Community Church of Wilmette

Jul 5, 2009

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Sermon: Faith and Art Series
The Community Church of Wilmette
July 5, 2009

Christ’s Hands

The validity of religion itself is called into question if the social dimension of faith is diminished. Claims to have a relationship with God are discredited if such encounters do not lead believers to the work of the upgrading of the quality of life in human community. How we treat one another is the most telling witness to either genuine or hypocritical faith. Individuals may find inspiration and encouragement from spiritual experiences, but the true test of spiritual maturity is whether one is led to neighborliness, compassion, justice, and respect for others. (James A Forbes, Jr. Sounding the Trumpet Today: Changing Lives and Redeeming the Soul of Society in the 21st Century)

What we do…
What we do with our lives…
What we do with our hands, the simplest gesture…

Holding
Healing
Loving
Calming
Feeding
Growing

…the simplest gesture speaks volumes to the world about our faith and God’s presence, God’s reality, in the world. It calls others, our neighbors, friends and even our enemies, to seek God more clearly when it is clear that we have first done the work of living into our own vocations as individuals and as communities of followers of Christ.

Do you believe this? Do you, church?

I love going to the Biennial so I can come back to you with a word from God, with a word spoken through Spirit-led preaching, song, and testimony. It reminds me of why I was called into ministry and what I was called to say and do. I encourage you all to find such times of renewal in your lives. Set aside time. It could save you.

This year the theme at the Biennial was "The Hands and Feet of Christ." There we were gathered American Baptists sharing what we were doing in our ministries and listening to the national level of the denomination share what we all had been part of…

…refugee resettlement,
building hospitals,
rescuing young women and men from sexual slavery,
feeding and clothing the poor,
advocating for just change in governments across the globe
and reaching into local communities as partners in what Christ is already doing

It’s a powerful time, an inspiring time.

As usual, I was reminded of why I am a part of this denomination…there’s always that moment. For me this year it was when Brad Berglund, the coordinator for the music for the event, began to play a musical setting of St Teresa of Avila’s prayer.

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet, on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

You can find the prayer on the front of your bulletin this morning.

I love how American Baptists are relatively unafraid to look to the entirety of God’s Church for inspiration and language. We are unafraid of even our Catholic brothers and sisters in faith. Dear God, what have we wrought!

St Teresa was a sixteenth century nun in Spain. She was a famed mystic, an author of several books on prayer the most famous of which is The Interior Castle. She was a powerful witness to the challenging and transforming nature of God’s love.

She was a mystic and a reformer. She was known for her distinct and powerful visions and her no nonsense practicality. Her contemporaries extolled her vigor, her common sense, and her sense of humor. She exemplified for many what a powerful witness for Christ a life can be when the power of prayer is put to use in the world, given hands if you will.

We are Christ’s hands. That’s no small statement coming from a mystic. It is no small vision to lay upon God’s people.

Look at your hands. Listen to these words:

With these hands (your hands) Jesus is healing,
praying,
holding,
eating,
feeding,
breaking bread,
blessing, giving, receiving,
bathing the feet of your loved ones,
casting out the demons of the world,
working,
bringing deliverance,
and bearing the wounds of the cross…

Christ always shows his hands when he serves. Christ is not afraid of the wounds. He is not ashamed of them because he knows how God can redeem all of us even in the midst of great struggle and grief.
His hands show this.

The wounds of the cross have become signs of Grace.

This is the work we have been prepared for.

Look at this morning’s scripture. Open your pew Bibles to Chapter 6:1-13 of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus has been teaching and healing. He’s been through a rough homecoming. He lays his hands on sick people and heals them. Then…then he sends out his disciples.

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.

He sends them out together, two by two, and says that their hands can do what his hands can do. He equips them with so little…just faith, a little advice…no committees, no building, no budget…

He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place [the town]. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

They proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom, called people to change, cast out demons, and healed the sick. When they weren’t heard, they didn’t yell or pitch a fit. They simply walked away. This is the work of the Kingdom, this is the embodiment of the encounter of Christ Jesus.

Jesus trains us, his disciples, for this work. And Jesus has not neglected any of us. Jesus has given us what we need and called us all to won that vision.

Today we find the presence of Christ in prayer.

St. Teresa says this of the power of prayer: "‘The soul never ceases to walk with her Lord but is ever in his company.’ The Christian who prays is not aiming at a state of passionlessness, but is learning to walk with Christ and to be increasingly on fire with the sparks…of his love." (p. 58,The Life of Teresa of Jesus)

Prayer leads us to encounter with Christ. It is not self-serving. Encounter with Christ leads us out into the world as his hands.

So often we want to separate these two things. We either want to pray or we want to work. We may be inclined to say that one is more true than the other. We speak of “Mary and Martha Christians.” We forget that Mary and Martha were sisters who loved one another. We forget that they lived under the same roof and loved the same God. They both encountered Christ and they both offered themselves to him. As much as we may be inclined toward one or the other, neglect of either may be a spiritual misstep.

James Forbes, in the essay I quoted earlier, does what every good Baptist should do and reminds us of what a Quaker once said: "Elton Trueblood taught that the most important word in the Bible is and. It is not personal piety or social witness. It is both." We are an "and" people. Martin Luther King, Jr was a man of prayer and... William Sloan Coffin was a man of prayer and.... Sojourner Truth was a woman of prayer and... Dorothy Day was a woman of prayer and... They all prayed and they worked. Their encounter with God fueled their work for the Common Good. They were Christ’s hands in the world.

***

Shawna is back. Just in case you were wondering what was happening here down front, Shawna Bowman is back with us this week and next week to create an original work of art for our own congregation’s worship space.

When Shawna and I were speaking about what the focus of these two sermons would be, I found myself wanting to bring the Exodus story of the Hebrew scriptures into the New Testament somehow. Where was the parallel? It did not take long to see that in some ways one parallel moment is found at the Ascension of Christ…that moment when the Resurrected Jesus leaves. What do the people of God do when their leader, Moses, passes away? Or in the case of the disciples, what do the people of God do when it seems that God leaves?

First, they had to learn that God had not actually left them. God’s presence was still with them in the Holy Spirit. This is why the New Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit and why we celebrated Pentecost with a piñata several weeks ago. God spirit is as sweet as ever and pours out upon the world and the people on it.

God sends us that comforting Spirit. And God calls us to be God’s hands, God’s body in the world. Somehow it seems that each generation has to come to terms with this reality in its own way.
We are the Body of Christ.
We have been given what we need:
God’s sustaining Spirit is poured out upon us
no less than it was poured out over Peter and Mary
or James and John, St. Teresa, James Forbes,
or you and me…

"Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are than eyes through which he looks compassion on this world, yours are the feet through which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours." (John Michael Talbot)

Amen.