New recurring series: Church Near Me
The most common Google search for someone looking for a church is “church near me”. Thinking of people searching for a church got me curious. What are people searching for as they search for a church? For some, it can take quite a bit to get the point of typing out these words into Google. What are people looking for in a church in Chorlton?
All of us, regardless of where we are with Jesus, bring good things and bad things with us. We all have baggage and not all of us deal with it well. We all have agendas and not all of us love others well through that.
That means all of us need God’s help. In our search for a church, we need a Guide. A Leader. What does God say about His family? (That is what the church is, by the way!) Turns out He has quite a lot to say about His family and it’s all exactly what we need to hear.
Without it, Redeemer will be a church in Chorlton that can be a hell on earth. We all need to learn what a church ought to be, a taste of heaven, so that we can be the church.
The plan is to take a brief look into the church at Ephesus and see what we can learn from it. We want to learn: what does a church near me look like? Geographically near me, yes, a church in Chorlton, but also near to my passions and desires? Near to my heart?
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household”
A Renewed Identity
A “church near me” is a collection of people who were formerly foreigners and strangers, and are now citizens and members of God’s family. Redeemer is a church in Chorlton made up of people who, through Jesus’ work, have gone from a life half lived to one that is fully alive.
Who we were
A foreigner or stranger does not have the same legal rights as a citizen. They don’t have the same kind of say, or any kind of say, in the government. There is less formalised protection. But there’s also a lot of informal issues as well: speaking a different language, or speaking the same language in a different way, navigating relationships and friends are different.
Everything that might be typical or easy for a citizen is very difficult or impossible for a foreigner and stranger. From navigating money systems to language, to social situations…you are an outsider. Being a stranger somewhere means that place you’re in is not your home. I know this feeling fully well, as an American who has moved to a different country!
Now those examples are moving from country to country. Paul here, is talking about being foreigners and strangers to God and His people. When we are off doing our own thing, living in line with how the majority culture tells us to live, we might fit in there. But that makes us foreigners and strangers to God and His people.
Being a stranger to God means you will miss out on everything God has for you. He has a “great love for us” (Ephesians 2.4). He is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2.4). Jesus ”makes us alive” (Ephesians 2.5).
The prevailing culture tells you is that you must do something in order to be alive. You must do something. Fight for this cause, be this kind of person, buy this thing, don’t buy that thing, side with this political cause, like this celebrity, wait, no, not anymore, not that celebrity. That’s all on you. The trouble with that unbelievably heavy burden is that there’s always more to pile on top, the work is never done.
What God does is He makes us alive. We are passive, we are the recipients, like receiving a gift. And our God loves to give us these kind of gifts. Without God, we are strangers to Him, and therefore miss being made alive.
And how does God deliver his gifts? The normal way He does is through His people, the church. When we are foreigners to God’s church, we will miss out on God and his mercy and great love.
What Christ has done
The first word in verse 19 above is “consequently”. Something happened to cause some kind of consequence. Here’s the big picture of what that “consequently” points to: Jesus reconciliation through the cross. What Jesus did by his death on the cross has reconciled what was separated before. It has brought together groups that were previously set against each other. The cause is the cross. One consequence is peace between each other, the other is peace between us and God.
Peace between each other breaks apart the hostilities we hold against other humans. Peace between us and God allows us to truly flourish. Not just the absence of violence or war, but also the presence of flourishing.
Who we are
With God’s people we are citizens together. To be a citizen is to have rights, to have a voice. Each citizen in a society has a responsibility to each other. Not every citizen has the same job, it’s the diversity of jobs that make a community thrive. To be a citizen means signing up to a way of life.
One is a citizen, so one might pay tax or vote. It’s not like paying tax makes you a citizen. It’s not like voting makes you a citizen. It’s not like coming on a Sunday makes you a Christian. But if you are a citizen, it will affect what you do.
The church is a place where people who follow Jesus work out what that means together. This is who we are. This is what it means to be a member of our church: committed to each other.
Through Jesus’ work we also are members of God’s family. You get a room in God’s house. Following Jesus is an invitation to make your home with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. For the Trinity to become your house.
This is a radical belonging. So radical, it changes who we are on an identity level. Your family, growing up, they had affects on you, they shaped you. They have been a part of forming who you are, your identity. When your home is made in the presence of God, this re-forms who you are. It re-news your identity. It’s like you, but more you. You’re alive. It’s actually more like yourself.
This means that wherever you go, you’re like a turtle. You take your home with you. When you feel out of place, out of sorts, under it all…your home is still with you. And when you’re facing something that might be scary or overwhelming, you get to know that your home that God has created through Himself, for you, will never go away. It’s always there.
Have you ever had a partner, friend, or family member that either moved away, or died, or you fell out with, and when they aren’t around, you don’t feel like yourself? Or when that person is there, you feel more alive? That’s a small slice, a taste, of what being a member of God’s household is like.
He’s there, giving you life, calling you to a larger purpose, there to fill you up with all of His love, the riches of His mercy, all the time, 24/7. Even when you sleep!
Our God has taken who we were, and through Christ on the cross, has renewed our identity. From foreigners to citizens. From strangers to family members. From isolated lives that don’t know any better, into a world where we get to be linked with each other in ways that transcend physical boundaries.
The cost for all of this was Jesus’ life. When facing the cross, He did not hold back. When facing suffering, He did not give in. When facing bearing all the sins of His people, He didn’t stay home. He went. And He died.
And that is how we are able to have a renewed identity. No other reason, no reason within us! It’s all because of Him. And through Jesus’ work, everything that holds us back from our true selves, this renewed identity, He’s put that to death.
The death of isolation in the death of Christ.
The death of doing life on our own in the death of Christ.
The death of bearing grief by yourself in the death of Christ.
The death of bearing grudges in the death of Christ.
The death of a life half-lived in the death of Christ.
He is here. He is present. For some reading this, he has renewed you. Live in that newness. For others, you might be on a search for what all this is about, and you can be renewed as well.
There are many things all of us search for when searching for a church. The first thing we have to get is that, through Jesus, we have a renewed identity that takes us from separated foreigners to citizens together. From isolated strangers to equal members of God’s family together.