What is the church? What is her purpose? Is it a collective of people who share the exact same beliefs? Is it a social club where membership comes with specific benefits? Is it a political outpost to organize people around common causes in which to shift and change society? Is it a place to be affirmed in what we already believe or to be challenged to continue to grow? What is it that holds the church together as a unified people? What brings us together in the first place?
There are no doubt various ways to answer these questions. I’ve found that sometimes we give one answer that we believe is right but if someone were to examine our lives, they might give a different answer for what they see as the purpose of the church in our lives. There are a lot of ways to define what the church is, but I want to play a definition I read recently, “The church is a community of practices that join people together in their submission to Jesus as Lord.” I would add one adjective to this definition, “diverse people.”
One of the major issues within the church of the New Testament is how they will unite as one people in Christ amongst their diverse backgrounds. This wasn’t a simple difference in opinion about how life should be done. Their diverse backgrounds put one another at odds in their surrounding society. The sentiments one feels toward another do not change overnight but must be continually washed clean in the waters of our baptism.
I like how this person defines the church as a “community of practices” because our habits do more to shape our identity than any sermon that we will ever listen to. “Practices,” simply put, are exercises participated in by a group of people to achieve a common identity and purpose. We all engage in practices in our lives that shape our identity daily. Are you intentional with your daily practices with a vision of who you would like to be? For the most part, we go about our lives not very cognizant of how we are being shaped. This isn’t too different for the Christian assembly on Sunday. Are we intentional with our practices and how we want to shape our community?
The practices of the church are to join people together in “submission to Jesus as Lord.” Recognizing Jesus as Lord brings everything in our lives into contrast with his lordship. Our identities, cultures, countries, jobs, families, etc. all are reoriented in their importance considering the lordship of Jesus Christ. In our submission to Jesus as Lord, we submit all other allegiances in our lives to him. Societies tend to divide people into groups, giving one group more power and other groups less. These powers shift from time to time leaving groups to fight for their positions of influence. The church is supposed to reject this way of viewing one another (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) and live into the reality of the new creation.
Our focus on Sunday will be on how the church is the place where the divisions of culture washed through the blood of Christ to bring about the unity of Christ’s diverse body to reflect the creation God intended for the world. Reflect on these passages as you prepare for Sunday:
Galatians 3:26-4:7 – Being an heir was typically reserved for the firstborn son of a father. We have a different reality in Christ. If you are a slave baptized into Christ, you are an heir. If you are a free person baptized into Christ, you are an heir. If you are a Gentile baptized into Christ, you are an heir. If you are a Jew baptized into Christ, you are an heir. If you are a woman baptized into Christ, you are an heir. If you are a man baptized into Christ, you are an heir. No matter who you are, what you have done, or where you have come from, you are an heir and God’s loved child when you put on Christ in baptism. In what ways does the Church best reflect this reality into the world?
Ephesians 2:11-22 – Paul paints a picture where we, the diverse body of believers, come together as the holy temple containing the presence of God. The only way for this to be a reality is for all divisions of hostility need to be removed in Christ. The walls which used to separate Jews from Gentiles are removed so that they all move forward to the presence of God as one people. What other dividing walls do you see between people in the world which need to be removed in the Church so that we might show our oneness in Christ as an example to the world?