church

This past Sunday night I sat in a packed church watching children sing their hearts out as they told the Christmas story. I looked around at my friends and their families, not all from my congregation but all a part of one somewhere. I looked and was struck by what a wonderful thing a church is.

Yesterday and today I received emails about prayer concerns, and prayed for several fellow church members. I thought again of the time and effort it takes to really care for each other even in this simple way.

That was my context this morning as I dug into the first part of 1 Peter, and ran into this familiar passage in 1 Peter 2:4-5 and 9 “As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . . But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

At Christmas we celebrate the time when Jesus, the living Stone, came to do what we couldn’t. As a result, here we are, the followers of Jesus Christ, all the big stones and little ones, being built into this fascinating thing called the church. We’re a holy priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. And we have a job to do, one that we’d do anyway out of gratitude: to sing God’s praises.

So today I’m grateful to be a part of a church. I’ll pray for some people and some people will pray for me. I’ll disagree with some people about our new building project but we’ll all do our best to make it work. And on Sunday I’ll be there again, twice, and I intend to soak in that great feeling of being part of a church.

Because this is another reason Christmas is a big deal.