Blog – Page 28

Ligaments

January 26, 2025 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Christ’s love ligaments us together as one Body, inseparable by us or anyone else, with diverse gifts and realities sent by the Spirit in mission to the world to bring healing and life.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Third Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 3 C
Texts: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a (adding 13:1-13); Luke 4:14-21

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Religion isn’t much in favor these days.

With so much violence and hatred levied by religious people in the world, including lots of Christians, many simply reject the idea of being a part of any religion. For awhile now polls have shown a growing number of people who identify as “spiritual, not religious.” Given the history of how religious people have acted, created destructive institutions, and harmed so many, it’s hard to blame anyone for walking away.

And yet here we are, openly Christian people, gathering to worship a God who created and loves all things. We’re clearly part of a religion, and yet we’d say we’re also spiritual. How is our faith practice life-giving for us – and, we hope, for those we care for in Christ’s name – if it’s part of a religion?

Maybe we should start with the word.

The root origins of the word “religion” are unclear, and there are various ancient theories. But in the third and fourth centuries Christian teachers St. Augustine^[1] and Lactantius^[2] argued that it derives from re-ligio, literally to “reconnect.” (Ligio gives us our word ligament.) Religion calls us to re-ligament, to remember what binds us to God, connects us to each other and to the world.

And suddenly we’re talking like Paul today. What if the word “religion” reminded us of this Body of Christ, of the ligaments that make us inseparable from each other and from God? Doesn’t that sound very different, maybe hopeful?

That’s the power of Paul’s vision of the Body of Christ.

The eye can’t say to the hand “we don’t need you,” or worse, the ear can’t say to itself, “I don’t belong in this body.” Paul says none of us can exclude ourselves or others from Christ’s Body. A body can’t be separated and still exist.

And Paul doesn’t mean “don’t separate yourself or exclude someone else.” He means “you can’t. I can’t.” It’s impossible. The Spirit has joined us together in this Body in baptism with each other and all Christians, and Paul’s promise is that in Christ we cannot separate ourselves, even if we wanted to.

And Paul envisioned a unity of this Body transcending diversities within the Body.

We see him call all his congregations to understand this vision. A unity that doesn’t wash away the diversity, melting it down into sameness. No, the diversity of the members is critical to the life of the Body, and needs to be honored, delighted in, respected. And it’s more than just diversity of spiritual gifts. Often that’s all we hear in these verses. You’re good at some things, I’m good at others, we’re all needed. And of course the varied gifts we have that differ are important.

But there’s an existential diversity deeper than that, which is what caused problems with this vision in all Paul’s congregations. In verse 13 of chapter 12 Paul reminds that in one Spirit they were all baptized into one body – Jews, Greeks, slaves, free. It’s not just their gifts that differ. It’s their culture, their language, their traditions, their political status, their ethnicity. Eyes, in Paul’s example, are completely different from ears. Hands and feet have different structures and realities. The diversity in the Body goes to the root of who you are, who I am, no matter the category. Today we might add gender fluidity and diversity of sexual orientation to Paul’s list, among others. And in his letters Paul repeatedly says those differences are beautiful and vital to the whole Body.

But over all this diversity is our oneness in Christ. Never can our diversity cause us to split away, to exclude others, or to assume we don’t belong.

And it’s because of the ligaments that bind us, the word religion says.

And the ligaments are Christ’s love.

The love Christ Jesus repeatedly commands of us as the fulfilling of all God’s law. The love of the Triune God Christ revealed at the cross and empty tomb. That’s what joins us. That’s how Jews and Greeks can be one together and still be Jews and Greeks. How straight and queer folks, trans and cisgendered folks, can belong to each other and rejoice in each other’s reality. How people of all colors and cultures are joined together while embracing and respecting each other’s beauty and grace.

Christ’s love ligaments us together. A love that doesn’t erase another’s truth but embraces it. A love that joins astonishingly different people into one Body, one mission, one grace, one hope for the world.

