The Church: Growing and Eating and Growing

It has been a busy time. And happy. As many know, my son, Nathan Laurence, was born two weeks ago. This has opened my world up in an explosion of joy, love, responsibility, and fear. As my pastor said this morning, this is not something I can get out of. Essentially, I'm stuck. I have now found myself face to face with the reality of the need for sanctification and Christ-likeness. Laying down my life is no longer an option in a real tangible way. Either I bring home a paycheck, or I am a murderer.

But at the same time, I have been blessed by God in a way more tangible than ever before. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has extended His covenant to a people not His own. He called a people who were His enemies and made them His part of His church, His people. He made us part of the glorious lineage of Heaven, as a good friend of mine put it. He extended the covenant, with covenant curses and covenant blessings, to us. Nathan is a covenant blessing. Nathan is in the covenant. This cause for celebration, and sober consideration.

So we will be celebrating. Nathan will be baptized this week, and after the baptism we will feast. We will feast mainly on pork. This pork is from a pig whose entire existence has been for this purpose, to feed the people of God as we celebrate the entrance of a new covenant member into the church of Christ.

It is just this sort of celebration that I feel is a large part of what it means to be the church. It is living life before the face of God in gratitude and joy. It is by celebrating the blessings of God, and considering them wisely, that we will cause the nations of the earth to bend the knee to Christ. It is by working together, laughing together, and working together that we will fix the economy, the abortion rate, and the drug problems of our culture.

We want to fix the culture so that the world will know the joy that is eating at the Table of the Lamb. We want the world to eat with us at the heavenly table. We convince them, not by politics or changing the law, but by eating rightly before them. We want the world to sit outside our windows wondering what the fuss is about, why we are so happy in the Lord's house with the Lord's people. And we want to invite them in.