So exactly what is a community? We have been talking it about several times through out the service so why is it important anyway? What’s the ‘’big deal?’’ Well when I looked up the definition of community at dictionary.com it said, ‘’A group of people living in the same locality and under the same government.’’ And when I saw this all I could think of was great, how am I going to write an entire sermon on this? But after a while I got thinking about what I thought a community was and started to believe that Dictionary.com needs to add more to their definition. By only saying that a community is a group of people then it would be very easy to build and define. You could say Ok the two firsts pews on the right side and the two last pews on the left side get together, there you guys go, you’re now a community. But are you really a community just because you’re all together in the same area, or does it take more than that to form a community?

Now there are several smaller communities in one large community but we all have one common goal. And that is to make things work and be effective for the betterment of society. I can’t think of too many of you who would actually want our town and our world to fall apart. And if you do there might be something wrong. Now each community small or large requires some sort of balance. We as a church are a community. And we are balanced out doing the different jobs and positions in the church. If everyone was a minister such as Rev Dave and Rev Alice, who would pay the bills for the heat in the church so we all don’t freeze during the service, who would type up the bulletins or teach Sunday school? The schools are also communities within themselves, and they as well have different roles - some people teach English while others science, some coordinate all the school runs and others deal with all the paperwork. So take pride in what you do to help with community and do the best you possibly can. God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member where would the body be? So basically saying that if each member of the body wasn’t united somehow there would be no body just like if we as individuals weren’t united somehow there would be no community

God arranged us all differently so that we could come together and depend on each other to be united as one. We all have different strengths; each of us is a different ingredient to the recipe. Pumpkin choc chip cookies, which are my favorite by the way, just wouldn’t taste right without the pumpkin or the choc chips or the flour or baking soda. Find your strength and put your part in for the recipe. No strength is too small either. Have you ever made something and said this just doesn’t taste right, it needs something, so then you go and add like a ½ teaspoon of salt and suddenly it tastes perfectly? There is this story that I just recently heard. It’s called the starfish and is about a boy who is throwing the starfish into the ocean that are on the beach, and this man comes up to him and asks what are you doing, and the boy replies, ‘’I am throwing the starfish into the ocean,’’ and the man says, ‘’well why?’’ So the boy replies and says, ‘’The sun is up and the tide is going out And if I don't throw them in, they'll die.’’ Immediately the man says to the boy, ‘’But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!’’ The boy bends down and picks up another starfish and tosses it back into the ocean and says, ‘’It made a difference for that one.’’ So next time you think to yourself that putting a few pennies in the salvation army bucket at Christmas time or donating a can of food to the homeless shelter won’t make a difference pause for a moment and remember that even the smallest grain of salt or a simple starfish will make a difference and so can I.

We all need to do our part. Everyone contributes something special and no one can do something solely just by themselves. Some people might say well God created the world in 6 days all by himself. Well that’s why he is called God and seeing as you and I don’t have those powers, we must suffice by depending upon each other as god

I was talking to my dad the other day and he was telling me about how in the olden days if someone’s barn burned down in the community, then everyone helped to build a new one. He said everyone would come together with their different skills to rebuild the barn. There would be the men who knew how to cut wood and the men who knew how to nail the wood together and the men who made it so the barn wouldn’t collapse and the women made the food and kept everybody going. For one family this would be a very big project but if everyone did it together, it was built very quickly. So realize this: that the smallest thing a neighbor may do for you when you’re in need of help makes the biggest difference so remember to return the favor.

So now we end up back where we started - what is a community? God designed the body so that each member on the body depended on another, and when one member suffers, the entire body suffers and when one member rejoices, the entire body rejoices much like we do as a community. Well I have come to realized that the definition a community is hard to put into exact words, but I can say this, We come together as many to form One to live our lives as a whole, otherwise we would just be pieces of the puzzle that never join together to make one beautiful picture.

By Chelsey

A Community Divided As Chelsey has taught us our local communities around us are so valuable. Making that difference to the people around us is a wonderful thing that should be so cherished. But what about on a bigger scale?

Communities. Defined a community is ‘’a unified body of individuals’’ or ‘’a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.’’ Unified? This community is unified as a community. We are bound together by common interests, common goals, common cultures and common hopes.

My mom always says it’s a small world. She always has stories of how she runs into people from Maine or people from her home state of Oklahoma when she least expects it. I have always wondered if her encounters are coincidences or if she is simply nosey. After I get over the sheer embarrassment and utter humiliation when my mother makes the world smaller, like the time she had us follow a car for a half-hour because it had the license plate number that followed ours or all of the other millions of times that she’s struck up a conversation up with a stranger, I am reminded that the world is already small even without the effort of making it so. We are in an age where we can talk with someone across the globe at anytime of the day. We have the ability to communicate with each other, despite our time zones. We have the ability to know immediately when an earthquake happens half way around the world. We can watch the news from all parts of the globe at any time of the day. We no longer have to wait for the news to be carried across the ocean. The world seems smaller that way, less ambiguous. The enormity seems less looming when we remember that we’re just a piece of the puzzle. We aren’t alone; we’re connected to others. We are a global community.

According to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, we are all connected in some way or another to each other. ‘’Love your neighbor as yourself.’’ Who is your neighbor? As we were reminded last week, Jesus tells us that our neighbor is whomever we consider as our enemy. However, in this global community with satellites, cell phones, the Internet, and 24-hour worldwide newscasts, isn’t everyone our neighbor? We can reach someone in Japan as quickly as we can reach someone in Waterville.

As a community, we support each other. We send cards in times of sorrow and joy. We build relationships with each other. As a global community, what stops us from supporting our neighbors? There are bombings in New Delhi. There are trains derailing in India. There are millions dying of AIDS and thus millions being orphaned by AIDS. There are people in Columbia dying in a fight over cocaine. Catholic priests are being shot in their kitchen while washing dishes in Jamaica. There is genocide in Dafur. People are shooting each other all around the world. There are millions without homes, shelter, and food. We shouldn’t abandon our neighbors. The shepherd will always watch out for his sheep. Shouldn’t the sheep watch out for each other, too? When our neighbors need our help, though we cannot help what is happening or we may not be able to make the kind of impact that we think is necessary, isn’t there something we can do, even if it is as little as awareness? We try to be a good Samaritan, but by not uniting as a community, aren’t we passing by the robbed man that lay beaten by the road? We are not the good Samaritan. How did we become so divided?

A community is a unified body, according to definition. Sometimes a part of the body breaks and we learn to compensate for the injury. We think that we can ignore those broken bones; they will heal by themselves without our help and effort. We tell those parts that we ‘’have no need of you.’’ But the weaker parts are indispensable. Shouldn’t we try to heal those broken bones? Though unified in some areas, we are very much broken in others. Instead of trying to conform to generalized ideals or trying to save each other, we may find a better time embracing our differences and accepting that they are present. Despite the fact that we are different, does not disable us from functioning as community.

There will always be different cultures, differed ideas, and different people. Aren’t the qualities what define the globe as that wondrous melting pot that we have become? That is what is so beautiful to me about the United Church of Christ: The church itself if a melting pot. Despite infinite amount of differences, arguments, cultures and ideals, we are still the United Church of Christ.

There is no perfect body. A community can still be a unified body that is bound by its differences. As a global community, we cannot keep compensating for our broken bones and what we perceive as disabilities. We need to accept who we are and focus more on what God wants not by what we see the mirror. We cannot abandon our herd. Our shepherd wouldn’t want us to.

For all we know we are given this one chance, this one life, the wonder is how are we going to live it. Are we going to be a community that walks with a limp, or are we going to help our broken bones heal and walk together? The world is small; we need stop making it so big by joining together as community, a unified community, bound by its differences, a global community. A community of the human race. We can make a difference as that community to our neighbors, even if it is just for one starfish for one moment in time.

By Tina