Dear Family at Christ Community,

This Sunday we will be in Matthew 5:21-26 where Jesus challenges us to recognize the heart of all religious rites to be reconciliation with both God and one another. In the Sermon on the Mount, He calls for us to recognize that sin not only occurs in our actions but in our heart towards one another; He also calls for us to recognize that our faith must first be displayed in our actions as evidence of a transformed heart before we participate in the sacraments of the Church. This means that the Lord’s Table that so beautifully signifies our reconciliation to God in Christ provides us with a regular opportunity to keep short accounts with one another. As Keith A. Mathison writes in Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper:

When Christians gather to partake of the same bread and wine, there is no Jew or Gentile, there is no rich or poor, there is no male or female. All are one because all partake of the one body of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. If the faithful teaching of this truth accompanies the frequent observance of the Lord’s Supper, it inhibits division because it repeatedly and forcefully emphasizes the sinfulness of worshipping with an unforgiving heart (cf. Matt. 5:23-24).

Please take time to ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of any relationships at Christ Community in which you need to pursue reconciliation. Ask the Spirit to also convict you of how you can grow in displaying God’s righteous character so as not to be as easily at odds with others at our church. Give thanks that the forgiveness of Christ and the newness of life granted to you make these things possible.

In Christ,
Cameron