This Sunday we delved into the dialogue between David and God through Nathan about having “our own church building”. We love our homes because they are the space we make our own – we have complete control over them, they even smell uniquely like our own. God wants us to know through this dialogue that we need to let go of our desire to control and let God lead us in doing God’s work. Paul reminds us that when we start constructing a church that takes the control away from God, we face issues of not knowing how best to be knitted together; the structure that holds us together is the person of Jesus, it is through him that our existence has meaning and purpose. For that reason, the Gospel lessons this Sunday began with the work of the disciples – work that never ends. This work is not for the sake of growing the institution of discipleship and housing it in a building but because the Shepherd has compassion for the people who are visibly living out their disoriented and chaotic lives. The work of the Christian is to bring order into God’s creation not through control but through the freedom of the Holy Spirit that beautifully creates relationships and knits everyone into the bond of mutual affection centered in Christ. That is our work my friends.
In the last six months we have experienced the work of the Holy Spirit creating for us new relationships. Every weekend we are blessed to minister to someone we have not ministered before. We have experienced what happens when we invite our friends, family and colleagues to be a part of this relational community centered in Christ and not to a building: we build connections wherever we find ourselves – we have created many new relationships in the last six months. We find ourselves where people are and not where we think they should be. It feels like being with Jesus in people’s homes, in their meeting places (synagogues), in their fields and boats.
As I experience the freedom of the Holy Spirit, I increasingly find myself questioning why David wanted to create a stationary place for God –why do congregations and denominations create their own church buildings? I see now how a building, a home, can be an instrument of our control. When I was apart of a denomination I saw how in order to preserve a church building, ministry initiatives were deprived of funding, shepherds were told they could no longer be supported in their work – a complete reversal of what the Gospel envisions Christian life to be: the compassion of the Shepherd to help gather people and knit them as one in Christ is of paramount significance where there is no rest in such work and where there is no “our place” exerting control overpeople. So, today, six months into our journey as The Lord’s Table, I thank God for liberating us from the temptation of David and for resetting our priorities towards the work of compassion and not the place of control.
I encourage you today, therefore, to invest in creating relationships that emanate from Jesus’ compassion regardless of your location.
Peace,
The Rev. Amjad J Samuel