Summer Time

Summer is approaching soon.  Hallelujah.  As a college student the work load, although certainly fulfilling, can take its toll and leave one feeling burdened.  The best aspect of summer is all of things one has to look forward to.  For me, summer is the ultimate.  The reasons for summer being great are various; beach, friends, family, free time, baseball games, bbq's, etc.  Ultimately however, one reason overrides every other:  The chance to serve God.  One of my favorite things about being home is being able to take on the task of being a part of the Youth Ministry Staff at my home congregation.  There are few things that bring me more joy than seeing people my own age whether through college ministry, or younger through the youth group, be absolutely on fire for Christ.  Now a good Lutheran would say that one needs to keep it even keeled and to not let oneself get carried away to a theology of glory.  No doubt!  But to me, and to many, there is nothing more exciting than sharing/spreading the Good News of the cross of Jesus Christ.  It is undoubtedly the work of God that during the summer young adults and teenagers fight their hardest to get a full week off from work in order to be able to help out at Vacation Bible School.  It is undoubtedly the work of God that makes spending Wednesday nights with junior high and high school kids not only tolerable but fulfilling.  

Where am I going with this rambling?  Fellowship.  Fellowship in the Christian context is of utmost importance.  St. Paul writes that we are a body, with Christ as our head.  And in the body are many members (1 Corinthians 12).  This fellowship has to be on fire.  If you and your Christian friends cannot get excited about rolling on for the kingdom, then what is your life worth?  All of us in the body have our gifts, some share gifts, some have unique gifts, some gifts some don't know about for a long time.  But as part of the body of Christ, those gifts are there.  This also plays into how we should treat other people.  The Lutheran Confessions state that all baptized believers (in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are part of the universal, catholic, invisible church.  These are the saints on earth, or the church militant.  Do some teach false things?  Yes.  Do some do things they should not? Yes.  Does this mean they are not part of the body of Christ? No.  However broken and mangled we are, with Christ as our head, we are the body.  In our mission to bring the Good News to the people, no one and nothing can stop us.  Christianity is not a loner religion.  It is not a "I'll do what I want with it" religion.  It is a family, it is a relationship, it is a lifestyle.  It cannot be a lesser aspect of ones life, it has to be the driving aspect.  Now, does this happen overnight?  No.  It can and will most certainly take time (just ask me).  But, we should always strive, using our faith as our guide, to make it numero uno in our life.  With Christ as our head, life will be abundant.  Does this mean materially and monetarily?  Not necessarily, and most likely not.  One can certainly be a follower and be comfortable, but search to see what their joy truly is.  Is it in their money?  Is it in their material possessions?  Or does it all flow from the head, the Christ, whose blood flowed from the cross and washed us clean from sin?  That is where it flows from.  From those hands, from those feet, from that head.  Likewise our love should flow in fellowship with one another, bringing it to the world.

"Let us rejoice in this coming day, and let us say: Winter has lasted long enough, beautiful summer once more will come, aye, a summer which will never end, a summer in which not only all the saints rejoice, but all the angels as well, a summer for which all creatures wait and sigh, an eternal summer in which all things are made new."

~Martin Luther