Well, I've finally been shamed into posting again. My absence is due to a myriad of reasons - a brief 'blogging-is-dead' phase, facebook sucking away my life, recent job changes, combined with having a Really Fun Person to hang out with at home. In truth, I enjoyed the silence. So much of life is filled with noise, and information that's up-to-the-second accurate. A lot of that stuff is Important, whereas most of what I blog about is Unimportant. Really, I've been doing you all a favour by giving you back the time you would have spent checking my blog.

Surprisingly, this post isn't due to certain folks insinuating that I haven't posted since 1999 (as if the interWeb existed then). Nor is it due to my amazing husband (see Really Fun Person above) posting a super-sweet entry about my sermon at WBB this morning. It's just about that sermon. Period.

If I said anything of worth this morning it truely was through Christ alone - 7:30am is much to early for thinky type thoughts, let alone thoughts on Romans 15:14-33. But one thing that did strike me this week was Paul's word usage. In v. 26, Paul notes that the Macedonian and Achian Gentiles have made a for the poor Christian Jews in Jerusalem. But the word Paul uses to describe the 'contribution' is koinonia, a word which is more often rendered to mean 'fellowship' than it is to mean 'contribution'. (See Acts 2:42 for example.) Furthermore, the Jerusalem Jews were struggling with the integration of the Gentiles into their religion, combined with their mistrust of Paul due to rumors that he was luring Jews away from their customs. At yet, Paul tells us, the Gentiles were pleased to give both their material blessings and their fellowship to the Jerusalem Jews.

As Andrew mentioned, I think this sheds light on the duty / joy that authentic Christian communities have to give, to share, and to love.