Life Together: The Gift

Here's the text of the first message of the series "Life Together".
Close to 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. David Kinnaman , the bestselling author of unchristian, has written a new book on these young believers. In unchristian, he uncovered what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity. His new book, You Lost Me, shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church. One of his findings is that more young adults are struggling with their experience of the church than their Christian faith. It’s not uncommon to hear those who’ve left the church say something like, “I still believe in God and love Jesus, it’s the church I don’t need.”

In this series of messages I’ve titled “Life Together” we’ll take a fresh view of what being the church is all about. I’ve taken the title from German pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s little book Life Together… based on his experience as part of a unique fellowship… an underground seminary during the Nazi years in Germany. In his book Bonhoeffer writes, “It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”
According to Kinnaman’s research, more and more believers see the “physical presence of other Christians” as something less than a source of joy and strength.

Soon after writing Life Together Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo and spent 2 years in prison, where he experienced forced separation from fellow believers. He was executed a few days before WWII ended. Bonhoeffer understood the gift of life together in Christ. How is it that we are supposed to experience life in the community of faith we call the Church? The place to start is with the New Testament perspective of life together.

 John 1:1-2
¹ The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth--and not I only, but also all who know the truth-- ² because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:
John identifies himself as “The elder” or as The Message translates it, “Your pastor” which seems so much more personal. The Greek word is “πρεσβύτερος” meaning, “to be relatively advanced in age, elder, presbyter.” This term was used for synagogue officers and members of the Sanhedrin. Among Christians it became an honorary title. John uses this term to indicate a position of dignity and leadership. The author of the letter was a respected leader who had an intimate connection with the congregation he was writing to.

The Elder writes to the “chosen lady”. Some actually think he had a girl-friend or mistress. That’s an incredible stretch that is just plain silly. He is clearly using the phrase as a metaphor of the church. That’s obvious when he follows his declaration of love for the “chosen lady” with, “and not I only, but also all who know the truth”. The word “chosen” is ἐκλεκτός “being selected, elect… of those whom God has chosen and drawn to himself.” We can get lost in the debate about predestination, or we can celebrate the deeper truth that God takes the first step in reconciling all sinners to himself. God chooses us! God wants us!

At the very beginning of his letter John declares in no uncertain terms his love for the church. He uses the term “ἀγαπάω” meaning, “to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love.” It is a love that gives and sacrifices for the other. It is the word most often used of God’s love for his people.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:10
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.  

Paul’s love for the church was surpassed only by his love for God, and he was prepared to “endure everything” for her sake. All the apostles loved the church and had high expectations for what God was going to do in and through the church.

John uses the Greek word (ἀλήθεια) 4 times in verses 1-3. The usual translation is “truth” but it also can mean, “a state of being, reality”.  John 17:19 is a good example of “reality” perhaps being the better translation choice, when Jesus said, And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. (sanctified in reality). Our true state in Christ is given us by Christ, and that state of being, our reality is that we are holy people. That’s what sanctify means… holy, and it comes from having the truth of gospel of Jesus Christ in us. Our reality is the grace of God not only saving us from our sins so that we go to heaven when we die, but working transformation in us today.

John dearly loves the “chosen lady” and her children, and adds, “So does everyone else who knows the truth, and has the truth abiding within.” He assumes that those who know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, those who have that truth inside will always and forever love the church… the community of believers.

In v.3 John gives a blessing: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.

The blessing centers on God’s grace, mercy, and peace given through Jesus Christ, & meant to be lived out in life together “in truth and love.” The truth is the gospel and the love is what the gospel produces in us as a community. The blessing is followed by a reminder, to love one another, & to remain anchored in the truth. Then he closes his concise letter with…
(2 John 1:12-13)
¹² I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
¹³ The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.
John’s desire, his longing, is to be with his congregation, his people. He’s got so much more to tell them that he is saving for the face-to-face (literally mouth-to-mouth) encounter. He longs for that intimacy of the community of believers. He uses the same exact phrase he used in his first letter, “so that our joy may be complete.” It is in the intimate gathering that their joy is complete, both his and theirs. In his first letter he wrote… 1 John 1:3-4
³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We write this to make our joy complete.
John believes that something divine happens when the followers of Christ are gathered… something unique and powerful that cannot happen in our individual, isolated spiritual practices, or at least not with the same intensity & depth. Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
What is unique in the experience of the gathered community of believers? That’s what I want to address in the next 6 messages.

