A man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote a book entitled "Life Together." It's a book that I have read numerous times in my life and ministry, and one that I continually find myself returning to. It speaks to much about our life together as Christians, and what it means to be a part of a Christian congregation.
This has a renewed interest to me at this time as I enter into my second six-month period at a new congregation. In many respects, during the first six months, you simply start to get to know people. Now that I have been here for a while, I've started to notice a change in some of the things people talk to me about. Instead of, "We're really glad you're here," it's slowly become, "Here's what needs to be addressed in our congregation." That's a pretty sure sign to me that our life together is something that needs to be discussed.
I don't mean this in a bad way, at all. One of the facts of our lives is that we live our lives together as sinful Christians. We're sinful. We'll not always think the best of others. We'll not always say the best things about others. We'll focus on our needs rather than the needs of others. And we'll always need God's Law to remind us of that sinfulness, and God's Gospel to remind us that Jesus has fully and completely forgiven us.
Just as surely as God has made a new creation within us in our baptism, we also need reminding that the new creation wants to grow in our life together as Christians. We are Christians, which means we live forgiven lives with each other. We strive to communicate matters of importance with one another. We aim to forgive, and to ask for forgiveness, as it is called for in our walk together. We recognize that there are times when we need to put our service to our fellow Christians ahead of our own preferences or likes. That's the Christ-like part of our life together.
For the month of August, I'm going to be addressing a number of areas of our life together that we would do well to heed and listen to. My hope and prayer is that we see where we fall short, ask for forgiveness, and then seek to grow in our lives with each other. May we do this for the glory of God and His Son, our Lord Jesus.
This has a renewed interest to me at this time as I enter into my second six-month period at a new congregation. In many respects, during the first six months, you simply start to get to know people. Now that I have been here for a while, I've started to notice a change in some of the things people talk to me about. Instead of, "We're really glad you're here," it's slowly become, "Here's what needs to be addressed in our congregation." That's a pretty sure sign to me that our life together is something that needs to be discussed.
I don't mean this in a bad way, at all. One of the facts of our lives is that we live our lives together as sinful Christians. We're sinful. We'll not always think the best of others. We'll not always say the best things about others. We'll focus on our needs rather than the needs of others. And we'll always need God's Law to remind us of that sinfulness, and God's Gospel to remind us that Jesus has fully and completely forgiven us.
Just as surely as God has made a new creation within us in our baptism, we also need reminding that the new creation wants to grow in our life together as Christians. We are Christians, which means we live forgiven lives with each other. We strive to communicate matters of importance with one another. We aim to forgive, and to ask for forgiveness, as it is called for in our walk together. We recognize that there are times when we need to put our service to our fellow Christians ahead of our own preferences or likes. That's the Christ-like part of our life together.
For the month of August, I'm going to be addressing a number of areas of our life together that we would do well to heed and listen to. My hope and prayer is that we see where we fall short, ask for forgiveness, and then seek to grow in our lives with each other. May we do this for the glory of God and His Son, our Lord Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment