Sermon from April 14

Here is the sermon from Sunday, April 14.

Connecting With Community

You’ve seen it now for a couple of weeks.  And today, since I’ve got this little slogan in front of you yet again, you may be starting to realize that it doesn’t seem to be going away.  “Connecting Community And Christ.”  It’s a short little saying, and yet, it is one that is going to have a lot of impact as we think about the various ways that we minister in Jesus’ name here at Oak Road.

“Connecting Community And Christ.”  If you want to think about it in this way, it’s sort of like a lens or a filter for us.  When we think about what we do as God’s people here, we’re going to be asking ourselves, how does it go about Connecting Community and Christ?  So we think about something, say, like our worship times together.  We look at them through this filter.  How do our worship times connect community and Christ?  And we see that in quite a few ways.  We hear the Word of God, which connects us to Christ through the Holy Spirit’s work.  We connect with other people of our community of faith as we gather together.  We even recognize that our community of faith is centered on what Christ has done for us in His life, death, and resurrection.

That’s an idea of how we view the various parts of our ministry life here at Oak Road through this filter.  When we plan an activity or event, we ask ourselves how this particular thing will connect community and Christ.  It means that we have to be somewhat intentional about how we’re going to do that.  It may even mean that we will sometimes look at something that we’re doing, or at something that we’d like to do, and realize that it doesn’t really fit through this filter.  And when that’s the case, we then have to ask ourselves why we are doing it, if it’s not serving to connect community and Christ together.  

That’s what we do as God’s people.  We are a people who have been connected into a community, and we’re part of that community through Christ.  Each of you is a part of the community of Oak Road because of what Christ Jesus has done for you.  When you were baptized, Christ connected you to Himself, and He introduced you into a community of others who share that same gift with you.  You were connected to Christ, and you were connected to a community of faith when you were baptized.

That makes you a part of a connecting community.  And this brings me to one of the great things about this phrase that we’re using to filter our lives together as Christians.  It has different layers of meaning.  When you look at it all together, it explains what we are doing as God’s people, especially as we engage in ministry.  We’re connecting community and Christ.  But you can also take the different parts of this phrase and see how it describes us and the things that we do.

Connecting Community.  Part of what we are about as God’s people is being a connecting community.  In a very simple way, it means that we connect together.  We live out the design that God used when He created us as human beings.  We connect together.  God didn’t create us to live in isolation from each other, but to be connecting together as a community.  And so we shouldn’t be surprised to find that part of our life as God’s people is that we connect together.

In fact, I’d like for you to take another look at the Bible reading from John (John 21:1-14) again.  Look through there, and as you do, look for ways that you see connecting in community.  Go ahead and say them when you see them.  (fishing together and eating together are two obvious ones)  We see that the disciples found it natural to connect together in community.

Connecting in community isn’t exclusive to those who are connected to Christ.  We see it all around us.  It’s just natural for us, as human beings, to connect with one another in community.  We do it around different things, like sports, or family, or activities we share.  We connect in community based upon things like the stage of life we happen to be in.  We connect around shared interests, and perhaps for many other reasons as well.

But the community that we are part of here is a unique one.  That uniqueness is found in the last two words of our little slogan.  “And Christ.”  Christ Jesus is at the center of our connecting community.  Sure, we may have some friends who have shared interests here within our gathering.  We may have those who have connected together outside of our faith life together.  But when we come to this place together, we do so because we are connecting with each other in a unique way.  We’re connecting with our community in Christ Jesus.

And once again, we see an element of that in our Bible reading from John.  Remember, these are men who had been called by Jesus to go and follow Him.  Jesus had taught them for a period of about three years, teaching them about God, and about what God’s work in the world looked like.  So, even after Jesus had died and risen from the dead, these men still found it natural to connect together.  Their connections were based upon the fact that they had been called by Jesus as His disciples.  Even after Jesus had died and risen, they were still connected together because they had been brought together by Jesus.

And as we look at this Bible reading, we also see something else.  These disciples had gotten together to go fishing.  Their night had been uneventful.  No fish had wandered into their nets.  They had lost a night of sleep to no gain, and yes, I know that a bad day or night fishing is still better than any day cleaning out the garage.  But their trip had been fruitless.  Nothing to show for the lost night of sleep.

That is, until Jesus shows up and connects with them.  Their ordinary day/night suddenly changed when Jesus connected with them.  A toss of the nets out of the side of the boat, and suddenly there are more fish than what their nets should be able to keep.  Jesus connects with them, and their community goes from ordinary to extraordinary.  The disciples are reminded that they may have community with one another, but when their community is connected together in Christ, then some great things really do happen.

We’re also a connecting community that finds our source of connection in Christ.  We may have a variety of reasons for coming together as God’s community this morning, such as our friendships, or out of a sense of obligation or duty, or because it’s what God says to do, or simply because it’s a habit for us.  But at the heart and soul of our connecting time together today, we come together to be connected with Christ Jesus.  The source of our community is Christ, the one who lived the perfect life for you, who died for you, and who rose to connect you to Himself in a community of faith.  

Sure, we may have connecting communities of all sorts of shapes and sizes and varieties in our lives.  But we have one connecting community that is found in Christ.  Christ Jesus has done what He did in order to bring you into His community.  He lived and died and rose for you.  He connected you to His community through the water of baptism, and He continues to draw you into this community, to share the gifts He has given to you with others who have received those same gifts.

Christ creates our community.  We’re part of a community, and that means that we do things together.  Think about it like this.  Who here likes to go bowling all by yourself?  True, some of you may not like to go bowling at all, but it’s one of those activities that you just don’t seem to go do by yourself.  I bet some of you like to fish.  Do you like to go out all by yourself, or with someone else?  If you happen to be a sports fan, is it better to catch a game by yourself, or with someone else?

God created us to be in community with each other.  The activities that we engage in as God’s people are more meaningful when we engage in them with others.  Whether it’s going fishing, or having a bite to eat for breakfast, these activities just seem to carry a bit more meaning when they are done in the context of a connecting community.  Sure, we can give thanks to God for what He has done for us in Christ at home all by ourselves, but there’s more meaning to it when we come together in our community.  We have those connections that reinforce our faith, that build up our faith, and that encourage each other in faith.

In other words, we’re a connecting community.  We’re a community that is connected together in Christ, and that continues to strive to connect together.  And I would even suggest for us today that we’re not content to simply connect with those who are already here.  Sure, we have built up connections with them, and some of those connections run back for years.  But as a connecting community in Christ, we’re also not content to remain only as we are.

That’s why we also strive to be a connecting community with the community around us.  As we venture out through our doors today, we’re going to connect in our community around us.  You can’t help but do so.  And we’re going to encounter a lot outside of those doors that remind us of the good gift God has given us in our connecting community here.  We need the encouragement and reinforcement of our faith connections and community.  We need to be reminded that God has connected us to one another in Christ and what He has done for us.

And that brings us back again and again to our connecting community.  We give thanks for those with whom God has connected us, and as we go forth to connect with our community, we also pray that God will work through those connections to draw even more into our connecting community.  May it be so, for the sake of Christ.  Amen.