Last month, I shared some of the discussion behind revisions to our church statement:
Together we grow
Richer in Spirit,
Deeper in Discipleship,
Warmer in Fellowship,
Broader in Mission and
Service to the world in
Witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
I want to share my understanding of what each part of this statement means to me, beginning this month with “Together we grow richer in spirit”. As I type the phrase, I remember something Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for heirs is the Kingdom of God”. In the case of the church, it is exactly the richness of the Kingdom of God in which we mean to grow. I want to bring together a few passages of scripture for our consideration. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he shares this prayer for the church in Ephesus:
16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. (Ephesians 3:16-17)
As to what one might expect to be the fulfillment of such a prayer, one description of it is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
To have these qualities increasingly become our regular everyday way of being, this is one way to understand what it means to grow richer in spirit. By extension, living our lives with the qualities on display and in action makes us to be the experience of the Kingdom of God for others. How then do we go about becoming more mature, or richer, in this way? The second part of Paul’s prayer point us back to something Jesus says:
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.”
(John 15:4,5,10)
In Jesus’ words, we recognize what we call a feedback loop or a cyclical reinforcement. Relationship empowers action, action in turn enriches relationship, and so on. Abiding in Jesus is meant to be the regular way and rhythm of our days, whereby we grow more fruitful (richer) in spirit.
The time we spend together in worship is devoted to the practice of abiding in God’s love and presence. Together we rejoice in God. We remember and reaffirm our trust in and reliance upon God. In our times of worship with God and one another, we recover from the strains and noise of the week gone by. It resets our spirits for the week to come. We can move out of our times of worship into the waiting world with clean hearts, clear minds, and rightly directed spirit.
Our worship together helps us to be more richly aware of the God who abides in us and in whom we abide. That in turn helps us to grow richer in fruitfulness and faithfulness in all that Jesus teaches us to be and do.
I am grateful for the many people who invest so much time, energy, and creativity to nurture a genuine atmosphere of worship in our times together. Any given Sunday morning at Christ UMC is itself the fruit of many faithful lives: ushers, acolytes, liturgists, communion stewards, chancel and bell choirs, children’s church team, and the a/v team. Even before we get to a Sunday morning, the building has been maintained and cleaned, bulletins created, utilities paid, etc. For all of that, the richness of it all is only realized when the worshipping congregation gathers. When I am with you, it always feels to me that I among people who have come into the space with the sincere desire and intention to worship the God we love together and who loves us together. I am so grateful for that. I include our online congregation in that statement as well and our sisters and brothers at Buena chapel. Your presence reminds us just how broad and far this worshipping community reaches. All of this reaffirms the idea that growing richer in spirit is best done and best experienced together. Together may we grow richer, more fruitful, and more faithful in spirit in witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Joe