Hold It Together

It's a common enough accusation against people of faith, that we are "so heavenly minded, we are of no earthly good."  Well, anyway, that's one admonition. Christian folks make everything so spiritual that they don't evidence a lick of common sense.

There's another admonition, like it, only in reverse.  That Christians have emptied their faith of the mysterious and supernatural, opting instead for a religion of doing the best we can by one another, hoping it's good enough and then trying again but harder next week.  So earthly minded, you might say, that these Christians are up to no heavenly good.

The Heidelberg Catechism is constructed such that the very first question might disabuse us of both false notions.

Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A: My only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own but belong -- body & soul, in life & in death -- to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ ...

In this way, we know from the start that we are a people called to hold it together.  This life and the next.  The physical and the spiritual.  Our Christian confession constrains us to life eternal AND life abundant, to souls attuned to God AND bodies committed to the outworking of faith.  Discipleship is not either/or.  Discipleship is both/and.  Just hold it together!!