Just this past week someone told me that they think going to church is nice and all, but if someone has a relationship with God, then that’s good enough [and they don’t have to bother if they don’t want to go]. It isn’t the first time I’ve heard someone talk about relationships with God. It seems to be the rage… especially with Facebook asking us constant questions about our relationships. In the name of a personal relationship with God we forget that Jesus has grafted us into Himself, the vine. We are living stones chosen by God and precious – being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5).

Enter life together… when you were baptized, you weren’t baptized into a personal and individual standing before God. You were baptized into the body of Christ. You were picked by Jesus as his own. Like Abraham, you were minding your own business (more or less) and knew nothing of God’s love in Christ Jesus. You were dead in your sin and wanted nothing to do with your neighbor or with God. It was deep in your own spiritual grave, that Jesus came and found you. He called you out of that darkness, took your death and your sin from you and gave you his eternal life and perfect salvation in its place.

That’s how this Jesus still is. He keeps coming to you – although you keep ignoring him, breaking his commandments, not loving your neighbor with your whole heart, and living like God did not matter and as if you mattered most, Jesus would have you for himself. He comes again with his Word and good gifts and calls you to himself and to his church. We believe that we cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to him… but the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and gathers us around Word of Absolution, Word preached, and around the very Body and Blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

The point of our life with Jesus isn’t about whether or not we have a relationship with him rather it’s that He has claimed us as his own. Relationships abound, some are good and some are bad, some are estranged, and some are evil. Everyone has a different definition of the word. Even Satan has a relationship with God. The point is that Jesus has grafted you into the whole of all the church. He has taken you from your private, individual standing in death and sin and plucked you out of the darkness and grafted you into the body of Christ. You are now part of the bride. You are a member of the church. You are fed and nourished as the church is called and gathers around the very Word of God that has become flesh and blood: Jesus.

Where do you get your identity? At the altar, where Jesus is. It is before the throne of God that you are made new, that God showers his mercy and love upon you, that he forgives your sins and makes a clean heart within you. Where does God want you? He wants you gathered together with other Christians around Word preached and the Body and Blood of his Son given to you. He wants you to encourage one another to that end, to gather as one people (people loved by God), receiving power as Sons of God, and going forth in acts of love and mercy. A plant taken away from the water will wither and die…so also the Christian that is not feed on the Word of God and his Holy Sacraments.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25