Where You Belong

Come with me for a few minutes…I want to take you on a brief tour…

 

It’s a tour of the inside of my church.

 

At the front of the church is a cross. You know, it’s only because of the Jesus’s work on the cross that we became reconciled or “back together” with God.

 

Then there’s the pulpit, where the Bible is placed and the messages flow from. Messages of loving God and loving one another, of daily following Christ, and of the Gospel – that tells of us being new creations, hurts becoming healed, the lost becoming found, and life coming from death – and that absolutely nothing can separate us from belonging to God through Christ.

 

Then there’s the baptism font. That’s where the grace of God becomes visible and we see how through the water, we are cleansed from our sins and promise that through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are renewed and we belong to God and to the gathering of people.

 

The communion table is there too. It reminds us that because Jesus’s body was broken, we are restored to a relationship with God and that through Jesus’s blood that covenantal relationship is forever. In addition, that table also shows how we belong to God and one another by partaking in the bread and cup in unity.

 

Right in front of the communion table is usually where joining members promise to make for unity, purity and peace as they are received and to the church. It’s where husbands and wives promise to belong to one another in marriage until death parts them. It’s also where, when we have funerals, the casket is placed during the service and we remember, even through the tears, that the beloved person belonged to God and not even death could stop that.

 

Moving toward the back there are the pews, where perfectly imperfect and devoted believers (including me) sit, praise, pray, listen, give, love and serve one another. Looking to the right and to the left are people who have shared joys and tragedies, made the difference with meals, calls and notes, and have shared life together – who promised to belong to God and one another. You can see orphans and widows cared for, young people taken under wings, rides to church and doctor appointments, those who are weak and broken find strength, hungry are fed and hurts are healed, wisdom found and shared, marriages supported and even reunited, new and old friends welcomed, and a lot of understanding, forgiveness and second chances. To those who have known and experienced these things, this belonging is wonderful and priceless.

 

Finally, there are the doors. There is nothing magical about these doors. You don’t need a special “id” card or badge. Anyone can walk through them and find all of this blessedness of belonging.

 

Each Sunday morning, I celebrate those who God has gathered and brought through those doors as well as grieve and hope for those have yet to come through the doors. As a pastor, leader and brother in Christ, I insist that a church’s proper posture is to have its eyes on Christ, then one arm around someone who is already there and the other arm is outstretched – reaching for and welcoming someone who is not there yet.

 

See, I wanted to take you on this “tour” to highlight that nearly everything about the inside of a church, of our church, is about belonging. The geography and landscape of the inside of a church is of belonging. At the same time, you’ve heard of the unfinished symphony, well, a church is the unfinished community. There is never a cap or limit or threshold as to who belongs – when Jesus returns that is when it is “completed.” Until then, no church on this planet is “complete” or “done” with the people who are currently there. Now, I am well aware that to many who never come though those doors, nearly the opposite is thought of the “inside.” Thoughts that only select people are welcome – that only perfect, holy people are there, that the messages are only for certain people that will understand it – in other words, very exclusive. I am well aware that sometimes both wicked and well-intentioned people have distorted and warped what God intended churches to be.

 

But I also know this: That all of us from 5 year olds to 95 year olds want to and frankly, need to, belong. It’s not just a teenage phenomenon. God designed us to desire and seek community and fellowship with others.

 

And I believe with my whole heart, that more than a club/organization, or a team or workplace or even a neighborhood (and I’ve experienced all of those), that even with all its flaws, a gracious group of Christians sharing Christ and life together is the highest, purest form of community – because the bonds and connections are supernatural (the Holy Spirit) not performance or money or appearances or status – you just come and belong as you are. And it is the closest thing to thing to Heaven – it’s the closest thing to truly experiencing God’s love and presence. After all, a Christian community is an embassy of God’s Kingdom – where joy, love, justice and wholeness reign.

 

So, hey there, what are you doing this Sunday? I know many of you have been hurt by church and by Christians. I know that it is hard to trust again. I know you want to belong and to be a part of something real. I know you might think what I am saying sounds impossible. But remember, with God all things are possible!

