PEOPLE OF GOD

Yesterday we celebrated Laity Sunday in the church I serve. LAOS, the Greek word from which we derive the English word LAITY means "people of God." The people of God is used to describe an identity and a purpose. The people of God are people who acknowledge the saving grace of God in their lives. This doesn't mean that they are themselves special people, whose personal merit makes them God's people--but they understand that God intends to work in and through them in demonstrating His love in all of its fullness to the world. And that this identity is actually a gift that they receive when they place their faith (i.e. trust) in Him to guide and empower their lives.

The people of God in many ways are ordinary people. They are all ages, all ethnicities, all genders, all walks of life. What distinguishes them is that they understand that they have been blessed by God's gift of new life in order to be a blessing to others around them by connecting to that same new life in Christ. It is God's love personified in the people of God that is their purpose. They don't need to be preachers or priests in the popular sense of the word--but they are all priests in that they point people to God by their lives and give people access to God by their relationships.

The people of God are humble and yet bold, sincere and caring, truth-tellers and truth embodiers. They are people who take God and His work seriously because they understand God took their lives and their destiny seriously enough to send Christ to end their alienation from God and to reconcile them to Him, so that they might experience and exhibit the full measure of His love.