Invited and Invigorated

Many of you had kind and appreciative words for last week’s installment of Thursday Thoughts. I think this is because what I had to say about connecting touched something within us for which we sincerely long. You will recall we spoke of connecting up, in , and out. Up – that Godward reach of a people fully confident that he had reached down to us, and continues to do so, for “surely goodness and steadfast love shall follow (read: “pursue”) me all the days of my life” (Ps 23:6 ESV). We reach in, as we establish and nurture godly relationships with each other. However, we don’t stop here. We seek to connect with those outside of our fellowship.

Now, all this may sound encouraging to you, yet you wonder if we are really capable of this, when it gets down to logistics, to actually trying to connect. Well, let me begin by saying that, not only are we capable of it, we are it! Wait, did I say that quite the way I wanted to? Yes, I meant it, just as it came out. In other words, connecting is not only what we are to do, it is who and what we are, by grace, as saved individuals comprising a redeemed community of the faith. Let me explain. Do you remember last week, how I said that we sometimes speak of this sort of thing as fellowship? I even mentioned the Greek word, koinonia. Some churches, for instance the church where Diane and I met and married, Kirk of the Hills, in St. Louis, calls their small groups “K-groups,” for Koinonia Groups. What lies at the heart of fellowship? Is it first and foremost something we are to do? Something we are to program? Something we are to announce in the bulletin? Something involving coffee and donuts? While those things are well and good, even necessary (especially the coffee and donuts), koinonia or fellowship, which is the substance of connecting, is something first ontological (essential) before it is economic (functional).

When we turn to the pages of the aged John’s First Epistle, we find a beautiful prologue. This should not surprise us, given the majesty and timeless dignity of the opening of his Gospel (I am teaching Jn 1:1-5 to my children in our family worship times, and it never fails to move me). Anyway, in 1Jn 1:1-4, John, no longer just the “son of thunder,” as he is now the “apostle of love,” speaks of the reality of the incarnation, the literal humanity of Christ. This was because of an insipient form of proto-gnosticism (an early form of docetism, which claimed that Jesus only appeared to have a body) that threatened the faith of the Church in Ephesus regarding Jesus humanity (cf., 4:2-3). After he lays out this rich doctrine, which is essential to our salvation, he writes, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you to may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1:1-4 ESV).

There it is, the word we are talking about – koinonia – fellowship. He wants the believers in Ephesus to know fellowship with the apostles, he wants there to be a shared, full joy in the Christian community. And all of this will be theirs, if they experience and understand that fellowship between believers is grounded in fellowship with the Father and Son. In other words, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the aged Apostle John is using fellowship as a synonym for salvation, itself!

Now, where am I going with all of this? If true koinonia is a synonym for salvation, then we must consider a couple of things:

1) Salvation is an individual thing. Individual people are predestined, called, regenerated, justified, adopted, sanctified, and ultimately glorified. Yet, salvation must never be conceived of apart from the Church, the communion of saints, the Body. Salvation is fellowship with God, which inevitably and immediately results in the fruit of fellowship with one another. Is it any wonder that 1Jn is the “one another” epistle?

2) The practical, hands-on, logistical ways in which we practice fellowship together, the “connecting in,” and even the “connecting out,” can then be seen by us as much more than just wearing nametags, so visitors will more easily know our names, more than just brining a dish for the after-service fellowship luncheon this coming Sunday, more than just letting a host know that we will be attending the next AF-3 Dinner Party, more than just hooking up for lunch after service. Our connecting in these fun and important ways with each other is really a vital way in which we live out and enjoy, even proclaim, salvation, itself. Again, fellowship with God is synonymous with salvation. That fellowship is bound up with fellowship with each other. Connecting with one another is more than it may appear on the surface. There is a very real sense in which when we connect, when we fellowship, we are doing theology. It is our coming together in the details of life together, in order to live salvation-life with one another. Salvation both invites and invigorates our connecting.

Think about it. Pray about it. You are invited! Be invigorated! Connect!