Thanksgiving Standing Stones 2013

I have a tradition at Thanksgiving to make a list of “standing stones”—the things that I look back on in the year and say “look at what God has done.”  Last year was full of big and joyful milestones, like being ordained.  This year is a bit more subdued, especially the last few months.  But still, I am thankful for the opportunities and gifts God has given me this year. 


Travelling to the UK for three weeks in January.  I got to experience the church and culture, which despite common stereotypes, caused me to say look what God is doing!





Performing my first baptisms of two young people that came to the United States as refugees.  Their faith is rich, deep, and growing as they have faced many difficulties in their short lives.  I am thankful that I got to be a small part of their stories.




I got to go on lots of short camping trips this Spring, Summer, and Fall.  It was wonderful to spend lots of time outside hiking, eating, reading, watching birds, and enjoying the wonders of God’s creation.  (If you’re curious, the photo is from May in Tahquamenon State Park Rivermouth Semi-Modern Campground.)


My pastoral residency at Church of the Servant, which ended at the end of July.  This one is definitely bittersweet—I really miss being a pastor there, but I am so overwhelmingly grateful for the two years I got to spend there learning, loving, preaching, visiting, baptizing, welcoming, and being loved.




The two weeks I got to spend in Colorado and Wyoming during October.  I spent time with Mary and Jared (my sister and brother-in-law), and my friend Allison and her family.  I saw a whole new part of God’s creation—an exhilarating part.  I even climbed mountains, sort of.  At least I went on a short hike above the treeline.  


Having a spiritual director who helps me each month to see what God is doing in my life.  I am thankful for her support and encouragement that God is working in me, even when I can’t see exactly what God is doing yet.


I am so thankful for the gift of friends who have listened to me, waited with me, encouraged me, prayed for me, discerned with me, and loved me.  I really would not have made it through these years without them.


“Save us, Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.”

-- Psalm 106:47

Photo of spiritual direction feet by Michelle Kroll, used under a Creative Commons License.  All other photos are my own.

We Will, God Helping Us

I just came home from a vacation to the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Penninsula).  One of my best friends got married in St. Ignace (just across the bridge) this weekend.  We had all of the usual wedding “stuff”—pretty dresses, special hair, a rehearsal dinner, wedding party photos, a ceremony, reception dinner, cake cutting, and dancing. 

The happy couple!

The thing that really stands out to me about this weekend is community.  Liz and I are part of a group of friends that she also asked to be in the wedding.  We all lived in Grand Rapids for a while, but many have moved away—Chicago, Laramie, St. Ignace.  We miss spending our Saturday evenings watching TV and having deep discussions with each other (yes, those two things can happen simultaneously, but are not necessarily related).  We miss having holiday parties together and celebrating birthdays (birthday dinner before a Good Friday service and birthday cake after, yes we did that once).  We miss laughing and crying as we did life together.  We have walked together through the rigors of grad school and ordination, finding and starting new jobs, and relationships progressing from dating to marriage to pregnancy. 

This weekend was a beautiful reunion for us.  Four of us drove up north together and then we stayed in a hotel suite together.  We watched parts of random movies on cable, explored St. Ignace, celebrated the coming children, and laughed together.  It was a wonderful continuation and renewal of our friendship and the community that has meant so much to us.  

     

Friends with the Mackinaw Bridge!  (I'm behind the camera)

This community is important for my own life in many ways.  And it is also important for the health of the new marriage that we witnessed and celebrated.  Even though our culture often says that marriage is all about two people, marriage doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  Marriages need community, too.

The groom had a group of friends and family gathered, too, along with many people from the churches that he serves.  Together, I hope all of these communities take seriously the promises we made as part of the wedding:

“Families, friends,

and all those gathered here

with Jeremy and Liz,

will you support and care for them,

sustain and pray for them

in times of trouble,

give thanks with them

in times of joy,

honor the bonds of their covenant,

and affirm the love of God

reflected in their life together?”

We promised “we will.”  We will, God helping us, live out these promises.  We will be a community that will support this couple in their marriage.

As their symbol of unity, we celebrated communion together.  This is common in Lutheran weddings (Jeremy’s Lutheran).  It was a beautiful act of worship to celebrate how Christ brings us together in love.  We are united with Christ in baptism.  And through Christ, we are united to each other.  Some are united in matrimony, and we are all united in the Church.  This unity was the joy we celebrated this weekend in a wedding ceremony and late night chats.

