“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
This Sunday we are celebrating “God’s Work, Our Hands” Day. It is not just one day. Our celebration of joint worship, fellowship, and service is a particular event on a particular day, but that doesn’t mean that we stop thinking about the world and the church in this way come Monday. “God’s Work, Our Hands” is a great little motto, a great way to remember, to remind ourselves and others, that what we do when we are gathered is not just for us. We are doing God’s work.
Of course, any motto has its limits. “God’s Work, Our Hands” is a catchy little phrase, but four words can’t sum up the entirety of what it means to be people of God. But it doesn’t have to be as complicated as we like to make it. Theologies and books, reasoning and logic: these are all good and useful tools for understanding what it means to be people of faith, and seeking to understand the God who loves us. But we can sometimes get caught up in our reasoning and logic and forget the simple truth that it is God who loves us.
It is simple, really: God loves us, no matter what. No matter what we do or don’t do, what we say or don’t say, what we believe or what we struggle to believe. God loves us.
And so, in response, we love the world. We love the world because God first loved us. We care for those God has created. We care for those who cannot care for themselves. And we do this not because by our actions we can hope to earn God’s love, but because by our actions we are loving God.
We may wonder how we can hope to do anything. We may wonder, in the face of all the pain in the world, if there are enough of us who respond to God’s love to help. But Jesus gives us the answer in our gospel text today. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Through Christ we can do all things. Whenever and where ever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, doing God’s work with their hands, Christ is there among them, among us, helping and guiding and loving us.
God’s work. Our Hands.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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