But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. | 1 Corinthians 12:18–20
I had a number of people comment to me over the last few weeks on what an authentic, loving community we have at Communion Church. People visiting our church have felt welcomed, but also, they have been amazed at watching the way that our church cares for one another and our community. As many have struggled through this Christmas season, others have stepped in to help and support. In this, the church is living out what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 12:26 (which we looked at on Sunday):
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Of course, this is easier said than done. You can’t just say: ‘love one another’ and then it happens. Instead, this kind of unity takes time to build. It is struggling through and showing up when you don’t want to. It means willingly entering into suffering with people when you would rather avoid it. What this produces, over time, is something that can not be fabricated.
And it is attractive. As the people I mentioned earlier pointed out: this is the type of community that people are looking for and desire to be a part of. Many people want to experience this, but few are willing to be part of the long process of building it. To have the kind of community that God has built here is not normal, and I hope that we do not lose sight of this.
Which reminds me of another conversation I had this week about our Christmas pageant. On December 23, the kids of our church led us in telling the story of Christ’s birth and in song. There was something very sweet about the lo-fi production, which included a diversity of animal costumes and angels with varied wings. While it may not get a lot of views on Youtube and certainly didn’t mirror a Pinterest board – it showed something more important. These hand-me-down costumes paired with recently purchased ones (due to the growing number of kids) had an eclectic beauty to it. A beauty that comes from the years and years of people simply being the church (and performing pageant after pageant). The stage was filled with kids who were not yet born (and a few who were very young) when Communion Church began, who are living out the faith and practices that they have seen and experienced. Sometimes the body of Christ is just a bunch of kids running around in mismatched animal costumes.*
The purpose of all of this is to say: keep going! Keep doing all of the little things that glorify God and help others get through the day. What you are doing is so much bigger than any one moment, it is the building of a body that is growing and maturing together. What God builds is different from what we would build, but it has much better results, we just have to endure long enough to find it.
*all of this may have just been an excuse to post some pictures from the Christmas pageant.