Good Morning,
In the Book of Hebrews the Apostle Paul makes a simple statement. He says, “Let brotherly love continue.” In that there are a lot of suppositions and presumptions. First of all, what does it mean to be a brother? For the Christian, brothers and sisters are those who have been taken up into the arms of Jesus our Lord in His finished work, completed at the cross, and sustained in the emptying of the tomb, as promised in John 17. They are those, along with ourselves, who are united to Christ by faith, who are one in baptism and life. What happens to the foot happens to the tongue, etc… Looking at the individual made in the same renewed image found in the regeneration of the Holy Spirit radically changes how we treat and understand the person unto whom we are called to love. The golden rule of Matthew 7:12 makes it clear that we should desire the same for others that we would have for ourselves. Secondly in thinking through that verse, how do we apply that brotherly relationship in love, and in loving one another do so consistently?
A love which is temporary is no love at all.
In today’s prayer and worship help we are going to unpack those questions a bit in order to remind one another of our need for fellowship and community, the kind of which we can get from no other place, for no other person knows what it means to be a redeemed sinner than another redeemed sinner.
As some of you know I have spent the last week on a bit of a Presbyterian Politypalooza. It’s not quite following the Grateful Dead across the land, but it’s not unlike that either. After spending three days at the 218th ARP General Synod, I have been blessed to be found at the 88th General Assembly of the OPC for the last six days being held at Eastern University in St. Davids, PA, outside of ironically the very city of brotherly love. The fellowship of the brethren is precious and without peer. It cannot be undersold.
Speaking of the Dead, last summer I had the pleasure of attending the opening concert of Dead and Company in Raleigh, North Carolina. Like most bands Covid had put them on hiatus, so when they announced they would be having gigs starting in August of 2021 my friend and I could not wait to attend. Now, what makes us interested in such things? Part of it is the music, the joy that comes from it, but really what makes things like that desirable is the ability to share that experience with thousands of our closest friends. Besides if any group has a following that exists in community it most definitely is Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann’s jolly band. Hearing Fire On the Mountain, or other tunes, brings those gathered together, while in a sense experiencing different sentiments, into the same emotional space. Each had a unique encounter with the song at a particular time, yet it is still the song which bring them as one. While I think we can all recognize this reality, we also know its temporality and provisional nature. There is nothing permanent about it, which is why when there was a false report of Dead and Company ceasing to tour after 2022 there was devastation among Deadheads. Their reason for hope, many livelihoods, were put into a swirl. I think we could all identify things in our lives that have that same place for each of us. If Clemson University was to drop football or if the Pittsburgh Steelers would cease to exist what would that do to many people’s understandings of themselves and their place in the world? For there was a time (and not that long ago) when neither existed. They have a beginning, and they will have an end. It’s sad to think about, but where the heart is there one’s treasure will be. It is a perfect encapsulation of what idolatry is, and why fleshly things are no substitute for true community, and the type of family which only exists in the eternal and infinite blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Which gets us back to Paul’s comments above and what I’ve been doing since June 6th.
If you are Presbyterian, and I think you should be for actual real reasons, no joke, the courts of our Church (as Presbytery, Synod and/or General Assembly are) express the very pastoral brotherhood which exists in our close associations. To be a minister or elder in a Presbyterian church and not take seriously that community is to sin against it. If you are not otherwise legitimately providentially hindered, and not making proper preparations (intentionally scheduling things during the days of meeting are a dereliction of duty), you are transgressing the call of the Apostle Paul to continue in brotherly love. Because one of the things that brotherly love means is striving together through difficulties, as well as blessings. The idea one can seek the best for one in whom you are in disagreement by not being with them is preposterous. The Christian faith is a family faith. The same is true for the local Church. To cause ourselves to miss the fellowship of the body does damage not only to you individually, but it to the body as a whole. Love takes two, and when only one is continuing in that devotional passion it frustrates the other. It damages the relationship. We are meant to be an encouragement to one another and we cannot do that if one party is absenting themselves from the relationship.
In closing, the iron sharpening iron metaphor is often only applied to correcting sin and bringing erroneous teaching into conformity with truth. However, in the context of the essay today I’d like us to think of it in a more positive direction. It is helpful for us to remember our responsibility to come alongside one another in love. To properly sharpen a piece of metal there also needs to be a time of polishing which must take place. The careful and intentional continuing of brotherly affection in the local church through Bible study, prayer meetings, and worship is necessary for all of us, as is the carefully consideration of the work of the larger Church.
This is especially true for those who don’t think they need it.
As usual here is a word to help us in that work:
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/continuing-brotherly-love
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church