September 11, 2016 - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - What does it mean to be the body of Christ?

Sue Slanker

Susan Lee Kennedy Schuler was a 9/11 victim.  Personally I knew her as Sue Slanker.  Years before 9/11 she was married to my boss at the time, Ted Slanker. Fifteen years ago I learned of a story in the Oregonian that described her as missing in the WTC disaster.

Some people, when I share this, imagine that knowing her must have changed what I felt previously as part of national mourning, into a personal, deep and more "real" experience.  Oddly knowing Sue was gone in this way made 9/11 more unreal for me.  For a long time afterwards I expected I would read this news item was in error. The mind accepts certain truths and not others.

There was a 9/11 remembrance during worship today together with a baptism.  I never mentioned Sue in previous worship blog posts around 9/11 (in my 2007, 2008 and 2009 posts) because this was a personal connection was personal, not congregational.  This year's worship blurred that distinction starting with the baptism.

I reflected back, after worship, on a recent discussion the Transition Team had over the Creator Charter that, in 1988, restricted communion in the Charter to all baptized Christians.  Many on our team felt uncomfortable thinking we are violating our Charter now by having a fully open communion table.  I feel our practices currently don't violate the language even though we may be violating the spirit as reported by at least some of those who signed.

Jon Lindstrom

More on that shortly.  Today Pastor Michelle announced that Jon and Michael were taking a "time of healing" away from worship at Creator for the next few months.  I recently wrote about how much I valued Jon's comradeship in the August 28 post. Now I know that what we shared until recently will not be a part of a Sunday routine for a while. I wish them the best during this time.

I am also missing Jim and Teresa's presence at worship on Sundays now.

A work colleague told me on Friday she and her husband were unexpectedly (at least for her) getting a divorce.  The baptism and Creator's Charter, Sue and 9/11, Jon and Micheal, Jim and Teresa, and my colleague and husband's divorce were woven into this week's worship response.  Here the reliable, routine fundamentally changed in some relationship.  Perhaps the equivalencies remain hard to see.  One involves a sacrament, another death, another involves fellow congregants and the divorce is about a changed relationship removed by one step from me personally. Yet they are all different catalysts to me for the same meditation.

What does it mean to be the body of Christ together?

The Gospel, Luke 15:1-10, reads that the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." about Jesus. He responds with the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.  I had not noticed before one of the similarities in these two parables.  In each, after what was lost is found friends and neighbors are called together.  There is a celebration that happens because the friends and neighbors are gathered together like this.  And who is the neighbor, who is the friend?  I do not hear any restriction, warning, or command in the invitation here at all.

Very unlike last week's Gospel about discipleship.