Is this communication?
I suppose on the one hand it is, at least to a certain extent. I write something and people respond–some in writing, others with a verbal comment. The fact that I appreciate the comments is not lost on me. When someone responds to a blog I have posted, it lets me know someone is listening; that this is not so much my diary or my personal journal as some kind of conversation.
I know I appreciate the blogs I follow, and feel that reading them “keeps me in touch.” But I am also aware how much more important personal contact is.
It is interesting to me that when Martin Luther writes about the Word of God, he tries to make it most clear that Jesus Christ is the Word. In fact, he is “the Word made flesh.” Think what a difference it makes that God became a human being, “one of us” interacting daily with his disciples as well as his “deniers,” sinners as well as “saints.”
I wonder if that’s why after Luther writes that the Bible is also the Word of God because it points us to Jesus (the Word made flesh), the reformer goes on to say that conversation that bears witness to Christ is also the Word. That means preaching, teaching, hymn singing, and liturgy, as well as any conversation or prayer that personally conveys or reflects the love of Christ for another is the Word.
It is as if just as the Word “by necessity” became flesh in Jesus, so for us contact, conversation, and communication with others “in the flesh” is also critical.
Maybe you like I feel that way about Sunday mornings. Or maybe you have come to know first hand, as have I, how meaningful and important it is when people “show up” for a funeral; or when outside the fours walls of the sanctuary someone gives us of their time and energy in the gift of their actual (real) presence.
I’m appreciating the blog–I hope you are too. And I am aware that our Lord offers us, and calls us with each other to share, even more.