My family and I have a little game we play with each other. We 'give' each other people ... famous people, sports figures, other family members, historical figures. For example, Lee is 'given' all the people whose names begin with strange combinations of 's' words (she gets Brandt Snedeker, Xander Schauffele, both golfers). It is a silly game, but funny at times, especially when someone begins a sentence with "Your boy, Adolf Hitler made history again today!" It is all in good fun and we try not to get our feelings hurt (very much a no-no in today's world) by which person we are given.
But in the Church, things are different. Acts often describes the believers as being "together." In Acts, it seems that the one requirement for being a person's boy or girl is a shared belief in Jesus. I love that, and I think that is as it should be. We belong to each other, even if we sometimes do things to 'fry each other's bacon!' God understood this principle well. In Exodus 32:10 God says to Moses, "Now leave me alone with My anger, that my anger may burn against them, and then I will make you into a great nation." Translation, "I brought them into this world, and I can take them out ... and I can make some new people who are not so stiff-necked." Needless to say, God was mad and disappointed with disobedient people! But Moses makes a very wise plea. In the next verses Moses (again paraphrased) says, "They may be stiff-necked, but they are yours!" Our lesson? The people that make you mad in the Church may be stiff-necked (or maybe you are stiff-necked) but they are yours. They are all "your boys and girls!"
Acts has some great advice here. If we are to ever have both the unity and power of the early Church, we have some work to do. It starts with understanding we are the Body of Christ. Hands, feet, fingers ... even some armpits! But we are part of that thing that God has sent us to transform the planet. "I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together ... all who follow Jesus, all around the world, we are the Church, together!" I may be an armpit, but I am still your boy! And Jesus, in John 17:21, prays that all the believers are one, just as Jesus and the Father are one. That prayer should mean something to us.
A second "we can do this" is to get rid of the unimportant. I have to brag about our congregation for a minute. All of you seem to be gently centered on why we are here. We have had a good many small children in our midst and it has taken patience and grace. You have stayed the course and stayed in focus. I wonder if the early Church learned to "go with the flow" of life, people and a very diverse group of people. Peter and Paul had some discussions about this in Galatians 2 and concluded that as diverse as people were, the people were all their boys and girls. They put aside the unimportant for the work of the Church and the witness of the Gospel,
Finally, I think the early Church had a pretty good handle on being centered on the one thing instead of their own things. In Colossians 3 Paul writes, Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other and in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing (Col. 3:15, The Message)." One of the hardest things to get right when playing in a band is getting in step and in tune. No matter how "good" each musician plays, it will sound terrible if the instruments are out of tune or the musicians are playing the piece differently. To sound right, we must play together. In the praise band, this means we play in consideration of all the other players and parts of the band. It is the same with the congregation. We must be willing to let go of a little of 'self' so that the 'whole' can be healthy, vital and in step. For the 'whole' is the witness of the Church and the representation of Jesus in our community. It is not giving up our individual self as much as it is growing beyond the limitations of self into something bigger and better than we are individually. We sing about this in America the Beautiful when we say, "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life."
In Matthew 16, Jesus refers to Peter as a rock. More accurately, the term means 'little rock.' The idea is that we are bound together by a strong bond (Jesus) in an amalgamation that is less like a pile of pebbles and more like concrete. The whole is far stronger than the individual parts. We are each others 'boys and girls!' We are brothers and sisters, friends, bearing each others burdens and sharing each others difficulties. That is the Church that Matthew 16 says will prevail, even against the gates of hell! Randy
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