Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Last week I began a series on St. Luke's Mission Statement: To Know Christ and to Make Him Known. In this series we want to flesh out this mission statement around three verbs, three action words: Reach! Grow! Send! We began last week with Reach! I talked about how we are able to "Reaching up to God" because God has reached down to us. Today I want to talk about another dimension of reach - reaching out to one another. The focus here is on "one another" as sisters and brothers in Christ. The Christian life is cross-shaped. There is a vertical dimension - which connects us to God. And there is a horizontal dimension - which connects us with God's people. The Biblical word for this is connection is koinonia, which is translated community or fellowship.

This is the word that Luke uses as one of the defining characteristics of the church described in Acts 2. He says that these first disciples devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship. Then he goes on to describe how these first disciples lived together and took care of each other. Our Gospel reading gives us a different picture - an example of what it is like when there is no koinonia. In this parable, we find a poor man languishing at the gate of a very wealthy man. While the poor man and the rich man are both children of Abraham and live in the same community, their lives are worlds apart. You get the impression that the rich man had nothing to do with Lazarus - probably never even noticed him at his gate. The world in which we live today looks more like Jesus' parable than Luke's description of the Jerusalem church. Especially in American, we have for too long valued individualism over community.

American individualism is illustrated by an ad that appeared in Fortune magazine a few years ago. It showed a cute little baby, and underneath the picture it said, "We're all born equal. After that, you're on your own." That is the rugged American individualism that shapes our culture.

That individualism has also leaked into our churches. Survey after survey shows that Americans are a religious people. According to a recent Gallup poll, more than 90% of all Americans believe in God. Eighty-four percent believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Yet that same survey also showed that 75% of Americans think it is possible to be a good Christian without going to church. In other words, when it comes to religion, most Americans think we can separate believing from belonging.

This is not the religion of the Bible. In the Scriptures, there is no such thing as spiritual individualism. There the people of God are always part of a community. They worship together; they love one another; they support and care for one another. The Christian faith certainly involves a very personal relationship with God. However, the Christian faith is never a private matter - it is never just between "God and me." It is also "God and we." Fellowship and community are fundamental to our Christian faith and life.

Just consider the Lord's Prayer. When Jesus taught us to pray, he did not teach us to say, "My Father who is in heaven…;" he taught us to say, "Our Father who art in heaven . . . Give us this day our daily bread . . . Forgive us our trespasses . . . Lead us not into temptation . . . Deliver us from evil." It's not about me - it's about us.

Tom was the richest man in town and a prominent member of a previous congregation where I was the pastor. Tom and his family regularly attended worship on Sunday mornings, but they had little or nothing to do with the congregation apart from that. Even at worship, they wanted little to do with the rest of the congregation. Tom would not wear a nametag, nor would he introduce himself to anyone. He did not like sharing the peace. He once told me that he did not want to know the name of the person in the pew next to him, and he did not want them to know his name. "I come to church to worship God, he said. "Not to meet other people."

Tom just did not get it. He did not understand community. He did not believe in fellowship. Like the rich man in Jesus' parable, Tom did not understand what is written in 1 John 4: "Those who cannot love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen."

I heard a story several years ago that illustrates koinonia or fellowship. It happened at the Special Olympics in Seattle. Nine contestants, all physically or mentally challenged, stood at the starting line for the 100 yard dash. At the sound of the gun, they all took off, not exactly in a dash, but with an eagerness and a desire to run the race to the finish and win. One boy, in his eagerness, stumbled and fell to the asphalt. As he tried to get up and go on, he fell again. That is when he began to cry. The other eight runners heard him crying. They all stopped to look back. Then as one they all ran back to the fallen runner. They helped him to his feet. One girl kissed him on the cheek and said, "This will make it better." Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. That is community. That is fellowship.

This is the kind of fellowship to which we have been called. This is the kind of community into which we have been reborn in the waters of baptism. Today three children will be baptized her at St. Luke's. By the promise and the power of God's Holy Spirit, Brooke, Keeley and Jonathan will be adopted into the family of faith. They will become our brothers and sister. It would be good for you to know them, to pray for them, to encourage and support them. For while baptism is very personal, it is not private.

On the Day of Pentecost, just 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven, 3,000 people were baptized into the fellowship of believers. Luke tells us that these disciples not only devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to worship, and to prayer but also to fellowship and to caring for one another's needs. This is the kind of community into which we have been baptized, and this is how we are to reach out to one another.

Steven Burt, a small church consultant, tells of attending a wedding at a large Roman Catholic parish on Long Island. The sanctuary was cavernous. It could seat 2,000 worshippers. He wondered what it would be like to serve Holy Communion to that many people on a Sunday morning. He thought it would be cold and impersonal - especially compared to the small church where he served. In fact, Steven Burt thinks that large churches are destined to be cold and impersonal.

Burt makes a valid point. It is hard to experience real community in a large church, because you just cannot have a personal relationship with several thousand people - or even several hundred. Does this mean that churches need to be small? No, but it does mean that large churches like St. Luke's absolutely need to have small groups.

Small groups are places where Christian community becomes real. Small groups are places where Christians are able to support and encourage each other. Small groups give us the opportunity to know and to respond to one another's needs. Small groups are places where we can feel a personal connection not only to the church, but also to God.

The church Luke describes in Acts was not a small church. It grew to 3,000 and then 8,000 in just a few weeks. But they had small groups. Not only did they gather as a large group in the Temple courtyard, they also met as small groups in their own homes where they shared meals together, where they laughed and prayed for each other, where they took care of one another.

This is part of our mission. This is the way that we know Christ and make him known. It is as true then as it is today: you cannot have true community; you cannot experience real fellowship simply by gathering for worship on Sunday mornings. So this morning, I would encourage you to become part of a small group in this congregation. If you can't find one that seems right to you, talk to me and I will help you find one or start one. Fellowship is not optional in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is as important for us to reach out to one another as it is for us to reach up to God, for it is in Christian community that we experience the presence and power of God. Amen.