We recently added a communion table to our stage. What makes it special is that it was built this summer by our very own Dave Baughman and Cal Olsen, with Jared Hoesel chiming in with the engraving on the front.Now when we look at the table, our brains tell us to see it as a single, unified piece of furniture. We see it as a whole, not as the individual pieces that go into the whole.
But if we were to disassemble the table, we would discover a story, especially with the wood that went into it. From my perspective, wood, which by definition comes from a living organism known as trees, always has a story. That is especially true for the story of the wood that was used to make the top of our communion table.
The top is made up of two kinds of wood: Hickory & Cherry. It is not a store or lumberyard purchase. In fact, we can trace the history of this wood all the way back to where it grew on a plot of land in Michigan.
Allow me to lay out the timeline that brought it from Michigan to our stage, working backward thru time.
- This past May I came into possession of this wood thru my surrogate dad.
- My dad came into possession of it thru one of his oldest friends from childhood, a man named Tommy.
- Tommy came into possession of the wood thru his son named Tommy Jr (“TJ” as he is called.)
- TJ came into possession of it when he knew someone who was clearing a plot of land that had a stand of hickory and cherry trees on it, and apparently, couldn’t stand the idea of this wood being cut up and either burned or put in a landfill.
Instead, TJ dreamed of building something beautiful with the wood from these trees.So he had them cut down, rough-sawed into lumber, stacked, and left to cure. Time passed, and the wood sat under a tarp outdoors, undisturbed on at his dad’s house. (But that’s how it goes with young men. We always store our stuff at our parent’s house.)
I think this is similar for most of us. We have visions and intentions for projects in our life, but then the busyness of life interrupts and projects don’t get completed. So there the wood sat, and sat, and sat. Roughly 20 years passed and the wood went unused, except maybe serving as a home for the small creatures in God’s creation. TJ held onto his dreams and held onto the wood.
Then a couple of years ago, TJ’s life was interrupted in a way that couldn’t be ignored. He was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. Last October, TJ lost that battle. He was 42 years old.
He never got to put the wood to use.
It is a sad story for sure, but as you will read below, I think it is YET another example of how - when it comes to God - the story is never over. We learn something important about the character of God in this wood and in this story.
So bear with me.
When it became obvious TJ’s original plan wasn’t going to happen, the future of the wide pile was in doubt. That is when my dad stepped in and used up a big part of the pile to build cabinets. But there was a lot more to go around, which is where I got the idea of using it for a communion table.
So last May, just before I started on sabbatical, I went up to my dad’s to collect it. It is helpful to the story to recognize the original condition of this wood when I got it. It was old, weathered, and cracked. It didn’t really look fit to be made into anything.
But a good woodworker can see through deceiving external appearances. So my dad and I started the first stage of making it fit to be made into a table, which meant it had to be milled and cut. We ran the planks through a planer and edger to get it closer to workable condition. Then I transported it to Dave’s workshop and said: “Here you go Dave. I’ll see you in 3 months!” (I secretly wish ALL my ideas for projects would go like that.)I tell this story to magnify what we are going to encounter in Ephesians chapter 4. It’s about unity. Unity is a big focus of chapter 4, and rightfully so. Unity is a powerful binding agent in the church. It is the like the glue that holds us together. It is what makes us strong.
But what exactly is UNITY? What does it look like? How do we experience it? And why is God so concerned about it?
In the opening verses of Chapter 4, the Apostle Paul writes this:
Ephesians 4:1-6
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
______
In these verses God, thru Paul, is communicating something important about unity. It is something we should sit up and take notice.
Unity is being bound together with someone about something.
Maybe it’s better understood by what it is NOT. Unity is not uniformity. It doesn’t mean we all have to look, think, act the same way. We don’t have to be clones of one another.
Rather, as Paul writes, there is a sense of ONENESS that binds us together.
- One Lord
- One Faith
- One Baptism
- One Father - that weaves over - in - and thru all of us.
Unity is the thread that keeps us connected.
If were to keep reading a few verses down to #15-16, the importance of UNITY is really described.
It says this
Ephesians 4:15-16
Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
_______
It is like Paul is giving us assembly instructions to build unity. Have you ever bought something that has “some assembly required” printed on the side of the box? Church is a kind of box where - yes - some assembly is required.
