From Pastor Kristin...

Three weeks ago, I began participating in a yoga class offered by Nutley Parks and Recreation. At the end of our first class, I found myself lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling, feeling the Spirit of God invigorating my entire body. Of course, this got me thinking about church – 'cause that’s where my brain nearly always goes.

I started wondering why worship in the Christian tradition doesn’t tend to engage our bodies - beyond standing up, sitting down, and walking to the communion rail – as fully as yoga tries to do. While yoga comes from an ancient philosophical and religious tradition not associated with Christianity, it seems to me that Christians and the Christian church should be just as concerned about bodies as the yogis those who follow the philosophy of yoga).

We follow a God who became embodied. Jesus the Christ. 100% human. 100% God. Walking around on the ground. A living breathing, fleshy, aching person like us. One who died a bodily death like we will. And who was then resurrected – not just in Spirit, but in body too. (Remember how Thomas touched Jesus’ resurrected body? John 20:27)

Maybe you don’t get caught in the easy temptation of only imagining Jesus as some floaty being, like I do. But, what would happen, I wonder, if we started imagining Jesus ‘in his body.’ If we started touching and feeling his body in ours. And started recognizing all bodies, no matter what they look like, as part of God’s body.

I don’t know the answer to these questions. All I know is that we too often denigrate our own bodies. Thinking that they are not beautiful. Not skinny enough. Too wrinkly. Too creaky. Too wounded and falling apart to matter to God, or even to be like Jesus’ body. But it is in our bodies that God comes to us. It was fleshy, bodily people who Jesus fed and healed and cared for and called to follow him.

In this newsletter, the Practicing our Faith section contains a Body Prayer. A way to pay attention to God alive in you, caring for you, in your body. In addition, the Thursday afternoon Bible Study has been talking about creating some stretching and balance classes to help us care for our bodies, and our spirits. If you want to help create these classes, or are interested in participating, please let me know.

But even more importantly, as you move through these resurrection days of Easter, celebrate God’s resurrection in the flesh. Care for and celebrate the God-given gift of your own body, and the bodies of others, while we wait for the day when we will all be resurrected in Christ Jesus: God made flesh.


Pastor Kristin