The Whole Body Grows

For some reason, Kileen (a swimming coach) and I have been watching mostly the swim races during the Olympics. We could talk about the amazing feats of the individual athletes like Katie Ledecky and forget about the community of people behind the scenes that helped them get there. We could talk about 58 year old Zhiying Zeng who made her Olympic debut in table tennis, or ping pong. We could talk about the opening which many citizens of our nation were offended because they didn't know the history of the Olympics and Greek mythology. And then were offended again to find out that Christianity wasn't at the center of the world games that preceded Christianity by 8 centuries. Let us talk about the hundreds of athletes who are the best from their countries who compete at the highest level and whether they win or lose, they congratulate and console each other, showing how to be humble and how to be compassionate and loving their neighbor. The love and respect and camaraderie among the athletes is truly a joy to behold.

For far too long, most denominations of churches, including ours, have put a premium on numbers. How many numbers are in the worship service each Sunday, how many members or families does the church have, what is the budget? As a career minister, I often pay attention to those more than I should. What we should be focusing on more is how we are following in the footsteps of Christ, where is the Spirit leading us in this day, this week, or this year? The questions we should be focusing on more is who is our neighbor and how can we help, and how is God asking us to grow?

Paul writes in this letter using the word, "one", in verses four through six, seven times. He emphasizes that we are one, in God we are one, and there is no separate categories. Paul often gets characterized as misogynic as there are verses in his letters that denigrate women. However, he is talking about both men and women in saying that we are all part of one body in these verses. I would like to take us back to the beginning here in the two creation stories of Genesis. In the first poem of the seven day creation story, humans are created together, male and female, with no distinction. In the second creation story centering in the Garden of Eden, to find a helper, the human is put to sleep. The word that has been translated from Hebrew, miṣ·ṣal·‘ō·ṯāw,, for generations has been referred to as a rib. However, in all other instances where that word is used in the Bible, it has been meant half. So instead of man being put to sleep and, using a rib, woman was created; the human was put to sleep and man and woman were created, fully half of each other. Paul, here, is talking about both men and women that: 'some are called to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of minister, building up the body of Christ.'

In a country which has more people identifying themselves as non-religious than any faith community, it is important that we continue to grow in our love of neighbor and of God. It is necessary for us to be able to show and articulate why worshiping and following and loving a God who we claim as creator and sustainer is a good foundation upon which to build our lives. We do this not so people can go to heaven, but that the world may realize the kingdom of heaven that is present and growing. Paul writes to the churches in Asia Minor not to be swayed by every new doctrine and thought. We hold fast in covenant to a relationship with God, Jesus, and the Spirit. We hold fast to a covenant to a relationship with each other, with all humanity, and with all the world. Just as the Olympic athletes train and grow for their events, we, as Christians, train and grow for the events that we require us to do justice, to heal and be compassionate, and proclaim the good news of God's great love for the world.

Let us continue to grow as a church in our faith, our ministries, our evangelism, and in our following of Christ through prayer, worship, and service. Let us hold fast to the God of love. Amen.

A Tale of Two Females

In a book called, "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs, he tried to follow all 435 commands found in the Torah or Pentateuch. One of those commands was that you couldn't touch a woman while she was having her period so he wouldn't hug, kiss, or hold the hand of his wife during her cycle. She learned that he couldn't sit where she sat, so when she became frustrated with him she would sit on every piece of furniture in the house so he would have to stand or sit on the floor the whole day. We don't know what kind of hemorrhaging this woman in the crowd was suffering, but for her to be so afraid of Jesus and the crowd that she didn't ask for healing, but just touched his cloak and had faith that she would be made well, we have to assume that she has spent twelve long years not being able to hug, kiss, or hold hands with her family and friends. This physical and social isolation seems to be more damaging as she persisted with this illness for twelve ...

Do not be Afraid!

There is a plan for the future of this country that is posed to be a '2nd American Revolution.' It is called, "Project 2025." The authors of this 91 page plan are mostly former staffers of the last President and the Heritage Foundation. It is so bad that as the word is getting out about it the actions that are set to be taken, even the current Republican Presidential candidate is trying to put some distance from it, because he knows he can't sell it. The highlights are taking away abortions and contraceptives for all our nation, getting rid of marriage equality, allowing the President to fire any government employee and put in their place someone whose only qualification is loyalty to the President, and getting rid of the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. Basically to turn our Democracy into an authoritarian regime ruled by the oligarchy. We, as a church, are not supposed to be dipping our toes into politics for the most part. We ...

Selling Out

Last Fall, I read a book called, "A History of Burning." It is a multi-generational story about a family that migrates from India to Uganda for hopes for a better future to help the British build a railroad, whose children through education secures a government job, but then Uganda throws off their colonial oppressors and gains independence and turns against the Indians who live there, and they have to migrate again and start all over in Toronto, Canada. It is a sad story of colonial power of the British Empire bringing in foreign cheap labor to build their infrastructure that leaves out the local population. And once Uganda gets independence, the corporations still control much of the economy and fosters division between the Ugandans and Indian to keep the country unstable. It is a triumphant story of human determination in the face of adversity, but only a few make it. One of the first paragraphs in a Wikipedia search about Africa told me that Africa is politically unstab...

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