“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35
Sunday morning, at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church here in Tarboro, Rebekah completed her six-Sunday series focused on “The Great Ends of the Church”. It’s a helpful set of values – especially during this transitional time where the church is drilling down into the “Who are we?” question, along with, “Why are we” and, “What is our purpose?”
Here is the list, just to remind ourselves:
The Six Great Ends
As stated in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Order (F-1.0304), they are:
- The proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind
- The shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God
- The maintenance of divine worship
- The preservation of the truth
- The promotion of social righteousness
- The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world
This last one, The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, begs the question, “Does who we are as a church say anything meaningful to the world around us about God’s Kingdom?”
Or, as Rebekah said in a variety of ways during her message, “Does this church represent the Good News story in a way that is both inspirational and invitational?”
Jesus painted a picture:
Jesus was very straightforward in his expectations and phrased them succinctly when he said, “People are going to know that you follow me because of the way you love one another” (John 13:34-35).
Rebekah also pointed to what Jesus said about the children, reminding us that the Lord saw them as the most effective vessels if anyone wonders what God’s Kingdom actually looks like. “For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:13-15)
The Kingdom of God looks like trust, it looks like uncluttered belief, it looks like faithfulness, it looks like love and it looks like the uncomplicated, winsome, generous open hearts of children.
As a church, then, our responsibility – our opportunity – is to offer the world a picture of God’s Kingdom that is loaded with authenticity, devoid of pretense, emotionally vulnerable, effervescent with light and markedly un-judgy.
We need to be so obviously grateful and grace-filled and merciful and loving that the world knows the truth about The Kingdom of God simply by observing us.
The world needs this desperately. Fact is, we all do – DEREK
(I grabbed these pics of children from 2019 because I was looking for photos I had taken that help to illustrate the point. This was our last pre-Covid VBS at the Wake Forest church)
