Relationships inside the church

CROSS PURPOSES # 97

12 September 2007

Hi Guys

On the last Sunday in April I conducted a wedding at Observatory Hill which is right beside the southern entry to the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. For the short address I used the recent 75th anniversary celebrations of the opening of the Bridge. Often during those days there were pictures of the two sides of the span reaching out toward each other – trusting that there would be a gentle bonding in the middle to make one bridge.

Well, all week leading up to that wedding I was thinking that those same thoughts were appropriate to our churches as well, and to the relationships inside those churches. How do we / can we move ‘towards the other’?

The other thing was that I had an obsession about conveying this to the gatherings on Sunday morning using words beginning with G. I came up with two lists:

1. Negative, destructive patterns, attitudes or behaviours
a) grudging: moving toward the other with reluctance –
not wanting to ‘move toward’.
b) gushing: moving toward the other in a superficial overdone way.
c) grievance: moving toward the other with anger, hostility and bitterness.
d) grinding: moving toward the other with the idea of wearing
him/her down.
e) grim: moving toward the other without joy.
f) gross: moving toward the other in an offensively rude way.
g) grubby: moving toward the other in an underhand way.
h) grasping: moving toward the other with the aim of taking and keeping
control.
i) greed: moving toward the other with coveting in the heart.

2. Positive Kingdom building, blessing type attitudes or behaviours
a) gentle: approaching the other with care, in a non-invasive way,
acknowledging that I must come humbly, as a guest, into your
space.
b) graceful: moving toward the other with respect, and protectively
c) gracious: moving toward the other recognising that we always bring foibles
and failures to our meeting, and choosing to rejoice in the other
anyway.
d) generous: moving toward the other with a generous spirit from a generous
heart, with all we have and own, including forgiveness.
e) goodness: moving toward the other with that winning combination of truth
and love, holiness and compassion.
f) glowing: moving toward the other with joy.
g) gleaming: moving toward the other with light.
h) grateful: moving toward the other with gratitude and thanksgiving for God
and for them.
i) grieving: moving toward the other with willingness, when necessary, to
enter into the sadness, to hold the hand of the suffering, to massage the heart with compassion.
j) gritty: moving toward the other with courage and determination.
k) guiding: moving toward the other to be helpfully beside him/her.
l) glue: moving toward the other because we’re supposed to stick
together.

All of this is possible because we have been graced in Jesus the Christ,
- forgiveness is real, and complete
- his life is ours
- his Spirit is ours
- his love is ours
- his mind is ours
- his will is ours

God is for us.

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4: 2-3).

And hey, God loves you!

Fred