Bricks Are Not Beloved…
08/07/22
This Sunday we wrapped up our series where we intentionally walked through some of the One Another statements in the Bible. All these statements are branches from our main calling to love one another as Christ loves us. Lego bricks were used as an example of how we give of ourselves to one another to build and strengthen the church rather than pull from the church to build our own personal kingdoms.
The Lego analogy is great for describing our relationship with the church. How we should view our gatherings, our gifts, and our corporate worship. One thing that we wanted to also highlight (to also help avoid any confusion) is to explain further exactly what these “bricks” represent. After all… we are not, as the Pink Floyd song describes, “just another brick in the wall.” That’s often how institutions view people. That’s often how the world views people. Sadly sometimes that’s how churches view people. As objects. As a means to an end.
But that is never how God sees us. We are not bricks in a wall (not even if the walls are on a church building.) We are beloved members of His family. The way God sees us, and the way we should see our relationship with Him is found in the third chapter of 1 John.
“See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason, the world does not know us: because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. “ 1 John 3:1-2
In the book How to Worship A King, Zach Neese also writes extensively about how we should view ourselves in relation to God.
“God used Pharoah; He knew Moses. God used Saul, but He knew David. God used Judas, but He knew Jesus… God didn’t create you so He could use you, He created you so He could know you… Religion (and the world) teaches us to view ourselves as tools… Here is the problem with being a tool. When my hammer breaks, what good is it?… It is garbage… Worship teaches us that our identity determines our worth and our function (I do because I am). And God determines our identity.”
We are not just tools. We are not just ingredients. We are not just bricks. We are beloved. Just like the statement “hurt people, hurt people” the same could be said about love. Loved people, love people. And for those that have their faith and trust in Jesus, we know that we can love because “He first loved us.” Through Jesus, God made the first move. Now obviously in our humanness it is easier to love people who love us back, but either way, our calling remains the same. When we gather with the same posture, a posture of humility, a posture of worship, a posture of love, that’s when the bricks we bring will fit together perfectly. Not to form our identities, but to fashion a house… a “city on a hill” if you will… for God’s beloved children to worship and flourish.