Daily Devotion 20 June 2020

Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.

1 Corinthians 12 ‘One Body with Many Members’ (selected verses)

13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’  26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Words of St. Teresa of Avila
Christ has no body now but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through 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.
Yours are the hands,
Yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes,
You are His body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

The lovely and challenging words of St. Teresa of Avila remind me of a familiar story.

A countryman bought a rough and stony field next to his cottage and set about turning it into a garden. Over a long period of time, by dint of sheer hard slog, he cleared away the rocks and the weeds and then with tender care he nurtured plants and trees, flowers and lawns, until people came from far afield to see the beautiful garden that he had created. One day a visiting minister admired its loveliness and said, “That’s a glorious garden you and the Lord have made!” “Aye,” answered the gardener, smiling, “you should have seen it when the Lord had it to himself”.

The wonders of God’s creation are all around us to see and marvel at – perhaps particularly so at this time of the year, with beauty wherever we look. But it’s an even greater wonder that God asks us to share in his work of creation and in the privilege of caring for others. He not only asks us but needs us to carry out that work in his world. We are the body of Christ in our world today and in the current crisis we are needed as much as ever.

Prayer:

Creator God, our loving heavenly Father,
We thank you for the beautiful world you have made and in which we live.

We give you thanks that you have created each of us as a unique individual,
with different gifts and talents to use in your service.

Give us grace, we pray, to listen and to understand what you ask of us,
so that we may faithfully fulfill our calling to be the Body of Christ on earth.

This we ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Reflection and Prayer © 2020 Ann Caffyn.
Image freely available online.

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