The Fellowship of the Church- Lent III. The Way of the Cross Leads Home

 "Seeking God Alone Together"--or " The World Does not know God ....the Way of the Cross Leads Home"

Exodus 20:1-17 Third Sunday in Lent

Psalm 19

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

John 2:13-22

What is the church exactly? What is this place where we come every Sunday to bring our concerns, to worship, to share our joys and sorrows? We would say a community of faith where Jesus is the Head. It is His body and we are His followers. There are laws which we read a few minutes ago which form the background of its laws, the so-called moral law of God which is binding and gives us form in our lives here now and for eternity. In the lessons we see some talk of that. Why come ? We come because in community we share the body of Christ together. We are its members. All week long I have been thinking of that .

I like what a writer on a book on retreats said about community: “ one of the most powerful things community brings to individuals is courage---courage to be and do things we would never think of doing alone.” Seeking God Alone Together by Linus Mundy. There is a story of the monk (church member if you will) who said, “ I’d rather do things with others and have them come out wrong than do them by myself to make sure they come out right.” Now that hit me. This place in which we do things has unseen guests where Jesus is the Head. Those unseen guests are the saints of God, the great cloud of witnesses that we are surrounded by (Hebrews 12:1), those who are here now and those who are watching our movements now, the young, the sick, and those hurting individuals who need our love and concern.

In community we are sometimes irritated by others and their behavior. We are tempted to ask,” do I have to endure this?” I like what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his book, Discipleship:” Those being spoken to are those called in the Beatitudes into the grace of following the crucified one…..they are the noblest asset , the highest value the world possesses.” Yet sometimes we are not the place where we find a hospital for sinners but where we shoot our wounded as the saying goes. This is a place where we listen as it said in the second lesson, “ the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” I Cor. 1:18

As Greg Friedman put it in the book, Faith Note: “ God entrusts the gift of faith to us in the ‘earthen vessel’ of human community. While we must always apologize for our shortcomings as Church, I believe that our human sin can never block God’s work completely. Somehow , community continues to be the way God communicates, heals, and invites us to live more fully.”

This week I ran across an article about how churches sometimes stifle growth and it is worth taking a look at. 10 barriers that hinder church growth---here are a few….”

1. Members will not bring their friends to church.

2. People fear that church growth will ruin the fellowship.

3. Churches are driven by tradition rather than the purposes of God.

4. Churches are structured for control rather than growth.”

(  a newer version of this is in another article I saw on Thursday Feb 29 , 2024, criticalfinancial.com)  " Political entanglements with religion is the first one;  How the Church sees women is another one......Declining trust in religious institutions.....I shared this article on my fb page if you are interested in reading all of the 20 reasons behind the shift away from religious institutions/organized religion......)

 I list some of these because they can get to think about community and what we sometimes may be doing without always thinking about the effects. Here we serve God in His kingdom of which Jesus is the Head. I thought of I Cor 12.

 “ For the body is not one member, but many….God has set the members every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him….those members of the body , which seem to be more feeble are necessary…and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it.”

 Our Lord was very concerned about His House of worship. In the Gospel, John 2:13-22, we read of how He cleared the temple of those who were misusing it for personal gain. “He made a small scourge of small cords , he drove them all out of the temple . “ In fact it got so bad that they said of Him that ‘ the zeal of thine house has eaten (him )up.”

 In this community the Church we fallen sinners acknowledge our shortcomings and our failures,  yet we come to sing the praises of our Creator , gratefully listen to the Word which saves us and join together in mission to seek His will for the needy people in our midst , not only physically but spiritually and mentally. Here no one is perfect, no one is yet arrived yet when we lean on Jesus and listen to Him we grow together because that is His will for the Church now.

 In the little book I was looking at this week on retreats there was an excellent way to look at how to help ourselves and others as we find irritants in our pathway , i.e. the ways we look at others and the ways they look at us can irritate us. We become all used up when we see so many needs and people that need our care. We should look at ourselves as a reservoir instead of a channel of God’s love. What is the difference? A channel just lets the water pass through it and does not retain the water. (love) A reservoir holds the water and lets it out when needed. So we should allow God’s love to fill us and let it flow to others. I like that. So many of us are trying to do it all without letting God fill us first with the reservoir of His love and grace.

As we conclude today here a couple of ways to pray to allow this message to change and fill us with His presence for ourselves and the needs of those around us:

“On Making Spiritual Progress”- “ To prefer nothing before the love of Christ. To speak truth from the heart as well as the mouth. Not to do an injury: but to bear one with patience. Not to love much talk. To use frequent prayer. To hate nobody. Not to be addicted to jealousy. To avoid ambition. To venerate the elders. To love the younger. To be reconciled with those who have quarreled with us, before the sun go down. And never to despair of God’s mercy.” Fleming- The Fire and the Cloud

Why? “ Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” I Cor 1:25