Dear friends,
This week, we continue our Lenten sermon series
March Madness: Lessons from the Hardwood
by considering the concept of the Sixth Man as a way to think about community. Using a portion of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, we'll explore what it means for people of faith to seek to create and participate in true community.
So often, when we think of community, we think of groups of people with whom we have multiple things in common. We think of our neighbors or our work colleagues, those with whom we share a hobby, or our church friends. We think of community as a place of safety and comfort, a place where we can be accepted and loved, protected from the things that would challenge or threaten us.
While this is not an inaccurate view of community, neither is it complete, at least according to scripture.
For all who seek to follow Jesus Christ, community asks a little bit more from us. In fact, it is less about us and more about the other.
As Paul writes in Ephesians 4
,
we are called to be one body, to be united with all of God's creation, setting aside anything that would divide us and living together in peace with all people.
In scripture, community is more expansive than it is exclusive. And that isn't always easy.
Pastor John Pavlovitz calls it "the table Christ sets over and over in the scriptures: the place of continual restoration, perennial communion, unending fellowship." The community to which we are called isn't always easy, and it's rarely what we imagine it will be, but it is always worth it.
I hope to see you on Sunday as we dig more deeply into what it means to seek authentic Christian community.
Grace and Peace,