If We Are the Body

Maybe, just maybe, the essence of God smells a little like the orange fragrance of Murphy Oil Soap.

In August, I was my church's lay delegate to the Unifying Conference for the Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church. It was the final process for joining the Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska conferences into one Great Plains Conference as of January 1. We slogged our way through 154 pages of a Plan of Organization. Who knew that the kind of insulation used or the number of GFI outlets available in parsonages would spark such debate? (Not me! I didn't even know what a GFI outlet was until I got there!)

But, tucked in the minutia of parliamentary procedural amendments and votes, the 1,700 conference delegates had the opportunity to Serve Salina. More than 1,000 of us accepted the challenge. Projects included yard and groundwork, minor home repairs, helping the elderly or disabled, sorting food and supplies at pantries and working with children. In all, volunteers completed 50 service projects for individuals, families and nonprofit organizations throughout Salina.

I was among those sent to the Saline County Commission on Aging, which occupies the 103-year-old former Saline County Courthouse. It has soaring ceilings and rich wood trims surrounding beveled glass windows and marble walls. The county allows the Commission on Aging to use the building for a nomimal charge, but they don't have the staff to do deep cleaning projects. They are too busy making a difference in the lives of the aging in the county through program like Meals on Wheels, the Older Kansans Employment Program or Live At Home Solutions.

So there we were - armed with rags and Windex and Murphy Oil Soap - and bolstered by a common cause. Our Serve Salina t-shirts got a little sweaty as we got on our hands and knees or climbed ladders to clean - me a lay delegate from a farm in South Central Kansas and another woman from metropolitan Lincoln. There were pastors who serve the big congregations of Wichita and some who preach at three little churches in rural Nebraska each Sunday morning. Big or small, laity or preacher - we were all trying to make a difference in some small way. 

As I started at the bottom of a wrought iron stair rail and worked up and a lady from Agra started at the top and worked down, I was struck by the symbolism. We could have sat in the air-conditioned Salina Bicentennial Center and stuck to the business of approving mission statements and vision statements. But what's the use of a mission statement without some hands and feet to put it into action? That would be about as effective as hanging a rag over a staircase and hoping it would miraculously get dusted. 

Saline County Commission on Aging and related programs, whose offices occupy the structure. - See more at: http://salina.com/search/Old-courthouse-tour-091310#sthash.T7iXqQsV.dpuf

How do we live out the mission statement of "making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?" Sometimes, it's overwhelming. When you're at the bottom of the hill - or the bottom of a three-level staircase - and staring upwards, it's hard to see the end goal. Likewise, in a world where people are more likely to follow a celebrity on Twitter or check their status on Facebook than they are to attend church on Sunday morning or read the Bible each day, "making disciples" is an uphill climb.

But the only way to finish is to start. You have to get into the nooks and crannies and do the work - one detail and one step at a time.

 

At our evening worship service, organizers showed a video that featured several of the volunteer projects completed during our afternoon of service. Maybe this particular "cleaning volunteer" was a little envious that some of the other volunteers got to experience smiles and laughter while playing with children at a day care center or watched as a Mother walked away from a pantry with a newly-packed box of food so she could feed her children for another week.

But, there's something to be said for dusting, too. After all, Jesus did his own version of "dusting" before He went to the Cross. Jesus was having a final meal with his disciples in the Upper Room. But no one volunteered to clean the dusty feet of the disciples.  Until Jesus…

Jesus “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.”  (John 13:4-5)  ... Jesus said: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:14)

See? Sometimes Love itself comes by washing away a little dust. It may even come when you're comparing the virtues of furniture polish brands with ladies who've come to the Senior Center for an afternoon game of pool. We may be rubbing out apathy and instead shining on compassion as effectively as that bottle of Windex and paper towel takes away grime from a streaked window.

As we ended our work at the Senior Center, a pastor asked the center's director to stand in the middle of a circle. We built our circle from the inside out, each of us grasping the shoulder of another, as we prayed for the ministry offered by the director and her staff and for the people who walk through the doors each day.

Later, I thought about all those hands and hearts joined together in work and prayer. I've always heard there's no "I" in team. It's a favorite saying of coaches. I found it somewhat ironic that I personally was part of an "i" in a banner that decorated the Bicentennial Center. The banner used the photos of every delegate and every pastor who had come together for the Unifying Conference. My face happened to fall in the "dot" of the "i" in the word, "Plains."

In this instance, I'd have to say there was an "i" in "team." And in all the other letters, too.

And, yes, there was the essence of Christ Himself in that orange-scented fragrance of cleaning supplies and in the many hands that picked them up that day ... or helped a nursing home patient clap their hands to a praise song ... or skipped down a sidewalk with a laughing child.

