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A Note from Pastor Leslie
Unsarcastically, I’m fairly convinced that I was predestined to be a Presbyterian. My parents joined Central Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith literally the Sunday before I was born. I was ordained as an elder in high school, attended a Presbyterian related college, worked for the denomination for two years before attending a Presbyterian seminary to be ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Along the way, I met my very Presbyterian husband who was also the son of a Presbyterian pastor. There is almost nothing about me that is not Presbyterian.
And yet, there are things that I appreciate about other faith traditions. I have long said that, if it weren’t for my deep love of and belief in Jesus, I would make a good adherent to the Jewish faith. As Christians, and particularly as Presbyterian Christians, we are really good at thinking about our faith. The Jewish tradition is really good at embodying faith, and that’s an area that I have been intentional about cultivating in my own life of faith. And I am better for it.
The deeply held and long-standing religious tradition of the Roman Catholic church has always felt like a mixed bag to me. There is danger, bordering on idolatry, in exalting humans and human organizations. But there is also a lot of beauty in the power of tradition, and there is so much that we have to learn from those who have come before us.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, today is the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila. One of my favorite quotes is regularly attributed to St. Teresa’s writings and, in its poetic form, goes, in part, like this:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
In so many ways, the walk of faith would be easier were we to live in a time when Jesus walked the earth. To have sat on that hillside as the loaves and fishes fed the multitude, to have witnessed the blind man being healed and the little girl raised, to have heard Jesus first hand- all of those would have been incredible experiences. And ones that we will never know. But St. Teresa reminds us, in words that echo Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth, that we are the body of Christ. You and I, and all those who profess to follow Jesus, we are Christ’s body here on earth.
This week, I have received hugs that I knew were Christ’s body holding me tight. I have watched hands and feet literally pick up those who need help, knowing it was Jesus offering that support. I have heard words of compassion offered that came through human mouths, but were straight from God’s heart. You, each and every one of you, ARE Christ’s body in this world. It’s a big job. And one that you are up for! I can’t wait to see you on Sunday.
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