A few days ago I was watching an interview and the interviewee said “The kingdom of God, before anything, is a kingdom of friends”.
We find transparency and brokenness among friends. We find confidence and trust among friends.
We find honesty and complicity among friends. We find sincerity and authenticity among friends.
It is a kingdom of friends!
It is a kingdom of justice, peace and joy.
When we transform our Sunday encounter into a social meeting…
Or when we get together in our annual meeting to decide whoever can get in and whoever must get out…
We have lost the meaning of experiencing God’s kingdom.
Church is not a business. Church is not a company. Church is not a social club.
Church cannot be a corporative machine. We do not sign time sheets every Sunday morning.
We talk about poverty from our pulpits, but forget to help the homeless person who sits on the other side of the same street.
We talk about visiting whoever is in need, but forget to call our cousin who turned 52 and has never gotten married.
We talk about how to make bridges between different people and do not know how to include immigrants in our church circle.
We talk about how to reach out to our society, bring balance and justice, but we forget to visit an uncle who just had a stroke or our neighbor next door who just went through surgery.
Church cannot work with hierarchy!
Pastors are not more important than singers. Singers are not more important than deacons.
Whoever is teaching is not more important than whoever is serving in the kitchen.
We do not have hierarchy. We have different functions!
We are the body of Christ with different functionality.
We have the Head: Jesus Christ.
We are His body.
Period.
He is the anointed One!
He is the Christ.
We have only one Master and He came to serve.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”.
We have only one Master and He calls us His friends.
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you”.
The kingdom of God, before anything, is a kingdom of friends!
Fábio
Clearwater
