Holy Cross Lutheran Church

The church is a diverse group of people with varied gifts — and those gifts are to be a blessing to one another. Our lives together are to be marked by serving one another in love so that when one weeps, we all weep, and when one rejoices, we all rejoice (Rom. 12:15). If we want to become fully human, then we must give our lives in service to the church — to the fellowship of believers in this time and place.

Jesus has every expectation that His disciples will not only know His words, but will put those words into practice. Jesus expects that the disciples lives looks shockingly similar to His own. Why? Because Jesus shows the world what it looks like to live the surprisingly better life. If we want to become fully human, then we can’t simply learn the words of Jesus like information from a google search, but rather we must digest those words so that they fuel the life we live. Orienting our life to Jesus’ ways is how we become fully human.

We live surrounded by words. Some are obvious; others quietly shape what we believe about ourselves, other people, success, happiness, and the good life. Jesus invites His disciples to something different: “Remain in me, and let my words remain in you.” The whole of Scripture gives us the words of the living Christ—words through which He teaches, corrects, forgives, comforts, creates faith, and gives life. If we want to become fully human, we must learn to recognize the voices forming us and increasingly orient our lives around the Words of Jesus.

People have lots of different communities they are part of: work, hobbies, sports, etc. But there is something distinct about the Christian community; namely, that it’s founded on the confession that Jesus is the Christ — that He is the Savior and King. The Christian community is one in which we are known and know others with the explicit purpose of following Jesus — or, as we say here, with the purpose of walking with others toward the surprisingly better life. If we want to discover what it means to be human, then we must do it in Christian community.

Few people want to look back on their life and think, "Well, that was a waste.” So we spend a lifetime filling our lives with activities, people, and experiences that we hope delivers “fullness.” But like disciples who have worked all night for no return, we find ourselves coming up empty. If we want to experience the surprisingly better life, if we want to discover our full humanity, we must heed the call to follow Jesus.