Christianity is a Source

Christianity is a source; no one supply of water and refreshment that comes from it can be called the sum of Christianity. It is a mistake, and may lead to much error, to exhibit any series of maxims, even those of the Sermon on the Mount, as the ultimate sum and formula into which Christianity may be run up. ... Matthew Arnold

We are a mixed bag aren’t we? People call themselves Christians and look very differently from each other. People worship in high churches where barely a whisper is heard and people worship in charismatic churches where you can barely hear for all the shouting and yelling. Which one is the Christian? Both!

In a sermon, I once described Christians as spokes on a wheel. We all start from somewhere different along that rim on the wheel called life. Some are shackled with defeatism from the very beginning and some are born with that silver spoon in their mouth. But the one thing they all have in common is that path they travel toward the middle of the wheel, toward God. Along that path we, like the spokes cross the paths of other Christians on their walk, these are the places of fellowship.

And what about these times of fellowship? Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us: “That the Church as the fellowship of Christ centers on Christ rather than being a mere association of people with a common purpose. Human love and actions are related to a desire for human community. Christian love, spiritual love, comes from Christ and goes out to the other person, not directly, but through Christ. Christ "stands between me and others. This means that disciplining of other people is through Christ, not directly. Direct personal influence may amount to coercion, or be an impure influence in another’s life. Rather, the most direct way to another is found in prayer to Christ whose influence is greater.”

Therefore it is Christ who we are there to meet, and we meet others through Him. We must never do anything that Christ would not do in a fellowship setting. We Christians are a mixed bag, as I said above and we are that way for a reason. We come to Christ in all our differences, so that we might meet Him and others through the consistent and unwavering Christ. We must re-norm ourselves in His image; that is the way we should be received, and that is how we should receive others.