This is based on an article from Hal Seed (accessed here
on February 13, 2014).
Hal Seed writes, “A
quick read of the book of Acts or the letters in Revelation proves that Jesus
loves his church. He died for it, prays for it, lives for it and is going to
return for it.
[But] let’s be honest:
It’s not easy to love the church. It’s easy to love Jesus. Loving His bride is
another story. Churches are filled with frail and fault-riddled people. Every
church has a unique personality. All are loved by Jesus, but not all are loved
in equal measure by each of His people.”
I love my church. And by “church” I mean “the one holy
Christian and apostolic church,” “The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,” the four
churches that I have served as a pastor (Christ Lutheran, White Cloud, MI, St.
John Lutheran, Mayville, WI, Redeemer Lutheran, Ontario, CA, and St. Matthew
Lutheran, Hawthorn Woods, IL), and
the churches of which I was a member before I become a pastor (St. Paul, Round
Lake, IL, Good Shepherd, Lake Villa, IL, Messiah, St. Louis, MO, and St. John,
Arnold, MO).
I agree, loving Jesus is so much easier than loving His
bride, the Church. But just like the love of a spouse in marriage, love of the
church is more a choice than a feeling.
Based on Hall Seed’s ten reasons that he loves his church, I
have ten reasons that I choose to love Jesus’ bride, the Church. They are in no
particular order – this is not a ranked list. This week, reason number four:
4. She is Caring.
Two separate incidents happened to me this past week that
touched my heart in a very special way.
The first was that Virginia died. She was a woman in her 90’s.
She suffered from acute Alzheimer’s and lived in a care facility for many
years. I would visit her just about every other month (while my colleague would
do the same, just not the same month). She didn’t know who I was, didn’t know
my name or nearly anything about me.
But she did know
that I am a pastor. I would wear my “pastors clothes” and when I walked into
her room, her eyes would light up and smile would appear on her face. I would
read to her from the Bible and we would pray together.
Virginia was - is – a disciple of Jesus strong in the faith.
She and Harold were married in the early 1940’s and lived their entire marriage
sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their lives. Harold has to begin
what I can only imagine to be a very difficult task – living his Christian life
without Virginia by his side.
I saw Harold last night at dinner. He was still upbeat,
smiling, and exuding the joy of a life lived by and for Jesus Christ. His love
for his wife is no less diminished this week and never will be, even though it
is now different.
The second incident was a phone call I received during
lunch. My good and dear friends Jim and Susie called me to wish me a belated
happy birthday. I met Jim and Susie 8 years ago when I served as their pastor
in Southern California. Jim was retired from the local police department and
devoted almost all of his time to our church’s Senior Adult Ministry. We played
cards together. We met each week for breakfast and Bible study. I know they prayed
for me and my family daily. They are such dear friends to my wife and I.
During
our conversation Jim told me that he was being inducted into his high school’s
Hall of Fame for football. His football time went undefeated for three seasons.
This was 60 years ago in Northern Michigan. But even though so many decades had
passed, I could still hear the joy in his voice as he told me their plans to
travel back to Michigan this September.
These two incidents are just two of many evidences of how
the Christian Church is “caring.” Harold and Virginia caring for each other and
for their fellow Christians and all the people they met through the years. Jim
and Susie caring for each other, for me and my family, and the people of their
congregation and all those that they met through the years.
When we let Jesus and His love for us have his way with us,
this is usually the result: that we will care for others in the same or similar
ways. This is one of the “marks” of the Church, as Jesus said in the Gospel of
John:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:
just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John
13:34-35).
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