With two parents who were passionate and skilled musically, my childhood was filled with songs and the radio being constantly played. A lot of those songs have stuck with me. One came to mind with our passage in 1 John. It is shorter than I remember, but this is the exact version that plays in my head when I think of these verses. I guess I have Maranatha Kids! to thank for it. It is short but sweet - and definitely to the point of an important command for all Christians.
Our sermon series started into the second of those themes this past Sunday. One of the key points the apostle John makes is that godly love must be demonstrated:
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
That was the question I heard one of our members ask another yesterday at church as a group of us men were putting our socks and shoes on. You probably regard that scenario as strange for a number of reasons. I find it fitting. Yesterday was World Communion Sunday and our denomination celebrates communion with a three-piece observance - the Love Feast, Communion, Foot-Washing. We sit around round tables of 6-8 people and have a carry-in dinner after the Worship service. We let each table decide when they want to do feet-washing as the ladies go to a designated room and the guys to another. This Tri-Fold Communion mixes all that is good about being a follower of Christ. Serious thought and consideration is given to what Jesus has done for us and how we must approach him. Familial fellowship is enjoyed around delicious food. The special opportunity to serve and be served is present as we follow the very non-American custom of removing our socks and shoes, taking anothers foot, and rinsing it in a tub of water - then letting someone do the same to us. After we have imitated Christ in that way and all have had their fill of meatballs, cheesy potatoes, salad, and pie, we dim the lights and partake of the Bread and the Cup. At the end of the service, as a group, we sing the Doxology. As we drove home, my mind went back though to that singular question one of our men asked another. Sure it's a basic question, possibly meant to deflect some awkwardness of the foot-washing exercise. But I felt something deeper at play.
That question was intentional because the one who asked knew the enjoyment his friend got out of that hobby.
More than that, he knew his friend.
That is Christian fellowship. In the midst of worshiping in an unusual way, he inquired about life. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow - even those of leisure that He enjoys to share with us.
