Mar 4 - DAY 20 - Restoring Broken Fellowship

Day 20

Restoring Broken Fellowship

God … has restored our relationship

with him through Christ, and has

given us this ministry

of restoring relationships.

2 Corinthians 5:18 GW

Do you know why shaking hands is a custom?

Warriors used to extend their right hands to show that they were wielding no weapons and came in peace.

(That’s probably why “left” means sinister. Lefty’s could shake with their right and stab with their left. And that would be sinister indeed.)

Extending the right hand of fellowship is what today’s chapter in The Purpose-Driven Life is about. Rick Warren says, “Because life is all about learning how to love, God wants us to value relationships and make the effort to maintain them instead of discarding them whenever there is a rift, a hurt, or a conflict.”

“In fact, the Bible tells us that God has given us the ministry of restoring relationships.”

At Spirit of Joy, we know that phrase well. Though we usually hear it in our liturgy as “the ministry of reconciliation,” that’s what’s meant when we’re asked to share the peace.

Think about the order in which we do things.

•      First, we confess our sins to God. And what we should be confessing is all the ways that we’ve broken fellowship with God and neighbor. That’s what sin always and ultimately is – breaking relationship. The first four commandments tell us how to avoid breaking fellowship with God. The next six commandments tell us how to avoid breaking fellowship with other people. Therefore, in our liturgy and as we come into God’s presence, we first confess our sins to God.
•      Then we immediately turn and share the peace. We stretch out our hands – again and again and again – as part of the “ministry of restoring friendships.” Now, most weeks, it’s probably not the person in the next pew we’re most angry at. But this is a symbol – and a start. Sharing the peace reminds us that we need to keep reaching out – again and again and again.

And you’re the one who needs to reach out first. Repeatedly. Now that’s not because you’re the one who is repeatedly at fault. It’s because you’re the one who understands God’s call. He wants us to reach out – again and again and again – because relationships are that important of a blessing.

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who is left-handed

but is not sinister;

I’ll gladly extend both hands