One experience many of us had as children is now fading
away. You knew something important was
happening in your home when you put a leaf in the dining table. Someone, not busy in the kitchen, would be
recruited to find the extra leaf: in a closet, or under the bed, or under the
table itself and get it ready. They you
unlock the handle and pull the table apart.
One or two leaves were added depending on how many extra you were
expecting. And you had to watch your
fingers. It might be a holiday like Thanksgiving or Mother’s Day or Memorial
Day. It could a family reunion, a
birthday, or graduation, or weddings, or an anniversary. Or it might be for before or after a funeral
when neighbors and church people started bringing in angel food cakes or green Jello
salad with nuts or grated carrots on top.
Think of all the moms and dads that did extra work at these
occasions. Now we just go out to eat. The leaf in the table was a good and special
event in the life of a family. It
symbolized both… ONENESS AND THE WELCOMING OF OTHERS.
Around the table communication takes
place…nurturing….listening…caring. It is
where we get fed and get fed spiritually.
TABLES GIVE GOD THE CHANCE TO FEED US SPIRITUALLY AND HELP US BECOME
ONE.
JESUS IS PRAYING THAT ALL BE ONE…ALL BELIEVERS
In a way that is what we are doing as we consider a building
addition. It our belief that the Holy
Spirit has worked among, in our hearts, and minds and said to us: “You are one
and now it is time to add another leaf SO OTHERS CAN BE A PART OF THAT ONENESS.
I thought of this scripture as some of got to feast together
last Sunday following worship. We went
to Pottorff Hall because in this building we did not have the space. 140 persons do not fit there. I would like for us to first thank the
Celebration Team headed by Carol Shanklin.
Her team members were Chris Shanklin, Becca Dale, Hannah Norsworthy,
Holly Pishney, Holly’s mom, and Larry Shanklin.
At the church, Jennifer Shanklin headed up the team. Room to Bloom – amazing music, decorations,
food. The music was great…the
cupcakes…the decoration. But the most
amazing of all was the spirit of oneness and joy. I do not know when I have been at a more
joyful event. The purpose of such a hall
is for fellowship and we did have it in abundance. And special diets were taken care of with
professional finesse.
We ate together with glad and generous hearts. The team that put that event together, did so
with generous hearts and sacrifice. If
we read the book of Acts see generous as the word that describes the nature of
God. In Acts we see developing picture
of a community that is taking on that characteristic of God by sharing what
they have, especially food. The
disciples were taking on the ministry of feeding. A meal together feeds us and feeds us
spiritually. Day by day the disciples
who were fed by Jesus were taking their place in the divine ministry of
feeding. One clear goal of a church’s
ministry is adding leaves to the table.
If you look at the life of Jesus and the look at the whole
book of Acts, you will see that a great deal of ministry and fellowship took
place around the table. Even the Last
Supper, a ministry of feeding. At the
end of his ministry, he was thinking of what he had accomplished: no book, no Ph.D., a bad reputation, no
children or immediate family, no accumulated wealth, no property, and the
disciples arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus’ heavy duty prayer was for them and us,
on the eve of his death. He was thinking
of the disciples (including us) in the middle of all his anguish of his
moment. Can you think about what he must
have been thinking?
And yet, he is stating here what God wants, knowing he will
not be around to see it happen. He sees
that the most essential thing of all is unity.
"Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can
get there unless everybody gets there."
- Virginia Burden Tower
Jesus fed the disciples and when he rose again, they were
back eating together and putting another leaf in the table. You and I would not be here today if someone
had not invited us and put another leaf in for us.
In his book, Church: Community for the Kingdom, John
Fuellenbach asserts,
“Only the community can provide the atmosphere, the concern,
the mutual love, and the experience of the Christ risen and alive that will
enable the disciple to live true discipleship in the world.” Outside of the community we cannot live
discipleship.” It takes a village to
raise a child and it takes a faith community and tables to raise a Christian.
It is certainly true that the world is being brought
together by computers and phones…in some good ways and in some not so good
ways. We were shocked this week that a
few computers could steal 45 million dollars from ATM machines. We were shocked this week to see members of
one group within a faith family screaming at another group regarding who could
pray and sing about their faith. Our
Christian denominations are often no better, so obsessed with defining our
church as different from another church.
The path to peace will never come when we demand there is only one way
of thinking. It is better to be together
than be right all the time. God can give
us the certainty inside that gives us the strength that gives up on having to
have our own way. You can be vulnerable
and can even give up the preoccupation with trying to fix your own security.
I learned a great deal of history from the perspective
Western white men. I am so glad that I
grew up in a time when I was allowed to discover Black history, Women’s
History, India’s history, Islamic History, African History, Native American
History, Latino History, and the history of mothers. What holds us together in faith, hope, and
love is the Holy Spirit who binds us together.
Unity is that the binding force is the work of God. The characteristic of God we see in the
Spirit is self-sacrificial love and singleness of purpose. We see Jesus act that out on the cross.
On the cross Jesus lived out a non-violent confrontation
with the forces of evil. The sacrificial
nature of the unifying spirit which Jesus shares with God and us radically
changes the world. Jesus is God’s power
shared with the earth…this is who we are.
Jesus came to enable us to establish a community of love
that holds us all together. Instead of
glorifying our selves we are here to glorify God and we do that showing the
world that the truest glories of life are around love….self-sacrificial love.
Do you feel in this prayer of Jesus to focus on the
future. Our “with-God” life is not yet all
that God intends. There is so much
uniqueness about this church.
Part of this certainty is a realization that life does not
have to perfect to be good. There is
great joy in knowing life is good. This
does not mean that we settle for good enough in that we get lazy or
complacent. It means that we give up on
being perfect and start going on to perfection, living fully. We are always unfinished until heaven…and
always growing. And churches are places
giving people room to bloom.
ALL THROUGH THE PRAYER YOU FEEL HOW MUCH JESUS CARES
Caring is the only power that never used up. In fact it grows through practice and using
it. Caring is the only things that opens
up the depth of life. It is discovering
the true meaning of life. When we care
we know this is who we were meant to be and what we were meant to do, even when
it is hard or unpleasant.
We have recently been deeply disturbed and puzzled by the
depths of evil. How two young men could
so twisted in their thinking that they killed people with bombs. How can
it be that they had so much potential misguided? God made each of us totally unique. We really have no need to be like
others. If I tried to be like you….who
would be me?
Caring frees me to be who God made me and it requires
commitment and sacrifice.
We become who God made us to be in the reaching out to
others. A caring person is not in any
race to catch up with or be ahead of anyone else. A caring person does not base their life on
the opinions of others but on the commitment to be free and responsible.
Descartes, make the statement: “I think, therefore I am.” Looking at Jesus, I can think of one
better: “I care, therefore I am.” I believe that is what defines spiritual
existence. If it is trouble to care, it
is much more trouble not to care. Life
is an extraordinary gift that is experienced in caring for others and with
others.
Another way to look at this is a strange math. One + one + one = ONE. Jesus + God + Holy Spirit = ONE. One + one + one + one = ONE. Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit and each of us =
One. And you can add ALL the “ones” in
the world and it is always ONE. Thanks
be to God!
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