A People and a Promise

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me. Ruth 1:16–17

You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Labor day is the unofficial end of summer, kids back in school, vacations now memories and photographs. I hope you had a fantastic summer. This past Sunday at Creekside we finished up our summer series – A People Together, A Together People. Next Sunday is our annual kick-off celebration and a sermon that looks at the importance of remembering how God met us in the past year and how he leads us into the year ahead – make sure you come and see all that God has done in and through us as a community. Bring someone along with you.

As we ended summer, we ended our time in the book of Ruth. One person told me, “It was great to see Ruth finally get married.” In the final chapter of Ruth, we caught a glimpse of the import role that community played in those days and in that culture. In the days of Ruth, the men of the village would gather at the city gate and in an unhurried fashion, consider the issues of life that arose among the people and families in the community. The word for this discerning group and process was Ecclesia – the very same word the apostle Paul chose when he wanted to describe the Church. Church was never intended to be a solely individual thing, but a life giving and grace filled community of people seeking to connect their faith in Jesus with the realities of everyday life.

- How does this idea of Church relate to your idea of Church?
- How might this idea of Church change the way you think of Church?
- How might this idea of Church change the way those outside of the Church think of Church?

As a people of God we are the Church. Our local expression -- Creekside Covenant Church – is called to be a people, a sign and a signpost of the Kingdom of God. Does that excite and challenge you? That notion of church is so different from the way most people think of church (as a place that you go to on Sunday). That notion is so small and incomplete. Our invitation as the Church is to partner with God in his redemptive story, collectively and individually. He does not promise that if we follow him life will be easy and financially prosperous (as some wrongly teach). He does promise that he will be with us, that his purposes will be accomplished, and that the more fully we follow him and abide in him – individually and collectively -- we will experience contentment, joy and peace regardless of the circumstances.

God calls us to be a people, he promises that he will never forsake us; he calls us to be a people together, a together people, a shining city on a hill.

Peace, hope and love

Doug