Household
/O Lord, keep your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love.
-from this Sunday’s Collect
Over my years of church participation and leadership, I’ve considered many different metaphors for the church. A church can be a School of Faith. Or a Hospital for Sinners. A Watering Hole in the Desert, or a Dojo for Discipleship.
This Sundays collect refers to the church as God’s Household. I’ve been chewing on that metaphor this week and theres a lot to like about it. I like how it affirms the communal identity of a church. Any householder knows that a household is made up of a myriad of different moving parts, each of which requires and relies on all the others. The roof needs the walls. The furnace needs a paid fuel bill. The dog needs a walker. The child needs someone to hug. The various people need each other, not only to share the many and ongoing household tasks that keep a household running, but also to enrich each others lives by sharing meals and enjoying each others company.
A household is not like a store that you drop into to pick up what you need and then leave. It’s something you belong to. Its an evolving community that you join, take part in, and are both fed and challenged by. It provides a common purpose and a shared identity for all its diverse members.
Our church, just like every other church in this country, has had to weather a number of changes lately. But we remain a household, with each member encouraged to continue to find ways to share of themselves to build up the whole household of God. You may feel closer than ever to our household of St. James during this time of pandemic because all of a sudden church offerings are available online 24/7! Or, you may be feeling distant and out of touch with church because the ways you’ve usually participated have changed so much. But there are many ways to offer yourself as an active part of our household even now.
Are you creative with gardening? Writing? Interested in learning more about online communications or video? Good at cleaning out and organizing? Interior designing or decorating? Fascinated by historical archiving? Fixing and repairing? Do you enjoy reaching out to others and keeping in touch? Are you interested in new forms of community service? Want to do a reading in one of the Sunday videos? Whatever you’re interested in trying or passionate about sharing builds up God’s household, and there is a way to do it now with a little creative thinking. So please reach out to me or any member of the vestry if you’d like to figure out new ways to be more active in the St. James household of God.
This Sunday’s readings are HERE. Ordinary time offers many readings to contemplate each Sunday. Track 1 will lead you through certain Old Testament books week by week more in depth. Track 2 provides an Old Testament text that is meant to compliment the Gospel of the week.
