It is common for Christians to conclude their prayers with the phrase “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What we have often failed to recognize is that this is not just a phrase to signal that we are finishing our prayers but a living covenant. The church is God’s upside down community in which the first are to be last and the last first. The laity, who often consider themselves of lesser quality in faith than the clergy, are a key to the revealing Word of God in the congregation. (Matthew 11:25-27)
Each of us is essential to each other in listening to Jesus Christ as our Lord. Therefore as we worship, study Scripture, eat, conflict, laugh and make decisions together, we are continually to listen to ourselves being addressed by this one head. It is not as individuals but as a body that we most clearly hear what Christ is saying to us. The process of revelation is not complete until it is expressed in some way that is heard by others in the faith. The central purpose of the church is to be obedient to a living Lord who continually addresses us in the context of the Body of Christ.
We are involved in a continuing task of exegeting or interpreting both Scripture and the life of the congregation. To exegete a congregation we need to be sensitive to the patterns of how God operates. We need to explore together the characteristics of God’s incarnating the Word in Christ and in Scripture and allow that to be a road map for how God incarnates the Word in the continuing Body of Christ.
To exegete a congregation we need to look for Biblical stories that open up our story. For example, a congregation that is experiencing a decline in membership and wondering if they have the resources to support a mission might reflect on the story in Judges 7 of God continuing to reduce the number of soldiers with which God would have them fight the enemy so that when they won the victory, they would know that it was God and not they who had secured the victory. Then the congregation should ask themselves whether in their declining numbers God is preparing them for a great victory.
