St. Paul's Episcopal Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave SW
Canton, Ohio 44702
Phone: 330-455-0286
Fax: 330-455-9818
E-mail: office@stpaulscanton.org

3 Epiphany
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Canton OH
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

January 24, 2010
The Rev. Barbara L Bond

Community

Yesterday morning, Elizabeth Mapp and I joined about 20 little girls to play dolls. Well, not quite, but Elizabeth and I have a special ministry to make history palatable to little girls at the Madge Youtz library, using the American Girl historical dolls. Yesterday we were talking about the Indian doll, whose historical period is 1764. The character is a Native American girl, from the Nez Perce tribe, living about 250 years ago. We stressed to the girls that the Indians lived in close community – that all work and effort in the tribe was for the common good. All the tribe members worked at hunting and gathering food that was shared by everyone. When a tribal child misbehaved, all the tribe’s children were punished together, as a reminder of their responsibility to the whole group. For American children of today, this can be a startling concept. We learned about community effort a little later in the morning, when we tried to do a craft project. Attempting to make model teepees, we discovered that we couldn’t make them alone. Everyone needed help to get the project together, and improvements on the design emerged from helpful participants. We didn’t just hear about community – we experienced it!

We Americans pride ourselves on our self-reliance and independence. We used to hear the phrase “the self-made man,” implying that the man in question made his own way in the world and accomplished his success all by himself. This, of course, is ridiculous – no one lives by his or her own efforts alone. But perhaps we do not always acknowledge how important the help of others is to our lives.

Two of our readings today stress the importance of community. In the first reading, we have a dramatic scene. The Jews have just come home from exile in Babylon, which was a pretty shattering experience for them. Away from their homeland for 50 years, they attempted to keep their Jewish identity in a foreign land. When they came home, they had to deal with the destruction of their land and the disarray of their lives. They gathered together under the priest Ezra to hear the code of law, to hear about who they were and about their long history. Their leaders explained the Word of God to them, and the people were so moved that they wept. The leaders concluded: “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord.” How lovely. They were told that the day was holy, and therefore they should celebrate, and please include everyone, sharing with those who have nothing. They were reestablishing their community, through Word and example.

Fast forward about five hundred years. In Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he has noticed a certain disarray in this early Christian community, and he urges them to think of themselves as indispensible to each other. Paul uses a wonderful metaphor for community – namely, the human body. Look at your own body, he tells the Corinthians – isn’t it a marvelous creation? Just look at all the parts, and how well they all work together – your eyes, your ears, your hands, your legs, your internal organs – as the Psalmist has written, we are marvelously made! Then Paul makes a leap – from the human body to the body of Christ. The Risen Christ is with the early church as the church itself – Christ’s Body IS the church. And like a human body, the church is made up of many different parts and functions. We need everyone, doing what they can contribute, to build up the whole community, says Paul. Some of you are teachers, some prophets, some apostles, some are healers, some are leaders, some speak in tongues. Isn’t the variety of gifts just marvelous! We need all of you! This Body of Christ would be incomplete without all these different gifts.

As would this one. This Body of Christ, St. Paul’s in Canton, is a community of diverse gifts. We have teachers, prophets, apostles, healers, leaders, and maybe some of you speak in tongues. You certainly have opinions! You are generous, looking out for the common good. You feed each other, you care for each other. You gather here to hear the Word and the interpretation of the Word, and to worship together and experience the Lord’s presence in Word and Sacrament. You gather in smaller groups to learn, to discuss, to expand your understanding, and to learn from each other. Last Sunday we gathered at our Annual Meeting to hear the state of our church: how is the health of our Body? How can we help our community to become stronger? How can our various individual gifts work for the common good?

We are blessed by everyone’s participation in this community. Our community changes, transforms, with each new addition – almost like a kaleidoscope, each addition changes the picture, each shift makes a different arrangement of light and color, offering us new possibilities, ministries we never thought about before. God is revealing God’s self to us constantly as we gather in God’s name. Every week we discover a bit more of God’s kingdom, right here. Every week we see more possibilities for spreading the joy of our community outside our doors. “Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever.” (Ephesians 3:20, 21) Amen.