(Part 1 of 3)
These thoughts were part of a sermon prepared for our membership testimony service on July 11th.  As there was limited time after hearing the six powerful testimonies of God’s grace, I felt it appropriate to abbreviate the message that day and turn the message into a “series” of blog posts.  I pray these words from Ephesians 2 regarding the church are encouraging and helpful!

Most of us have had the experience of being an outsider. Whether as a new family in a close-knit neighborhood or as a visitor to a foreign country, we dislike the uncomfortable and isolated position of the stranger. Being unknown by those around us threatens us on a deeper level than mere words can express.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.  (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Those who were being reconciled to God in the early church came from various religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds. New Gentile (non-Jewish) believers in particular were on “foreign soil” and often felt like strangers in the Christian community.  Paul assures them — and us by the Spirit — that they are not under-privileged outcasts but full-fledged citizens of God’s kingdom. Regardless of the differences between backgrounds or preferences or financial portfolios, there was a new relationship forged by the shed blood of Christ that supersedes all of that, and that relationship was a truer reality.  Full privileges of citizenship beats being an outcast every day of the week.

Perhaps you also, need to be reminded of the nature of the Christian community God is creating, the Church. It is not just a community club filled with people having shared interests, nor is it a random hodgepodge of people with no affiliation. In Christ, we have together become something we were not. We are now citizens of a new kingdom.