The Church Body

¹⁶ Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? -1 Corinthians 10:16

Wow... Synod Assembly was pretty boring yesterday.  Hopefully today will be a little better.  But it wasn't a complete loss.  We began with worship, and mostly... there was nothing unusually special about it.  Except for one thing. 

We had communion and several intinction stations were set up around the auditorium in order to serve the 600 or so people there.  What was really neat about that was in between the communion hymns you could hear several different pastors saying, "The body of Christ given for you" or "The blood of Christ shed for you."  Their voices overlapped or echoed one another and I just felt a sense of extended community.  Not just of the community gathered there... but in my mind I could hear the echo of the same phrases being spoken all over the world and through time past and present and even future.  It was feeling the knowledge that we are joined with ALL the saints - past, present and future - in worship.

I love worshiping each week with my church family, but there is something to be said for worshiping in larger groups too.  It helps us to understand that Christian community is much more than just the folks at our own churches.  We are a vast body that encompasses more than our individual churches, more than our denominational groups, more than Christians in just our own country.  We have Christian family everywhere on earth.  We are one body with many parts.  And whenever different combinations of the parts get together we see the body in new and amazing ways.

I enjoyed worship yesterday, but I hope the business part of the assembly is a tad more interesting today....

Father,
Continue to guide us as we make decisions for our synod today.  Amen.

Joys:  Memorable worship experiences; catching up with some old campfirmation buddies; having a Kindle app on my phone ;)