What Kind of Church
Will We Be?
“So when
the apostles and Jesus had come together, the apostles asked Jesus, “Lord, will
you at this time restore the kingdom to
(Acts 1:6-8)
The book of
Acts is a chronicle of what life—and the church—was really
like for the earliest Christians.
The two verses from chapter one printed above contain the final
instructions Jesus gave the apostles before
he was “lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9
The Ascension—40 days after the Resurrection) Only ten days later, on the Day of Pentecost (50 days
after the Resurrection), when the
early Christians were all together in one place, the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a mighty wind and it appeared
to them as tongues of fire,
distributed and resting on each one of
them……and they were all filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, just
as Jesus had said. It was really
TRUE…..Jesus had sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the lives of
God’s people down through the ages to be “Christ’s
witnesses/ambassadors/advocates in the places where we live and work and play and to the end of the earth!” YIKES!!!
In her book, Reclaiming the “C” Word—Daring to be Church Again, Kelly Fryer (also the author of Reclaiming the “L” Word—Renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core), writes concerning the “call” of the church today, “No place in the Book of Acts, do you see people going to church. And nowhere do you see them leaving it behind. Instead, you see the church in action……You see people being the church wherever they live, wherever they work, wherever they go.”
“As nice as it would sometimes be just to forget about church, we can’t. We can’t get away from it. Because we are it. The church is the people of God, who are being transformed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel in word and deed. That means us. We can’t leave church behind—we are the church.”
“We are the church in our homes, in our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods. We are the church in our classrooms and on the playgrounds. We are the church in the voting booth and on the stock market. We are the church in the projects and in the boardroom and at the co-op and in the beauty shop and at the drive-up window.”
“That’s what happened when we got baptized. We became the church….We are church together and as individuals. Really, this shouldn’t sound all that strange to us. It should be especially familiar to anyone who grew up reciting these words from Luther’s Small Catechism: “The Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth.” The Holy Spirit has called me, Luther said, and all of us together. As individuals, and as a community of faith, we have been called to be church in this world.”
“This means, in a sense, that you are the church wherever you go. You might be a generous church, a loving church, a good-news-sharing church. Or you might be a lazy church, a disinterested church, a sleepy church, a mean church. You might even be a dying church. But wherever you are, you are still the church. And so am I. We’re stuck with the church because we are the church. The only really big question is: what kind of church will we be?” (from Reclaiming the “C” Word by Kelly Fryer, pp. 34-36)
We are
about to embark upon a journey into a brand new liturgical year in the church
as we enter into the season of Advent on
May the blessings of Advent be yours……hope, peace, joy, love.
Prayerfully,
Pastor Carol
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