Thursday, April 10 ~ Naming Your Partners in the Faith

~~Philippians 4:2-3
  I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

~~Did you ever know someone who goes through life taking two steps forward and one step back? I have a sibling like that. He's always felt like he needs to conquer the world…single-handedly. Sometimes ministry feels like that. We move along and things are going well, then one of our saints falls ill, or falls and hurts themselves. We have a plan for the upcoming holiday season, and one of our families struggles with divorce, or job-loss, or gets transferred to another town. But really, that's just how life goes. We, in the life of the church, are just fortunate in that we go though these things together.

The church I came out of, Newtown, had a man named Farris who seemed to be the keeper of all wisdom. Even after Farris passed, it wouldn't be a board meeting if someone didn't say, "I wonder what Farris would say about this." And every church I have served since has had their own Farris's.

That's what we do. We take on the collective wisdom of the ages, because we are about memory too, and add to that the hard work and love of the dedicated. We then add to our efforts, again,  every time someone joins us, bringing their wisdom, gifts or talents. Sometimes we subtract when we lose someone or when they feel it is time for them to move on to something else. There are times when we coast along as if there's not a care in the world. And other times we hold it all together by fingernails and will-power.

I think the fingernails and will-power times are when we form our strongest bonds, for it is in those times that we are most aware that we are called by God to be together as a people of faith. God can take all our varying amounts of wisdom, our rag-tag ideas of what it means to be followers, our gifts in all their varieties, and yes, even our brokenness and knit it all together generation after generation and create this beautiful, wonderful thing we call church…and it’s a good thing God pulls it all together, because I don't think it would work or be half as beautiful if we were doing this all on our own.

Reverend Tracy Parker