They continued to make progress in the building. (Ezra 6:14)

If you look around our Church and Cultural Center on any given Sunday, you will see all kinds of signs of the people who helped to build it. Perhaps a plaque lists donors. Perhaps a sculptor or painter signed his work. Perhaps a friend remembers laying bricks or installing carpeting. Each of these builders invested himself or herself in the worship space. Each had a personal reason to celebrate when the doors of our new Church were opened.

This was also true for the Israelites in the time of Ezra. Returning from exile in Babylon, they found their Temple in ruins. Urged on by prophets like Haggai, their first priority was to rebuild it. They ran into serious opposition from their pagan neighbors, but God opened the way for them to resume the work. No wonder they rejoiced when their work was finally completed!

No matter how long our Church building has been standing, each of us is also a Church builder. We all bring our own particular gifts and talents with us when we approach the altar. At the same time, the Lord wants us to put our talents to work for him so that His Church continues to grow and spread.

In a sense, the Church is incomplete without our gifts. Like the prophets in Ezra’s time, some of us have the gift of welcoming and encouraging people. Some of us help make the worship space beautiful by tending the flowers, baking the prosforo and laundering the linens. Some proclaim the word or help lead the singing. Some come together to help make long-term decisions that will affect the whole parish. Some teach in our Sunday School and Cultural and Language Institutes, while others plan social events. Even those who are not physically able to come to Divine Liturgy can be intimately joined to us in prayer.

And on top of all of this, we all make our worship space come to life when we worship the Lord and receive His Body and Blood. Even if that’s the only thing we can do, it is the most important.

So what will you bring this week? How will you help build our Church in the Hamptons?

“Lord, you have invited me to go up to your house with thanksgiving and praise. May the gifts I bring to Liturgy build up all my brothers and sisters!”