OK, so I'm stuck on this food kick. It's not my fault: it's there in scripture. Two weeks ago, we were slaking our thirst with Jesus' water of life. Last week, 5 barley loaves and 2 fish were feeding 5,000+. This week, Jesus is bread. Good, tasty bread--after eating it, we will hunger no more. (John 6:24-35)
Which is party of what makes me think Jesus must have been on the annual Bazaar committee. We're talking the Bake Sale of all time...
AND, then, to take it further, Paul gives us knitting lessons. (Ephesians 4:1-16)
OK, so the passage is not about knitting potholders (useful though they be), but about the church--the BODY OF CHRIST--being "knit together" by all us people with our varied gifts.
Which is why I have an affection for church bazaars--they seem to have space for all of the strange and wonderful creative gifts folks have. (I did not, you'll note, call our gifts "bizarre," which has entirely different root origins that the "bazaar...")
I treasure that church is a place where we come together with folks who are different from ourselves--folks we'd likely never choose to hang out with. And, we're asked to knit ourselves into an image of Christ's body. We're asked to see Christ in each other, and to work together to share Christ with the world. Bizarre, indeed...
Today, reading the paper, I was reminded yet again of how desperately our culture needs to hear Christian voices that look more like our bizarre bazaar. Two things seems especially beautiful about this week's scripture: Jesus' bread seems to come with no risk that it'll run out--this is salvation abundant enough for everyone. And, this work we're called to will take all of us--so there's no sense wasting our time figuring out who is best or most right. Rather, we should let Christ build us up together.
What do you think that would look like?
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