You Need the Church, too...

A few weeks ago I wrote about why the Church needs you. I was especially writing to those who have walked away from the Church because they don't think the Church is doing enough Jesus work in the world. For me, Jesus work is the work of loving all, accepting others as people made in God's image, and working toward justice for all people. This means economic justice, justice on the basis of gender and sexuality, justice on the basis of race, and ethnicity, and justice for all people--not just people like ourselves or people who live near us, but everyone all over the globe. For people who believe in these values but don't see that in the work of the Church, the Church needs you so it can get back to that Jesus work.

You need the Church, too. You need the Church because being a follower of Jesus has never been an individual path. Being one of Jesus' followers has always meant working through community to bring about the goodness of God's love and justice into the world. From the beginning, the group of Apostles worked together, fought about certain things, came to agreement through debate and lots of listening, and then went out and did the work together.

As many others have pointed out, the cross, the symbol of the way of Christ, has a vertical beam and a horizontal beam. Sometimes we can be so focused on that vertical beam, our relationship with God or with Christ, or the Spirit, that we forget about the horizontal beam, the relationships we are to have with other humans. It's not just me and Jesus, or me and God, it's all of us together trying to follow that path as community. When we leave out community, we are missing an important part of who Jesus called us to be.

Christ's message to the disciples when he was leaving them was to be one as Christ was one with the first person of the Trinity. Jesus understood that none of them could do this alone. He also understood that one person will miss important issues that others will notice. If I go my own way and don't ever have relationship with the stranger in my land, I can forget how important hospitality is in the work of God's people. That's just one example. I have my own understanding and experience of God, and it is perfectly valid in its own right, but it is incomplete because I cannot understand others' connection and relationship to God. Being in community helps me to do that, and that helps me to have a richer understanding of who God is and how God relates to all people.

So, the Church definitely needs you. But you need the Church, too. Not the institution, not a particular denomination, but a loving, accepting community that helps to keep you engaged in God's work and helps you see other ways God works through other people.

At least, that's the view from where I stand today.

God bless you!