A non-negotiable love in this Body that is patient and kind. Never boastful, arrogant, or rude. Never insisting on its own way. Rejoicing in the truth, not in things that are wrong. A love that bears, trusts, hopes, endures all things.

These ligaments bind you and me together in this community, and bind us to the Body of Christ around the world. And because ligaments also help the body move, these ligaments of love empower what this Body of Christ is meant to be in this world.

The same Spirit Jesus claims today is the Spirit poured out on you and me that ligaments us into one Body.

So our mission is the same as Jesus’: to bring good news to those who are poor, proclaim release to those who are captives, help those who cannot see to see, and free those who are oppressed.

This won’t be easy. As our sister Bishop Mariann Budde found, when you ask for mercy, love, and graciousness to those most vulnerable, you face criticism, scorn, and hatred. In these days we should expect that if we act as Christ’s Body to protect the vulnerable and the fearful, to stand for those who are being trampled, we will also face blowback. Jesus anticipated that, saying that you are blessed if “people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad – they always do that to the prophets,” he said. (Matthew 5:11-12)

See that’s the other grace of being in the Body: the ligaments of Christ’s love that bind us to people like Bishop Budde, to each other, to all those protecting and offering mercy and hope, cannot be broken by anyone else, either. Together, in Christ, in the power of the Spirit, with all our diverse truths, realities, and gifts, we can do amazing things as one Body for the healing of God’s world.

And if that’s a gift that the word religion can remind us of daily, I’m not so eager to let go of it.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

[1] St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE), City of God X.4 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120110.htm)
[2] Lucius Lactantius (c. 250 – c. 325 CE), Divine Institutes, IV.28 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07014.htm)

Worship, January 26, 2025

January 24, 2025 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

The Third Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 3 C

Download worship folder for Sunday, January 26, 2025.

Presiding and Preaching: Pastor Joseph Crippen

Readings and prayers: John Gidmark, lector; Vicar Natalie Wussler, assisting minister

Organist: Robert Buckley Farlee

Download next Sunday’s readings for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.

Click here for previous livestreamed liturgies from Mount Olive (archived on the Mount Olive YouTube channel.)

The Olive Branch, 1/22/25

January 21, 2025 By office

Click here for the current issue of The Olive Branch.

The Best Stuff

January 19, 2025 By Vicar at Mount Olive

We are the water turned into wine; the abundance of God poured out for the world. God transforms our hearts and minds and equips us with gifts to be essential pieces of the healing of the world.

Vicar Natalie Wussler
The Second Sunday after Epiphany, Lect. 2 C
Texts: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

We have a problem, the wine has run out. The vats have run dry and there is nothing left. And today is only the third of seven days of partying, joy, and hosting guests. We’re less than half way through and are in a bind that is sure to be the talk of town. The bridegroom’s and his family’s reputations are on the line, with the threat of being remembered as “that family that hosted the wedding where the wine ran out.” And how would the party go on without the wine? What would people say? Would they leave the celebrations and go elsewhere? This family and their entire staff of servants must have felt the impending looks and comments about their now-dry wedding. Left empty and embarrassed. This family’s situation hits home for me today and as a bride in about 5 months, myself, I cannot begin to explain the anxiety spiral I’d be in if the wine at my wedding gave out.

But right when the wine runs dry, Jesus steps in. Albeit with a little encouragement from his mother, who knows what he’s capable of. And so he tells servants to fill jars to overflowing. And that they did, and Jesus changed the water into wine. These jars held about 175 gallons of water each, so a little napkin math tells you that these 6 jugs would have produced close to 1000 bottles of wine, far more than was needed. And this wine was the good stuff. The best stuff, the kind of stuff you would only pour for very special occasions, not at the end of a wedding when guests have had their fill. It’s the wrong time for the best stuff.

And at this time in history, the servants at these weddings, who were at a lower economic class, would not get to enjoy the party until the last few days, when all the good wine had run out and they were on to the cheap stuff. And now, Jesus included them in this best stuff at the wrong time. They were able to experience what abundance tastes like. Not only that, but they were the first people to bear witness to Jesus’ first sign. This is the grace upon grace that John tells us about.