The St. Ignace lighthouse outside the reception site

Photos from several friends, shared on Facebook, except for the final photo which is a personal photo, all May 2013.

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: Holy Spirit Edition

Today is Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came on the first disciples.  This afternoon's prayer is one of the songs we sang in our worship this morning.  It was a service full of celebrating the Holy Spirit's work in and through us: second graders received Bibles and graduated to worshiping in the sanctuary for the whole service, the "sanctuary service" and Basic English Service folks worshiped together, we installed new elders and deacons, we welcomed some of our children into the communion circle, we thanked faith formation volunteers, and we celebrated that our senior pastor has been at the church for 30 years.  The Holy Spirit is at work in so many ways!  As we continue to live with the Holy Spirit working through us, this is my prayer for the congregation and for myself.

Holy Spirit, guide me,
Shine your light inside me,
Fill me with your passion,
Breathe life into my soul.
--Rory Noland


Personal photo, detail of my ordination stole, January 2012

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: My Mother's Day Prayer

God who comforts people like a mother comforts her child (Is. 66:13),

I have such mixed feelings about this day.

I love my mom.  Thank you for her. 

Thank you for her love and dedication.

Thank you that she always believes in me and thinks I’m great.

Thank you for her prayers and that she taught me about you.

Thank you for her gift of teaching and all I’ve learned from her—how to read, how to bake, how to play softball, how to serve, and how to love.

And I'm thankful for my many friends that are moms.

Being a mom is a hard calling.  Make your presence known to them when they are awake at 3am feeding an infant or cleaning up vomit.   

Give them wisdom as they begin to instill values and habits in their young hearts.

Help them to teach their precious ones about you and model a life of faith.  May all of these little ones grow up to love and follow you.

But there is also sadness in my heart on this day.

I wish that I was a mother, too.

I know that it is a hard calling, and I wish that it was mine, too.

My heart is full of wonderings…

Where do I fit when it seems that motherhood = womanhood?

Will there be a day when motherhood is my calling?

How long might I have to wait?

How do I keep my baptismal promises to the children in my community?

And there is sadness in my heart that the church hurts women today.

Instead of a place that pours salt into already open wounds, 

may we be a place of honesty and love.

May we be a place where it is okay to shed tears for the children you wish you had,

or the children that lived only in your womb,

or the child that has wandered away from then family,

or your own desire for an good relationship with your mom. 

Today in particular, may we be a place of lament, as well as praise. 

May we be a safe and loving community and not an exclusive and hurtful one.

So God, take my thanksgiving and questions, joy and sadness. 

Help me to live with it all. 

Comfort me on the dark days.  Comfort others for whom this is an excruciating day.    

Help me to know that you haven’t forgotten me, like a mother who doesn’t forget the baby at her breast (Is 49:15).

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Personal Photo, May 2013.

Singleness is Sanctifying, Too

I’ve often heard that marriage is sanctification.  Sanctification is the theological word for becoming holy or becoming like Christ.  In a good marriage, people learn about themselves and getting along with others.  There is no denying God uses marriage to help people grow in their faith and become more Christ-like.  The problem is that every time we say this, it implies that you can’t really be sanctified if you aren’t married.  It reinforces the notion that serving God as a married person is better than serving God as a single person. 

Sanctification does not require marriage.  There are many ways that God sanctifies us.  Even more, marriage is not necessarily a better or quicker way to sanctification.  In fact, singleness can be part of sanctification, too.  Being single is a different training ground, but I truly believe it too can be fertile soil for becoming Christ-like.    

 One area of fertile soil is identity and trust.  Without another person, I am forced to deepen my identity in Christ.  I am not tempted to think that my boyfriend or husband is able to complete me.  I am who I am not because of my relationship status or who I am connected to.  I am a baptized daughter of God.  This is true of all of us who are in Christ, but being single takes away a temptation to find identity elsewhere. 

I have learned to trust God in different ways than if I was married.  I don’t have another person to rely on.  If I don’t have a job, there is no one else to support me.  If I have a stressful meeting, no one is waiting at home to comfort me.  If I need to make a decision, there is no one to help make the decision.  Instead, I live by faith.  I am learning to trust that God will provide for my needs.  I am learning to trust that God hears my prayers and binds up my broken heart.  I am learning to trust that God leads me and guides me in decision making.  Being single is fertile soil for sanctification in trust.     

