26 Aug 2015
There’s always a tension, it seems, when we gather to worship
God. We gather as a community. And we give praise to God through the reality
of the community. And yet, we also
gather as worshipping individuals, who each have a personal connection to God.
It’s a “you-and-I” kind of relationship that we have with
God. “Wherever I go, there you are, God.” That’s the beauty of Psalm 139—the “you-and-I”
personal connection between God and each one of us. “Where can I go from your spirit? From your
presence where can I flee? If I
go up to the heavens, you are there; if
I sink to the nether world, you are present there.”
As much as there is “God and the people of God,” there’s even
more basically “God and me.” And,
really, the fact that we each have a unique, individual relationship with God
is what makes us the people of God. It’s
like a wheel. If God is the hub, and
each of us is a little part of the rim, then our individual relationships with
God are like the spokes. And, together,
it all makes a single body, a community of faith.
There’s always a tension, it seems, when we gather to worship
God. We gather as a community. And yet, if there’s no “Jesus-and-me” going
on in the pews, then there’s no “Jesus-and-us;” it’s just . . . us. We’re a worshipping community because of that beautiful “you-and-I” relationship there
is between God and each of us. We’re a
community because we’re each
connected to the same hub, to the One and Only God.
“Wherever I go, there you are, God.” We don’t leave that relationship at the
door. We bring it right in here and
share it for our own good, the good of those around us, and for the glory of
God.
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