We don't gather for church. We gather as the church. That may seem like playing with words, but it makes a significant difference. Its the small words that usually make the biggest difference.

There are a lot of phrases in God's word that seem foreign or hard and at the top of my list is a phrase that seems simple at first: "One another." Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph. 4:32) Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thess. 5:1) Then read through Romans 12. It's saturated with one anothering.

Understanding it isn't the foreign part. Living it is.

There is an assumption in the text that our very middle class, individualistically-minded lives might miss: the people who are the Church were to be together. I mean together together. One heart and one soul...even when not in one place.

Now, being together in person is hard (and, maybe, unwise) right now, but one anothering transcends place and time. Don't read into "one another" that it is when we go to the church building together. To do so misses the point. This is why it is foreign and hard: all the one anotherings are the joyful overflow of our hearts that cannot be limited to a time and place.

In Jesus, we are connected to one another. Like family, but more than family. One heart and one soul...even if we don't fully understand it.

Those kinds of relationships are what we were made for. This is the kind of community that the Spirit is creating in us. This is God bringing his kingdom.