Last week at Family Camp
Pam Buchanan was teaching from two books—One Month to Live, and The Four Things that Matter Most. The discussion centered around Psalm
90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom”
(ESV). What would you make sure to do or say if you knew you only had a month
to live? We often live as if we have unlimited tomorrows. Early in the week I
happened to read the following from Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren:
“Christians are people who wait. We live in liminal time,
in the already and not yet. Christ has come, and he will come again. We dwell
in the meantime. We wait. But in my daily life I’ve developed habits of
impatience—of speeding ahead, of trying to squeeze more into my cluttered day.
How can I live as one who watches and waits for the coming kingdom when I can
barely wait for water to boil? …Time is a gift from God, a means of worship. I
need the church to remind me of reality: time is not a commodity that I
control, manage, or consume” (104, 108).
Our priorities get distorted
and we often fail to do the things that matter most—seeking God, mending and
tending our relationships with others, and making disciples of all nations
(starting at home).
Ron Thomas was the Bible
teacher at camp, and part of our discussion was on the relevance of the Church
in today’s culture. Once again I stumbled across a couple quotes in Liturgy
that directly related. (God does that to me frequently.)
“If we believe that church is merely a voluntary society
of people with shared values, then it is entirely optional... Our relationship
with God is never less than an intimate relationship with Christ, but it is
always more than that. Christians throughout history—Protestants, Catholics,
and Orthodox alike—have confessed that it is impossible to have a relationship
with Christ outside of a vital relationship with the church, Christ’s body and
bride” (118).
“We profoundly need each other. We are immersed in the
Christian life together. There is no merely private faith—everything we are and
do as individuals affects the church community. Yet many believers of my
generation are not sure what the church is for. Some have denigrated the need
for it all together. We have produced a me-centered faith that would be foreign
to most Christians throughout history... But if Christianity is not only about
my individual connection with God, but is instead about God calling, forming,
saving, and redeeming a people, then the church can never be relegated to
‘elective’ status... The preservation of our faith and the endurance of the
saints is not an individual promise; it is a promise that God will redeem and
preserve his church—a people, a community, an organism, an
institution—generation after generation, and that even the gates of hell will
not prevail against it” (120).
This dovetails nicely with
discussions we’ve been having at our church on what the church is and what it
means to be a church member. Church membership is about more than having your
name on a list somewhere, or showing up for an occasional service. It is a
commitment to a group of people who love Christ and desire to encourage, equip,
build up, serve, help, and hold one another accountable. We are to be partners
in spreading the good news of salvation and teaching new believers how to
follow Christ. We are brothers and sisters in Christ with a bond closer than
that of blood.
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the
head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Cor. 12:21).
© 2018 Dawn
Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from
pixabay.com.
