Faith Perspectives – May 3, 2017
By Rev. Beverly Kahle – St. Paul U.C.C., Nashville
It seems like eons ago that we celebrated Easter – yet it was only just a few weeks, and the truth is that we are still living in the Easter season. As Christians we declare that this was the pivotal moment in history. Christ conquered death, tore open the holies of holy, paid the cost of our sins, and through that, now we, too, have the promise of eternal life with God.
This is indeed huge. But what makes it even bigger is when we understand that with this promise comes our responsibility. You see, in the Christian viewpoint Jesus died to pay our debt and now our lives belong to him. Because he loves us so much, he gives us back our lives and here comes our responsibility. We are responsible for what we do next. Do we choose to truly accept his gift of life and love or do we toss it aside?
If we truly accept this gift, then we begin to pattern our lives after the life of Jesus. We put our relationship with God first. What does this look like? The early chapters of Acts give us a glimpse of this as it relates that the believers were in such harmony that they were family and lived like family – eating meals together, praying, worshipping, and sharing extravagantly with one another (read Acts 2:42-47). Not because they had to, but because they wanted to this.
We still call our fellow Christians our brothers and sisters. In the churches where we gather, we still look for ways to take our pooled resources and care for others. We still seek to work, play, and worship together! We take seriously the call to reach out to each other as we strive to live out God’s commands to first love him and, out of that love, to love all of our neighbors. When we do this, we trust God to use us to change this world and make it better. This is what Christians living responsibly do! We live our faith.
Living as responsible followers of Christ is easier when we do it together. Maybe you have drifted from your faith family. Maybe you have never attached to one. In this Easter season when we recall Christ’s love for us, perhaps this is a good time to come home and rediscover or maybe discover for the first time a faith home. Jesus did his part, now the ball is our court. I invite you to take the first step and come join a faith family on Sunday morning. This area gives you quite a few from which to choose! May God lead you to the one that fits best for you.
