Last week, I spent several days in Indianapolis with nearly 700 other rostered ministers from across the ELCA. The theme of our gathering was “Woven Together” — and it turned out to be more than just a title.
Throughout the week, a fabric artist sat and worked in our midst, actively weaving together pieces of cloth gathered from all across our church. Little by little, strand by strand, something was taking shape. And at the very end of our time together, she unveiled the finished piece. (I’ve included a picture) What had been a scattering of separate fabrics, each with its own color and texture and story, had become one beautiful whole.
I can’t think of a better image for who we are as the church.
Our new Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Yehiel Curry, has made “connection” the focus of his first year — a reminder that we are, at our heart, a connected church. This is not my church, or your church, or even only Emmanuel’s church. It is our church, together. The ministry we do here in High Point is woven into the ministry of congregations across our synod, across our denomination, across the whole body of Christ.
That’s the quiet miracle of the church: the Holy Spirit connects us across time and space, stitching together people who might otherwise never meet into something none of us could be on our own.
And here’s the beautiful thing — we already know this in our bones at Emmanuel. We feel it when we gather around the table for Dinner Church. We see it in the partnerships we’ve built with our neighbors. Every one of those connections is another thread, another bit of color and texture added to the whole.
None of us is the whole cloth. But woven together — by the Spirit, across every difference and distance — we become something beautiful. Something whole.
Thanks be to God, who is still weaving.