Bulletin Articles
Many Members, yet one body
Fall is one one of my favorite times of the year. The mornings are crisp with a shadow of things to come, the mums are out, the apples are in, the days are shorter, soon the leaves will be changing and, yes, Football is in the air! Ok, we all have our own traditions but for me football and crock pots full of chili are among my favorites. Speaking of football, I was reminded recently of a quote that was famously used by a coaching legend to help inspire his team. (Bonus points if you guess who it was without googling, and plus I’ll know you read the bulletin!)
It goes something like this… “It’s the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the name on the back!” It’s such a great message because it conveys a spirit of unity, a common purpose and a reminder there is a bigger goal that far outweighs any individual contribution.
I think we can make a spirtiual application here as well. We too are working together, in unity, striving for something bigger than individual glory. We share a common purpose, a higher calling, and it defines us to our very core. It centers us throughout this life, it shapes who we are and it certainly requires individual effort, however collectively if we each give our best the result is something far better than anything we can achieve on our own.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians stresses a similar concept. He uses an analogy of a body with many members, functioning as one.
1 Cor 12 reads 12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many. Later in the same chapter we also read: 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
The takeaway here is that we each have a role to play. We each have talents, and we each have something to offer and every member is vital to this body. We are connected one to another in the most important way possible; in Christ. Sometimes we win together and sometimes we lose together; but either way we go through it together and it makes us stronger.
I don’t know about you, but I have been so energized by the collective effort taking place and the work being done here in Fishers. It’s made me better, I believe it’s made us better, and I hope it’s made you better and I know there is so much more we can do. Oh, and let’s never forget… when we suit up the name we wear is CHRISTIAN and to God be the glory forever!