This might sound counter-intuitive, but I have found being single to be a place to learn about community and hospitality.  You have to be intentional about developing community, when you don’t have built-in community with your spouse (although I would argue you still need to develop community with others when you’re married).  It takes work to maintain relationships.  There’s a learning curve to relationships—I have had to learn how to be vulnerable and let others in.  But those relationships can be sweet, friends that are family.  They are a community that has walked through some dark valleys, empty desserts, and sun-filled meadows with me.  I am better at all of the one-anothers we find in scripture because of this community.

 

The really awesome empty tomb cake my mom made for our Easter celebration!

Being single is also an opportunity to offer hospitality to others.  Before even offering hospitality, being single has given me a different insight into what it is like to be at the margins.  I don’t fit into what society expects, and it has made me more conscious of other people who might be feeling a bit out of place.  I want my life to be one that welcomes people in and gives them a place to feel at home.  What I desire to offer isn’t the stereotype of hospitality: dinner parties for couples or huge family dinners.  There is freedom associated with singleness and the type of hospitality I can offer.  I don’t have to figure out which family I’m going to spend holidays with.  This year, my parents came to celebrate Thanksgiving at my apartment with some of the refugees I work with.  At Easter, I took a family to my parents’ house for dinner.  I still have lots to learn (sanctification is a process, after all), but it is definitely a way that God is forming me.   

Getting married is not the only way to become sanctified.  There are plenty of sanctifying experiences and situations that come along with being single.  And so for all of us—whether married or single—my prayer is that we will “grow in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4:15, NLT).


Personal photos taken on Iona, Scotland and at my parents' house in Michigan, taken in January and March 2013.

Don't Worry?: A Sermon Excerpt

Sometimes, sermon texts are a struggle.  Sometimes they are confusing and it is hard to understand what it is really trying to say.  Sometimes we don’t like what the text says.  Then there are the texts that are fairly straightforward to understand, but hard to apply in life, like the text I had to preach on this past Sunday: Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus’ words on not worrying.  It was a sermon (like most sermons) I had to preach to myself first.  I liked how it turned out, so I am sharing part of it here.

Jesus is not saying that these things of life are not important.  He doesn’t say we should go without food or clothes or a job or home.  And Jesus doesn’t say that we won’t have any trouble in the world.  But he does tell us how to respond to the troubles and the worries that come.  Jesus says we can quit worrying about our lives.  We can quit worrying.

Then he gives us two pictures of why we don’t need to worry.  First, Jesus says look at the birds of the air.  They don’t plant or gather crops.  They don’t put food away in storerooms.  But your Father who is in heaven feeds them.  Aren’t you much more important than the birds? 

Think about the birds that are coming back to Michigan right now.  They aren’t planting food, but they are busy creatures.  They are out finding food.  They gather materials and build a nest.  They will soon be laying eggs and caring for them.  After the eggs hatch, they have to bring food for their babies and help them learn to fly.  There are lots of things that birds do in life.  But God takes care of them.  God controls the sun and the rain.  He makes the plants grow that birds need to eat.  God watches over the birds.  God provides for them.  And God says that people, created in God’s image are worth much more than the birds.  If God takes care of the birds that well, he will take care of us even more. 

And then Jesus gives another picture.  He says look at the wild flowers.  They don’t have to work or make clothing.  But those flowers are more beautiful than the best dressed people in the world.  I was so happy this week when the daffodils finally bloomed.  Look at how bright they are.  After such a long, long winter they finally bring a bit of spring.  They don’t have to put on make-up or buy expensive clothes to be beautiful.  They just are. 

But they don’t last long.  It is supposed to get hotter this week, and I think that by a week from now, these flowers will be wilted and starting to get brown.  Even though they have a short life span, God made them beautiful.  If God cares so much about making the flowers beautiful, won’t he take care of you and me, too?

“Your faith is so small,” Jesus said.  Maybe that’s another way to say: “Your God is so big.”  God created the world.  He made the sun and earth and birds and flowers.  God created us.  And God takes care of the world.  He cares for the sparrows.  God watches over the flowers.  And even more so, God cares about us.  Later, in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus says, “Aren’t two sparrows sold for only a penny? But not one of them falls to the ground without your Father knowing it. ³⁰He even counts every hair on your head! ³¹So don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31, NIrV).

