Church - dull or dazzling?

This last weekend I flew to Copenhagen to be with David Bjerre and the church family at CCC (Copenhagen Community Church). I have to confess to being something of a people watcher when traveling - well it passes the time when you’re hanging around at airports waiting for a flight. All those focussed individuals weaving their way through the crowds, following their own schedule, (I wonder what that is?) getting to the next place in their journey in life, (I wonder where he’s heading?) criss crossing the concourse with multitudes of others, each on their own personal journey. It got me thinking about the course of our lives, the way that as God has had led us individually through many years of twists & turns, how he drew us to himself, redeemed & cleaned us, and in particular, the way he is sovereignly weave our lives intricately together to form the church. The church is no random mass of people; it is much more than that!

At CCC Sunday morning I was amazed to discover that were 12 different nationalities present - I know because Finn Allan who was leading the meeting asked, and then we prayed for all those nations! Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God declared that he would gather together his people, the church, in a spectacular way: ‘I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of ruby, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones.’ Isaiah 54v11f.

Do you get the picture? This is not a brick building where all the bricks are identical - quite the opposite! There is to be a dazzling array of different colours, sparkling gems, and each one set in place with great care - and not just merged into a general mix. Antimony was a substance used for eye shadow, and as I understand it, eye shadow is used to make each eye stand out or sparkle. So God’s plan is not just that we get joined together, but that the more different backgrounds and nations are present in a local church, the more spectacular & beautiful it becomes!

“Church” means ‘gathered ones’, and I am convinced that Jesus takes great pleasure in local churches that welcome the stranger, that embrace people from different nations, and find grace to set their own preferences aside so as to become something far more attractive and unique: One new mankind in Christ! Well done CCC!

Goff
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