Tue 26 Sep 2006
One of the joys of my position as a pastor is seeing the Body of Christ function as it should. Many Americans have been raised on the “I can go it alone, I don’t need no one never; I can pull myself up by my bootstraps” mentality. We’ve bought into the notion of the “self-made” person who “works alone.” All the while, we’ve forgotten that even the Lone Ranger didn’t travel alone. We were created for relationship.
The ultimate relationship for which we have been created is with God, but we must also admit that it was even prior to the Fall that God said “it is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). As the author of Eccesiastes reminds us, this is common sense (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12):
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him–a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
It’s often been said that “blood is thicker than water,” reminding us that family ties are often stronger than other bonds we share in this lifetime. How much moreso those relationships bound together by eternal blood of infinite worth? God often refers to salvation as the gathering of His “sons and daughters” (Isaiah 43:6, etc.). In fact, Paul says that the church, as the Body of Christ is to be so united that when one member suffers, we all suffer with them, or when one member rejoices, we all recoice with them (1 Corinthians 12:26) and that we are to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).
Yet many of us have not only not had this experience but we have been hurt by those claiming to be members of this same church that is to so deeply love one another. It is common to hear some say that they do not “need to be in the church” to worship: they can worship beside the trickling creek all by themselves. While it is true that all of life is to be worship, this idea that we do not “need” the church is misguided at best. We must clarify and say that American in particular have many preconceived notions about conducting church that we could leave behind and at root, “the church” is gathered, committed believers, but we must nonetheless say that, though we are saved as individuals, we live out the Christian life in community.
It’s common to hear people say that they are dissatisfied with a particular local church because “no one reaches out.” While many churches do suffer from this, the immediate question ought to be turned inward because in a real sense, Christians are one another’s keepers and if we feel that no one has “reached out” to us, we must be willing to ask ourselves what effort we’ve made in that same process. This often means examining ourselves for pride because Paul says that we are to consider others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:1-4).
Some might argue that I’ve overstated the balance and minimized the personal, subjective element of the Christian life. It is true that we are to grow as individuals, but the “one another” passages make it clear that as we grow as individuals in Christ, we will “love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). My wife and I were listening to A Prairie Home Companion the other day and Garrison Keillor was singing a bluegrass song (I don’t know why he feels the need to sing on every episode but he does). The name of the song was “You Don’t Love God” and the chorus was something to the effect of: “If you don’t love your neighbor then you don’t love God.”
While we are quick to quantify and define and ask as the lawyer did, “Who then is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-37) and believe that God will wink and nod knowing that some people are hard to love and after all, isn’t a song like that simply old-fashioned and antiquated, we forget that it is in fact drawing directly from Scripture. In fact, John goes so far as to say in 1 John 4:20 that “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.”
While it is easy to view comments such as these as a rebuke, we do better to view them as a reminder of the blessing that is meant for every believer. The Body is made up of many members, yet it is one, each member supporting the other (1 Corinthians 12:12-26). What a blessing it is to know that, no matter our family situation, no matter our past, when we are born again, we are born into a family that is closer than any physical family because we are bound together with no ordinary blood.
My heart is that these truths would be grasped and lived, not only at Grace Community Church, but throughout the Body of Christ. These past few days I have been privileged enough to see this in action so I know that, though it sounds foreign to many of us, not only is it possible but it is the way things were meant to be.
