Psalm 133:1
For all who are curious about Christian community, I will use excerpts from a theologian who created a Christian seminary to experiment with a community far different from the community surrounding them under the Nazi regime prior to World War II. His name was Deitrich Bonhoeffer. After his seminary was disbanded by the Gestapo in 1937, Bonhoeffer wrote Life Together about the experiment. I commend this book to everyone.
So, why do we Christians gather on Sunday and through the week? First, our gathering is a gift we enjoy from God. As Bonhoeffer states, "It is by God's grace that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly around God's word and sacrament in this world. Not all Christians have a share in this grace." For this grace we are grateful and we are keenly aware of those Christians who are not allowed to gather for many reasons around the world. We pray for them, struggling on in their isolation. Bonhoeffer adds, "Therefore, the believer praises the Creator, the Reconciler, and the Redeemer God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the bodily presence of the other Christian."
The community we create when we come together is a community headed by Jesus Christ. As Bonhoeffer states, "Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. ... Everything the scriptures [The Bible is the foundation of our belief] provide in the way of directions and rules for Christians' life together rests on this presupposition..." Bonhoeffer expalins a benefit of centering our community on Jesus, "The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it."
Here's what happens when we follow Jesus closely. Bonhoeffer states, "The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more everything else between us will recede, and the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is alive between us."
We live in community to support one another through our often difficult lives. God promises no one that life will be an easy going affair full of success and wealth. On the contrary, Jesus asks us to take up our own crosses (our own burdens and sacrifices for others just as Jesus did) and follow Him. One of the great things Christian community reminds us of is the practice of gratitude for all God has given us, including Christian community. Bonhoeffer provides a great argument for being grateful every day, "Only those who give thanks for little things receive the greater things as well. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts prepared for us because we do not give thanks for daily gifts." We work to remind each other of this important truth.
In this community we listen to each other's stories as God listens to ours, we help each other in little things and big things in our lives together, we bear each other when we sin against each other as God bears with us and we know others bear each of us as well and this keeps us humble. We pray for one another because, once again, life is hard and we want to help each other along the journey. We also pray for those who are not our friends, even those who wish us harm, because we believe in the power of prayer and because those you pray for long and honestly you soon discover you cannot hate.
We break bread together a lot and we are often joyful when we do so. Bonhoeffer explains this well when he states, "God will not tolerate the unfestive, joyless manner in which we eat our bread with sighs and groans, with pompous, self-important busyness or even with shame. Through the daily meal God is calling us to rejoice, to celebrate in the midst of our working day." See that, God can even bring us joy while taking us down a notch when we try to get all pompous and full of ourselves!
The best meal we share with each other is the Lord's Supper. This reminds us of Jesus' sacrifice for everyone and when we break bread together in this most important of meals we are honoring Jesus, who instructed us to do this. Here's what Bonhoeffer says is so significant about this meal, "The community of the holy Lord's Supper is above all the fulfillment of Christian community. Just as the members of the congregation are united in body and blood at the table of the Lord, so they will be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal."
We think this community of God is wonderful and we are excited to share it with everyone, just as Jesus shared Himself with everyone and was willing to die for everyone who will ever live and for their sake. And so we try to share this good life and good news with others. Sometimes we do it well and sometimes we don't ... we are very human. Still, Bonhoeffer has something to say about that too [no great surprise there], "Spiritual love [the love for God that develops in Christians as they learn what God has done for us all, a love that wants to be extended to everyone] will prove successful insofar as it commends Christ to others in all that it says and does. It will not seek to agitate others by exerting all too personal, direct influence or by crudely interfering in their lives. ... it will encounter others with the clear word of God and be prepared to leave them alone with this word for a long time, willing to release them again so that Christ may deal with them. ... [spiritual love] will find full community with them in the Christ who alone binds us together..."
That's why I have written this today, out of spiritual love, and out of that love I invite you to join the Christian community. Come and gather with us on Sunday. See what our community is all about. If you are close to Exton, Exton Community Baptist Church's doors are open to you. You are most welcome. We hope to see you soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment