“Many Parts in One Body”

Sermon by the Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

Romans 12:1-8

August 16, 2026

The Apostle Pauls’s voice echoes through the centuries as he writes to the church in Rome: “We have many parts in one body, but the parts don’t all have the same function. In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.”

It’s pretty easy to see how we belong to one another and function as one body in Christ when you participate in the life of a local congregation: with joy, we watch our children grow up; with sorrow, we say goodbye to members of our congregation when they move away or reach the end of their earthly lives. We work side by side - feeding the hungry and advocating for justice. We learn and deepen our faith together - asking hard questions and sharing openly when God seems far away. There is a powerful sense of unity when we sit together in silence, or listen to beautiful music, or raise our voices in song, or pray in unison. We are one body in Christ - and we belong to each other. 

Of course, this unity in Christ extends far beyond these walls. I’ve often heard from people in our congregation, when they get involved with something in the wider United Church of Christ, that they have this same sense of belonging…just bigger. If you travel to the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference annual meeting or serve on a conference board or participate in an ordination, you get a sense that our Church (with a capital “c”) is much larger than just our congregation. 

And when we gather in ecumenical and interfaith spaces, we find a similar sense of belonging to one another. We join with people from varied faith backgrounds in Topeka with Kansas Interfaith Action - we worship and learn alongside our UU, Mennonite, Disciples of Christ, Jewish friends. Though our practices and vocabulary may be different, we are many parts in one body of Love. And we each have our roles to play. 

This summer I had the immense privilege of feeling that unity extended once again, as I traveled with our conference’s clergy delegation to southwestern Germany. I promised a few weeks ago that I’d have a few more stories to tell you about this trip, so today you get more photos and reflections!

For those who are new: this was a two-week trip to visit our partner church, the Protestant Church of Baden (called EKIBA, which is an acronym for their name in German). Our formal partnership has been in place for over two decades now and is one of many regional partnerships between our denomination and Germany. Over the past two decades, we’ve sent individuals and delegations back and forth. Our congregation has hosted at least three Germans in my time here:the Rev. Andrea S. visited us in 2022 while on sabbatical; Hannah R., who is studying to teach religion in the public schools, stayed with us for 5 weeks in 2025; and Bishop Heike Springhart and her colleague Dr. Jens Adam, came through earlier this year. 

Our delegation this summer has the unique opportunity to travel, not as tourists, but as a part of a community. We were greeted warmly by colleagues and friends that we’ve hosted here in Kansas-Oklahoma over the years. And, of course, there were also opportunities to meet people we’ve shared so many emails and Zooms with that we felt like we already knew them. So there were all these warm and wonderful reunions. 

And…there were so many new colleagues to meet. And not just from Germany, but all over the world! A significant part of our trip was spent at the annual EKIBA gathering for those interested in global and ecumenical connections. There were people there from Argentina, South Korea, Rwanda, India, Australia, and more. Many of the international participants were young adults who were spending a year in Germany as a part of their nationwide volunteer service program. Young adults are given a modest stipend and assigned to positions in hospitals, schools, and retirement homes. Many of the international participants hoped to work on their German skills and then continue university or graduate work in Germany. The presence of guests from all over the world added a richness to our conversations, which were centered on the church’s role in resisting authoritarianism. We all have so much to learn from one another. 

Some of the most profound moments of sharing didn’t happen in meetings or conversations - but in worship. Singing songs from Taize together, learning hymns in Korean and Hungarian, hearing familiar Bible stories preached and interpreted in German - it was all a reminder that we may come from different cultures but we share a global culture of Christianity across borders and across the centuries. We share the same foundational stories, we speak the same theological language. For me, at least, this identity as a follower of Jesus is much more important than my identity as an American or even Kansan. Sharing in worship together helped me experience this with my heart, not just my head. 

While it might not seem like having these warm feelings while singing songs is a huge deal, I came away from this experience realizing just how important these kinds of experiences are in this current moment in history. We are, unfortunately, living in a time when a dangerous blend of nationalism and authoritarianism are on the rise throughout the globe. Sadly, in our country, this sea change includes the rise of White Christian Nationalism which is, let’s just be clear, blasphemy. 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t for any one nation or culture or race or ethnic or political group. The Gospel of Jesus Christ binds us together across the borders that have been created by humans. Any one who attempts to use Christ’s teachings to claim that your country is somehow better than another - or to make you scared of someone who doesn’t look like you - has completely missed the point of what Jesus came to teach. Full stop. 

The Apostle Paul understood this. “We are one body in Christ,” he says, “and individually we belong to each other.” He’s not just speaking of the people in these pews. Or the people in our denomination. Or the people who look and think and dress and talk like us. I would argue he’s not even just talking about people who go to church or call themselves Christians. I believe that we are all - the whole entire world - one body in Christ - whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not - and we all belong to each other. 

Paul also knew how tempting it is for people of faith to allow our values to be formed by politicians, talking heads on the news, and content creators - rather than by the teachings of Jesus. In this same letter, Paul cautions the early Church, “Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.” 

One of the things that struck me during my time in Germany was how this desire to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” is a common thread in their Church and ours. Meeting together for worship, Bible study, book studies, conversations about current events - these are all ways that we grow as people of faith and help ourselves resist the temptation to “be conformed to the patterns of the world.” 

Christians are united in this desire not only across oceans but across the centuries. I want to close with one last short story from my trip that highlights the ways Christians around the world have been seeking to “renew our minds” for centuries. 

This is the Church of the Holy Spirit in Heidelberg. We were fortunate to have a behind-the-scenes tour with one of the pastors, so we learned a lot about the fascinating history of this congregation. It was established in the 13th century, and has changed denominations from Catholic to Calvinist to Lutheran at least ten times. For a few hundred years it even had a wall dividing the church in half - Catholics in the front, Protestants in the back! And, in case you were wondering, yes, this is the birthplace of the Heidelberg Catechism.

But what I really want to show you about this church building is tucked away on the third floor. While this currently looks like an unused, dusty gallery, once upon a time it housed one of the most important libraries in Europe. The Bibliotheca Palatina contained over 8,000 books and manuscripts. At a time when public libraries didn’t exist and you certainly couldn’t “just Google it,” the Church played a critical role in gathering and stewarding human knowledge. Sadly, during the Thirty Years War In the 16th century, the entire library was stolen and the contents were taken to Rome, where most of them still live at the Vatican. Some have since been returned to Heidelberg and are at the University. The Church is currently working to create a museum in the space that will tell the story of the library and display some of the books and codices. 

Standing in this old, old space in the year 2026, when we’re dealing with the almost-totally-unrestricted rise of AI and hearing about books being fed to AI corporations, it made me feel a sense of solidarity with these Christians who lived centuries ago and also understood the importance of knowledge. The written word back then may have been on vellum scrolls rather than pixelated on tiny screens, but these Christians also understood how important words are for those of us who seek to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” 

They, like us, understood that knowledge is often the key to greater freedom. And that when knowledge is stolen and locked away - or owned by corporations - we are all a little less free. It made me wonder about the role of the church in today’s information and data wars. And what more we are called to do as followers of Christ in the time we live in. 

The ways that we humans learn and share what we know with one another have changed so much over the centuries. But the God-given desire to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds is something we will always have with us. Even in an age when we are being tempted by billionaires to outsource our humanity to water-guzzling data centers. May we, like our faith ancestors who studied the written word these alcoves, never stop learning. May we never stop renewing our minds so we can figure out God’s will. And may we always encourage others to join us in this sacred task.