The most central image for church goes right to the heart of our identity, it’s that we are family; brothers and sisters in Christ; sharing the one heavenly Father.
In his book The Four Loves, CS Lewis shares a beautiful meditation on his friends [Charles Williams] death in an essay entitled ‘Friendship.’
In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s [Tolkien’s] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him “to myself” now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald . . . In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious “nearness by resemblance” to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying “Holy, Holy, Holy” to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.
Lewis is saying that it takes a community to know an individual!
How much more is this true of Jesus Christ? Christians commonly say they want a “relationship with Jesus”, that they want to “get to know Jesus better” but… We will never be able to do that by ourselves! “Only if you are part of a community of believers seeking to resemble, serve, and love Jesus will you ever get to know him and grow into his likeness”
(Tim Keller, The Prodigal God, pp. 126-127).
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