a long time, I have wanted to talk about the church, because I believe that church living is misunderstood. To many people, the church is an organization. In God’s eyes, it is an organism. It is a living breathing thing, so closely knit together that God refers to us as one person—“The Body of Christ” or “The Bride of Christ.”
We do not see the church as God sees it. Dr. Reuben Welsh once defined the difference this way. We see Believers like people walking around on the ocean floor in old-fashioned diving suits. Prayer and Bible study is our hose to the surface. This is what keeps us spiritually alive. in an inhospitable world.
But suppose one of us gets a kink in our hose by neglecting the disciplines of our relationship with God that keep us spiritually alive? Or suppose one of us gets a hole in our suit, and the hostile environment of the world comes rushing in? We warn them, of course. But if one of us drowns, the rest of us keep going. We grieve them, but we did not need them.
God sees us differently. We are much more like the crew on a submarine. If one of us runs out of air, we all run out of air. If one of us becomes polluted by the world rushing in, we have all been affected. We all depend on each other.
The church is a community defined by our relationship to God. The Greek word for church is ecclesia. It comes from the word to call. The church is comprised of all those who have been called out of the world. It is a body of people collected from all places and all walks of life who have been brought together by God to be His body on earth. It is not defined by social status, race, family, or any other factor, but by God’s sovereign choice of those who live by faith. The real church spans all denominations, all communities, and all kinds of political and social beliefs. It is made up simply of those who love the Lord.
In most rural areas there is a strong attachment to family. This attachment comes from necessity. Who else can we trust but our own flesh and blood? They are our support. If one member of the family is in trouble, we all in suffer. \ We assume that everyone has a family like ours that will take care of them when they are old or sick. This is not the case.
We need to see the church as a real family. In Christ, we are part of the same home, and responsible for each other. We need the church to be a family.
Why? Because that is what God wants. In Ephesians 1, Paul calls the church “His Body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” In the church, we see God in His fullness.
In worship, we can sometimes catch a glimpse of God. We are moved by the preaching, singing, and even the architecture. But this is not His fullness. \
In nature, we see His strength and His power. But that is not his fullness.
In human love, we see His nature. But that is not His fullness either.
Only in the church as a whole does God exhibit His love, His power, and His majesty together.
We are the only physical representation of Jesus on earth. Just as Jesus as the Word of God, the church is the Word of Christ. We demonstrate to the world of who Jesus is, by living His life before them.
In the body, we are not individual members, but one together.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:14-16:
The Church depends upon the support of every member. All of us, without exception, hold the church together by our commitment to Christ and to each other.
Paul expressed the same idea in I Corinthians 12:12-26
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
We are all necessary. Each person needs to give himself or herself to God, but we must also give ourselves to one another as well.
Let me suggest an illustration of the church. We are a web.
Imagine a fly hitting a spider’s web. Spider string, is not strong enough to hold a fly. What makes the web strong is its connection to other strings. When a fly becomes entangled in a web, the strain is passed on to every other string is crosses.
The same thing is true in a net. The safety net under a trapeze artist is made of individual strings. None of them are strong enough to hold a man. But woven together they are. It can hold several men, because it is connected.
We are much weaker in isolation. We may stand tall as individuals, but we will be crushed without a network.
If any church needs to be a web, we do. Trials and temptations have sapped our strength as a congregation. The only way we can survive is to be a web. We must bear one another’s burdens, or we will surely die.
In order for us to function as a web, we must have two strong relationships. First, we have to know each other. A trapeze artist has every right to be concerned whether the net has been properly tied. His life depends on a properly woven net.
We can learn a lot from penguins. In the dark days of an antarctic winter, the penguins huddle in a tight group. When the penguins on the outside get to cold, others take their place. No penguin feels the full cold for long.
No one can withstand anything forever. We need others to bear our burdens, or we will break. The church provides support for us when the burdens of life become too strong.
But what happens when an entire church is under hardship? There have been times when almost every family has become immersed in their own troubles.
Imagine that tightrope walker above his net. Not only does he want to know that the strands of rope are strong enough to hold him, he also wants to know that those ropes are connected to strong posts. Ultimately, the burden of his fall must be born by those posts.
Our church has often failed to be firmly grounded theologically and spiritually. When we do, we are disconnected from the true source of our strength.
This happens when we worry. Worry puts additional burdens not only upon ourselves, but on everyone to whom we are connected. In or relationship to God, worry is a lack of trust in God’s ability to hold us, our friends and our families. Worry is really a failure of faith, a disconnection between ourselves and God’s promises.
Worry adds stress to the web. If this world is all there is, we look to one another to solve the problems we cannot solve alone. We get panicky and desperate when others fail to solve our problems or theirs. We think we have to solve the problems of others, too. If our grown children misbehave, we think it is our responsibility to fix them. But fixing people is God’s prerogative. He is the one who ultimately gives the answers. Just as the strength of a net is in its poles, and the strength of a hammock is in the trees, so the strength of our communal lives are in the trust be place in the Strong One who does not change, or get tired.
Negative thought and feelings spread throughout the web. Worry begets worry. It can spread through the whole web if we let it. Disconnect yourselves as soon as possible from worriers, or you will be a worrier, too.
Positive feelings spread, too. If we have faith, others will be strengthened. If we love, others will love. When we mirror the thoughts and feelings of Jesus, we truly become the Body
of Christ. Then we know that God will support us, an not only us, but our whole community.
We are the body of Christ. We are webbed together. We are a world wide web, connected to one another and connected to our Spiritual Father.
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