When we open up the box and we find it has step-by-step instructions on HOW to put it together? That is what verses 15 and 16 essentially are: Step by step Instructions
Step 1: "Speaking truth in love"
We want to be accurate. We want to communicate the truth. But our motivation has to come out of care and love.
Step 2: "Growing in every way"
This might be telling us “being” is as important as “doing.” We fall into habits of valuing doing more than being. I certainly fell into that old trap upon returning from sabbatical. After three months of “being”, I overcompensated by focusing on “doing.”
As Francis Chan reflected in his recent book, "Spending time with God is never a waste of time."
Step 3: "More like Christ"
This is like checking the picture on the instructions. Are we, as a body, looking like the picture painted in the New Testament about this thing called ekklesia (Greek for 'church')?
Step 4: "Who is the head of his body, the church."
Who exactly are we building this for? Is it for our own benefit? Or is this for Jesus?
Step 5: "As each part does its own special work"
We ALL have roles, and those roles are different. (More on that in a few weeks look at 1st Corinthians 12 in a couple of weeks.)
Step 6: "It helps the other parts grow"
Those roles have impact others in positive ways.
Final assembly: "So that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."
Are we? Or is there more assembly required?
This is where I want to go back to the story of our table. It serves as a metaphor of what is being communicated here. It is the WHAT of unity, as well as the HOW is unity achieved.
Our new communion table has lots of different components to it. It is made up of all kinds of parts and wood. I said, there is cherry and hickory in the top, and poplar in the legs and bracing. It has screws and brackets and glue that help keep it sturdy. There is a finish on it.
But as we look at it - and as we use it - it is WAY more than a sum of its parts.
We see deep symbolism in this table. This is the place where we come to receive the body and blood of Christ. This table has a sacredness attached to it.
To be sure, this table didn’t appear out of thin air. It was built. There were many hands that went into getting it to where it is now. This includes TJ, the young man who first had the foresight to save the wood that became part of this table.
TJ was a faithful and dedicated Christian man who, shortly before his cancer reappeared, had realized two big dreams in life. First, he had just gotten married for the first time to the love of his life. Second, he had gotten his “dream job” as a videographer for Christian Broadcast Network. His calling was to tell ‘God stories’ in short videos.
Now if we told TJ’s story in its entirety, which it certainly deserves, we’d find a painful but beautiful story. But the part about him salvaging wood from a stand of hickory and cherry trees would, most likely, end up on the cutting room floor. It doesn’t seem like a big part of his life,and maybe it wasn’t to him. But it is to me…and to us.
Because of his decision 20 years ago to save the wood destine for the burn pile, we ended up with some wood that realized significance.
Personally, I love how the wood sat for two decades unused. It highlights an implicit value about God in this scripture - and in this story. We call it REDEMPTION.
This is important. We should never forget this. It is at the core of God’s intent for us. God isn’t in this relationship to USE us -
God is in this relationship to REDEEM us.
God is in this to give us a sense of meaning - purpose - significance. God is not up on a throne just to take in all the glory, and we are the minions to manufacture that glory. God deeply desires to SHARE his glory with us. The New Testament says this over and over.
Together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. (Romans 8:17)
And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. (Colossians 3:4)
For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:12)
In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. (1 Peter 5:10)
That sharing of glory is known as redemption. Redemption can describe the outcome as we are woven together into unity, all of us being used.
Remember the old cherry and hickory boards? If we walked by them, most of us would say ‘useless.’ But a craftsman who works in wood knows better, and God is the ultimate craftsman - and he definitely knows better. In our natural state, we’re like those old boards. Stained, faded, dirty, cracked, and aged.
But as we say all the time: Jesus accepts us as he finds us, but he doesn’t leave us there.
So like the old wood for the table, to collects us (what theologians call ‘justification’), and then he puts us through the woodshop process of planning, edging, and trimming (what theologians call ‘sanctification’.) This sanctification process frequently feels painful. But we put up with the suffering for the sake of becoming better and growing closer to God.
And in that process God “fits us together perfectly” like our communion table. New wood, old wood, different kinds of wood. He inscribes on us, much like we’ve engraved on the front of our table. We experience unity - each of us unique, and yet bound together - redeemed to share glory.
Our communion table reflects a reality about us. That doesn’t mean we ARE perfect. That never happens this side of heaven. But what we are fitted together as can be, even with our flaws, yet perfect for what God needs it to be.
This is the church. - This is UNITY. Unity sets us on the path toward redemption and then glory.
Keep the Faith - Pastor Art
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