Relationship is what it’s all about. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles describes the zealous and explosive birth of the Church; the Book of the Revelation describes the early Church’s fear of demise in the face of tremendous challenge. I’ve been reading through and studying both of these rather concurrently, and I come to the conclusion that opportunity for relationship with fellow followers of Christ is what gives birth to the Church and is also the source of energy that sustains it. Relationship with God in Jesus and in the body of Christ, the Church, is what Christianity all about.
One of my favorite reflections on God’s creation is the suggestion that before creates anything – stars, seas, sun, moon, plants, animals, people – God first creates a void which is not filled with God’s presence. God deliberately makes room for that which is not God, even before that which is not God is brought into existence. God chooses not to crowd out the possibility of anything else. Instead, God opts to create a space that creation and creatures can fill. It is a grace that people seldom ponder, the grace that God chooses to bring into being something other than God’s self.
And this tells us something important about God. To the core of God’s being, God wants something and someone who can receive God’s Love. God is Love, says the Apostle John in his first letter. God whose very nature is to give love brings into being an object, collectively, of God’s Love: creation. And as Love, God desires to receive love in return. Here again, another profound act of generosity on God’s part: humanity is granted the ability and the liberty to love God and, of necessity, not to love God. In order for humanity to love, humanity must choose to love; which means that humanity must be able also to choose not to love. Otherwise there is no choice, which means there is no choice. Relationship with humanity is what God seeks. Relationship is what Christianity is all about.
Whatever we seek to build here at ECR is relationship. We do not seek to build memorials to ourselves or to our favorite ambitions. We seek the blessing of relationship with one another, the blessing of sharing one another’s lives, of caring for one another and being cared for, as well. We seek the opportunity to care for the people hurting or needing in the world around us. Without theses, the rest of it amounts to nothing. “Their labor is in vain…” as the psalmist puts it. We seek relationship with Christ Jesus in these persons, in one another, and finally within ourselves, our individual persons.
Our community has many entry points for persons seeking relationship with God and God’s people. ECR feels to many like home from the first time they visit us. With more people coming here more constantly as new members and guests, it is important both that we longer-time members celebrate the relationship that is ours already with this community, and pull the newer members and guests across that second inner threshold into full participation in the life and rhythms of ECR’s community. It may be God’s call that brings someone to come in. It’s our call from God after that to bring them from stranger to friend to family member. We are the ones to bring them from the entry point to the inner family room, so to speak.
I’m asking our Ministry Leaders and Vestry members to assist one another and me in following up with new members and guests, as well as checking in with folks who have gone missing from ECR for a while. But this is a ministry for us all, not just the leadership. As a community, each of us can express ECR’s welcome; each of us can phone or email, send of card or pay a visit, in his or her own way.
In short order, the Church Office will have a convenient way to pass along to folks the names and contact information of the folks who fill our Welcome Cards on Sunday to Ministry Leaders, Vestry, and members who wish to assist in welcoming guests and newcomers after their latest Sunday participation. All of us need to become accustomed to doing follow up and this will be a useful aid.
In addition, all of us can help express God’s welcome and our own on Sundays when we speak first with the stranger rather than with the person familiar to us, and when we help to make sure that a guest fills out that Welcome Card and receives a Welcome Bag of goodies. And we can all communicate the expectation here at ECR that everyone, new member or long-timer, be a full participant in this community’s ministry to one another and to the world around us in Christ’s name.
It wasn't about recruitment for the early Church. It’s not about recruitment, now. It wasn’t about huddling together in fear for the early Church, and it’s not about that now. Then and now, it’s all about welcome. It’s about being present as God’s own hands and voice and ears and heart. It’s about finding God’s Love given new expression to us in the person of the stranger, and given expression to the stranger through you and me. Relationship with God through all God’s people is what it’s all about.
God’s Peace. Jim +
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