God cares for us.  God knows the number of hairs you have on your head.  God knows when the little sparrows fall to the ground.  And God loves you much more than the sparrows.  We don’t need to worry, because our big God knows us and loves us. 

And God has shown that he is faithful.  Over and over again in the Bible, God made promises to people.  And over and over again, God kept his promises.  God promised Noah that the whole earth would not be destroyed again by a flood.  God kept that promise.  God promised Abraham that his family would be as many as the stars in the sky.  God kept that promise.  God promised David that a member of his family would always be king.  And God kept that promise in Jesus.  God promised that he would defeat sin and Satan.  God kept that promise.

And so we know that God will keep his promises to us.  God makes promises to us in baptism.  God promises that we belong to God, that we are his children.  God promises that we have died to our sin and risen with Christ.  God promises that he will be with us always.  God promises that nothing in life or in death nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God.

Thanks be to God!

Sparrow photo by Paul Stein, used under a Creative Commons License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapkap/415668818/

Daffodil photo by Ian Britton, used under a Creative Commons License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/freefoto/3370278750/

Rainbow photo by B.J. Bumgarner, used under a Creative Commons License,  http://www.flickr.com/photos/homer4k/263070945/

Sunday Afternoon Prayer: Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie eleison*.

It has been a long week in this world, Lord.

Full of violence to body, earth, and spirit.

Lord, have mercy.

Christe eleison.

Bombings.

Shootings.

Explosions.

Flooding.
Earthquakes.

Rejection.

Abuse.

Starvation.

Some of it unexpected,

And some of it horribly routine.

Christ, have mercy.

Kyrie eleison.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come through your Word, Spirit, and Sacraments.

Come and show us that you are Immanuel—God with us.

Immanuel at the musty funeral home.

Immanuel in the sterile hospital room.

Immanuel at the prayer service.

Immanuel in the flooded home.

Immanuel when the computer bears bad news.

Immanuel when the partner keeps manipulating.

Immanuel when there is no rice or bread.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come and bring your new heavens and new earth.

Come and turn swords into plowshares.

Come and wipe every tear from our eyes. 

Come, Lord Jesus.

Lord, have mercy on us!

*Kyrie eleison means “Lord have mercy” in Greek and is an ancient liturgical prayer.

Personal image taken on Iona, Scotland, January 2013.

UK #10: Worship in Edinburgh

I was in Edinburgh on Sunday, and I worshipped at two different churches.  I started with St. Giles' (John Knox's church) 8am Communion Service.  It was only 10 people (it was eight o'clock in the morning....).  It met in one of their side chapels, and it was a simple, quiet service.  There was no music, just scripture, prayers, a short sermon, and Communion.  The congregation did not have a printed liturgy, which nice in its simplicity, but not very hospitable to visitors.  They had some different wording than I am used to, so I was saying slightly different words at a couple of points.  I don't like that feeling, so I always want people to be able to follow a written version if there are communal responses.

Interior of St. Giles, although not where I worshiped

I really appreciated the sermon delivery.  It was very simple, which fit the setting.  He basically stood in one place and didn't use his hands.  But he didn't stand behind a pulpit and he didn't use notes.  It felt almost conversational, but it was clearly well thought-out and researched.  Then pastor was nearing retirement age, so his experience gives him a certain gravitas, as did his Scottish lilt.  But it felt doable to me--I could preach in that style and still feel like myself, which I often don't with no-manuscript preachers.  I appreciated this service for what it was, although it probably didn't give me the best feel for what the congregation is like.

Welcome to St. Pauls and St. George's!

At 11am, I went to St. Pauls and St. George's Scottish Episcopal church, on the recommendation of someone from COS.  I had a wonderful experience there.  I ended up not having any interviews with pastors in Edinburgh because a couple things didn't work out.  So Sunday morning, my prayer was that I would have some kind of a good conversation with someone.  God answered that prayer!  P & G's (as they call it) was a very friendly congregation.  I was there pretty early because I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there.  I found a seat while people were mingling over coffee between services (also in the worship area).  A woman noticed I was there and came over and talked to me, which was really nice.  Then, shortly after that, the woman who came to sit in the row in front of me introduced herself.  Her name is Rosie and she is attending seminary now, headed for ordination in the Scottish Episcopal Church.  She was excited to find out about my trip and invited me to come and sit with her and her family.  This is a wonderful example of how to extend hospitality at church!  I am used to sitting alone, and wouldn't have felt bad doing so, but being asked to sit with someone made me feel like I belonged in a much deeper way.  I think a lot of people are not very comfortable sitting alone, so imagine the way you could welcome someone by inviting them to sit with you!  This probably goes couples or families, too.

