may you embrace the gifts that God has given you and use them to build up the Body we share here as the church in Fallston.
May you so believe that your gifts are integral to the health of the body here that you share those gifts freely.
And may you trust in the Spirit to enable you to use and give your gifts so that others are helped and you yourself are blessed.
Trust God; serve your Lord!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Who We Are