The Power of Gathering!

WORD FROM THE CENTER: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Welcome to “Word from The Center” MONDAY, a devotional word from the Center of our faith, Jesus Christ, with reflections on His Word. I’m Gregory Seltz. Today’s verse is Matthew 18:20, where Jesus says,

20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

THE POWER OF GATHERING!

Who would have ever thought that gathering in the name of Jesus would become a political statement with cultural and even legal ramifications? During the COVID shutdowns of 2020, the Mayor of Chicago sent police to harass worshippers who were gathering for worship, punishing them for worshipping behind lock doors. Those locked doors were their routine, NOT TO EVADE THE COVID POLICE, but due to the weekly struggle of preventing gang violence, even on Sunday morning. (The Mayor also egregiously put $500 tickets on the cars of these faithful worshippers, many of whom also happened to be poor.) Then there was the government harassment of churches in Minnesota. Merely to worship publicly, Lutheran and Catholic leaders had to write the Governor and demand that they be treated equally as another “essential business” to the community, essential like liquor stores, malls, and casinos! (These politicians had forgotten that the church is the only constitutionally protected entity of them all.) Even worse, church leaders in California were threatened with arrest and jail, just for gathering God’s people together in worship. Whatever your view of the lockdowns (from conscience, some of you supported them, others not), the key for the LCRL was to make sure that you did it FREELY, honoring God and serving your neighbor in His Name. So, why would/did the church risk the coercive punishment of the overreach of the state in order to gather in worship? Because there is power and purpose in gathering together IN THE NAME OF JESUS, both for ourselves and our culture!

Now, I might remind you that there were nefarious reasons for many of the shutdowns around the country. Why would these government leaders target the church so vociferously when gatherings to protest and even riot were treated with amazing indifference? Let’s not go there right now because gathering together in worship is way more important than politics. So, in this devotion, let’s focus anew on the blessing of gathering together in God’s presence to worship the Lord who comes to forgive and to give abundant life in His Name. As believers in Jesus, we earnestly desire to meet together “in person,” for different reasons than other groups. There is power in gathering together around God’s Word and Sacraments which provide the very gifts of God to create and sustain our faith.  In our devotion today, let’s recommit ourselves to gathering as God’s people in Jesus’ name, hearing the “power” of God’s Word for life and salvation.

God created us to be a gathering people. He wants us to gather with family, with friends, and with those we love. He especially wants those relationships to be centered upon and resourced by Him, by His love and His Word. Contact matters, hugs matter, handshakes matter, pats on the back matter, kneeling with each other matters. So also receiving the Word of God in our ears through the reading of Scripture, as well as in our mouths in Holy Communion and splashed over our heads or all over our bodies in Baptism, matters. 

If the years of the pandemic taught me anything, it demonstrated that “isolation” is not healthy for people. We were made to be together, to gather together, and to live life “face to face.” The social scientists and the psychologists agree (and my wife, Dr. Marie Seltz, concurs)! Isolation, like that which we were compelled to experience, had and still has real risks. Social isolation is already causing a rise in mental health issues, in substance abuse issues, and even in domestic violence issues. It’s just as the Bible says. Even in the perfect creation of God, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:17a).

Furthermore, the power of our gathering is much more than merely being together again (as wonderful as that is). The power of our gathering results from the fact that the Lord chooses to dwell with us. Where two or three gather in His name, He is there in our midst! He promises to be “really present” in the Law/Gospel Words of the Bible, in the waters of Baptism, in the bread and the wine, so that you can hear, touch, and even “taste and see” how good the Lord is for you and me by grace through faith (see Psalm 34:8). The Jesus we worship never let anything get in the way of His coming “all the way” to where we are to love us. For example, He willingly and intentionally made His way to the lepers of His day, touching them with His love when no one else would even draw near (e.g., Luke 5:12-13; 17:11-19). He made up His own mind as to how He would exercise His freedom to love others into His Kingdom.

Listen, I’m not casting “shadow” on those who struggled with the risks of COVID-19, especially when we were uniformed about the breadth of its risks. My point is to remind us that when we gather NOW, it is not really to make a political, medical, or even a cultural point. We gather because the Lord invites us. He is truly present, gathering us to Himself to bless us with His Word and His love in community as His body. And there is nothing like receiving that “bear hug” of grace from the Lord who lived, died, and rose again so that you might live forever with Him! With all that we face today, culturally and politically, let us gather in the presence of the one who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

PRAYER – Dear Lord Jesus, protect us from the enduring dangers of the pandemic and of isolation. Bless us as we gather around your Word and Sacraments, receiving and sharing the love that only You can give. AMEN.