Many & One, In the Spirit / Muchos y Uno, en el Espíritu
Rector’s Address to St. Michael & All Angels Annual Parish Meeting
January 26, 2025
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,
are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—and we
were all made to drink of one Spirit.” (First Corinthians 12:12-13)
As I spoke on briefly in my sermon this morning, the First Epistle to the church in Corinth was
written to a fledgling Christian community, struggling to come to into its own identity with core
theological understandings, values, organizing principles, and commitments—and situated within the
context of a secular society based on extreme hierarchy exercise of power to maintain order.
There was one major overarching problem that seemed to plague the Corinthians more than anything
else (an indication that they were struggling to distinguish and separate from the experience
Empire): disagreement and division. Factions were prone to form, and silos be erected, spurred by a
host of differences of experience, opinion, and visions of the future.
In the passage we read in worship today, we learn there had become a habit among the folks of
giving preference to those with certain honorable or useful qualities or abilities; and
marginalizing others less desirable, useful, or glamorous qualities or abilities.
In response, Paul lifts up this powerful metaphor for the church as the Body of Christ. The image
of the body is especially helpful for its after layer of complexity and integration. The metaphor
doesn’t break down easily.
Paul writes: “Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the
body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
It is an image of existential interconnectedness: members of the community in Christ and with one
another. If challenges basic assumptions underlying all the most divisive and explosive
disagreements that crop up in the church, then and now.
In this understanding, church isn’t just another hierarchical organization, nor a club, nor a
well-organized service organization; it’s not simply a system of gives and takes to keep everybody
in line. The church is a body – a living and breathing and interconnected organism, in which even
the head cannot survive and function properly without the rest, and yet each part only thrives when
it is honored and cared for to function fully as its own self and according to its own gift and purpose.
If we as church purpose to grow into this identity of interdependence and interconnectedness,
celebration of diversity and complexity, then what does this mean for the year ahead?
It means that we will share a lot of time together in listening to one another, honoring one
another, and building our capacity to work together.
- The Strategic Vision process is essential to this process, perhaps more important now than ever
(even as new urgencies arise in the evolving political situation). In the Vision & Strategy
Committee, we have a team that is unique to St. Michael’s in recent years, with a truly
multicultural and bilingual composition, representing a broad spectrum of diversity on many levels.
While together the VSC team is learning tools to facilitate this process, the committee is also
experimenting among ourselves with new ways of being together and sharing power, influence and
resources. It will help us walk with the entire parish community, growing into our identity as an
interconnected and interdependent body. - This call to be a body (honoring and celebrating diversity and complexity and
interdependence) doesn’t stop at honoring individuals. It’s also about blessing various ministry
groups and commitments (the ones in place now, and the ones that will arise as we move forward).
St. Michael’s engages a wide and wonderful array of ministries–within the parish, out into the
neighborhood, and to God in prayer and worship. Our ministries must also come to see one another
with honor and respect, seeking how we can bless each other and learn from one another and share
resources together. It means less defending of territories, and staking out domains. More
listening, honoring, and building up one another. - Also, in the year ahead, our staff community will take a new shape with new calls and hires, and
with the retirement of Gloria. It will be difficult to say goodbye to Gloria in this
central and practically indispensable role she has fulfilled for many years; In the past year and a
half, I have come to appreciate and rely on Gloria’s insight and expertise, as I know many have for
a long time. It will also be disruptive to search for and hire and enfold new colleagues onto the
ministry team; and it will require patience and trust in one another to navigate the transitions
into a new season. Please know that the way we continue to invest in staff is directly related to
my own ability to fulfill the call as your pastor. These wonderful individuals – Gloria, Leslie,
Hannah, Brian, Lenia, Manny and now Padre Jesús – extend our capacity to equip, train and bless
folks to share in our ministries of worship, connection, and service as a parish community. As we
meet additional transitions, the goal is to expand our ability to fulfill this ministry among you. - Finally, I will mention that we will begin talking this year about fundraising and the kind of
capital campaign necessary to upgrade our HVAC system and efficiencies in the building. This won’t
be a quick project or a quick fix, and we should pray that things don’t break faster than we are
ready to repair and replace! But our building is part of what enables us to be together and to serve our neighbors; as stewards of this place we - must build on a good year of financial stewardship to plan for the future as God enables us.
In community with one another, we bring and share all that we are. We learn to offer ourselves for
the good of the whole community, even when that means there isn’t an immediately apparent place to
do our best or favorite things. Patience, relationship, other- focused living for the flourishing
of every member. God is calling us into this becoming in 2025.
This is Church. It is being the interconnected, interdependent, loving, messy, forgiving,
accepting, growing organism that exists for the sake of Jesus’ ministry in the world.
And in it all, I am with you – and I pray that you are with us, with one another.
Many and One / Muchos y Uno, en el Espíritu / In the Spirit
Amen.
The Rev. R. Scott Painter, Rector
Email: scottp@stmaa.org

