Living among God's Faithful People

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, January 17, 2021
John 1:43-51

    Can a Christian be a Christian alone?  What do you think?  We discussed this question in-depth in our Exploring Faith discipleship class last week, and most of us agreed that yes, you can be a Christian without others. You can read the Bible, pray, go to church on the internet or on TV or listen to Christian radio all by yourself.  A lot of us have found ourselves more alone than usual these past months, and so it’s good to know that you can be a Christian alone.  I am an introvert who loves people – it’s a good combination because I enjoy spending alone time studying scripture, preparing Bible studies, worship and sermons for Sundays but I also enjoy visiting people and building relationships.  I know I need to be alone to recharge. I need time to think, to pray, to be by myself with God.  EXCEPT.  A Christian cannot always be a Christian alone, I would assert.  We need each other. We are only a member, not the whole body of Christ, as Paul reminds us in the second reading from 1 Corinthians.  We need other Christians for fellowship, community, and companionship.
    Last week, we remembered that baptism is the beginning of faith.  Baptism is the bedrock of our faith that assures us of God’s forgiveness, salvation, and unconditional love.  Baptism also is the official entrance rite into the larger body of Christ, the church.  We miss a little bit of the progression of Jesus’ story from his baptism to the gospel reading we have for today…after his baptism Jesus spends alone time in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.  After this, though, Jesus is almost never alone again.  From the wilderness Jesus goes to call the first disciples:  Andrew and Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanael.  Jesus does not perform any miracles or engage in really any ministry at all until he’s called some people to come with him to “come and see,” to learn and to eventually be able to do at least some of what he does.   Jesus is not a Christian alone, so to speak – the calling of the first disciples is the beginning of the early church.  If Jesus doesn’t do ministry alone, we should be wary of trying to go it alone ourselves as Christians.
    Christians call spending time together a churchy word: “fellowship.”  Our big room downstairs is called the “fellowship hall” because we do a lot of hanging out down there. Fellowship is a strength of many congregations.  I would say it is a strength of Faith Lutheran – we have warm, welcoming people who enjoy being together, whether it’s after church chit-chat, summer picnics, lunch after Bible study at a local diner or Zoom fellowship hour during the pandemic.  In other churches I’ve served and been a part of, fellowship hour is the safe place for people to participate who’d rather not do Bible study or get involved in other ways.  I hope we see from our scripture passages for today, however, that fellowship has a deeper meaning and spiritual value than simply enjoying each other’s company and having friends who happen to go to church with us.  Fellowship is a commitment to live among God’s faithful people – to take even a few minutes a week to be in touch with people who are also seeking to follow Jesus, who share similar values, and who encourage us to live life a little differently in a secular world.  Fellowship is experiencing a personal crisis and being able to ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for us, sometimes having hot meals delivered to us or cards and flowers sent to us, having the church show up for the funeral or the wedding or at the hospital or even the baseball game because we are connected through Christ.  It is often through other people, other Christians, that we experience God’s presence and love to know that God has not left us alone, orphaned, or abandoned.  In being a part of a church community, sometimes we are blessed to see the face of Christ himself in our neighbor.  That is the power of fellowship.  And the great thing about this spiritual practice is all you have to do is show up.  Show up for the Zoom call. Hang out for a 5-10 minute conversation after church.  Call someone up in the church directory that you haven’t seen in awhile, or don’t know very well. In the time we take to be in relationship with other people outside of Sunday morning worship, we start to learn more about what it is to be a part of the body of Christ.
    A little earlier in John, right before our gospel passage for this morning, it is John the Baptist who points Andrew and Simon Peter (who are brothers) to Jesus, and they start to follow him.  Philip is from the same city as Andrew and Peter, and after Jesus asks him to follow, Philip invites Nathanael.  All of these first disciples do not submit a resume.  The gospel lists no qualifications whatsoever as to why they should be disciples.  They simply show up and follow after Jesus finds them.  They respond to the invitation, “Come and see.”  They are able to put whatever else they have going on, whatever political affiliations they might have, their jobs, and so on aside to follow Jesus and for the next three years commit to living together in mutual fellowship.  It’s probably a good thing we don’t all live together, but in these turbulent times especially we seek to put our other affiliations aside to remember what’s most important.  Our fellowship at church helps us keep the main thing the main thing, to know who we are and whose we are and where we are headed on this journey of faith.  Sometimes, just like the disciples, we disagree passionately.  But it is our faith in Christ that keeps us together.  We can’t just be Christians alone.
    One of my favorite Bible stories is our first reading from 1 Samuel.  It’s another reminder that while we can practice Christianity alone, none of us came to faith by ourselves.  Please tell me, because you’d be the first person I’ve ever met, if you one day just woke up and decided to be a Christian without any influence from a parent, grandparent, teacher, pastor, or friend!  In junior high people started to tell me that I’d be a great pastor.  I mostly thought they were crazy.  I can list several people who kept inviting me to consider being a pastor.  But the people who really got me thinking seriously for the first time were my high school youth group leaders, Tom and Beth.  At fellowship hour after church one day, they mentioned again how I would make a good pastor – it wasn’t the first time.  I started listing all of the reasons that was a bad idea like I had in the past.  And Beth said, “You might want to consider that God is trying to tell you something.”  These were not arrogant people. I don’t think they were meaning to say that they were the voice of God, but that advice helped me listen in a different way.  It was like Eli telling Samuel, “Just go back to bed and when you hear the voice again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”  If I were a Christian alone, I would never be here right now, that’s for sure.  My life would be very different.  Nathanael’s life would’ve been different if he’d ignored Philip; if Simon Peter had ignored his brother Andrew the Church itself would not be what it is today.  Fellowship is bringing people of faith together to help us all listen better to God.  And in the moments we feel most alone, it is fellow people of faith who assure us that we are not.  God is among us!  Amen.