Where two or three are gathered

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Matthew 18:20

I came across a lovely passage this afternoon as I was finishing Sue Monk Kidd’s God’s Joyful Surprise.

In light of today’s Friday’s Five Five about small groups, it is an especially delightful find, another example indeed of God’s joyful surprises. So I share it with you now, as part of our own spontaneous community at this very moment.

One way we can nourish community in our lives is by gathering together with a small group in order to share our spiritual journeys. The promise of God’s presence in community is in these words of Jesus, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Commenting on this verse, Bruce Larson wrote:

I don’t happen to think this means that the Risen Christ has promised to be quantitatively more present with two or three people than with one—or that He is present in a special way.

But I am convinced He means that if I choose to live out my Christian life alone, there are great limitations to what God can say or do or be in my life.

. . . But if I have chosen to be accountable to a few people, to meet with them and to talk about life as I see God unfolding it to me, then God has a chance to hold up a mirror and show me who I am.