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Teresa of Avila

A Casting Crowns song called, "If We Are the Body," says, in part:

If we are the body

Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way.



There IS a way.

***

How about brightening the day of a grieving family, a shut-in or a neighbor with a special gift from your kitchen? This Monster Cookie Bar recipe uses a sheet cake pan, so there will be more than enough to go around. And who isn't cheered up by M&Ms!

Monster Cookie Bars

Or, maybe you still have zucchini in your garden. Make Banana Zucchini Bread into mini loaves or muffins and share them.

Low-Fat Banana Zucchini Bread (or Muffins)

Ambassadors for Christ

The tattered flag whipped in the wind as the cowgirl and her horse barreled across the rodeo arena. Surely they could have found a better flag for the pomp and circumstance of an all-American, small town rodeo than this old, threadbare flag ready for retirement, I thought to myself.

But then the rodeo announcer began reading the words to Johnny Cash's The Ragged Old Flag. Like the flag in that classic poem, the flag at the Stafford Rodeo ceremony had waved red, white and blue through years of service, beaten by the Kansas wind and baked in the summer sun. And still, it remained a symbol for those gathered with hands over hearts in small town U.S.A.

Then a new rider and a new flag entered the arena. The familiar melody of The Star-Spangled Banner played, and people joined together in singing the national anthem, most straining to reach the notes in the upper register. 

With our Independence Day celebrations this month, we'll break out the barbecue, serve up the potato salad and light the fireworks to show our patriotism, our theme for Lovely Branches Ministry this month.

As I was thinking about patriotism, a friend posted a status update one morning as a response to Facebook's inquiry, "What's on your mind?" Lori Alvarado was a student intern at The Hutchinson News back when I was the Focus editor there. After seeing her status, I asked if I could share her thoughts, which she compiled during her personal devotional time. It made me think about "patriotism" in a new way:

What's on my mind? Well. . . . .I am an ambassador. I live in a foreign land. I represent a strong power. I carry a powerful message representing an absolute ruler. I am protected and valued. This world is not my home and the power I represent is the strongest power in the universe, Jesus Christ. The message I carry involves believing in Christ through faith. I am protected by Him, knowing I have eternal life, and I am valued enough that He gave His very life for me. Ambassadors plead with leaders of the countries in which they work to take a stand. That's what we do--we carry His message, pleading with others to take a stand for Christ.

U.S. Ambassadors are denoted by our country's flag that flies at their residence or on the car in which the ambassador rides. That prompts me to ask. . . . As Christ's ambassador, would people know who I represent? By my actions? By my words? He wants to speak and act through me so that others will see who He is. Do I make the choice daily to be sanctified--set apart--for my Master's use? Am I prepared to speak His important message with my words and my actions?

Lori Alvarado

 

How do I answer those questions? Can people see Christ through my words, actions and attitudes? If not, why not? The Bible commands us to be His representatives:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

It's great to be a patriotic American, proud of the flag and ready to support and defend her. 

I am quick to claim my love of all things K-State and patriotically wave the purple and white.

But I should just as enthusiastically demonstrate my allegiance to Jesus Christ through my thoughts, words and actions. Jesus gave me the example. He was willing to fulfill a servant's task.

Stained glass window at Youthville Chapel, Newton, Kansas

I, too, can be God's ambassador. But, like that ragged old American flag, we're called to service. We aren't supposed to hang around and "look pretty." We are to get our hands dirty and serve. We are to wear our dirty old tennis shoes and get in the mud and the muck of serving Him, day in and day out.

Some people feel called to serve and travel to foreign countries to spread God's love. Some may foster or adopt children who need a home. But we can also be Christ's representatives in small, ordinary ways in our daily lives when we send a note to a shut-in ...take a covered dish to a grieving family ... attend a ballgame in support of youth at church ... contribute to a local fundraiser ... The ways to serve are as varied as our fingerprints. 

We are to be God's hands and feet on this earth - whether in far-flung mission fields or on the streets of small-town U.S.A.

Father, give me the wisdom and boldness to be Your ambassador to this world. Let me not grow weary in doing well, but through Your strength represent You through my actions and my words. In Christ's name. Amen.

Lori Alvarado

***

Celebrate your patriotism with some All-American baking this 4th of July. Here are a few ideas:

 Star-Spangled Cookies

Macaroons

Clipper Bars

All-American Brownies for a Crowd

(Caveat: I didn't wait until the brownies were completely cool to frost and cut. It didn't affect the taste; just the look!