This post is one of the monthly posts blog posts written by the deans of the conferences of the Minneapolis Area Synod.
By Pastor Trevor Skorburg
Zion Lutheran, Buffalo
Dean of the Western Waters Conference
What does an old gas can, handmade cards, and sweet treats all have in common?
Well, for over 40 years, Zion Lutheran in Buffalo has hosted an annual Christmas Market led by the Harvest of Hands team. All the funds raised go to local and global hunger relief. It’s a place where you’d find some great white elephant gifts (an old gas can), lovingly crafted presents to share (handmade cards), and something to munch on during all the shopping (those sweet treats). It’s an eclectic image that ultimately points to serving those in need.
In many ways, it’s a fitting picture of the Church. The wide and diverse body of Christ gathers together the many odds and ends. In one of the more well-known passages from Paul, he writes how the assembly of Jesus-followers is like our very bodies: “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… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:12, 27, NRSVUE). The church, at its best and truest self, is a diverse body with many odds and ends, people who wouldn’t have met otherwise if not for this unique gathering that is church. Where the powers and principalities of this planet may offer only isolation, individualism, and separation, God speaks of the communal, the collective, and the reconciliation.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the church becomes an array of gifts gathered together. And while we may look at the church and wonder how all these people fit together, indeed we do by the grace of God. This is what our synod certainly reflects. As we stretch across metropolitan Minneapolis into suburbs, exurbs, and rural towns and cities, we reflect God’s vision of church that sees beyond what we could imagine.
Pastor Trevor from Zion, Buffalo, and Kelly Mielke from Redeemer, Minneapolis, delivering meals to the community around Redeemer
Where we would exclaim ‘A gas can, handmade cards, and sweet treats don’t go together!’, God finds a way to bring us together in spite of the differences, for the sake of the neighbor. Like any good potluck, being church together brings more than we can on our own – a potluck with lefse & krumkake, as well as tamales & mole, sambuusas & bariis – ultimately feeds the world. As part of this synod, we know and celebrate the differences among us. And as part of this synod, we embrace the ELCA values of “Inclusion and diversity” which state, “As Christ’s church, we value the richness of God’s creation and offer a radical welcome to all people, appreciating our common humanity and our differences. We are a church that does not view diversity as a barrier to unity.”[1] Our unity in Christ leads us, the odds and ends, to be brought together in ways we couldn’t imagine: shared meals from Wright County to Glenwood Avenue {+pic 2 of Pastor Trevor from Zion, Buffalo and Kelly Mielke from Redeemer, Minneapolis delivering meals to the community around Redeemer}; worshipping together across neighborhoods and languages; and friendships formed in faith at a Tool Kit tens of miles from home. Each of these little moments from synod gatherings is a gas can, greeting cards, and sweet treats meeting and learning what things they share.
All of this, of course, is evident in the communion table which draws all of us together at The Meal. With the simplicity of bread and wine/juice, we join Jesus’ dinner table which welcomes, invites, and insists on hosting those who would be turned away elsewhere, deemed to not ‘fit in’ to the overall pallet of a place. As we turn to the holiday season and these closing weeks of 2025, and gather with family and friends, may we always make room for our fellow odds and ends that our tables may extend from that Table of Grace into the whole world. Thanks be to God that we are Church Together, odd as it may seem.