Hands down my favorite comic growing up was Calvin and Hobbs. For those who have never basked in the genius of this comic, it is about an eight year old precocious boy, Calvin, and his stuffed tiger friend, Hobbs. Hobbs comes to life only when Calvin is around by himself. One of the strips that is etched in my memory is our hero Calvin calling out from the kitchen to his mother laying down on the couch in the living room; asking if he can have a snack. His mom says “Sure.” Calvin begins to reach for the cookie jar in the second frame. When his mom calls out from the couch, “There are apples in the refrigerator.” Calvin, now holding a cookie, replies, “It’s amazing that even though we are speaking English, we are not talking the same language.”
Words have that kind of power. I could say the word “car” and for some of you the word would conjure images of the lime green station wagon with the pleather seats that were blazing hot in the summer and colder than ice in the winter that you drove all through high school. Your maybe the image that popped into your mind was your dream car, a red Corvette convertible that you’d take your pastor for rides in to the golf course. Just a suggestion.
I could say, “chocolate” and some of you might think of the health benefits of dark chocolate and some of you think of that chocolate bunny you’ve been nibbling on since Easter that no longer has a tail or ears or any of the head really. Or maybe you wonder why is it that we don’t have a chocolate river here at the church like in Willa Wonka’s chocolate factory. I think it would be a good evangelism tool. The same can be said for the word “church.”
When you hear that word, “church”. Some of you may think of this sanctuary on Sunday morning. Or some of you may think of the mission to Wilson School and Habitat and now the community meal. Or some of you may think about all the joy that happens at committee meetings. Calvin was right, even though we are all speaking English, we are not always on the same page, we don’t talk the same language. You might wonder, does that really matter? Does it really matter if you think of church as a place to do good work? And you think of church as a place to sing with gusto? And you think of church as that place to come and rest? Do we all need to agree?
Acts 2:43-47 describes the earliest Christian community. In those days after Pentecost, after the power, the upheaval of the Holy Spirit stirred and swirled and sloshed around like it did in Genesis, but this time the Spirit created and crafted a church. A community. And the truth is you need unity to spell community. There needs to be some parts of our life that we hold in common. Acts tells us that it was through teaching and sharing meals and praying together that the earliest core of the Christian church found that commonality.
It is through such moments of connection that unity can be discovered. And it is important to say that we are not striving to be like the Borg from Star Trek to assimilate everyone into exactly the same theological, political and social mirror images of each other. Our denomination has always stood for the Spirit moving through diverse voices. Yet, at some point, we do need to be on the same page, singing the same hymn, even as we encourage you to sing it in harmony.
I pray we will find ways to engage each other in beautiful ways around breaking bread, laughing, talking about important matters and being a resurrection community.
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