The worship was contemporary in style.  It was thoughtful contemporary with very good musicians, and the congregation sang well.  Other than the sermon, the service was led by a young, female associate pastor.  The service involved a baptism that she led beautifully.  I don't have a lot of opportunities to see other young women in action, so that was a nice bonus.

View of the sanctuary from the balcony, after the service

During the service, she interviewed a man who was a participant in their last Alpha course to encourage people to attend or invite someone to their course that starts this week.  The man was probably around 60 years old, and he described himself as a cynic about faith.  He happened upon P &G's because he was trying to find the church across the street for an event.  He talked to a church member who said that he would be welcome at P &G's, and so he came once.  He also attended the Alpha course to explore Christianity.  Jesus met him through this course and he is now a Christian and attending P&G's.  I was thankful to get to hear his story and see one way God is working.

Rosie and I talked about the ways that the church is changing, but not dying out.  She pointed out that in the middle Ages everyone was Christian, but it wasn't a personal faith.  People trusted the priests to do the work of faith for them.  In later eras the number of people attending church remained high because that is what you did.  But now, it is a choice people have to make.  The number of people that attend church are smaller, but it is probably a more committed group of people.  She also shared that in Scotland, most young people have had no church exposure, so they are starting from scratch with Biblical knowledge, but people are interested in learning.  Her husband goes regularly to their son's school to teach Bible stories to interested students.  Half of the students attend to learn the stories.  They and their parents are wanting to learn more.  Rosie has had people question why she is entering the ministry because "the church is going to be dead in 10 years." But she sees new life and trusts that God is still working through the church in Scotland, even if it looks different than it did 100 years ago.  That resonates with what I have observed other places, and what I think is true for the church in the U.S., too.

More Edinburgh pictures on Facebook, and you don't have to be a member to view them.

UK #9: My Reformation Conflict in Edinburgh

It is probably almost heretical for me to admit this, but after spending a couple of days immersed in Scottish history in Edinburgh, I have mixed feelings about the Reformation.  

I started my historic tour at the famous castle.  It is an impressive fortress and told the story of centuries of war or fragile peace between Scotland and others, mostly the English.  The castle mostly eliminated references to the religious forces shaping many of the conflicts (which is an interesting observation by itself), but other sites were more balanced.  In the 1500-1700s, many of the conflicts were at least influenced by what was happening in the church.

Edinburgh Castle from the outside

I visited St. Giles Cathedral, which despite the name, is known as the "mother church of Presbyterianism".  John Knox was the pastor here from 1559-1572, as the Reformation conflict roared in Scotland.  It is an interesting church because it has a number of side "aisles" which are sort of like large alcoves off the main sanctuary area.  On one side of the church is the Chapman Aisle, which has a memorial to James Graham, who was loyal to the crown and Catholicism.  He was executed and later buried in a crypt beneath the church.  On the other side of the sanctuary is St. Eloi's aisle, which has a memorial to Archibald Campbell, a supporter of the reformers and a bitter enemy of James Graham.  He was executed too.  Many wonderful things resulted from the Reformation, but they came at a high price.

Center of St. Giles Cathedral

Then I went farther down the street to John Knox's house.  Historians think he only lived here the last few months of his life.  Before that, it belonged to one of Mary Queen of Scots' jeweler and goldsmith.  In the fighting that surrounded the Reformation (which led to Mary being forced to abdicate the throne for her son James VI), the goldsmith stayed loyal to the queen and the Roman Catholic Church.  He became part of a revolt to return her to the throne, but they lost and he lost his worldly goods as well.  The house was empty and Knox's health was failing, so he probably lived and then died here.

Dressed as John Knox for a photo

Today the house is a museum.  It captured much of the complexity of the Reformation and the pain it caused the nation.  It has early copies of Calvin's Institutes and a portrait of Knox by Theodore Beza (who knew he was an artist?  I missed that in Church History).  It shares the tremendous impact Knox had on the church, and his illustrious ideas for education for all and care for the poor.  

