Sunday, October 6, 2019

One Bread, One Body


What do cats and kids have in common?  If you give them something shiny and new, and it comes in a big box, they're both going to play in the box.

At some point in time they may come back to whatever was in the box, but they both love those simple cardboard boxes.  And that's okay.  At this point in their lives they haven't bought into the pervasive lie that we tell.

The lie, that often we don't say but we live, is that we have to have all the right things.  We have to buy all the right presents, and if we take a picture of ourselves, then we have to put the right filter on it.  We wouldn't want anything to show any bit of imperfection.  And we take it farther when we work to game the system.  Its easy to find study guides, tutors, and test prep courses to make sure that you are "guaranteed" to do well on whatever test you take....regardless of if you actually know the material.

But all of that is a lot of work, and takes a lot of time and effort. Do you know what we need a lot of times? We need that simple cardboard box.  It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, or the shiniest, but it may be what we need.  We don't always need the biggest and fanciest, and that's okay too. Both the big and the shiny, and the simple box serve a purpose.

Over the last few posts, we've been looking at how we expand our community. One of the most important parts of that is something that we haven't talked about.  That is the one key thing that makes expanding our community work.  That's authenticity.  We live in a world that revolves around the appearances that we put forward. What catches people's attention, and catches them off guard, is someone who isn't putting forward fake appearances.

What makes up that authenticity is first humility.  That is the ability to say, and share, that we don't always have the right answers. Its the ability to do away with the filters we try to put on our lives to look good.  Its a refreshing experience to meet someone, or a group of people, who aren't trying to tell a story different from who they are.

The second pieces that comes with authenticity is freedom. Freedom comes when we don't have to be the things that we aren't, and we aren't working so hard to maintain appearances that we don't have. This freedom also lets other people in.  When we are working so hard to maintain appearances, we make it hard for others to get to know us, or even work with us on anything. To let people in means to let people in behind the curtain, and that can be difficult. 

My wife Emily and I have jokingly said, and its kind of our unofficial motto, that life is a team sport. I don't have all the answers, and she doesn't have all the answers, but together we have far more of them. This is more than even the addition of my answers and hers.  When we come together, we are more than the sum of our parts.  But to get there successfully, we have to let go of the filters.



In Romans, Paul is laying out that we are in this together. We live life better together than on our own. We can be ourselves, more completely, when we do it together.



Pay special attention to this verse out of Romans 12.  Sometimes we may say that we've been given gifts in different measure. We may not have all of one thing, or anything, but we'll have parts of many different gifts.  That's okay, and that's how it is supposed to work.

This is what makes us a community of faith. Sometimes that means that we're the shiny new thing in the box.  Sometimes we are the most important thing, because our gifts are what is needed in the moment.  Sometimes, though, we're the box.  We aren't shiny or flashy, but we're important anyway.  Both are necessary for the success of our community.

It's not about which we are at any given point in time, but it's about how we are being used and how we are living life that counts the most.

All of our pieces together are what makes things work. When we gather as one body, as one community in Jesus Christ, then we are good!



Remember what Jesus does with his disciples. At the Last Supper, Jesus could have started with the best bread, made from the finest wheat, baked in the best oven, kneaded by the most recent winner of the Great British Baking Show!

Just like he could have started with the best leaders, who were some of the most faithful and religious people ever. He could have started with the folks that were like the prophets, and judges, and the great kings of Ancient Israel.

But Jesus started with the simple, cheap sandwich bread that we sometimes call mattress stuffing. Just like he started with fishermen and tax collectors.

Jesus could have started with the finest wine, made from the best grapes, or even with water that he turned into the finest wine. Just like he could have started his message in the temple, or the best synagogues is Israel, but instead he started with the equivalent of a bottle of Best Choice Grape Juice.

What's important is not where they are starting.  What's important is how Jesus is bringing all of those pieces together.  When he lifts them up, they become something more than they were before.  They become more than just the sum of their parts.

This is what Jesus is doing in us, and in our community as we expand into it.  Jesus is building God’s Kingdom all around us.  We can see it as all of these pieces that are brought together and made into something more than what they could be on their own.  Jesus makes them holy, not because they start that way, but because he makes them that way by lifting them up.

Go out, live your life as a part of the community Jesus is building, and be lifted up by him, Amen.

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