Fellowship Reimagined

     “42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of
     bread and to prayer.”
     Acts 2:42

In this time of Covid our breaking of bread together has been limited. Unfortunately, this pandemic has thrown a wrench in the way we usually gather and how we celebrate Christian Fellowship. True enough, we have an open service and we still take Communion each week, in our own way, but the chance to get together and break bread in person has been greatly curtailed. And we justly grieve this loss.

This year our getting together for fellowship through the fun of Trunk or Treat has been cancelled. We have not been able to gather for church dinners or even Sunday School classes. If we think on it, so many of our ‘normal’ activities of fellowship have been disrupted, that it feels as if our fellowship has been lost and may never return. But there is good news!

This time of separation will not last forever. There will come a time when once again we will be able to congregate together and break bread. A time when we will use the Life Center for dinners and Sunday School classes will meet again in person. There is coming a time when this cursed pandemic will be tamed, and we will once again be able to venture out freely without fear of infection. This season will pass.

More than that, the act of fellowship goes deeper than dinners and handshakes during morning service. Fellowship has a much deeper and significant role in our relationship with one another and with God.

     “3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship
     with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
​     I John 1:3

The early disciples travelled throughout the countryside building new churches, leading converts to a relationship with Christ. And as they did so, they seldom stayed in one place for long. Often in his letters to the churches Paul expresses his sorrow that he could not be with them at just that moment. But always he reminded them that when we are in Christ, the Spirit brings us together regardless of the physical distance.

“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard….” John says. Just as we have proclaimed to one another over time our witness of God’s wonders in our lives. We did not come into this pandemic with an empty pouch. We have stories and examples of how Christ has affected our lives. Stories we have shared. Loves we have expressed. Prayers that have been answered beyond belief. We come, just as John and the early disciples, with history of Jesus in our lives; having made a difference in our outlook and our hope for tomorrow. We come full of the Spirit who was sent by Him who overcame the world, Jesus Christ.

We are in a season of a new fellowship. A season of separation, but not of loss. Though we are unable to gather as once we did, we have a fellowship in the Spirit that overcomes every aspect of this world. We are united in a bond of companionship which holds Christ at its center and this bond cannot be broken by a pandemic. We hold a fellowship with God the Father and His son Jesus Christ that cannot be torn apart by physical separation. Christ came to Earth to bridge the divide that separated us from fellowship with God. He stepped into the ‘void’ created by theology and broke down the barriers that kept us from a personal relationship with the Creator of all things.

The glory of this moment is that we have the Spirit, gifting us with a deeper fellowship than what can be found on a Sunday morning. We have a daily fellowship with the Father and when we open our hearts and minds to the vastness of His love, we have a fellowship with one another that no distance, no illness; that not even death can sever.

When we pray for one another, when the memory of a loved one passes our thoughts, when we speak out a name of a fellow traveler, it is not in vain, but rather it is solidarity with the Christ who has set us all free. Our fellowship may look different these days, but it is not lost. We are together in this moment in the eye of God who makes all things work for His glory.

Kathy Hendrix