And we love this text, this story. We’re assured that Jesus fills us to the brim when we feel empty. This wedding gives us a snapshot of what our life in Christ can be–abundant, joyful, and like a party you never want to stop. But how does this story sit with us on days like today? This beloved story of the good wine for all to drink… it feels far away from our reality. Because even though Jesus transforms this situation from lacking to abundance, he doesn’t take that feeling lacking and emptiness away forever. We still feel empty, we still feel like we’re running out. running out of time, out of money, out of patience, out of hope, out of energy to get through our days. And the running out causes us to worry. Or maybe, you do feel like the world is overflowing, but it’s overflowing with vinegar and bitterness instead of the good wine. Sometimes we overflow with pain, or anxiety or despair, and it makes it hard to see what God’s up to in us and in our communities, so much so, we feel like we’re drowning with no way out. We’re only able to see the bottom of the wine barrels or the overflow of bitterness, and we can’t see Jesus standing beside changing our despair into abundance. And in all of this we want so desperately for Jesus to change our water into wine, to change our weeping into dancing, to change our pain into laughter, and to change oppression into liberation. And when we don’t see the inbreaking of God like we thought, we become discouraged.

But Jesus is still in the business of changing water into wine. And it starts with us. We, the church, are the water turned into wine poured out for all the world. In our daily dying and rising into new life with Christ, God changes us. We are God’s best stuff, and we are essential pieces of God’s love shown to everyone, God’s delight, according to Isaiah. God walks with us through our fear of what lies ahead shows us hope that a way will be made. Day after day, God changes our hearts and our minds to reflect the love of God, focuses our mind on showing compassion to others, doing justice in this world, and, in all we do, working for the common good. And as beloved children of God, we are promised in John 14, we will do greater things than Jesus did here on earth. We have always been God’s plan for the renewing of the world. You are the abundance of God, a sign to everyone around you that God still cares and is invested in the healing of the world. God takes our ordinary lives and gives us a new calling, so that wherever we are, we pour out God’s love and healing, changing emptiness into overflowing abundance.

Friends, there’s a lot of emptiness in this world. And there’s a lot of places that are overflowing with pain, hardship, and corruption. We’ve got a lot of work cut out for us. The gravity of all that is broken and hurting in the world can feel too heavy to bear. But you are equipped to pour out into the spaces that feel empty. You are able. And that task sounds daunting–being God’s good wine in a world where so much pain exists–but we are not alone. As a transformed child of God, the Holy Spirit abides inside you, guiding our steps as you live as the best wine for a thirsty world, giving us the courage we need. And Paul writes that we are each given unique gifts and individual roles to play in the healing of our world, in the water turning into wine. And we’re sent out into all different contexts with different talents and gifts to be the overflowing love of God made flesh.

And as we spend tomorrow reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. ‘s legacy, we see these different gifts and talents in action, because the Civil Rights Movement was far from just Martin Luther King. Women and men took up the mantle to become community organizers, musicians who wrote songs about justice. There were people who financially supported the movement, and lawyers who argued key cases in high courts. And there were families who provided comfort and encouragement to people who had their boots on the ground. People using their gifts and talents, their ordinary, everyday lives to pour out into the common good. Their lives and their legacy can be encouraging to us–that just as you are, right now, you are God’s best stuff in this world, especially to the places and people on the margins who are written off and forgotten about. You are the spilling-over love of God in a way that is unique to you. And this world needs it. This community needs it.

We are all a part of this abundance. No one is excluded. You are needed in all your particularities and quirks, all your insecurities and doubts. You have gifts, talents, and a story of God’s faithfulness that no one else has. Our collective, yet individual gifts sustain each other so that we can face whatever life throws at us. We can be encouraged by the abundant love we see in each other, knowing we reflect that same love and encouragement back. We’re not doing this abundance thing by ourselves. We have each other and we have the Holy Spirit guiding our steps, as we all discover what it means to be God’s best stuff, God’s top-shelf wine poured out for all to taste and see that God is still with us, and still changing water into wine.

In the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.