What does it mean to be church? 

In our readings today, we see that the beginnings of all the Abrahamic traditions start first with relationship with God. God entered into a loving covenant with his people to be their God. By entering into a covenant with humanity, God shows his love and understanding of us, and we are saved by that love. It is the promise that we will never be abandoned by our God and we can place our trust in Him. But our end of the covenant has responsibilities attached as well. If God is to be our God, then we must be God’s people in everything that we do. We must act in the world and to each other with the responsibility of being God’s people.

Our responsibilities as God’s people are what makes up our mission to be church. Abraham and Christ offer examples on what it means to be church in their lives and ministries. Abram’s humility in the face of God is rewarded with God’s covenant and new christening as Abraham. Fostering humility in our culture of wealth and accolades is already difficult and countercultural, but even more so when we are committed to following Christ’s example. Who was made more humble than Jesus in his life? Though belief and trust in Jesus can conquer all, even death, it leads to conflict with the powers that be of this world. When speaking truth to power, Jesus himself was called a demon and forced to hide from being stoned as punishment for daring to speak up. While the consequences may not exactly be the same today, our responsibilities to God require giving freely of ourselves, our time, our love, and our means to those who most need it. Being church is a path of humility and self-gift that is made difficult by priorities that run counter to loving others, welcoming the stranger in our midst, and seeing the face of God in each other. As we soon enter into Holy Week, let us remember that to be church, we must be Christ unto others.