Our own little idol in the sun...............

The Church is not ours.  This church is not ours.  Nor is the congregation or any portion of our work together that you might want to claim as 'yours' - for your benefit, because you write a check, so that you feel good. This is at the core of what it means to be wholly Christ's, to pour yourself out for others.  This is what it means to be a part of God's great mission of redemption for all of creation.

This idea that we might be working hard to build something which is not ours in the end is so counter cultural that I expect many of you are scratching your heads and wondering what I could possible mean.  I mean this - all we have, including our work together here - belongs to God: to do God's work redeeming every corner of creation.  Most of the time we fool ourselves into thinking that we are the owners, the source of all that happens, the builders of a better tomorrow.  Maybe you don't but I do.  In fact I often lose sleep over it.

Foolish woman that I am.  The world is God's and God created it.  All of creation is Jesus' and Jesus redeemed it.  From the smallest cell to the largest cosmic planet, everything belongs to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives it life.

Either all that we have, do think, breathe, build, publicize, improve, decorate.....either it all belongs to God, or we are simply building our own tower of Babel here in North Syracuse, our own little idol in the sun.