church

The images used to help us in our thinking about the church are interesting.

They're 'organic' more than organisational.

The 'bride' of Christ, for instance: that's relational, intimate, warm. Relationship bathed in love, shot through with a wonderful oneness. A part of himself, so much so that to hassle the church (as Saul once did) is to persecute Jesus himself.

The 'bride' is far from perfect, of course. She's a poor, dishevelled urchin whom he's picked up from the backstreets of a fallen world, and who still has a lot both to un-learn, first, and then as well to learn.

She's nothing short of an embarassment sometimes, such is the extent to which the habits of a former life are still so very much ingrained. But she's still his bride. He knew what he was taking on when he picked her off the street. He can live with the shame and the pain and the regular disappointment.

Sometimes the image that's used is that of the 'body' of Christ.

Our bodies are really remarkable things! A single sperm and an egg start it off and set in train the extraordinary reproductive powers of a tiny cell until a whole big human body is first formed and finally grown. An astonishing demonstration of the patient, potent, creative genius of God.

And every part linked by the bonds of a life that derives from that single source. Linked. Bound to each other for good or for ill. Every part feeling the pain. Every part sharing the pleasures.

No part ever simply on its own, getting on with its own little thing.

I am part of the body of Christ. Some days more than others bring that home to me. Some days more than others I am able to acknowledge that in how my life is lived.

Today was that sort of day.

Out at Kirkliston this morning. Taking time with the minister there. Listening, learning, sharing, praying. Supportive, I hope. Offering hope and encouragement. Affording the sense that we're, none of us, ever alone.

Time well spent - for all that it took me away from the things that are going on here. We're not an island here, remote from all that others in our nation and our neighbourhood may presently be facing. We're in it together. The body.

Lunch with my friend who's been pastoring here in the village, just down the road at the local episcopal church. Sharing the burden. Addressing the needs. Praying for one another, and for the welfare of Christ's whole church.

It's one lung alongside another, learning to breathe in tandem. Learning to work together. Buttressed and helped by knowing the other is there. The body.

There's been much in the way of an ongoing e-mail correspondence with a number of other folk, much further afield. Brothers in Christ. Members of the body. Struggling with burdens we carry. Wrestling with issues we're all of us having to face.

We belong to one another. We cannot live in quiet isolation. We're in it together. The body of Christ.

And so it went on through the day. I was still on the phone to a man elsewhere as the clock ticked on to 11pm. The body of Christ. We belong. We need each other. We draw on the gifts and the input each other can bring under God.

That's what the man was needing. Some insight I could bring. For the welfare of the body as a whole. For the glory and the honour of our Lord. For the sake of his gospel throughout our land.

I'm immersed in the work of the Lord right here, for sure. And there's been much of that as well today.

But we're not some castaway island here, simply doing our own thing, remote and cut off from the rest, and amusing ourselves with our own nice selection of desert island discs.

We're part of the 'body' of Christ. A miracle of reproductive grace.