But it also shares the story of the original owners.  Although we might say they were on the "wrong" side, I suspect they too were trying to do the right thing, and paid the price.  The Reformation wasn't just a war of words waged through the books, letters, and confessions we read today, it was a war.  People died for their beliefs--on both sides.  And that makes me sad.

I also went to the National Museum of Scotland.  It is huge, beautiful, and informative.  I could have easily spent an entire day there.  In their galleries about Scottish history, they had sections about how Christianity came to Scotland and the effect it has had.  I was a bit horrified to see some of the effects of the Reformation, like instruments of torture used on suspected witches.  Instead of feeling proud of being a product of the Reformation, my time in Edinburgh left me wishing there was another way.  

Inside the Museum

At my classical exam (last step for ordination), one of the questions was something like what do you love and hate about the church?  I remember saying that I hate how the church is fractured into pieces and we continue to fight about things, if not on Reformation scale, on the local-church scale.  And I do hate how things divide us into different Christian branches and denominations.  I hate how some Christians can't take communion with others.  I hate how we judge and say this is the only way you must practice faith.  

And yet at the same time, I am so thankful for the Reformation.  I am thankful that I can read the Bible in my heart language and so can people from Nepal and Burundi.  I am thankful for our passion for God's word.  I am thankful that I don't have to go through anyone (and no one has to go through me) to communicate to God.  I am thankful for the Reformation's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, so we all have important parts to play in the church.  I am thankful for our confessions that help us to teach and learn our faith.

I just wish that it didn't come at such a high cost.  I wish that Protestants hadn't reacted so harshly on so many occasions.  

I hope and pray that in my lifetime I will see parts of the church come back together instead of splintering more.  I hope that we can worship and serve together with brothers and sisters of different Christian background.  I hope that we can all have the humility to learn from each other and not just assume that our way is the way.  And I long for the wedding feast of the lamb where I hope we will all get to take Mass/Eucharist/Holy Communion/Lord's Supper together as one body.

A Profound Mystery

I recently read Lauren Winner’s new book, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis (HarperOne 2012).  Winner told the story of finding faith in an earlier memoir, Girl Meets God.  Since then, she got married, got divorced, and her mother died.  In the turmoil, she found herself struggling with faith and doubt, and she shares those struggles in this book.  One of the things I most appreciated about this book is that in the midst of her doubt, she continued practicing her faith—she didn’t give up on the church, on spiritual disciplines, or the sacraments.  She kept at it, trusting that someday she would find God/God would find her again.

In one of her notes, Winner tells the story of being the chalice bearer during the Eucharist at a small Episcopal church.  Towards the end of the line, an elderly couple came and knelt at the rail.  Each one of them took a wafer from the priest.  When she came to them with the cup, the wife dipped her wafer in and ate it.  Then the husband dipped his wafer in.  But he didn’t eat the wafer.  He handed “the Body and Blood to his wife” and she ate it for him.

After the service, the priest told Winner that this man had been suffering from a wasting disease for 12 years, leaving him unable to digest most food.  But that wasn’t what Winner saw.  She only knew “the couple’s hands and mouths, and that I am seeing one flesh.  I have read about this, heard sermons about a man and a woman becoming one flesh; and here at the altar, I see that perhaps this is the way I come to know such intimacy myself: as part of the body of Christ, this body that numbers among its cells and sinews an octogenarian husband and wife who are Communion” (38-39).

Winner’s story reminds me of Ephesians 5: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’  This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32, NIV 2011).  These verses come in the context of a longer passage about husbands and wives, and the clarification that Paul is actually talking about Christ and the church actually seems rather abrupt. 

And yet its abruptness is welcoming.  It points us away from this just being a household code of rules and regulations about who can do what around the house.  It points us to the truth that anyone can be a part of this relationship between Christ and the church; married or single we are united with Christ in baptism.  We are not all in a good marriage where we get to experience being one flesh.  But, as Winner points out, we all find intimacy in the body of Christ—with Christ and with each other.  When we are united with Christ in baptism, we are also united to the Church, to the body of believers.  This couple is united to each other and to the others in that congregation and to Winner and to us.  Together we are mysteriously “united in love, so that [we] may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that [we] may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ” (Colossians 2:2-3, NIV 2011).