The repair shop
Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. (verses 17-19)
In the middle of the shopping mall was a small booth. Across the top were the words ‘The Repair Shop’. Inside, a repairman worked at a counter. He seemed to specialise in electrical goods. People brought their broken appliances, ones with faulty connections, and he restored them to working order.
A similar name could be applied to a local church. Churches are like repair shops. They are places where broken people can come to be repaired. Their major problem is that they have faulty connections. They are not plugged into God properly, and this causes them to have fractured relationships with other people.
When you belong to a church, it’s because you have personally experienced a repaired relationship with God, and this has made it possible for you to reconnect in positive ways to others. Your main job now is to help others experience restored relationships, first with God and then with other people.
Lord, thank you for repairing my relationship with you and showing me how to relate to others. Help me to be a repairer myself, helping to do the same for others. Amen.
by Richard Hauser, in ‘Refreshment for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2003)
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