“That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.” (1 John 1:3)
It’s something that you experience in a non-religious way all the time. Perhaps a few of your friends go on a trip, and when they return, there’s only one way to reconnect: listen to their stories of the trip. Or maybe a neighbor becomes ill and undergoes a long treatment. How can you be that neighbor’s friend without hearing about the treatment?
So it goes with the Gospel. Our God has become flesh—He became a human agent in history who affected the people of a particular place and time in a particular way. The only way to know this event in God’s life is to know the stories of those who experienced it. There’s simply no other way.
It’s a reality that stands behind an old saying in the Church: extra ecclesiam nulla salus, “outside of the Church, there is no salvation.” It’s not a statement of tribal authority (although it has been used that way!), but simply an acknowledgment that the Church is simple: people telling and hearing the history of God, and without knowing His personal history, how can we be His friend?
So now think! You have heard the story—it’s reached you, touched you, fed you—opening up God’s fellowship and friendship with you. Are you not amazed?
LET US PRAY: Than you for your Gospel, O Lord, and thank You for the fellowship of those who share, hear, and love it. Open the ears and hearts of the whole world to Your truth, and thus raise up the harvest of Your Church; in Jesus’ name. Amen
Pr. Steven K. Gjerde
Zion, Wausau
