Who Are We Together?
The third question of the Three Simple Questions by Reuben Job is this one: Who Are We Together? It follows “Who Is God?” and “Who Am I?” and it is really the question that we have asked our Vision team to address. Who are we together?
There are lots of barriers to having a sense of community as the church. As Reuben Job says, “we live in a noisy, violent, divided, and dysfunctional world” (p. 55, Three Simple Questions). It’s easy to let those barriers influence the character and nature of the church. The road of love is a rocky road.
But Reuben Job has 3 recommendations:
1) Allow God’s Spirit to examine us and see where, how and when we contribute to the brokenness of the body of Christ. What is that makes it so difficult for us to see others as children of God and to love one another as God’s children?
2) Respond to Jesus’ invitation to “come, follow me” knowing that we can follow Jesus with the Spirit’s help.
3) Take courage — what Jesus asks of us is not impossible and it brings great rewards. Jesus said, “I will be with you.”
We share with others these same desires and can help each respond to God’s call. We become who we are meant to be — together.
Reuben Job ends his little book, Three Simple Questions, with this quotation by Eugene Peterson (writer of The Message, a modern paraphrase of the Bible):
The end of all Christian belief and obedience, witness and teaching, marriage and family, leisure and work life, preaching and pastoral work is the living of everything we know about God: life, life and more life. If we don’t know where we are going, any road will get us there. But if we have a destination — in this case a life lived to the glory of God — there is a well-marked way,
the Jesus-revealed Way.
Blessings,
Pastor Mary
