This Is My Body

I’m a bit mortified.  We’re taking communion out of Dixie cups.  Dixie cups with sea creatures on them, to boot.  (When I headed over to my morning home communion visit I forgot to refresh my stock of plastic communion cups in my communion kit.)  So … as take out the elements to prepare Holy Communion for the Sage I am visiting, I realize my goof.  What … a … doofus. 

So with a red face I ask our parishioner if she has any small cups in her bathroom.  She does.  I go get two of those cups that look almost identical to the cover picture for today’s devotion.  Ugh.  Seahorses.  I guess it could have been worse.  Late last year I had forgotten to refill my communion wafers, so I had to ask for a piece of bread (it turned out to be Wonder Bread – God has a wonderful sense of humor).  But I was embarrassed to be so unprepared.

I get over my embarrassment as the day unfolds.  And I start to think.  Does it matter?  Of course not.  I’ve known that all along, but my embarrassment got in the way of accepting that truth.  The entire world is God’s garden, so God’s real presence can be embodied in any vessel the world has to offer … any vessel.  God can use a Waterford Crystal bowl … or a Corelle salad bowl.  God’s presence can be found sacramentally in a solid gold platter or a paper plate.  God could just as easily manifest as eucharistic body and blood in a farmer’s watering trough, as in a 200 year old historic communion set.  And yes, God can just as easily show up in doofy ol’ me, as he can be present in a bishop of the church, or St. Mother Teresa, or the chaplain in the local Emergency Room.  God’s true and real presence can infuse the most earthy and fallen of worldly vessels, as easily as it can be manifest in the most beautiful communion vessels.  Thank God for that!

Think about that for a moment.  God is ready and willing … no … God is anxious to inhabit your earthly body in ways that transform you into a vessel of God’s love and grace for others.  It doesn’t matter how sinful you were this morning after waking up … it doesn’t matter if you forgot to read your Bible devotion last night … it doesn’t matter if you just had a screaming match with the stubborn mule masquerading as your teenage son just ten minutes ago.  God chooses to fill you with God’s own presence … for the transformation of your life … and for the transformation of the world through your life … and mine … and the person sitting across the room from you, at this moment.  God doesn’t care if you are a Dixie cup or a gold chalice.  You’re the perfect vessel for God’s spirit today.  Why not try living that truth today?  A seahorse tattoo is not required.  God knows exactly who and what you are … and God is good with that.

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Rev. Craig Ross

Senior Pastor

The vibrancy of life here at St. Peter’s makes my service on our staff a joy and privilege. Visitation, teaching and preaching are the ministries that feed my pastoral identity, as together our staff and lay members share in our missional calling … Building a community of faith by God’s grace.

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