It’s fitting that communion involves a breaking. With the broken bread we remember the body of Christ broken for us. Remembering Christ’s brokenness reveals our own, and it is in that brokenness that we find true communion.
God gave us a glorious gift in the assembled body of believers. Yet all too often we get this church thing wrong. We fight over carpet colors, worship styles, and who gets to go first in the potluck line. We gripe over the music being too loud and the kids walking in with hats on their heads and holes in their jeans. We look at those who sacrificed and gave to build what we have and complain they’re holding us back. We hold grudges instead of forgiving; criticize instead of contributing. We jockey for our seat at the table instead of picking up the towel and being the first to serve. What was meant to be a place of healing becomes a place of wounding.
This is not who we were meant to be.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people (Ephesians 1:18).
Paul prayed that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened “so that you may know . . . the riches of his glorious inheritance in his heavenly people” (Ephesians 1:18). Who are his heavenly people? Me. You. The widow sitting in the pew across from you. The child who rides the Sunday School bus every week. The single mom working three jobs who manages to get her kids to church twenty minutes late and wonders how much longer she’s going to be able to keep it all together. The man who first walked into the sanctuary with alcohol on his breath who’s now celebrating 6 months sober. We are the church. We are citizens of another world. We are his heavenly people.
And God chose us as his “glorious inheritance.” Wrap your mind around that and wonder. Of all the splendor in the heavens and the treasures hidden beneath the earth, God chose us as his inheritance. We are valuable to him. God looks at our brokenness and mistakes, covers us in the blood of Christ, and calls us glorious. There are riches present in the fellowship of the saints.
We get it wrong sometimes. I’ve got some of the scars to prove it. But when we get it right, miracles happen. When we live out life together as his people, heaven touches earth. We wage war on our knees and see strongholds fall. Communities are transformed. Families are healed. Addicts are set free. Those who had no hope begin to dream of a future. We become a place of vibrant life. We shine out like stars in the darkness. We live as the people he always meant for us to be.
This is my prayer for you this week: May God open the eyes of your heart so you can know the hope to which he has called you and rejoice in the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in his heavenly people.
1 comment
Leigh, a very reassuring message. Thank you.
Ruth
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