Why We Gather

While at home, a good friend gave me the book, "Evil and the Justice of God" by N.T. Wright. He said I’d like it so he wanted me to have it. After a few weeks I finally picked it up and read it in about six days because I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend picking it up and reading it for yourself. There are a number of things I could share from this book but I want to focus on one thought that really has hit me this week while reading…

The Gospels do not offer any kind of philosophical explanation of evil, what it is or why it is there, nor do they give any suggestion for how we might change our lives so that evil might mysteriously disappear from the world. What the Gospels give us is the story of an event in which the Living God deals with evil. The cross is God’s eternal “no” to the problem of sin. Often we look at the world in terms of Good and Evil…us being “Good” and them being “Evil” but what one must realize is that the line between good and evil runs through the middle of me…of every one of us…and it is in this that the Gospels proclaim that the death of Jesus is “for me,” in my place and on my behalf. This is where the personal meaning of the cross becomes very clear…that there will be a time when I, the greatest of sinners, will be totally sinless, when God has completed the work of grace within me!

When we gather around the LORD’s Table we are reminded of this. At the supper the King shares His life with His friends, more particularly, solemnly makes them the beneficiaries of His kingdom-bringing death. What was accomplished in His death and resurrection, according to the early Christians, is the foundation, the model, and the guarantee of God’s ultimate purpose…which is to rid the world of evil altogether and to establish His new creation of justice, beauty, and peace. Every time we come together around the table we are reminded of what we are here for. That we are taking part in the death that must take place for us to stand sinless before God and that our purpose is to rid the world of sin through introducing them to the Creator who wants them back.