"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." -Matthew 16:18
It's the first reference to the church that we have in the Bible. Jesus uses the word, 'church,' in the context of calling Peter to shepherd a community that belongs to Christ, himself, and that will be imbued with His power. The word for church in Greek is 'ekklesia,' which means 'gathering,' or 'assembly.'
To be church means to gather together. Gathering is one of our distinctive qualities as Christ-followers and is theologically rich. Because of Jesus, we are called together despite our differences, tribal instincts, and even time and space.
These last two months, we have continued to gather. The challenges and obstacles to this gathering have not been slight. For the first time in our church's 132-year history, our sanctuary did not host a worship service for weeks at a time. Sunday School classrooms were empty. Our After School Ministry Room was vacant. Our Mission and Fellowship Center, lonely.
None of these realities, however, kept us from gathering.
We gathered online mid-week to see and be seen by our brothers and sisters in Christ. Individuals, couples, and families who had been isolated by our current events gathered in front of devices that enabled them to practice being God's people. Was it a good substitution for in-person gathering? Hardly. But it helped us to gather together.
We gathered on our front porch up on the Balsams each Sunday morning during this time. This was not without some drama, also. Glass was shattered when the wind gusted and blew over a picture. Weed eaters and chainsaws vied for attention in our services. And one Sunday, our heads were tragically eviscerated by the camera angle. Still, we gathered together.
Our inability to travel freely and to physically assemble these last weeks didn't stop us from living out our call to be rooted together in Christ. Our church emailed, messaged, called, texted, and zoomed with one another. We wrote letters, sent care-packages, commented online, and sent pictures. Although the landscape for living life together changed, our commitment to abiding with one another did not. This is worth celebrating, y'all.
The word diaspora is frequently used to describe Jews who lived outside of the Promised Land after the Babylonian Exile in the Old Testament. Diaspora means 'scattered abroad.' Christians, too, were dispersed with the advent of the church and scattered from one another in the Roman Empire and beyond. To be scattered and apart from one another is anathema to a life of faith. Just as God's people yearned to be gathered together throughout time, we too long for connection because we are children of God. God is best known and best understood, of course, in community. When we conclude that God abhors separation of all kinds, His Kingdom Come in Christ Jesus and in the 21st century becomes clear. Our Good Shepherd desires His sheep to be gathered together.
In a small way, we can better appreciate what it must feel like to be in exile, cut off from one another. Our identity as members of the Body of Christ is to be gathered. Because of Jesus, we are wired for connection. We must resist the temptation to live isolated from one another.
We have had to be creative in our gatherings these last weeks, and we will need to continue doing so. Our opportunities to gather in person will increase in the coming days and weeks. Our front lawn and spacious facility will provide us ways to do just that. Of course, this will not suffice, as we will need to find additional ways for the church to gather. At this very moment, tools for ministry are being rushed to our church to enable us to provide access points for those who cannot be at our physical gatherings but who will want to remain connected to us through the gift of technology. The challenges that we face in gathering together will not sway us from our call to find ways that we can.
Our commitment to you will be to continue in our efforts to gather us together. Worship, Bible Study opportunities, prayer time, and committee meetings will all be available to those who wish to be gathered—whether physically in Charlotte, West Virginia, East Tennessee, East LaPorte, or Melbourne, Florida. These past weeks have given us a taste of what is to come. In truth, however, we're just getting started.
To be church means to be gathered together in Jesus' name. And nothing and no one can stop us from being the Body of Christ. And if our most-recent history isn't proof of that, then perhaps Jesus' pronouncement of His work within us will: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it."