We have arrived as the final week’s countdown to remembering and celebrating again the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the sermon today you will hear or read that in a unique way, the church was born at the death of Jesus, when his blood poured out for the world; his body sacrificed for us all.
It truly is a privilege for us to belong to the body of Christ, to the church, to be the bride of Christ.
I suspect that all of us, like me, sometimes take this wonderful gift for granted and miss out on the blessings that God offers to us through life together in the church. So this is a timely invitation!
Through Lent we have been following a series called “Return to the Lord”
This week’s focus is to ‘Return to the Church.
The text for this week begins at the cross with the death of Jesus.
After Jesus drank the wine, he said, “Everything is done!”
He bowed his head and died. John 19:30
God calls us into His Church, where we participate in His life.
The death of Jesus effectively completes his work, work that invites us into his kingdom. Now, every time we commune we are participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s a mystery, but with practical implications. And there’s more. Every person who is baptized is baptized into Jesus, into the church. Now, together with Jesus, we are ‘the body of Christ’; a multi-faceted living body that is the presence of Jesus in the world.
