Extended Family
Scripture Text: 1 John 4:7-21
Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith
Single God, Nonsmoker, Seeks Attractive Creation with Good Sense of Humor . . . Imagine for a moment that you are God. I’m sure you’ve done it before. Now think: Would you in your divine wisdom and power ever want to create a universe and, if so, why? Because you feel lonely and want some friends? Because you like being pampered and want some servants? It is one of the profoundest questions to ask: If there is a God, why is there anything else? Why the universe? Why us? Why might God decide to have a creation?
The Rule of St. Augustine
Whenever you go out, walk together, and when you reach your destination, stay together.
C.S. Lewis, Four Loves
In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him ‘to myself’ now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. Hence true Friendship is the least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth, if only the newcomer is qualified to become a real friend. They can then say, as the blessed souls say in Dante, ‘Here comes one who will augment our loves.’ For in this love ‘to divide is not to take away’. Of course the scarcity of kindred souls—not to mention practical considerations about the size of rooms and the audibility of voices—set limits to the enlargement of the circle; but within those limits we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases. In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious ‘nearness by resemblance’ to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ to one another (Isa. 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.
Application Questions
1. What is your next step with discipleship in Jesus?
2. To what community has God called you to be on mission?
3. How will you prioritize “life together” here at Oaks Parish?