Lynda Switzer: Two or Three Gathered in His Name

I marvel at the many examples in nature that God gives us every day that beautifully illustrate foundational truths in Scripture. Recently we enjoyed a few days of R and R at a condo beside a peaceful, Pennsylvania lake. Throughout the week we had many opportunities to observe the community of ducks that made the lake their home. In the morning, I’d take my Bible and sit out on our little porch. Each day my meditation was punctuated with new illustrations from the duck families.

The ducks almost always swam together. One would lead the flock, but then another would move forward and the community would follow. When the babies swam by, they were always accompanied by one or more full-grown ducks. There was a 15-20 feet dam just down the lake from where we were staying. The ducks would swim right up to the edge of the dam and many would situate their webbed feet so they could sit on the very edge of the dam with the water flowing under them over the dam. I watched as some of the ducks struggled two or three times before they securely steadied themselves on the edge of the dam. Those ducks who had previously secured their position at the dam’s edge, looked and quacked like they were encouraging others attempting the feat. After a sudden downpour, the duck community in front of our condo was greatly multiplied; they were very excitedly quacking their communications to one another. Once or twice we watched many of the flock flap their wings and “do a low fly over” the glistening surface of the lake. Only occasionally one would swim by all by himself, but he seemed out of sorts and in a hurry to find the rest of the flock.

Reflecting on the duck community, I see many examples that relate to Christians in community. In the Old Testament, God called forth one man, Abram, and his family to make a great nation that He chose to bless and to make that nation a blessing to all the nations. Years later, the children of Israel moved as a community into slavery in Egypt. Then, in community Moses led them out of the Egyptian tyranny. God established the Biblical feasts to bring the Hebrew community together to worship Him at various times through the year. Many of the Psalms express David’s heart of praise calling the people of God to “let us exalt His name together.”

Jesus said in Matthew 18:19, 20, “I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” Jesus encourages us to meet in community, to pray in community, to ask and believe in community for the purposes that are upon His heart. He sent out the disciples two by two. He shared with the Twelve the intimacies of His heavenly Father’s heart. One hundred and twenty prayed and waited upon the Lord in the Upper Room and God’s Spirit empowered them to preach His Word. They rejoiced and praised our living Lord in the refreshing rain of the Spirit in a much greater exuberance than the community of ducks who seemed so excited and refreshed after the sudden downpour of rain.

The I Peter 2 passage that encourages us “like newborn babies to crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it we may grow up in our salvation,” a few verses later teaches us that we “also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.” Like the baby ducklings who were accompanied by mature ducks, God’s heart is that as new believers come into the Body, He’ll use us to help build them into His living Body as together we become His holy priesthood. Even as the ducks seemed to share leadership in the flock, God chooses to use one and then another of us to lovingly “priest” and care for each other as we flow in the Spirit in the community of believers.

Like those ducks who struggled to steady their webbed feat at the edge of the dam, often we face spiritual feats – huge mountains, dark valleys - and we’re not sure whether we can make it. In those moments, our Christian brothers and sisters who come alongside us in community offer words of hope - that we can make it - that God is mightily at work in us; He’ll never forsake us. They strengthen our faith in El Shaddai – our God who is more than enough for every situation we face.

And then there’s that one lonely duck that was furiously swimming by himself and looking so eager to get somewhere and find somebody. Sometimes the hurts, pains, and persecutions of the Gospel and of our own flesh can get to us if we’re not careful. We try to tiptoe around forgiveness issues with those within and without the Body of Christ, and the thoughts begin to flood our souls – we’ll just “go it alone. We don’t need anybody else to worship God.”

True, God speaks to individuals and comes and ministers to us when our whole being would just like to isolate like He ministered to Elijah at Horeb, with the baked bread over the hot coals, the jar of water, the touch from the angel of the Lord, and the cave. Yes, the Word of the Lord came – not in the powerful wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in a gentle whisper, and asked Elijah what he was doing. However, God reminded him that He had reserved seven thousand in Israel whose knees had not bowed down to Baal. Yes, the Word of the Lord reminded Elijah of the community of faithful God-worshipers.

Years ago the Lord ministered to me a consecration about which He often reminds me. In those moments when I’d just like to isolate, go bury my head in a pillow and forsake the assembling together with my brothers and sisters, my faithful, heavenly Father mercifully corrects me and lovingly prods me to get up, get dressed, and get to that meeting with my Christian brothers and sisters. For He teaches me by His Spirit that in those times when I might choose in my flesh to isolate that He has a such a powerful, specific blessing and spiritual encouragement for me with the saints. He also has brothers and sisters waiting with whom He wants me to pray and be encouraged concerning His purpose and destiny for me that day.

In a day and time when many in Christ’s Body appear to throw church and community meetings aside as “irrelevant,” it is increasingly paramount for us to come together in passionate worship; to faithfully share His Word with one another; to pray in faith with our brothers and sisters in the Lord and to feast at the table of His Word. Our gatherings are strategic times to invite the lonely and disheartened to “come, let us go up to the house of the Lord where together God will teach us of His ways.” Then His Word will come forth in our lives – His living Word that we can carry forth to a world that is starving of soul and spirit for true, Biblical community.