The gospel of our lives.
Fellowship is not just on Sunday. That seventh day of rest is our touchstone, though; it charges us — builds us up — with balance and centered faith. The accepting eyes around us, the heart-meant hugs, the open faced smiles of Christ’s family bind us together as one lamp of living light, one loving unitary body, with the solid strength of purposed conviction; together we carry the gospel of our lives out into the waiting world.
All around us rings the sound of creation — God’s beautiful world, from the abundance of full flower yellow to the golden green of august hues, we are surrounded by a sheer magnificence of beauty — this miracle after miracle of color and form, arc and flow, old memories of ancient trees, babbling brooks and their laughter, the sound of solitary wind over the plains, the deep sonnets in sounding waves from sea to sea — fish and fowl — life moves on wings of emotion that lift us up toward the trinity — sky lights focused, heaven bound!~ Indeed How Great is our God!
How gloriously, how tenderly wrought, the author and the painter created layers of backdrops for our dramas, our timed piece sets across the stage of being: But today as we leave our Sunday gathering, we move into a tone deaf life that has been dulled and jaded — groaning under the weight of a downward spiraling culture. When we leave those friendly doors at church, go down the ramp or stairs and get into our cars, we drive into and through a time and space that increasingly is alien to our presence as followers of Christ Jesus. It is in fact, inimical to life and the mystery of being itself. It is a culture at cross purposes with God.
Leaving those sanctuary doors does not close off our nexus to God’s family. Though we live in a time alien, we carry our light together as we enter the days, as we enter what fray there may be. Through the week our lives intertwine now in a way, closer than ever lives were connected before, not in tribal village drums or singing together in tent to tent meetings, but online with kiddos’ pictures and rhyming memes — the happy and pedestrian moments become shared with all the world — what we had for dinner, which flowers will or won’t grow, the sickness or the healing of friends and family. On goes humanity’s magic show of moving silhouettes across the stage of days — intersected and punctuated — with touch taps from the internet. It is all part of expanding God’s world and our lives, our fellowship growing ever outward together into the skein of larger hearth and world wide home. We are at our Father’s work, living out our lives in moment to moment testimonies.
Our newsfeeds are filled with Christian concerns, familial prayers and joys — wonderings of politics, of our earth itself, of our pro life stand, of those left behind spiritually and those ahead who may yet see — a prayer for you, a prayer for me shared together for a pastor in a foreign country bound, a woman scheduled to be murdered for her Christian faith in Pakistan. No, this is not the going in and coming out of biblical times, but it is the communication of our day — keeping faith with Emmanuel, our balance point; we are strengthened by our fellowship together on Sunday — our unitary body remains enlivened and intertwined around the I AM THAT I AM.
There is no longer a pigeon held letter, waiting to be unfurled, to carry the good news, (or from a nearer past) a ribbon tied stationary, penned ever so carefully and carried by stagecoach. It is instead the the journal of our days in this time of instant everything. We share our pastor’s sermons, to watch anew in the quiet hours of a weekday, reflecting as we can. We share the comments and the views and remember songs sung and people gathered. There is scarce lag time for thought. We speak quickly and scroll on by.
The new frontier in fellowship and outreach is beneath the keys, mouse clicks, and touches of our fingers. Dear family, dearest church, let us be be mindful of the air we fill, the content we give. Let it be felt as an awakening that Christians brought salt, light, and love — with the true sword of spiritual understanding ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart,’ We carry the light of our Lord and that of His universal fellowship, shining it by the living of our everyday lives, our reactions, our choices to engage or not engage; to offer solace and understanding, and maybe abit of wisdom along the way — to share the very joy of life that made David want to dance for the Lord, we offer ourselves in these pressured days as reference points of spirit life — brothers and sisters in the family of Jesus Christ that spans from continent to continent.
We are all the city on the hill. Let us shine pure and bright — until once again on the next day of worldly rest, in closer fellowship we can reach out and hug each other, share a more personal conversation with the brothers and sisters God has planted to bloom near our hearts, near our daily lives — in our little towns — just where we smell the sweet scents of life — holding the newborn babes, attending the happy weddings, and helping the aged find a friendly hand to ease them into their seats. With this family, this living church, we recharge and feel the glow of spirit, blanketing us from eyes and ears that do not wish to hear, comforting us in our personal sorrows and pain, rejoicing with us in our personal victories and celebrations. Let us take this wonderous glow that we gather together and hold it sacred through the virtual days until we meet in the flesh again, sharing the bread and cup of fellowship in remembrance.
May the love and spirit of our Lord — in all the churches over this and all lands –remain as points of anchor, shared moments the gospel of our days, holding us all in peace and at safe haven as we go through this Monday and through this week. Until we meet again, may we hold to our faith, praying for its steadfast gift and shining it through our words for all the world to see.
http://blog.maplestreetchurch.com/the-gospel-of-our-lives/
