Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
In the earliest days of the church, a Roman named Aristides described Christians to the
Emperor Hadrian like this: "They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save
orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something they give freely to the man
who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home, and are happy, as though he were
a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead
through the Spirit, in God." It was that quality of caring, so unique in that pagan empire, that most
impressed those who encountered early Christians. That quality is still the church's greatest
earthly asset. Keep it alive.
(Hebrews 10.25
NRSV)
A Sunday School teacher asked his boys to define fellowship. One bright youngster blurted out,
"It's two fellows in a ship!" That's not bad. The church has often been likened to a ship sailing
through the waters of time and space. Fellowship refers to more than the fact that we are all
passengers, though. It refers to a quality of interaction, of caring, of looking out for one another.
God of fellowship, help me to carry on the great tradition of the church by caring for those in
need.
Amen.
