Lutheran Helps for WEEK THREE

Day 15: Formed for God’s Family
From a Lutheran perspective, Baptism is the sacrament of belonging and inclusion. This is God’s action, not ours. God initiates. God chooses us. We respond to that choice. Just as we did not choose our parents, but respond to their love, so it is true in our relationship with God. For Martin Luther, Baptism was the primary sacrament. It marks our birth into a life lived in God. It reminds us of God’s claim upon our lives and God’s desire for us to know the joy of his love. Baptism also reminds us that a life lived in God is a daily dying and rising; dying to living our way or the way of our culture, and rising to live, like Christ, in God’s way. In Baptism God claims us as children, adopts us into the family of God’s people, forgives us our sin for turning away from God, gives us the gift of his presence through the Holy Spirit, and promises us eternal life. A life of faith begins in the water and Word of Holy Baptism.

Day 16: What Matters Most
It’s all about love! Being in relationship is the training ground for learning to love and growing into maturity. We cannot do this when separated from the community of God’s people. A life of faith is a life lived for others. It is not about “me,” it’s about how I might serve you. A guiding question might be: How would Jesus respond to or love this person? How does Jesus want me to love? It’s a variation on “What Would Jesus Do?”


Day 17: A Place to Belong
The church is not a building or organization, but a people, an organism. We exist to carry on the mission of Christ! We are literally the Body of Christ in the world. Christ has no hands or feet or arms or legs or eyes or ears but ours! We need each other in order to carry out the mission Christ has left us. The community of God’s people becomes the very place where we get “on the job training” in learning to love and serve one another.

Day 18: Experiencing Life Together
Note the importance of small groups and experiencing the intimacy and support we need for the journey of faith. Note the qualities that define the community.

Day 19: Cultivating Community
Note the principles for small groups and building fellowship within the church. Where do we experience fellowship? What would it take for us to risk forming and being in a small group? Note the barriers and what is needed to overcome them. “Speaking the truth in love” is difficult, but essential. It is sharing how we affect each other, not with the desire to put down or hurt another person, but for the sake of nurturing and deepening our relationships as meaningful and whole.

Day 20: Restoring Broken Fellowship
Because God blesses our lives and restores our relationship through Jesus, therefore we work to restore our relationships with each other. When relationships are restored, we experience the peace God wishes for us. How might we be God’s blessing to the world as we work for “peace” as described in this chapter? How can we embrace diversity and yet find a sense of unity?

Day 21: Protecting Your Church
Unity not uniformity! We are called to build up, not tear down, to focus on understanding, not criticizing. What unifies us? One Lord, one faith, one hope, one Spirit, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. When we focus on personalities, preferences, interpretations, styles, or methods, division always happens. But if we concentrate on loving each other and fulfilling God’s purposes, harmony results. (P.162)