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The
Lightstand Magazine
1985
• September • Reflections on the way
by Bro. Robin Lamplough
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What
a wonderful thing it is to belong to an ecclesia. Yet often
membership is something we take for granted or even find a
burden. Only those, one suspects, who have languished for
a season in isolation fully appreciate the joys of fellowship
which most of us accept without giving the matter much thought.
FROM THE BEGINNING It was a divine dictum from the beginning
that "It is not good that man should be alone."
(Gen. 2.18). And just as in his domestic arrangements man
needs to be provided with "an help meet for him",
so there is a need also for a wider family to assist and to
be assisted from time to time. This is the principle recognized
by the Preacher when he observes: "Two are better than
one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For
if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to
him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another
to help him up." (Eccles 4v9 & 10) The Preacher goes
on to note the benefits of mutual comfort and combined resistance
to threat, all advantages which accrue to the brother or sister
in the ecclesia.
In a very real sense the ecclesia is merely an extension of
the family. And, as membership of a family group brings both
benefits and responsibilities, so too does membership of an
ecclesia. If one of the problems of living alone is loneliness,
another of equal importance is selfishness.
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For
both life in a community may provide the antidote. Just as a solitary
person may tend to become self-centred and to lose perspective,
so may a family which keeps itself to itself and is isolated from
the larger family group. The ecclesia and its activities can provide
a healthy counter to these tendencies. Living with other people
is one of the most valuable educative experiences available to anyone.
It does not come naturally. It has to be learned. And if we hope
to live for ever in the Kingdom of God we have to learn to live
together now.
A SENSE OF FELLOWSHIP But an ecclesia can provide this educational
benefit only if it is a real ecclesia: that is to say, if its members
have a true sense of brotherhood and fellowship. If we are simply
people who "go to the same church", in the world's phrase,
then we will not even comprehend, let alone be able to contribute
to, the fellowship which properly belongs to ecclesial membership.
Meeting only once a week at the breaking of bread is no basis for
such fellowship, Meeting regularly three times a week helps but
even that is not by itself enough. Only when the members of an ecclesia
get to know each other as people, with hopes and fears, problems
and aspirations, which they are able to share and to examine in
the light of the Word of God, does a true spirit of fellowship develop.
And in the process of that sharing we develop also spiritual maturity,
as we must if we are to enter the Kingdom.
R.L.
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