Simple as ABC – Christ Centred

Over the last three weeks we have been focussing on the simplicity of the Church and its mission.
It is all about:
A – Admission to the Kingdom
B – Belonging to a small discipleship group
C – Commissioned to serve.
Now our focus is on who and what hold it all together.
The answer to “who”, is Jesus and what, is “love”.

This A.B.C. is not just a set of disconnected ideas, but an integrated, logical, common sense, simple understanding of what God is showing us in Jesus and his message of Love.

That is what the Kingdom of God is all about. It is the rule of God over human lives. It looks forward to when we will love God with all our beings, our neighbours and ourselves. It is about all creation living in harmony and peace. Jesus came as a revelation of the Kingdom, loving God and building relationships of freedom and peace between God and people and between all kinds of people. He forgave, he accepted, he healed, he raised the dead, he released from bondage and he reshaped our thinking about faith, power and service. He revealed the life of the Kingdom of God and then called us to follow him; continue the same belief framework and lifestyle. Of course we want admission to that Kingdom for ourselves and everyone else.

That is what Discipleship is all about. Jesus was the way God integrated his will (Kingdom) with human life. Jesus lived God quality life in a human being, showing us that it can be done. Now that it had been done our challenge is to follow him. While imitation is part of that, it is more about learning the lifestyle and applying that to our own era in human history. So Jesus calls us to be his disciples, apprentices, learning both the theory and the practice of the craft of love, as he lived it. How are we to do that but through deliberate learning groups? Disciples belong in a relationship with Jesus and with each other. We need opportunities to learn from Jesus, test that learning with others and practice what we have learnt using an action / reflection model. Jesus chose twelve to form his discipleship group. He knew that we learn best is small intimate groups. It is all about loving God and one another. The purpose of all this is finding admission to the Kingdom of God. Of course disciples want to learn and share the way that Jesus called us.

That is what Service is all about. The discipleship experience integrates us into a unified community which Paul calls The Body of Christ. This illustrates the fact that belonging together is a necessity, if we are to love as Jesus loved, and introduce the Kingdom of God. Paul in particular, talks about all the different loving actions of disciples as Gifts from God. These are simply the actions he knows Jesus did and has listed them as examples of what God’s loving spirit inspires in us. Jesus introduced the Kingdom of God as an individual, but that is not possible for any one of us. As the body of Christ, the church, together, we can, when the gifts of the spirit are shared in and with the community. Of course we accept Jesus commission to love, serve and proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.

All this is empowered by God who is love. As Paul says, “Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? … For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below—there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.”