Gathering as the Body: A Reflection by Fr. David

Each Wednesday at Church of Our Saviour, a group of people gathers for Holy Eucharist in the Rock Chapel at 10:00am. It is a healing service, and so right before the Peace, we play some choral music while people come forward one at a time to be anointed and prayed for. I am always moved by the intimacy and the power of that. People bring with them a wide variety of concerns and needs, from the mundane to the horrific, and I always have this deep sense of God's love enfolding all of us, in all of our brokenness and pain. That love surrounds us even when we are alone, but the gathered community becomes a living sign of that love and a way for everyone there to see it and touch it. When we exchange the Peace with each other, I can see us giving Christ to each other.

And even giving Christ to those beyond that service. Whenever we have a baptism scheduled for the following Sunday, our beloved Eileen Spenceley knits a blanket for the child being baptized. And the congregation assembled on Wednesday morning blesses that blanket. During the Peace, we gather in a circle, each one of us holding onto the blanket, while the celebrant prays for the child to be baptized and for the family. And we pray that that blanket will be a sacramental reminder of the love of God enfolding all of us always. This week, when we blessed the lovely yellow blanket that will go to Eleanor Ellis after she is baptized this Sunday, I was so aware of the many hands holding it, some of them belonging to people in their ninth decade of life. Many of those people will never even meet Eleanor. But their physical presence at that moment will bless her in ways she will never even know.

Such is the Body of Christ: we are woven together in ways beyond our fathoming. Our consumer culture may tell us we come to church to "get something" for ourselves, but the truth extends far beyond that. Whenever we gather, our very presence becomes a channel of God's Presence. When we participate in worship and give ourselves to prayer in community with others, we are blessing all those around us. We are greater than the sum of our parts. That's why Jesus says that when two or three are gathered in his name, he is right there in the midst of them.

Our participation in faith community is never just about us as individuals. When we show up — at worship or Bible study, in the Food Closet at choir rehearsal, anywhere and everywhere we assemble in Christ — we become sacraments to each other, the means for God's love to flow. If anyone ever wonders if their presence in church matters, I see how much it matters. Everyday.