Dear Rose Park
This past Sunday afternoon, with the help of Aaron and Anna Welsch and our neighbor Paul, Sam and I put up a new basketball hoop in our driveway. It took all hands-on deck to lift the backboard, but after a few busted knuckles and a couple of words mumbled under our breaths, the job was done. As I stood in the driveway marveling at our work, I was reminded of the Church.
There would be no way I could’ve put up the basketball hoop by myself. The backboard was too heavy and too large, not to mention too awkward to hold and balance while trying to get the bolts in. It took our two families plus a neighbor to finish. You might say, it took a village. In a similar way, there can be no way forward as the Church if we don’t work together. I mean this in the grandest and most local sense. There is no way forward for the global Church of Christ (regardless of denomination) if we are not willing to participate in ecumenical work. Similarly, there is no way forward for the local church, like Rose Park, if we do not build bridges with our neighbors who do not think, look, or act like us.
It will continue to take a village to build the Kingdom of God here on earth. Praise God, though this work is challenging we are invited to participate in this work that God is already doing. God is already stirring in the hearts of our neighbors. God is already building bridges across denominational lines. God is already reconciling and redeeming all nations and people. This is the good and holy work we get to, not have to, participate in. And while we participate, let us consider these words from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
When each part does its work, we grow together in the love of Christ. So, I’m grateful for the opportunities to grow in the love of Christ with you all. I’m grateful for those times and places to serve at your side and I pray for more opportunities beyond the walls of Rose Park to grow in love. I pray when that opportunity arises, we might have the faithfulness to step outside our comfort zone and trust in God’s guidance. And today, I’m grateful for good friends and neighbors who helped us put up a basketball hoop.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark