A Love Letter to the Church

     Grace and peace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,  through which all humankind can be saved,  transferred from the dominion of darkness into His glorious kingdom of light. We indeed are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, which we will one day see in its fullness during  Jesus’ thousand year  reign on earth^[1].

     I desire for you a life of human flourishing and well-being, focused on a vision of devotion to the Triune God of creation.^[2] May your lives be centered upon the principal goal of the Hebrew people since ancient times-the Jewish Shema^[3]:

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The Trinity calls you to love your Maker with a fullness of devotion that involves every fiber of your beings. It is a love that prefers what is pleasing to God above our own desires and ambitions. It is a love that rejects  self-centered impulses, a desire to go it our own way. Rather, it springs from self- denial, that Christ might live within us. I urge you to make Christ your all and all!   Beloved this beauteous goal of loving the Lord above all will no doubt result in your flourishing and blessedness.

     To achieve the goal of the Hebrew Shema, you must be devoted to cultivating the divine virtues in your lives. The Apostle Paul spoke of these in his letter to the church in Galatia:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

These are the divine virtues to which we must all be committed,  perfecting our lives as children of the Way. Indeed, they are morally good and desirable. Cultivation of the virtues is evidence of  your metamorphosis, transformation into the perfect image of  Christ. May you be clothed in the fine garments of virtue, your tongues seasoned with grace and your minds transformed by the eternal wisdom of God’s living Word. 

^[1] I chose to emulate the formal greetings used by the Apostle Paul in his letters to the Churches in Asia Minor. These greetings often acknowledged the Lordship and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

^[2] A Eudaimonistic Vision of Christian discipleship is rooted in the grand story of the Trinity’s outreach to creation. The story of the Jewish Shema folds our narratives within the Meta narrative, grand story of the Trinity.  

^[3] As a pastor, my love for the future Church is expressed through my desire for their flourishing and prosperity in Christ.