 

I would love nothing more than to see you come through those doors, encounter God in new ways, as well as experience the loving embrace of people who may not know you but somehow have been waiting for you…the embrace of brothers and sisters to whom you can belong. I’ve prayed for it, I’ve dreamed about it, and one day…

 

 

Amen.

 

 

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

 

Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and the forthcoming, With You: Every Step of the Way (September, 2011).

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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One Bread, One Body

Remix of Sunday’s Sermon

Sharing…

Sharing Communion is one of the most powerful and meaningful experiences for Christians. The language, the theology, the unity, the presence of the Spirit, the tastes, the music – for a few moments, it often does feel transcendent and “heavenly” – as it should.

But as you know sometimes we get so used to it that the experience is dulled, or sometimes we are excluded or exclude ourselves.

But think of the word – Communion. Some definitions beyond partaking of the Eucharist (remembering Christ’s sacrificial death); the act of sharing, an intimate relationship with deep understanding, sharing one’s thoughts and emotions with another.

Everyday communion living like this is what the apostle Paul was writing about long ago. He was actually addressing some issues of division, arrogance and hierarchy at the church in Corinth when he shared the idea of the body of Christ. Some people at the church in Corinth had decided they were more gifted and therefore more important than others and it was causing problems. Many churches today face these same issues. And a lot of times, it’s elitism and arrogance that wounds churches and keeps people from coming back to church or visiting at all.

“Churches are dying today because they are not doing anything which the world should look at and say: “There is evidence that God is real and that he is glorious,” said pastor and author John Piper. In some cases, churches are acting in ways that make people hide their eyes – not just ignore it.”

So Paul described how it was actually supposed to be – the way God intended church to be in terms of fellowship and community. Here are some things he wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ (12); “If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be (17)?”; “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose (18)”; “On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable (22); “that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another (25).”

So we get three main ideas about the body of Christ from Paul’s description

First, as much as we want people to be attached to their church and have a healthy sense of ownership and commitment, we need to remember that it is God who arranges the body and that it is Christ’s body, a resurrection body – dependent on the Holy Spirit. God shapes the body and purposefully places people in that body – not decided by groups or agendas. And it is by being a part of the body that people are sanctified and made holy. It’s not, as some would make you think, that you have to be holy, then you can show up and be a part of a church. Wrong! Come be a part and then watch your life be transformed by God’s Word and a loving fellowship of believers.

Second, Paul’s description redefines success, making it based on the resemblance to Christ – unity, health and functionality. According to this passage there is direct connection between a church’s health and unity and its ability to authentically resemble Jesus. So that, it doesn’t matter the size, its worship “performance,”  or its income – worldly measures of success. Do people experience the salvation, love, forgiveness, healing and transformation of Jesus? These are things that can’t be faked or fudged – a church that is depending on God and depending on one another will be obvious.

Finally, how can we more effectively approach being the body of Christ? By deepening and developing authentic relationships with one another. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together (essential reading!), “Through him alone (Christ) do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another.” In other words, the medium or bridge for relationships in the context of a body of Christ is Christ. Shared experiences, history, common interests, family – all good things – but can easily lead to factions. The most basic, essential, and unifying element of relationships in churches is being brothers and sisters in Christ. Sharing about sports, weather, kids and restaurants are good icebreakers but it has to go beyond that and does when there are relationships in Christ. Because if we are depending on Him, we are more likely to be enabled to authentically share with others – to learn to depend on others – this is what Paul was trying to show in this passage.

Yesterday, during the children’s message I invited the kids to stand up and we tried to do a group hug with our arms folded in front of us. We all laughed because it was impossible. But when we opened our arms and embraced one another – it worked! Same thing with young people and adults – real fellowship requires openness and sharing.

