May 22, 2016

Today is Volunteer Ministry Appreciation Sunday!  It is a day in which we are grateful to God for the gifts God has given in you, the worshippers and followers of Jesus here at Eastminster! 

The church is the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4).  God anoints Christ to be the head of the body. God gives spiritual gifts and talents to all of us in varying form and fashion.  We are together the “parts” of the body of Christ.    We are called to serve and to grow and to enrich the world together.

I Corinthians 12:7, 12-24 says:

 

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

 

For all who so generously give of your time and talents as well as your treasure here, thank you!  Being part of God’s family at Eastminster is a meaningful and powerful experience because of the competency and cooperation, the faithfulness and openness to the Spirit that is so evident at Eastminster.  May what we do be in response to what God has done for us in Jesus.  May our acts of service in and beyond the church be as acts of worship in response to the love of God!

 

Blessings,

Tim