by Rev. Aidan Moon

Christ Binds Us As One

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

– Ephesians 4:11-16, English Standard Version

This crocheted quilt kept us warm in the coldest months of this winter, after my wife Naomi slowly pieced it together in long evenings of patient stitching and tying.

Throughout Ephesians, Paul mixes his metaphors quite a bit, and even in this text there are multiple images. God’s Church is a body, a building… we are growing, maturing, being unified. I’ll throw one more image in there – that we are knitted, tied, crocheted together. We are bound together. Each individual piece of the quilt may have made a somewhat mediocre potholder – bound together, they were a source of warmth and refuge. We individually are limited – we together are bound up in Christ, building up a place of love and warmth and joy in the midst of this world. Each piece has a purpose. And that purpose is bound up in truth and love, held together by the love of Christ who is our head. What a gift it is to be a part of God’s patchwork Church!

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado