We continue our 40 day focus on community. Last week we talked about our calling to reach out to others together. We are called to be mindful of opportunities to reach out with the love of Christ. That is a purpose God has for us together.
The purpose we are focusing on today is fellowship. Many times fellowship brings pictures of coffee hour, hanging out, or just casual gatherings. That is not wrong, but fellowship could be so much more. The picture of fellowship in the Scripture this morning shows a church that is together in everything. They worship together. They eat together. They serve together. This is what fellowship can be. Fellowship can mean that we are together in everything. We know we are meant to go through this life with one another. We are better together, but we need to continue to be committed to each other.
Again, remember that we are not supposed to be alone in this life. We are not meant to be independent and out on our own. Now, I have only been in jail once. Well, actually I was just there to visit a friend. But I have seen plenty of people in prison on tv or in movies to know what happens in prison when someone is being severally punished. They are sent to “the hole” right? Solitary confinement. They are kept away from the other prisoners and often have minimal contact even with the prison staff. This is not really a punishment that causes physical pain, but it is meant to cause emotional and psychological pain. They often show a person losing their connection to reality through this punishment. This is the most severe punishment, being taken out of fellowship, out of community.
That is evidence that we are not meant to live our lives alone. We need each other. We need to have fellowship with others in this life. So my plan for this morning was to give you opportunities to fellowship, opportunities to be together.
And there is something special about being together, being with a group and knowing you belong. As we get together and get to know each other that fellowship becomes closer. There are different levels of closeness we have with people. There are strangers, people you don’t know. There are people that you have heard their name before, but maybe never met. There are acquaintances that are people you have met a few times, you recognize them. Maybe next you have coworkers or those you have a professional relationship with. Then friends and finally family. I would think family are those you are closest to, but maybe not.
As I thought about these levels of closeness I was remind of this idea talked about in a book I have been reading called refrigerator rights. Do you know what refrigerator rights are? A person with refrigerator rights is someone who comes into your house, your home, and they know they can go to the refrigerator and grab something to drink or eat. Think about it. How many people do you let into your refrigerator? I am not sure if the refrigerator rights mean they don’t even have to ask because most people will at least ask, can I grab something to drink. However, most of the time we go into the fridge and get it for them. Only someone who belongs to your group will be allowed into your fridge.
I was remembering when I was at a guy’s house and he told me that if I wanted something to drink I can just grab it from the fridge and I just kind of sat there. I was not sure I really wanted to get into his fridge. Not because I expected bad things to be in there or anything, it just seemed to be kind of a big step to go into his fridge the first time I was at his house. But I got use to it and after the third time or so, now I know I can go there to get something to drink. Although it is a separate fridge for drinks and not their family fridge, so maybe that is on another level.
Take a few minutes to share in your group about refrigerator rights. Do you give those rights to anyone? Why or why not? And if you do who is it?
Another place to notice our closeness to others is looking at our home. It used to be important to have a front porch to get out and see everyone. Now we like our back patio. It is enclosed to give us privacy. I was also reading about how the automatic garage door opener changed things. We used to have to get out of the car to put up the door. Now you can stay in your car, pull into the garage and many garages are connected to our homes, so we can get in without having to talk with our neighbors.
God has created us for community and we must be mindful of building our relationships with one another. We build our relationships by being together. And when we come together we will notice differences. We are not all the same, right? And God does not want or expect us to all be the same. God loves variety and diversity. This is part of the symbolism in our visuals up front here. The different colors represent our differences and yet the colors compliment each other. They go together.
One thing I have been doing to fellowship with believers that are different is I started attending Wednesday morning mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. I got the idea to do that because I am reading a book with other pastors in Iowa County about a Catholic priest becoming a bishop. It talked about having mass and I never had been to mass. So I called Father Roost and asked if I could come and he gladly said I could. So, during these 40 days I am attending mass on Wednesday mornings at 7:30am after Men’s breakfast which is at 6:30am. And it has been a good experience. I appreciate having that time of worship midweek, but I also am getting to know some of our brothers and sisters at the Catholic Church.
I also have desired to get to know people from other church’s which can be tough for me because I want other churches to know we are not trying to get their members, but I want to build a relationship, so we can work together for God’s work. One project I hope to work on in the future is getting new playground equipment at West End Park. The Lion’s Club is helping. I hope Kiwanis will participate, and then other churches along with us. I think this could be a good project for us to work on next year as we look at getting equipment for our church we can help do something for the community as well. If we are in fellowship with other believers we will be able to work together better to serve God and our community.
Our scripture memory verse for this week calls us into fellowship in a powerful way. It says, “Since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others.” We belong to each other. And this is more than just fitting together, but you belong to me and I belong to you. Now if you belong to me I better take care of you. Our car needed some repairs this week, not fun for the pocketbook, but I try to take care of my vehicles, so they will continue to run and I can depend on them. We are also looking to replace a door on our house, again it needs the repair and I want to take care of my house. I think I take pretty good care of my stuff. Of course, I also recognize it is just stuff.
I think of my kids and how they belong to me. I do anything I can for them. Many of the things I do in life is because I want to do what is best for my kids. God says that is how we are to treat other Christians. We belong to each other. That means we do more than tolerate each other. That means we do more than smile and wave to each other. We need to fellowship with each other. We need to spend time together. We need to work through issues and tensions together. We need to forgive each other. We belong to each other.
But more than that, you know, I try to treat things that belong to me with respect, but if I have someone else’s belongings I try to treat it a little bit better. Are you with me? I mean in my car I will leave an empty pop can or a receipt on the floor. In someone else’s car I would not do that. I pick up after myself. If my kids spill a drink on my carpet, I don’t like it, but I know it is our mess and we will clean it as best we can. If my kids spill a drink on someone else’s carpet and I diving on that thing as I apologize trying to get it up and offering to re-carpet the whole house if necessary. Maybe not that far, but I feel horrible if I mistreat someone else’s belongings.
I hope we can remember that we belong to each other, but each of you first belong to God. You are God’s people. We especially remember this as we celebrate a baptism today. In baptism we recognize that God calls us by name and we are his children. You are a child of God. And we need to fellowship together as children who belong to God. Spend time together and take care of one another because you belong to God and you belong to each other.
