Context

• A story about being gracious - lottery winner giving her winnings away.

• Being salvation in this life for others - the doctor who stayed with boys in the cave.

• How big is your household of God? – boy makes burritos for the homeless.

 

Reflection

Some years ago, the church where I was pastor had scheduled an Easter holiday club for primary-aged children. About 120 were enrolled for the week. As I arrived early on the first morning to unlock the church hall, I was dismayed to see the fire brigade collecting their hoses from the still-steaming hall. There was no time to contact every family to cancel the holiday club, so the team and I decided to use the nave of the church for the club. Happily everything went well, but the Sunday following the club I found myself asking the congregation, ‘What if the fire hadn’t been contained? What if it had reached the nave? How might we go about “being” the church without the building to make a statement for us?’ Truthfully, I have often felt that the loss of the building might have been the making of a real Christian community, a real church, a true household of God.

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul makes it abundantly clear that the church—or ‘household of God’—is not bricks and mortar. He writes, ‘You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the corner-stone. In him the whole building is bonded together and grows into a holy temple…in him you also are being built with all the others into a spiritual dwelling for God’ (2.20-22).

In our ‘post-modern’ world, we can no longer assume that non-Christians and unchurched individuals have any idea what goes on inside our buildings. Church buildings, notice boards and wayside pulpits will only have meaning for those already interested in entering a church building—for whatever reasons. If the community of faith, the household of God, is to have any meaning or provide and hope or comfort to those outside of Christ’s body, it will only come as result of their contact with you and me – but only insofar as we reflect the grace of God in Christ. As spiritual dwellings, we cannot merely ‘go to church’; rather, we must be the church.

 

Prayers

For use after the reading from Ephesians.

Almighty God, we praise you for Jesus Christ, the foundation and corner-stone of all that we believe and are as those who claim the name ‘Christian’.
We praise you, loving God.

For the prophets of old and of today, who have listened diligently for your word and proclaimed it faithfully to both church and society.
We praise you, loving God.

For apostles and martyrs of the faith, who gave their lives that we might receive the good news of grace and forgiveness.
We praise you, loving God.

For calling us to be part of your living household of faith, and for entrusting us with your reconciling love.
We praise you, loving God. 

Gracious God, you have welcomed us by baptism into one holy community and joined us to Christian people throughout the world; may our lives be a sign of the communion your promise.
Amen.

 

From worshipping doctrines instead of the living God.
Lord, deliver us.
From worldly minds which drum up dissension and divisiveness.
Lord, deliver us.
From easy faith which shies from the world and refuses to share the good news.
Lord, deliver us.

 

Creator God, you have given us minds to know you, hearts to love you, voices to sing your praise, and strength to carry out your service to the world. Send your Holy Spirit among us, that we might live as our lips profess, and that confronted by your truth, we might worship and serve you as befits members of your household; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Questions

• Following on from the above reflection, in what ways does your church building inhibit or limit your ministry? In what ways might your building extend your mission and ministry?

• Is ‘evangelism’ a bad word in your church? Is having a building with a sign out front enough of an invitation to faith?

• In what way is your church’s life together an attraction for others to Christian faith?

 

All-age activity

Have an open discussion around these words of St. Teresa of Avila: ‘Christ has no body but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. You are the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks out into the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses us.’`

• How do Teresa’s words resound with us?

• Does our preoccupation with our church buildings prevent us from being the living church?

• How might we behave (or not behave!) if we had “Christian” tattooed on our foreheads?

 

Young people

Set up a ‘courtroom’ with one young person serving as judge and another as prosecutor. Then take turns being the ‘accused’. You have been arrested on charges of being a Christian. What evidence is there to convict you? Others in the group can serve as witnesses for the prosecution to share evidence from your life and actions to prove you are a Christian (helping a fellow student with coursework, praying with and for others, engaging in Bible study, befriending an unpopular person, volunteering in a service agency, etc.).

 

Dr. Jack Lawson is the former Mission Enabler for the East Anglia District of the Methodist Church, but now works as Mission Implementation Coordinator for the United Methodist Church in central North Carolina. He also lectures in Hebrew Bible and is a free-lance author. He is the author of the novel Doing Time which is based on his years as a chaplain in a Southern US women’s prison. 

 

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