Later this afternoon we are taking off on a week long vacation (Note - I will not be posting anything during this time). It is our annual post-Easter vacation and we are all looking forward to a little time away.
So today I thought I would leave you with a couple of things to ponder while I am off.
1 - In the resurrection story Jesus tells Mary to "Not hold on to him." When Mary saw the risen Lord, she may have assumed that everything was going to go back to the way it was before he died, but Jesus says no - everything is different now. How is your life different knowing that sin and death have no hold over you? What does this mean for how you live out your life?
2 - The church is not a building or a place you go, but rather the church is who you are - a member of the Body of Christ. When you are out in the world, do people know that you are a part of this body by the way you act?
Have fun this week, talk to you all when I get back.
1 comment:
I would like to speak to the issue of the church is not a building, but the church is PEOPLE, the Body of Christ, out there, in the community, doing Christ's work.
During the five months since I began the Lay Ministry courses, I have come to understand more about myself, about the Holy Spirit, and about what present-day "Church" should be about. We are not a parish that "moves on its stomach," (as we have been told), and therefore need to have a renovated kitchen rather than a revitalized sanctuary --- a sanctuary revitalized in order to create a more spiritually armed congregation, a more enlightened and inspired people.
I don't want to hear about how "pretty" the new kitchen is. I want to hear about what outreach efforts are going to come OUT OF that new kitchen. This community has the largest precentage of unemployed people in the STATE. Are we going to use that new kitchen to prepare needed meals for the hungry of this community, or are we going to sit back, admire how "pretty" it is, and worry about paying the debt for the renovation?
A woman in my Lay Ministry classes comes from a parish in Baraboo. She is a retired RN. For the past four years, she has been a member of a team from her parish who has taken a week during the summer months to go down to the Florida Keys to rebuild homes and help those made destitute by hurricanes. This year, they are not going. Why? Because the congregation voted to CEASE that MISSION until their debts are paid.
You know, the bracelets with the letters, WWJD, 'What would Jesus do?' Would Jesus stop mission until there was no debt? I think not.
What is my friend the RN doing, now that her own church has stopped MISSION? She is going over to the Episcopal church in town, where they are still doing MISSION, feeding the hungry in Baraboo.
What can the Body of Christ, the members of Our Savior's, do that Jesus would do? Just look around you. There are answers.
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