{"id":5323,"date":"2026-03-27T08:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5323"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T12:46:08","slug":"the-communion-of-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/the-communion-of-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"The Communion of Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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The late Joyce Landorf authored 27 books on a variety of subjects related to the Christ-following life.
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In Balcony People<\/em>, she made a case that our lives are routinely impacted by people who aren\u2019t actually present.
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These individuals \u2013 some of whom are still in this world, others who are long gone \u2013 reside in the \u201cbalcony\u201d of our consciousness. They\u2019re cheering us on.\u00a0And we can just make out their faces.
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There\u2019s your third-grade teacher.\u00a0The coach who wouldn\u2019t allow you to quit.\u00a0Your grandmother.\u00a0The boss who gave you your first big break.\u00a0
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\u201cCome on.\u00a0You can do this.\u00a0Don\u2019t stop now.\u00a0I believe in you.<\/em>\u201d Imagining those voices fills the heart with courage.
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Landorf also suggests that we are regularly besieged by a second group of individuals \u2013 our Basement People.
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Over the years, we have pushed some of our darkest memories and most forgettable conversations \u201cdownstairs\u201d into our emotional basements \u2013 a realm that feels subterranean.\u00a0That\u2019s where we hear the voices that are trying to discourage us, to prompt us to throw in the towel:
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\u201cYou\u2019re such a screw-up.\u00a0You\u2019ll never get it right.\u00a0You don\u2019t deserve a second chance.\u00a0Why aren\u2019t you more like your sister? Quit trying to be Mr. Perfect.\u201d
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In our lowest moments we\u2019re tempted to believe that the Basement People have always been right about us.
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Therefore, we all have a decision to make.\u00a0We must decide which voices are worth listening to.
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Here we arrive at yet another turn of phrase in the Apostles\u2019 Creed that becomes clearer with a word of explanation. Disciples of Jesus are called to believe not only in \u201cthe holy catholic Church,\u201d but in \u201cthe communion of saints.\u201d What does that mean?
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Think of \u201ccommunion\u201d as the \u201ccommon union\u201d or \u201ccommunity\u201d of those who trust Christ.
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This communion is multi-directional. Horizontally<\/em>, we\u2019re connected to the Christians who are living with us right now on planet earth, even though we will never meet the vast majority of them until the next world. Vertically<\/em>, we\u2019re spiritually bonded to all those who have gone before us and are now in the presence of the Lord.
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The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews celebrates a number of those predecessors in chapter 11, which is sometimes called the Hall of Fame of Faith.
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Then comes Hebrews 12:1, where the author declares, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”
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Many of us are going through life as if our personal security is safeguarded by the digital storage system known the Cloud \u2013 that unseen domain where all of our documents, emails, downloads, tax records, and family photos are dwelling in cyber bliss.\u00a0
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But if you trust Jesus, your security is actually grounded by an infinitely more significant \u201ccloud\u201d \u2013 the people who are cheering you on right now from the balcony of heaven.
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\u201cThe communion of saints\u201d is not meant to imply that those who have gone before us are watching our every move, looking in to see how their grandchildren are doing, or wondering if their favorite soccer team will one day win the World Cup. What evidence we have, biblically, is that those who have died \u201cin Christ\u201d are no longer bound by the passing of time but are absorbed by the joy of being in the presence of the God who has always loved them.
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One day we\u2019ll know more about the connections between this world and the next.
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For now, it\u2019s enough to affirm that the Holy Spirit knows just how to link us with that cloud of saints \u2013 to remind us of their voices, examples, and words of hope when we most need to keep moving forward at difficult moments.\u00a0\u00a0
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We must decide to become deaf to the voices we hear from the basement, even while straining our ears to hear every syllable of encouragement from the balcony.
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And then we have a second decision to make.\u00a0
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Will we become someone who consistently restores the hearts of those nearby, choosing to speak our own words of hope and encouragement?\u00a0
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The Apostles\u2019 Creed is proof that from the very beginning of the Jesus Movement, his followers grasped that \u201cwe are not ourselves by ourselves.\u201d
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The communion of saints reflects the truth that we can never be ultimately separated from our sisters and brothers in Christ \u2013 not by space or time, not by geography or chronology.
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The Savior who unites us by his love and grace is bigger than any such limitations.
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Which means the Reunion that awaits us in the next world is going to be a party like no other.


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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0The late Joyce Landorf authored 27 books on a variety of subjects related to the Christ-following life.\u00a0In Balcony People, she made a case that… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,79,36],"class_list":["post-5323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-encouragement","tag-heaven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5325,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5323\/revisions\/5325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}