I wasted a good worry.

 All through 2009, the fourth Sunday of the month was ours. People from our parish sign up to work, and they also bring food. Before 2009, the main course was provided, but starting last year, we were asked to provide that, too. And so our own Koval family, who are experienced at this sort of thing, took on the leadership role of planning the main course and preparing it.

But in early December, I was worried.

The fourth Sunday of December was the 27th, two days after Christmas, and prime time for people to be away or involved with celebrations. I thought it was going to be tough to field a full team for that Sunday.

But I wasted a good worry.

Without extra prompting from me, an extra-large number of people of St. Mark's signed up for that day. It was like a Christmas gift to Jesus, who said, "I was hungry and you fed me...Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me."

One of the volunteers sent me an e-mail about another matter, but also added a note about how it went last Sunday. She wrote this: "The Canteen was great. Nothing better to lift your spirits than being with the lovely people from St. Mark's. How blessed we all are to be there! There were probably 70 - 80 people there, and we had enough to feed them all. Even the latecomers got lunches."

I've told you before and I'll tell you again: it is an honor to be the priest of this wonderful congregation.

There is a story about two stonecutters who lived hundreds of years ago in Europe. One of them was asked what he did to earn a living. He said, "My job is to cut this lump of rock into a square shape." The other stonecutter was asked how he made a living. He said, "I am part of a team building a great cathedral."

What a difference between the two! The second stonecutter felt part of something bigger and wonderful. That's how I feel about our church. We are part of a team, and we have been chosen to work for God and with God.

And what is that work? To build a community of compassion and creativity, and to care for the world around us.

In the first section of the letter to the Ephesian church, St. Paul falls all over himself as he piles words on top of phrases describing God's blessings to us by choosing us to work toward that wonderful future. In the original Greek, the whole section we heard read just now is actually one, long, run-on sentence. That's how excited Paul was about this idea of being chosen by God to do great things.

I could write a run-on sentence about the blessings of being chosen to be part of this particular parish family of St. Mark's. I think of the hands of St. Mark's, and all that your hands have done. Your hands have donated food for the CHOW pantry. Your hands have served the clients of the pantry. Your hands have made beautiful stained glass windows. Your hands built this hardwood floor and helped build that balcony. Your hands laid the cinder blocks long ago to form the walls of this place. Your hands helped build Habitat for Humanity houses. Your hands decorate this worship space each season for God's glory with flowers and banners and candles. Your hands serve meals month after month at the Canteen. Your hands built a wheelchair ramp this summer for a disabled person with little income. Your hands have painted houses for the poor on summer mission trips. Your hands welcome new people into our church family. Your hands hold the chalice as we share the cup of Christ. Your hands care for the altar and the vessels and the linens. Your hands cherish our children who come to learn and make friends during Sunday school. Your hands touch our older members who cannot come to church.

I often think of the hands of St. Mark's, and all that your hands have done.

And I think of the time your hands held me up in the hardest passage of my working career. Leaving St. Mark's in 2001 to go to St. Paul's Cathedral did not turn out well for me at all. I had thought to re-make that parish into the same kind of church family I had known here at St. Mark's for seven years. But it was an unrealistic goal. And I was so lonesome for you.

Then came the day in January of 2002 when the cathedral held the celebration to institute me as the dean. Sixty people from here at St. Mark's attended that service in Syracuse. And when it came time for communion, I saw the hands of St. Mark's again. The congregation came forward to receive the bread, and each person had two hands held out.

But the people of St. Mark's had a third hand. It was a paper cut-out of a hand, and it was pinned on each of your hearts. And it had my name on it.

When I had left you in 2001, I thought it was for good, and I told you you'd left your mark on me. And you did. Your paper hands pinned to your hearts said that I'd left my mark on you. When I saw those hands, I knew that I had not left you for good.

And in that cathedral on that day, as each person from St. Mark's held out two hands for a piece of communion bread, with a third paper hand over the heart, I could barely get out the words, "The Body of Christ." You were the body of Christ to me at that moment, and you still are. Your hands were holding me up even then, during the hardest passage of my career. And your hands drew me back here in October of 2002.

I often think of the hands of St. Mark's, and of all your hands have done. And I think of how blessed I am, and how blessed we all are, as my friend's e-mail said, to be called and chosen by God in this way. We are called and chosen to be this particular family of God right here. With all our quirks and weaknesses and failings, still, we are called and chosen to be this particular family of God right here.

We are not going to be like the first stonecutter, the one who said, "My job is to cut this lump of rock into a square shape." Instead, we are going to be like the second stonecutter, the one who said, "I am part of a team building something wonderful."

According to St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, God gives us a message at the start of this new year of grace. God says to us, "You are chosen. You are part of my family and part of my team. I want you to work for me and with me. Together we are building something special in this world: a community of love, a community of compassion, a community of service."

God says to us,

"Reach out your hands - the hands I have given you -

and build a new kind of community,

and a new kind of world -

together."