Polis – the city – is the root of political, so political means being related to/oriented toward the city/community— which is exactly where every worship service points Christians. Baptism initiates Christians into a community that knows a lot about that cross-shaped path from sin and death to liberation and new life.
When Christians live this cross-shaped path in the polis, we are confronted by sinful systems of oppression in the world – sinful systems that smack up against our commitment to the new life that God brings toward God’s creation. Communion is not some nice and tidy snack that Christians ingest to feel good. Receiving the body and blood of Christ means one is interacting with the real presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ presence always orients one in the direction of the cross, that is in the direction of all the suffering for which Christ’s body bled and broke – all the suffering that God redeems through resurrection. Communion orients our bodies to all bodies that suffer with eyes to notice and conviction to become part of the path to redemption that God is laying in the midst of that suffering.
This message is excerpted from “Called to be political,” essay by Jan Schnell Rippentrop, a 2020 resource of the Women of the ELCA. Today is Election Day in the United States.
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