Today, as we continue to look at Why We are Here as a church, I am going to being with an admission that I have been making some very wrong statements throughout my time as a pastor. Chalk it up one more time to my imperfection and lack of knowledge. Throughout my years as a pastor I have often times said, “The church is not a social club.” Now, when I have said such things, I have often had in the back of my mind, the negative aspects of a social club: the refusal to let certain people in; the payment of dues; the struggling for positions of power and prestige. These things are certainly downers in social clubs, but as I have studied the scriptures and came to understand more and more the function of the church, I have come to the conclusion that the church indeed is a social club. It is a place where Christians not only gather to hear and study the Word and receive the Sacraments. It is also a place where Christians gather together in fellowship. We are Here as a church to provide Christian fellowship.
Now, the first question that we need to grapple with is: what do we mean when we say fellowship? The Bible uses a particular Greek word in reference to fellowship, and that word is “koinonia.” This Greek word is derived from the root, “koinos,” which was a prefix in ancient Greek. If you were to add this prefix to words meaning “living,” “owning a purse,” “a dispute,” and “mother,” you would get words meaning “living in community together,” “owning a purse in common,” “a public dispute,” and “having a mother in common.” So we see that the root of the word, “fellowship,” means “to hold something in common.” –Bible.org
So, if Christian fellowship means that we hold something in common, what exactly are we holding? The answer is: we are holding the certainty that we have been saved by God’s undeserved love poured out through His Son, Jesus Christ. Together we hold that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that we deserve His punishment. Yet, instead of receiving that punishment, God sent His only begotten Son into the world to bring salvation instead of condemnation. God sent Jesus to take our sins upon Himself and offer Himself as a sacrifice of atonement. On the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins facing the fires of hell so that those who believe and trust in Him will have eternal life. We know that this was accomplished for us with nothing done on our part. There was nothing we said or did that caused God to act on our behalf, and this is why we call it sheer grace.
But things do not stop here. We also need to be aware of the fact that Jesus gave us His righteousness. Jesus gave us His glory. We are celebrating two baptisms this morning, and in a mind boggling statement about baptism in the book of Galatians, St. Paul writes, “For as many of you who are baptized in Christ Jesus have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Those of us who place our trust in Jesus are wearing Jesus. We no longer walk around thinking of ourselves. We no longer walk around acting for ourselves. We no longer walk around chasing the desires and temptations of the world. Instead, we seek the things of heaven. We walk with one foot in heaven. We operate as though we were imitators of Jesus Christ. This is something we hold in common, and it draws us together in fellowship.
But why does it draw us together? There are two reasons that I would like to talk about this morning. First, it is a witness to the world, and second, it is the way we strengthen each other to face the world. Again, our Christian fellowship is a witness to the world, and it is how we strengthen one another to face the world.
Jesus gave us a great command, that we love one another. He said, “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” When you think about all of the various social clubs that are existence, they all have boundaries. These boundaries are absolutely necessary so that you can tell who is in and who is out. The question is: how are such boundaries drawn? Usually, those boundaries are drawn according to race, gender, and socio-economic standing. We see such things continuing to happen in our society today. Look at a list of all the different organizations on college campuses: they are generally geared around race and gender. Others are geared around socio-economic standing. Heck, I’d argue that even Little League in some places is a socio-economic social club. I might be ticking a few folks off by saying that, but when you have to pay a $125 fee to play, buy your own bat, glove, helmet, pants, and shoes, you are looking at having to spend at least $250 to play Little League ball. What about the parents who cannot afford that?
The church has a different boundary–it’s not based on race, gender or your socio-economic position. It’s based on your belief and trust in Jesus Christ and your willingness to live out the tenets of the Christian faith in your life. That’s it. If you believe in Jesus and seek to be His disciple and live according to His calling, you are in. Period. There are no other qualifications. There are no other boundaries. Believe in Jesus and strive to follow Him. You might think that this is easy, but it isn’t. Our second lesson highlights this difficulty calls us to pay attention to it.
The church in Corinth had a practice of getting together and eating a meal before celebrating the Lord’s Supper. All were supposed to join in and dine together before dining together, but here’s what started to happen. The wealthier folks in the church started getting a bit resentful of the poorer members of the church. They decided to meet early and eat early. They would eat and drink all the food and wine, and when the poor showed up, there was nothing left. Then, they would share in the Lord’s Supper. Effectively, the church began to have divisions right along socio-economic lines. Paul writes to them to condemn this practice. Essentially, he says, “This is not Christian fellowship. This is not living in accordance to the will and practice of Jesus. By doing this, you are condemning yourselves. Don’t fall back into those old ways of doing things. Share with one another. Love one another.”
You see, in that day and age, rich and poor did not sit down together. There were clear societal boundaries drawn against this. But the church acted differently. In the church, rich and poor ate together. Slaves and free ate together. Men and women ate together. This was something new and bold. This was something that turned the world upside down. This was something unique. Paul is reminding the church in Corinth about this because when the rest of the world saw the church acting in such a manner, it caught their attention. It made them curious. It made them question their own morals and values. If such people could come together in this fashion–people who normally wouldn’t give the time of day to one another eating together–what strange power must be at work? The church’s fellowship became a witness to the world. It must do so again.
That was point one. The second point has to do with building one another up. It walks hand in hand with number one, and to show how this happens, I’m simply going to tell a story. It’s a story that I’ve used before, but it bears repeating. A man once prayed to God and asked God to show him the difference between heaven and hell. God agreed, and God took the man to hell. The man was completely and totally surprised. Hell was beautiful. There was a gigantic banquet table laid out with all the finest foods. There were succulent cuts of meat. There were the freshest of fruits and vegetables. The aroma of the bread set one’s mouth to watering instantaneously.
“God, I do not understand,” the man said. “I thought hell was a place of torment.”
God replied, “Just watch.”
The citizens of hell began filing into the banquet hall and taking their places at the table. The man looked at God with a questioning glance. God said, “Look closely.”
At that moment, the man saw that the citizens of hell had no elbows. They could not bend their arms. Satan took his place at the head of the table and commanded all to eat. The citizens of hell began trying to satisfy their hunger. But each time they picked up a portion of food, they could not get it into their mouths. All of the food and drink ended up on the floor as the citizens of hell continued on in their hunger and thirst. The man begged God to take him away from such an awful sight. “Please, God, please show me heaven.”
God then took the man to heaven, and curiously enough, the man was confronted by the exact same scene. It was the exact same banquet with the exact same food and drink. The citizens of heaven walked in, and they too had no elbows. The man gave a questioning glance to God, and God said, “Just watch.”
The Son of Man took his place at the head of the table and blessed the food. At that moment, the feast began, and the man saw right away the difference between heaven and hell. In heaven, the citizens fed one another.
The world encourages us to look after ourselves. The world encourages us to take care of number one. The world encourages us to participate in a dog eat dog fight until the strongest rises to the top. But the church offers another way. The church offers a different set of values and understanding. The church offers a way of living based upon the grace of Jesus Christ who poured out Himself for all. When the church practices Christian fellowship, it offers a glimpse of heaven–where there are no distinctions based upon race, gender, or socio-economic status and where all feed and strengthen one another. This is koininia. This is Christian fellowship, and it is one of the reasons we are here as a church. Amen.
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