Last time we had communion at Grace, I
observed a small incident that immediately took my mind back nine years.
All the bread portions had been passed to
members of the congregation, and the deacons were standing at the front with
bowed heads while someone prayed. After the prayer, all sat down except one,
who still stood with head bowed. A brother deacon gently tweaked this man’s
pants leg, and he hurriedly had a seat. It was a lovely moment in my eyes—just one
person helping another in the everyday ups and downs of life.
So I looked up a post from a long-ago
September. I hope you won’t mind that I’m using the story again, but the lesson
is still an important one. I decided to eliminate some names to keep the story
relevant.
(September
20, 2010) On a recent Sunday morning at Grace, we experienced one of those
delightfully unplanned but memorable moments. It was just a little accident
that was quickly cleaned up, but it provided an object lesson that I keep
thinking about.
One
of our men had gotten up to make an announcement about a Wednesday evening
class. In his excitement, he knocked over the cup of water that sits on the
podium for the pastor to sip when he gets a dry throat or a tickle during the
sermon. Everyone laughed, the speaker sat down, and to a casual observer, that
might have been the end of the story. However, during the prayer that followed,
I opened my eyes and raised my head just enough to see one of the ushers with a
handful of paper towels swabbing the carpet and wiping down the side of the
podium. After prayer, while the offering plates were passed, someone delivered
a fresh cup of water to the pastor, who set it back in its now dry place.
Don't you love it?! This is the way the body of Christ is supposed to work. Each person does his or her part, and the service continues. No one asks for special recognition or praise, but just does what needs to be done. It's the same thing that happens when a family works around and beside one another to cook a meal or when a group of athletes operates as if they shared a brain in their several bodies. The experience is sweet harmony and the results are delicious or victorious, as the case may be.
On that Sunday morning, Pastor Euler mentioned the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He remarked that the problem in "one little place" had disrupted the whole ecosystem of the gulf. It was a passing remark in a discussion about a different topic, but it fit right in with the water spill in my mind and illustrated for me how badly things go awry when some part of the system isn't working correctly.
The apostle Paul has a lot to say about the body of Christ. In First Corinthians 12, he reminds Christians that we each have a role to fulfill. "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." I so enjoy being part of the body of Christ on earth, and especially love the body at Grace. I want to remember to do my part so that everything works as it should. Let us pray for one another and look for ways to "care one for another" in the body.
Don't you love it?! This is the way the body of Christ is supposed to work. Each person does his or her part, and the service continues. No one asks for special recognition or praise, but just does what needs to be done. It's the same thing that happens when a family works around and beside one another to cook a meal or when a group of athletes operates as if they shared a brain in their several bodies. The experience is sweet harmony and the results are delicious or victorious, as the case may be.
On that Sunday morning, Pastor Euler mentioned the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He remarked that the problem in "one little place" had disrupted the whole ecosystem of the gulf. It was a passing remark in a discussion about a different topic, but it fit right in with the water spill in my mind and illustrated for me how badly things go awry when some part of the system isn't working correctly.
The apostle Paul has a lot to say about the body of Christ. In First Corinthians 12, he reminds Christians that we each have a role to fulfill. "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." I so enjoy being part of the body of Christ on earth, and especially love the body at Grace. I want to remember to do my part so that everything works as it should. Let us pray for one another and look for ways to "care one for another" in the body.
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