Last night, I was doing some reading for my sermon when I came across this quote from Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm. I don’t think it’s going to make it into the sermon, but I wanted to share it with you. It reminds me a lot of the church we all share.
This is the first time in the Gospel of John that Jesus’ closest disciples are named “the twelve” (v. 67). Their decision not to turn away but to walk forward with Christ draws them together as a community of faith. It is not any particular creed, mission statement, style of worship, or service program that unites them as the body of Christ. It is their professed willingness to follow Jesus Christ that renders them a community of faith. What a blessed word to remember as we agonize over mission statements, budget priorities, worship attendance, or other preoccupations of churchly life. It is our commitment to follow Christ alongside others that makes us the people of God. [1]
[1] Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm in David Lyon Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary — Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 385.