There are times when the Scriptures are just so intriguing to me, where I just want to crawl inside them and know them from the inside. Today’s Second Reading from Corinthians is one of those times. Here is this effusively firm imagery: you are God's foundation! You are God's building! (1 Corinthians 3:9) This tapestry of believers woven together by their firm commitment to Christ as the Messiah lays the footings for His Church. They desire Him so dearly to be at the center of their very lives! To connect in so rich and interdependent a way is holy.
Here we are, thousands of years later, sharing a similar longing as members of the Christian community—to feel part of this great endeavor, to be known, to contribute, to feel embraced by the Body of Christ and strengthened by our collective strength.
Where do we go in our fast-paced, over-connected yet distant world to find that kind of intimate faith community? Where do we find the other unknown disciples in our midst to work alongside, to lay brick by brick alongside? What is the formula for undoing the aching loneliness many of us feel in the Church today?
Here’s what I know: there is no intimacy without vulnerability and no vulnerability without surrender. Our surrender and trust must first be to the only perfectly trustworthy relationship we have, Jesus Christ. We surrender to Him first. Then we offer ourselves in service to His Bride. We risk something—our pride, our safety, our comfort zone—to reach out and ask. To be the one to help lay each brick, to ask how to jump in and where we are most needed, to live out our body as the Spirit's temple, to embrace the Church in our midst.
If we can take that risk, perhaps one day we can reach across our great big world in a collective appreciation for one another, imitating the earliest believers' dedication for working with one another, ultimately an imitation of Christ’s love for each of us and His Bride the Church.
How are you living the call to build His Church and honor your part in it as a Temple of the Holy Spirit? Pray on this today.
Colleen Mitchell is wife to Greg and mother to five amazing sons here on earth. They serve in Costa Rica where they run the St. Francis Emmaus Center, a ministry that welcomes indigenous mothers into their home to care for them pre and postpartum. She is the author of Who Does He Say You Are. Find out more about her here.
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