Hope you are doing well. We are praying for you as we head toward Easter. Today, we are asking the question how does the church help interconnect us to our creator God in this busy, distracted, and increasingly dark world? I believe there are three core areas were we need the church, especially today, as news report after analyses trend shows our society is moving away from gathering together as the body faster than ever.

Communion. Jesus says in Matthew 26:26-28,

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Two basic elements of food throughout history are the crushing of wheat to make bread or crushing of grapes to make wine or juice. Jesus is “crushed” for us freeing us from sin and giving us an eternal home in heaven. The mystery of communion in coming together to celebrate this as a body is a precious connecting and healing opportunity and is a core element life.

I believe one of the apostle Paul’s main jobs was to leave us with little doubt about what Jesus said and what was important to Jesus. Paul describes communion with “deadly” seriousness in 1 Corinthians 11: 28-32,

Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

Worship. There are almost unlimited ways to worship our Lord, but the best way is together.

Colossians 3:16 says,

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

When we worship together, we both glorify God, and we encourage each other. It doesn’t mean we don’t, shouldn’t, or can’t worship alone. However, let’s use a little sports analogy here. It may be nice to watch a football game alone at home, but few true football enthusiasts would turn down the opportunity to watch their favorite team in the Superbowl sitting at the 50 yard line with a few of their best friends. Which way of seeing the game is going to leave us most connected to the team? I think it would be being at the game itself, wouldn’t you?  Worshiping at church, when done with the right spirit…meaning with the Holy Spirit, leaves us with deep connection to God and the rest of the body of Christ.

Exhortation. Hearing the word of God preached and read together is important. If done well or approached with our best attitude, it can be one of the highlights of the week. I have been doing some reading for we can improve next year’s Twelve Days of Thanksgiving. One of the books about the Thanksgiving celebration I was reading made an offhand comment. It said that going to a Thanksgiving sermon in the evening in early New England must have been…well… boring. Really? Imagine yourself back in time with no TV, Radio, Podcasts, and working outside for most of the week in the cold. I don’t think it would have been boring at all to get together with the community to sit, relax, and hear a good sermon. It shouldn’t surprise us when Jesus says in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.”

Joining together to hear the word of God read and preached is more needed than ever in this distracted and dark world. Often our minds are just too busy to appreciate it, and our enemy the devil takes advantage of this disconnection we have with our savior filling our minds with tired busyness.

And yes, we can read the Bible on our own and should. Yes, we can watch sermons online, and we should. There is just something different and special about coming together to be exhorted. Paul encourages Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:11-15 to “devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” And in 2 Timothy 4:2, he says, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season;”

I am sure you know there is more to church than these three core areas. But if we keep focused on these “majors” that connect us to God involving the church, I think we will have less problems and disappointments with church. But yes our churches are filled with fellow sinners, like ourselves, that do disappoint us and move us away from God. We will talk a little about how that happens, and how we can combat it as we move toward Easter in our next post. Thank you for your input.

Doug

The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.”  Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.