We live in a world of disconnections and, often, these disconnections threaten to undo our sense of community as human beings and as Christians. There are increasing disconnections between the people among whom we live or work or worship or play. These are often different people, different circles of acquaintance.
We are disconnected by many things we do not hold in common. There are disconnections between regions of the country, between generations, between older and younger people, between traditional and contemporary visions and values and styles. There are disconnections between varying experiences and understandings, differing opinions, ideologies and theologies. There are also disconnections of faith expression between Christian denominations, within them, and even within congregations.
And then there are the “wildernesses” of our own personal disconnections, personal dislocations, personal discomforts and personal distresses.
In the midst of all this disconnection, I find the apostle Paul encouraging Christians with a sense of the connectedness of Christian faith and life. Amidst the multiplicity of disconnection faced by the Corinthian Christians, Paul reaches back across the centuries of history of his own people to find a sense and a series of connections.
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I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. Therefore my dear friends, flee from idols. I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. – 1 Corinthians 10:1-17 (excerpted) |
Paul sees how the disconnected sections of the church are all connected in Christ.
“Our ancestors were all under the cloud” – we have all experienced the mystery of what we believe to be God's guidance; “and all [have] passed through the sea” – we have all experienced a deep sense of God's liberating acts of salvation in the midst of particular and, perhaps, uniquely threatening circumstances; “and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea” – we have all been baptized into the family of God; “and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink” – we have all tasted of the communion meal and experienced intimacy with God and with other people which can bridge the disconnections.
I'm glad that I belong to a connectional church, a church that is committed to working on the connections … between the former, “old” covenant and the new, between differing theologies and understandings, between different parts of the country and constituencies. I'm glad that our church is small enough to get to know each other, and large enough for a rich variety of gifts and views.
Whenever we come to God in Christ, whenever we come to church, whenever we come together in a Bible study – wwhenever we come together for a “holy conversation” and allow God's Holy Spirit to work within, through and among us – whenever we come to Presbytery or to Assembly, we can reconnect, and we can make some new connections in our all-too disconnected world.
May it be so for you and me.