Bonhoeffer sums up well the main message for today: “How inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!”

So why the disillusionment with the church? Bonhoeffer had something to say about that long before Kinnaman’s research: “The Christian brotherhood is not an ideal, but a divine reality…”

He understood that the church was deeply flawed, it is not an ideal, a perfect community… but it is a “divine reality” in the sense that God indwells his church.
Let me give you a few specific reasons to stay engaged and love the church.

Why Love the Church?

The Church is your mother
Augustine said, "The Church is a whore, but she is my mother."

As flawed and sometimes unfaithful to Christ as the Church has been, it carries the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are her children and she is our mother. It is she who taught you about Jesus. The church has preserved the Gospel for 2000 years and delivered it into our hands. The Bible teaches that Christ loves the church and gave himself for it. That's the main reason why you dare not decide that you don't need the church. Christ's church is called his bride and his love for her makes him faithful to her even when she is not faithful to him.

The church is God's primary instrument for transforming society

There are numerous examples of this…
The collapse of apartheid in South Africa was led by Archbishop Tutu, the leader of the Anglican Church in that country. The Church became a force for justice.
Schools created by missionaries have educated most the significant leaders in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The doctors, lawyers, engineers, and entrepreneurs—almost all owe their training to church-sponsored education.
The Church stands up for those who cannot stand-up for themselves… unborn.
The Church was in the forefront of the battle against the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Hypocrites Welcome
The accusation that the church is filled with hypocrites causes some to leave. Well, it is. Because the church is filled with hypocrites you’ll be right at home in it. If you don't think your own life is filled with hypocrisies, you are blind to the truth. We admit that everyone is a hypocrite, if by "hypocrite" we mean someone who does not live up to his or her declared ideals and does not practice what he or she preaches. Most of us recognize that we fall short, so come together to help one another overcome our failures. As the old saying goes, "We're not what we ought to be, but then we're not what we used to be."

We love our families even though our families are not perfect. It is a great gift to be part of a family. It is a great gift to be part of a spiritual family… a church. We don’t love the church in the same way we love a good concert or a movie or a trip to Disney World. We love those things for what they do for us… how they entertain us and thrill us for a moment. While there may be similar moments in our church experience… I hope there are… I hope the worship inspires and the preaching encourages… it is simply being together in His name that is at the heart of it.

Conclusion/Response

Two years ago our extended family, all 30+ of us, celebrated Christmas together at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. The main attraction is a Schlitterbahn type water-park… INDOORS! It’s quite impressive and some of the water-slide chutes are quite a thrill. But my best memory of being there was climbing on an enormous intertube to zoom down the twisting, turning chute with 2 of my grandsons and my dad. It was being there with family spanning 4 generations that I will never forget.

Last Christmas we celebrated together at a rustic retreat facility west of Waco. There were no thrilling water-slides or carnival rides. We enjoyed a hay-ride and some went horseback riding one afternoon. There were no big-screen televisions, or any tv at all. There was no wifi or video games… no super thrills of any kind. We played touch football, whiffle ball, board games, hiked, ate our meals together, and mostly just enjoyed being together. Guess which one we all agreed to go back to this Christmas… the rustic retreat. It’s being together that we love.

I look forward to coming to worship on Sundays. I am often thrilled by the music; the instruments and the voices often move my heart and I’m glad I get to worship at 9:30am and again at 11:00am. Often I get caught up in preaching the message and God moves in me and in our midst and that’s better than any water-slide. But what I love the most, what PCC is about at our core, is being together as the children of the “chosen lady”. We are the “chosen lady”! It’s not about the thrill; it’s about life together, being part of a wonderfully flawed extended family!

Church = Body of Christ = Bride of Christ. It's difficult to imagine Christ giving up on the Church. After all, “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her…” (Eph. 5:25). If Christ is in us we cannot give up on the Church. Constructive criticism? Yes! Confession? Yes? Repentance? Yes! Reform? Absolutely! Abandonment? Never!

Homework Assignments: Preparing for “Life Together”

Next Sunday spend 15-30 minutes in silent contemplation before you come to worship in community. Take nothing but your Bible and your journal.
Spend the entire 30 minutes thinking about Jesus. Read & reflect on Eph 2:14-22.

Blessing: “May you discover a new appreciation for life together in Christ. Amen.”