People are issued photo I.D.s to signify that they belong, that they are authorized to be in certain places; there are privileges as well as responsibilities that go with having a photo I.D., but more than anything else, a photo I.D. indicates that 'this person belongs.'

There is a television show in which contestants, for the sake of winning a prize, vote each other out of the game by choosing the weakest link. I don't think that's what God meant when Moses told the Israelites that if they ignore prophets they'd be held accountable, and if prophets make up their own message they get a death sentence. Which is "the weakest link"-the prophet or the people? By the time we get to Paul, the concept of "weakest link" has become its own weakest link. Diss the weakest link in the Church, Paul says, and you get voted off the island. Maybe I'm mixing television shows.

Both scripture lessons today are about a bottom line that means "community," and that's where the photo ID comes in. In our security-conscious world, photo IDs are our ticket to the inner circle. In the TV file clips that ran yesterday of the training sessions for the astronauts killed on board the Columbia, I was struck by the photo IDs each person wore. They seemed superfluous. How many people are allowed in the training? And wouldn't they recognize each other? But there were those badges on NASA ribbons around each person's neck. The badges were a visible statement of belonging, but they had other purposes. They didn't just let other folks know "this person is entitled to be here." They were the price of admission in going from one place to the next. Swiping that badge told electronic card readers, "I get to go here, too." Photo IDs aren't just used at NASA and in research labs. They tell us things at airport security checks (show this person your luggage), in hospitals (let this person draw your blood), in Wal-Mart (official greeter), in schools (let your kids spend the day with a real teacher or aid).

A Christian's photo ID says we are living into God's command, God's purpose, God's promise in the world. Jesus made those things visible in ways that humans can understand, and the Church reminds the world about how Jesus did it. Which means (this is so outrageous!) the Church is God's photo ID in the world. As if God needed to be identified to God's own creation. But I guess God thought that was necessary, because the whole New Testament is about how to show that since God is "for" us (the Jesus thing), we can be "for" each other. It must not be easy, otherwise why would the apostle Paul have to tell the church at Corinth something as elementary as "Christians don't make it harder for other Christians to live their faith." That's what all the food-for-idols stuff is about. We need each other to help us remember to be God's photo ID, which is why we have got to do this in community. Who could be God's ID alone? If the rocket scientists at NASA can't remember the astronauts in training, how much more do ordinary people like us in the Church need help!

I had wanted this sermon to be about idolatry, and I even had some examples of modern idolatry-day timers and credit cards and thinking it all depended on us. But too much has happened this week. Both the brink of war and Measure 28 voted down. I heard about it when I was with other pastors, and they said their parishioners told them they voted against the Measure because they didn't believe the State would really put mentally ill people on the street. Their votes were like playing "chicken" with the Iraqis, they said. If we fill the Mediterranean with our fleet, Saddam will go into exile. What I had wanted to do in this sermon was push you to think about what in your life was more important than God. That's idolatry-anything that you depend on instead of God. Military might, technological superiority, being too busy, buying your way out of a mess, talking talking talking in your prayers and not listening, going along with what everyone else is doing, drinking, over-eating, working, making bargains, substituting ritual for relationship.

But this sermon really needs to be about what we do. At first I thought it could be about our photo ID, that we wear this "badge" around our spiritual necks with our photo on it. We Christians try to live in such as way that our photo fades out and Jesus' takes its place. That's the classic Christian notion of discipleship. That would have worked, but this ridiculous notion has come to me, and I can't shake it: the Church as God's photo ID in the world. Where the Church goes in the world, God gets to go. Where people are hungry or forced to live on the street, when the Church goes there, God is also "authorized personnel"-present and recognizable. Kids kicked out of the house, living under the bridge in Estacada. Hungry people living in tents in the woods. Working poor not able to pay an electric bill, let alone for medication. These are real situations in Estacada, and it's just the beginning, now that Measure 28 has failed. How can the Church-how can Springwater-be the photo ID of God's presence here and now? Could we band together with other churches in town to provide clothing and food and services? I think that's called the Estacada Family Resource Center, the Yellow House, the Interfaith Volunteers of Clackamas County, the Senior Center, Meals on Wheels. These are efforts already in place, but there are going to be a whole lot more holes in what we call "human services." They will not be enough. Who will check on old people living alone? Who will make sure the kids get to school when parents are sick or at work? Who will make sure there is school, that our kids get educated? What about kids whose only reliable food source is the free lunch at school, once school is out or cut short? Just so you know, it is hard work being poor. Besides the insults and loss of dignity, there is a general too-muchness of just trying to make it through the details of life. The best thing in the world that the Church-that Springwater-could do is on the level of something we are really good at: relationship. You are generous people. You are bringing much-needed food every week, so don't stop doing that. But I am looking at a sanctuary full of people who are also really good at being friends. Imagine treating the folks who use the services of the Resource Center or the Yellow House or whose kids get free lunch-imagine treating them as if they are human beings, as if they have something to offer in a friendship. What if you were mentors? Mentoring new parents whose parents didn't model good parenting to them, teaching young mothers the alternatives to insulting and hitting. Or cooking mentoring! How many ways can you fix a can of tuna, and make it feed a family of six for less than $2.00? Where can you find people to help? There are lots of existing resources. Many of those resources have representatives here this morning.

Look in each other's faces. You collectively are God's photo ID in the world. Not just that my photo fades out and Jesus' fades in. We don't do this alone. We don't do this individually. You personally don't have to fill in all the human service holes. But imagine this: God might be proud to have our photo fade in to God's own photo ID. Think about it.