"There's Something There That Wasn't There Before"

2 Timothy 1:1-14

In Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the enchanted teapot notices a change in the relationship between Belle and the Beast. She notices that they are kinder, more compassionate, and tender with each other. She sings this delightful line, "There's something there that wasn't there before" and we know that their attitudes are so different toward each other that OTHERS can SEE the change.

 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

In the Christian faith it is the laying on of hands that remind us we are sacred and holy servants of God. It is the waters of baptism that bring us viscerally into the family of God.  We have these outward and visible signs that remind us of the connection we share as followers of Christ, people of faith.

In a meeting the other day at the conference office someone said, in conversation about a site visit to the Sand Creek Massacre site, that we should become different people when we leave that place. It made me think that when we remember the sins of our past and seek to repent and reconcile with those we have harmed, we should feel differently about all of our past and all of our future. There really SHOULD be something there that wasn't there before.

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday. A day when Christians all over the world unite around our sacrament of Holy Communion.  Everyone who is named Christian sharing the broken bread of life and the cup of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

Perhaps on World Communion Sunday the reason we come forward to receive the gift of grace should focus more on the collective sins of society we continue to inflict upon one another. Greedy governments, corrupt leaders, suffering inflicted by apathy, turning our heads and averting our eyes to the systemic problems of hunger, pollution, violence, warmongering, and the like.

This World Communion Sunday we should strive to create instead "something there that wasn't there before" like peace, contentment, thriving neighborhoods, robust educational systems, cooperative leaders.  If we don't strive to make the world something that it hasn't been before, no one else will. Christians, along with all people of our Creator God, are called to be peacemakers.  Following the example of Jesus, the Christ, we must go the full distance, whatever it takes, to create something there that wasn't there before.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.