Pillars of the Church II: Connecting

The Word became flesh

I asked Bert Douglas, our Director of Family Ministry, to reflect on what it means to be a "connecting" community. Here's what he said...

As our second banner proclaims, St. Andrew’s is a “connecting” church. In fact, connecting is vital to what it means to be the church.

But what is this connecting? What does it look like? How do we live it out?

As I write this, it is midway through December: Christmas time; the time when we remember the birth of Jesus; Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” As Christians, Christmas reminds us that God did not come to us in a pamphlet, or on a computer screen. He came in the flesh.

God cared enough to relate to us, to connect with us face-to-face through Christ, and heart-to-heart through his Spirit.  In the famous Christmas carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Charles Wesley puts it like this :

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail the incarnate Deity!

Please as man with us to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Christmas tells the story of the incarnation. That’s a big word, but it simply means “in the flesh.” Incarnation is the very method of God’s “connecting” with us. It is not our deep inner feelings, profound as they may be, that should set the agenda for our thoughts on Christian life and community.  It is not what makes sense or seems right to our natural minds that should guide our theologizing.  The guide for authentic Christian thinking about God and community is implicit in the being and presence of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God.

In Jesus, we see the ultimate way that God chose to connect with us. And when his time with us was finished, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to maintain and build the connection. God’s connecting is incarnational, which means it is personal, active, and messy. God’s connecting Spirit moves towards and enters our messes, creating redemption and unity, which is the ultimate end of God’s mission (Ephesians 1.7-10).

We (the church) are called to enter God’s mission. In John 20.21 Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And so, our connecting, within the Christian community and with our neighbours, must be like God’s, i.e. lived out, personal, active and messy. It is about unity not uniformity, about hospitality not fear.

As we think and pray about connecting with others, here are three incarnational questions we might want to ask ourselves:

1. How can I see Jesus in you?

2. How can I serve Jesus through you?

3. How can I show Jesus to you?

Blessings,

Bert