This is about belonging to one another – to need others in the best and worst times of life and faith. It’s the difference between being a part of a religious social club and being part of the body of Christ – huge. In Christ means taking relationships from purely social – to eternal and authentic and of substance. All the things we add to relationships – status, performance, wealth, success, appearance – all the things the world defines acceptance and belonging – undone by simply being in Christ and depending on one another, sacrificing for one another.

So then it looks like this…

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it (26). According to Paul in this verse, it goes something like this…If you have ALS, we have ALS. If you have breast cancer, we have breast cancer. If you are lonely and isolated, we feel that too. If you are crying, we are crying. If you feel defeated and discouraged, we feel it. If you are lost, we are lost. If you are being bullied at school, we feel that powerlessness. If your marriage is falling apart, we are grieving too.

Yet…

If you are healing, we are healing! If you are being restored, we are being restored! If you are hopeful again, we are hopeful again! If God has vindicated you, we are vindicated! If you are tearing down walls, we are right beside you! If you have been found, we are rejoicing! If you are finding new strength, we are emboldened! If you are wiping away tears, we are wiping away tears! If you are celebrating, we are celebrating!

Sharing. Communion. The Living Body of Christ.

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (27).”

Amen!

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

Christopher B. Wolf is pastor of First Reformed Church of Saddle Brook, New Jersey. He is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and the forthcoming, With You: Every Step of the Way (2011).

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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Homecoming

In June, I began my final sermon in Grandville with the story of my parents, Kate and Carter, and how they worked for many years at the youth center in my hometown, Fair Lawn, New Jersey. They were very good at “adopting” young people who were at-risk or just didn’t have many friends. I talked about how I was aware of it as a young person and how I have tried in some ways to imitate them in ministry – trying to reach out to people who are hurting and marginalized. For me, it was just a way of honoring my parents and explaining a little bit of what I try to do. But God has this way of doing things…

The worship services are recorded and I sent the CD of that service to a church with which I had been in contact in New Jersey about their pastor position. When I arrived late July for the interview, I met the members of the search committee. One of the women introduced herself and then explained that her daughter was one of the young people that my parents had “adopted” all those years ago. Stunned, I went over her words in my mind and realized what she was saying. She had heard the sermon on that CD and must have remembered my parents’ names! The next day, “the” daughter came to see me preach and she shared how she knew and loved my parents and fondly remembered my brother and me as children. It was “a moment” on many levels.

I couldn’t make this stuff up! And the reason for that is that only God could arrange something as beautiful as this. That this member of the search committee would listen to that CD. That I would mention my parents by name in the message. That I would be applying to this church. So many “planets” had to line-up for this.

“God knew what he was doing from the beginning…” says The Message in Romans 8:28. And I am here to testify to that very faithfully and enthusiastically. I know it doesn’t look like it a lot of the time. But God does know what He is doing – all the time – and it is for the good. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes going through a lot of things that don’t make sense. And, He is the only one who can take awful circumstances and convert them into many and incredible blessings.

Almost five years ago exactly, we came out to Michigan believing we were sent there by God. It was daring and risky. There was loss and there were many blessings. Some of it made sense and some of it didn’t. But after a while one of my prayers was to go home at some point. In my mind, I meant somewhere in the Northeast corridor would have been fine. I once asked the question, “Is God that good?” Well, He is! Because from our prayer, we now are blessed with the opportunity to go all the way home – literally a quick ten minutes from the place I lived for 23 years. A place that at this stage of my life, I cherish. A place where we are known and loved for who we are.

And get this, toward the end of seminary (some eight years ago) I briefly thought about the idea of somehow being at a church that was in the Bergen County area so that I could lead and love a congregation and with them have the opportunity to also reach, draw in and care for family and friends I grew up with as well as others in the area. I never thought it could actually happen. But I guess God heard that thought and prayer too! He is listening…

Thomas Wolfe coined the famous phrase “You can never go home.” And he is right to a certain extent. I don’t expect things or people to be like they were in the 70s and 80s. But it doesn’t have to be to go “home.” For me, home today is a God-choreographed dance of reconciliation, peace, all things new, too good to be true, found, dreams, love, beginnings and ends – a dance that has the potential to defy time, the past and distance. The Bible and our lives have many stories of wonderful homecomings and reunions – the prodigal son, Joseph’s reunion with his brothers, Jesus in the garden with Mary after he was resurrected. It’s a major theme. From the beginning in the Garden of Eden to the Kingdom of God coming down from Heaven at the end – history will end with the grandest homecoming and reunion of all – God and His people.

