Rumbling with the Body of Christ

Yesterday I talked about a concept from the book Rising Strong - rumbling. This is the struggle we intentional make to understand the stories we tell ourselves - the ways we fill in the gaps of what we do not so, so much so that it has the danger of becoming our truths.

What stories do we make up in our lives together as the body of Christ? Do you see conflicts in church? A story - years (and years ago - why do so many of my stories start that way?), I came to church on a Saturday to help with Mrs. Clause's Tea Room - a fundraiser that the United Methodist Women were doing at the time. They had asked for volunteers to help in the kitchen, so I showed up. When I walked into the kitchen, one of the United Methodist Women, who did not know me, and therefore thought I was a "shopper" for the tea room from outside the church, said, "No one is supposed to be back here."

In my mind, she was rude. I am at heart an introvert, and it took a lot for me to show up to help, and truthfully, she hurt my feelings. She probably didn't say it in a rude one (although in my mind, I still say she did.). In the years since, she has become the example to me of what inhospitality means. Poor woman, to be beaten up by me in my mind to such a degree.

What was the real story? I'll never know, but I need to remember that I DON'T know the entire story. What I make up in my mind is not the truth.  Are we willing to struggle with the stories we're making up to see if they reflect more about who WE are than who someone else is? And if we do that, can we develop a more forgiving nature, and a stronger church?

Our Array

One more radio telescope observations.

The GBT at Greenbanks is the largest moving radio dish in the world, and it is just about as large as can be made and safely operated. Size is important in this endeavor:

The ability of a radio telescope to distinguish fine detail in the sky, called angular resolution, depends on the wavelength of observations divided by the size of the antenna. In other words, to get finer detailed views of the sky, the result of that simple equation needs to be a very small number.

To solve this the issue of needing an even large antenna, scientists place radio telescopes in an array. This group of telescopes can operate as one.

Isn't that like the church? One of us alone cannot get the job done; in fact, God has not created us to work alone. We are created for community, and God has given us the grace-filled gift of church - our array - so that we can do the work God has called us to do.

Is the church perfect? Far from it - it has too many people in it to be perfect. But it does work for God's purposes, and it is the Body of Christ, here on earth. It is our array.