Shall We Gather

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42-47

Here is some good Sunday wisdom from Bonhoeffer:

It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in the heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing. The remember, as the Psalmist did, how they went “with the multitude…to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday” (Psalm 42:4). But they remain alone in far countries, a scattered seed according to God’s will. Yet what is denied them as an actual experience they seize upon more fervently in faith…The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer…if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!

(From Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1938)