stronger together

Hi friends,
Often we think about the church, especially a small church like ours, in terms of what we can't do. Fortunately, we aren't alone. We have several local partner churches in the North East Church Cluster (we'll worship together on Tuesday at 7:30 at St. Ambrose to start Holy Week). We also have the broader presbytery and especially Urban Presbyterians Together, so we don't have to do ministry alone. We are much stronger together, as the author of Ecclesiastes (traditionally, King Solomon) reminds us in today's reading.

God bless,
Sam

Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

⁷Again, I saw vanity under the sun: ⁸the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches. “For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business. ⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. ¹¹Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? ¹²And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

one body

Good morning friends,
Today's reading is a classic statement of our unity in Christ's body, which is the church. While each of us has different gifts, we are all part of the same body. Each piece is a blessing because of its uniqueness, and without all its different members the body would not be the same. Each of us is valuable and each of us needs the other members of the body. Those members whose contributions are less obvious are not less important. We all support each other with love; then the body can do amazing things together by God's one Spirit.

God bless,
Sam

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?


18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.