Do we believe Jesus or only believe in Jesus?

For Tuesday, August 30, 2022

From the Weekly Bulletin

We Presbyterians observe only two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both involve the Body of Christ and both incorporate us into the living body of Christ in the world.

In his work, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that because baptism and the Lord’s Supper flow from the “true humanity of Christ the church takes visible form through these sacraments. These are bodily encounters with Jesus, through which we become “partakers in the fellowship and communion,” the koinonia, of His body.

That means that we are not merely a group of individuals who show up on Sunday mornings because to be with a tribe that believes in Christ or affirm slogans about Christ. It is much, much more. As a group we believe Christ, have been claimed by Christ, saved by Christ, incorporated into Christ, as the body of Christ in the world.

Bonhoeffer says that by receiving the body of Christ that we become the visible body of Christ.

So as you come to church this Sunday, please do not come simply as one who believes in the Lordship of Christ over your life. Come with a deeper purpose. Come as one who is part of the very body of Christ. Then we will not just be a church but a holy community, truly the visible church.