This week we kick off our Eastertide sermon series, “Signs of Life”. This series is one that I have been looking forward to, but is also one that challenges me. The whole idea behind the series is to look at seven biological signs of life, things that reveal that something is living. These signs are nutrition, respiration, movement, sensitivity, reproduction, excretion, and growth. Some of these things slow during periods of dormancy, but most of them are displayed by any living thing – from the smallest organism to complexity of human life. 
For us as the Body of Christ, we will be looking at these signs of life because the Body of Christ (the Church) should be showing signs of life, and while the signs are going to look different for the mystical Body of Christ than they are for a plant growing up between the sidewalk, there is going to be some correlation.
Take “nutrition”, the topic of this upcoming week for example. Nutrition is simply when an organism takes something into itself and uses that for fuel to power itself. For the Body of Christ, our “food” is the Word of Scripture, specifically those words of Gospel and forgiveness which we take into ourselves and that empower our lives.
This series also marks a watershed moment in our annual focus this year. Our annual focus “We are the Body” has three phases: 1.) Identity – discovering about what the Body of Christ is, how we are brought into that Body, and the implications of that inclusion. 2.) Function – finding the concrete reality of our identity (both corporately as the Body and individually as members of it) through testing it out physically in what we think about, say, and do. Then finally, 3.) Relationship – Considering our relationship within the Body to one another as well as our relationships to those who are outside of the Body. This series moves us from Identity to Function.
Some might say that Lutherans are very good at “identity” and not so good at “function”. These people would say that Lutherans are quick to identify with Christ through Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and forgiveness – that we really get that our identities are completely changed by what Jesus did for us on the Cross. They would also say, however, that we don’t really know what to do with that new identity. I confess, that as a Lutheran, this is the case for me. Do I know that I am forgiven? Yes. Do I know that I have the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Do I know that I am a part of Christ’s Body? Yes. Do I know what to do with that? Ehhhh…no.
I am especially cagey about how to do this in terms that don’t disqualify what I know from the Gospel. I don’t need a pope or an American evangelical trying to strike fear in my heart with threats of losing my salvation if I don’t do something. I know that those threats are not coming from the Christ who died to save me. But I do know that when I am forgiven and renewed, I have a feeling inside me that wants to try on the wholeness that Christ gave me in the Cross and the Empty Tomb. I want to function, but so often what I hear from people about how to function doesn’t fit my identity.
That is the space and the challenge of this sermon series and where we are going as University Lutheran, a real manifestation of the Body of Christ here on FSU’s campus. We know that we have been identified with Christ, now what? Starting this Sunday we begin exploring that “now what” with an easy function to get on board with, “now we eat.” Join us!