You know, before celebrating the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper, we talk about communion as a foretaste of Heaven – a united banquet of peace and remembrance blessed by the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and beloved brothers and sisters.

This homecoming feels a little like that, a foretaste of what is to come – a familiar city with loved ones and new friends eagerly awaiting this blessed gathering by God’s hand and on His timing. And as with the experience of partaking in the sacrament, I am in awe and thankful and humbled and overflowing with love for my Lord.

W.H. Auden wrote, “He is the Truth. Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety; You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.”

Amen.

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@sbcglobal.net

www.christopherbwolf.com

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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Communion

So I was sitting in this village in Africa on a mission trip and I was looking around at the young and old gathered around and I thought, “I love these people.” And then I told them so through an interpreter.

The thing is – I had just met them about ten minutes before. It was such a real feeling – that we were connected somehow. And I remember thinking – this sounds strange – loving people I just met. But really I had been praying for them and thinking about them for a while. And, even though separated by an ocean, culture, ethnicity and experience – we had one thing in common (the most important thing) – our love for Christ – bonded by the Holy Spirit.

And that is one of the most powerful, uniting forces in the world.

Family. Good. Husband and wife. Good. Friends. Good. Long-time friends – even better. Next door neighbors – good. Co-workers – can be good. Teammates – good. Think of all the possible relationships we can share in throughout life – they can be life-giving. But none of them can come close to what God designed, Jesus fulfilled and commanded and Paul explained – the body of Christ.

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt and the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters in to the exuberance.” 1 Corinthians 12:25-26 The Message

According to Paul in this above passage, it goes something like this…If you have ALS, we have ALS. If you have breast cancer, we have breast cancer. If you are lonely and isolated, we feel that too. If you are crying, we are crying. If you feel defeated and discouraged, we feel it. If you are lost, we are lost.

Yet…

If you are healing, we are healing! If you are being restored, we are being restored! If you are hopeful again, we are hopeful again! If God has vindicated you, we are vindicated! If you are wiping away tears, we are wiping away tears! If you are celebrating, we are celebrating!

It is the power and the function of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can take relationships of any kind from purely social to eternal and authentic and of substance. It is the only power that can undo all the things we add to relationships – status, performance, wealth, success, appearance – all the things the world says that define acceptance and belonging – undone by simply being in Christ and depending on one another, sacrificing for one another.

Unfortunately, if Paul were around today, he would be disappointed at how far many churches fall from this idea of the body of Christ. Too often, churches – bodies and communities of Christ fall into being satisfied with social relationships rather than Spirit-based relationships. The mere appearance of holiness, fear, judgment (explicit or implicit), superficiality, perfectionism, and consumerism – all worldly social norms – eclipse the covenantal and unconditional love, dependence, authenticity and grace – all the ingredients of true belonging and communion that were intended.

But take these – the love, the dependence, authenticity and grace and the work of the Holy Spirit now as the foundations to your: family, marriage, friendship, neighbors, co-workers, teammates and yes church members. It then would be a portrait of communion…not just a sacrament, but a way of living and relating.

We can be and are in communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and one another – not because of our goodness, our abilities or gifts, or anything else to do with us – really – it is for one reason that we belong to God – because He chose to have us belong to Him through Jesus. Jesus said, “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit… (John 15:16 The Message).” And it is a true belonging. One that nothing in the world can take away or stop or minimize. When I stop and think about it and truly comprehend it (as much as I can), it is breathtaking. That God loves me and accepts me and there is nothing I can do to add or take away from it. Think about it.

