Waging Peace
“Waging Peace” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! This Sunday is a celebration of the invitation to be the body of Christ. This is an invitation which is issued every time we are gathered for worship, for meetings, for activities, for fellowship, or for prayer, but this is a good day to make that invitation clear and explicit. Today we gather not only to BE to the body of Christ, but to SHARE the body of Christ in the bread and cup of communion. And I want to remind you today that the body of Christ is bigger than me or you or Creekside or N Indiana or the Church of the Brethren. We have opportunities to experience the body of Christ in all those settings, but the body of Christ is bigger than that — exponentially bigger. Some of you have experienced Christ’s body in travel or service work; in Haiti, Nigeria, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, South Africa and elsewhere; places or cultures which may be represented by some of the clothing which you are wearing. The body of Christ is wherever Christ is present: in the believers who gather, but also in the prayers which we share. When we pray for people in N Carolina, and the way homes and communities have been displaced or destroyed, the body of Christ is there — even before the support of Children’s Disaster Services or Brethren Disaster Ministries arrives. When we pray for peace in Gaza and the Middle East, we are connecting people — likely people we don’t know and may never meet — to the body of Christ. Prayer is a statement that our welfare is bound up with that of other people, and when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.
In case you haven’t caught Scott Harney’s Board reports in the Connection newsletter for the past, I don’t know, five months or so, he has picked up this phrase, “The great thing about the body of Christ is that no one has to do everything; but a reality of the body of Christ is that everybody has to do something.” Your presence here today, either in-person or on-line is doing something. Thank you for showing up for yourself and for other members of the body. This work wouldn’t work if everyone chose to be an appendix. The appendix doesn’t serve a functional purpose for the body. It doesn’t lift, move, filter, or digest anything. Really, it only gets noticed when it gets infected, and especially if it ruptures and endangers the whole body. I’ll try not to beat the metaphor to death, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this. There is plenty of suffering which comes from outside of the body in the form of natural disaster, war, or other violence — we need to tend to the health of the body so we are strong enough to withstand trouble from outside of us, and so we do not succumb to the sickness within. We each part of the body functions well, the entire body is stronger.
The Apostle Paul was no stranger to this phenomenon. He established, fostered, and wrote to newly formed communities of Christians all around the Mediterranean, including the church at Ephesus. His writing shows that although the story of Jesus Christ and his life and death and resurrection was powerful and compelling, it was often matters of identity and culture which threatened to tear communities apart. What dietary laws we follow, how rich people treat folks who are poor, who can speak in worship, and who has the most valuable spiritual gifts. There was bound to be suspicion and competition when different cultures collided. In Ephesians 4, Paul is doing his best to tell these different groups to “make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Paul reminds them that their unity lies beyond themselves — beyond country, ethnicity, culture — their unity is on Lord, one hope, one baptism, one God and Father of all: it is that identity which makes us one body and one Spirit. The church has been striving for that unity ever since; and not always with much success. This unity does not erase the diversity of ethnicity and culture which is found a cross the human family, but it asserts that our connections to one another are more important than those differences.
Sometimes it takes a crisis to remind us what binds us together: I think of the outpouring of support for the EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria after the kidnapping of schoolgirls in 2013 and the bonds of peace which have been intentionally built by EYN churches and their Muslim neighbors because of that crisis. I have been inspired by stories I have heard and seen from N Carolina of relief efforts, often led by churches, in the wake of the terrible flooding from Hurricane Helene. When your home has been destroyed, it doesn’t matter what church you go to, if you go to church at all, or who you’re planning to vote for in November. Although the situation may be terrible, I find hope in the ways that people reach out to help in whatever ways they can: it gives me faith that we can find ways to work for a common purpose when our lives depend on it. The challenge is to find the will to work for a common purpose when the debris is cleared away, the water is running again, and the power is back on. Can we keep sharing our gifts to build up the body for the glory of God and our neighbor’s good?Friends, we have been given an invitation today. I am not the host who has invited you, but it is my honor to pass the invitation along. The invitation is for everyone — not just those participating in this service. A similar invitation is going out from pastors and preachers and priests in many countries, representing many Christian traditions. The bread may be different — ours is XX; the cup may be wine or juice — ours is grape juice — or maybe something else. There will be variations in who can participate: adults, children, only members of that particular faith tradition. At Creekside, anyone who has committed themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ and is in harmony with God and neighbor is invited to the Lord’s table. Those are not low bars to clear. Committing ourselves to Christ and being in harmony with God and neighbor are what makes us into the body of Christ, It means everybody for the body. Not for yourself, not for your tribe, not for your identity or culture, but for the body of Christ, I hope you can accept this invitation joyfully, but please do not take it lightly. It comes at the cost of Christ’s broken body and blood, and coming to this table means a commitment to Christ and each other.