If you are seeking and searching to belong…if you are thirsting for a deeper connection…if you are desperate for being accepted for who you are…find it in Him and brothers and sisters living in Him. Whether sitting in an African village or a kitchen or a coffee shop or at the mall or in the sanctuary…

I want you to know today that, despite your past experiences and all the voices that say you can’t or don’t – you can belong, you can be attached – “through Him, with Him, in Him – in the unity of the Holy Spirit…”

Amen!

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The Table

NOTE: You can listen to our Palm Sunday and Easter Services on our website, www.firstgrandville.org; go to Resources – Downloads – Sermons. Our Maundy Thursday service is available on CD. Please call or email if you would like a copy.  

Matthew 26:26-29

The Table (Remix of Maundy Thursday message) 

“While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” Matthew 26:26-29   

Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money. But when some special occasion came up, we would do our best to celebrate. Once in a while, we would go out to brunch at this place in Totowa, New Jersey called the Bethwood. Still to this day, it remains in my heart and mind a very special place. The Bethwood was not Friday’s, or some ordinary place like that. We went to the Bethwood only for very special occasions. 

At the time, the Bethwood brunch seemed to be the closest thing to Heaven. Surrounded by loved ones and feasting on what appeared to be an endless supply of food. Often, looking around the table, I could see my parents, my brother Ryan, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was joyous time. You could forget whatever was going on and just be there. And the food! The carving stations, the waffle and omelet stations, the seafood, muffins, salads, breads, petit forts, fruit and more! It was truly a feast.  

There was another kind of feast many, many years ago. It didn’t have the same food, but it had some other very important ingredients in abundance. When Jesus gathered his disciples around an ordinary table for the last time for supper, it was a feast of love, grace and promise. Let me show you… 

It was a feast of love, because when Jesus, “took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is my body,” he was talking about how he loved his disciples and all those who would come to believe Him so much that he would offer his body – broken on the cross. The kind of love that says, “I am going to love you even when it costs me everything – my body, my life.” No greater love than this (John 15:13)… 

It was also a feast of grace because when Jesus, “took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins,” he was talking about how far he would go to secure forgiveness for us even when we don’t deserve it. He would literally pour out his blood for our sake on the cross. Covenant in real life means “I forgive you no matter what and I stay in this relationship no matter what.”  

And think of this. Jesus talks about love, grace and covenant while sitting with people he knows will scatter and forsake him just a few hours from then. Remember Psalm 23: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” Here he is sitting with people who would resemble enemies and yet he still has grace for them. How do you turn an enemy into friend? There is just one way. You can’t force enemies into being friends; it never works. The one way to make enemies into friends is grace; a second chance. 

Speaking of second chances, the table at which Jesus sat and we return to sacramentally, is a table of promise. Jesus says, “I tell you, I will never drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.” Even with their forsaking him, even with his death and resurrection, Jesus promises they will be reunited at another feast, with new wine, in the Father’s Kingdom, which will have no end.         

If I were to make a reservation at the Bethwood for brunch this Sunday, and go there, very few of the people I originally went there with would be able to make it. Because of death and because of distance, it wouldn’t and couldn’t be the same. The food I am sure would be wonderful. But as I looked around the table there would be many empty seats.  

But in this season, I remember that thanks to Jesus’ love, grace and promise, there will be another feast, worlds better than the Bethwood – an eternal, joyous celebration with Jesus at the head of the table and surrounded again by those familiar faces I so miss as well as many more. 

The miracle of the Lord’s table each time we return to it, is that a piece of wood and some bread and some wine or juice can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, “strengthen and feed us unto life eternal,” turn people into brothers and sisters, turn enemies into friends, project the present into the future, offer a foretaste of life in God’s Kingdom, and take seemingly and often invisible things like love, grace and promise of Jesus Christ, and make them wondrously visible.   

Amen.   

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of your thoughts about communion?
2. What would it have been like to have been at the first Lord’s Supper?
3.  What about the love, grace and promise of the table? Which of those do you connect with most?
4. How can we return and approach the table in new ways, appreciating and mindful of all the above?

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