 |
||
|
|
||
|
LEADERSHIP LETTER ARCHIVES
A
MONTHLY READING FOR ALL ARC LEADERS
COMMUNITY
Community is inherent in the nature of the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is also the matrix and vital core of human life. Nowhere more than in the church are we called to live a life in community because we are members one of another having been given gifts with the express purpose of building one another up in Christ.
We reject the practices of our individualistic culture which breed isolation and alienation. We seek to live in community and with one another in our churches in as many practical ways as possible, living with and near each other, and sharing both the joys and hardships that life brings to us.
--ARC Common Concerns
I'm quite a latecomer to the whole Tolkien scene. My son Eric (now 16) read the trilogy during the first week of our summer vacation 8 years ago. I asked how he liked it. He could hardly answer me with any sense of proportion. (Dad, this is so, like, awesome. . . it's so, you know, awesome. . .it's . . . .") During the 2nd week of vacation I saw him reading the "The Fellowship of the Ring" (vol. 1 of the trilogy) again. I was surprised. He was surprised that I was so surprised and frankly shocked that I had only read vol. 2 ("The Two Towers") and dismissed it as fantasy froth. It had been assigned to me in my junior year of college in a course on Medieval Literature. Though written in the 20th century, my prof felt this was a good example of that era's style. Why did she start us in volume 2? I don't know, but it didn't matter—I disliked it regardless.
So when the movies arrived a few years ago, I went with the family and was mildly entertained by the first and fell asleep during the second. Really. But my kids had bamboozled me into the opening night show which started at midnight and with most of the folk dressed like hobbits, elves and orcs. I wore Dockers and a crew neck sweater. Then I went to "The Two Towers" again, stayed awake, and liked it. In fact, it really got to me. In the ensuing months I read "The Return of the King" (vol. 3) to my family after dinner. And I was caught. Mr. Tolkien's writing and depth of insight into the human condition were riveting. Sometimes, upon finishing a particular paragraph, I would look up and say to my wife, in particular, "That was one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever read," until the rest chided me on to "Keep reading!"
Which brings me to this piece on community. I did keep reading and arrived at the point where Frodo and Sam are struggling up Mount Doom. Frodo is utterly spent and Sam carries him to the top. I cried. The movie made a fair showing on that scene but it was just a bit too rah-rah. Tolkien got to the heart of it—Sam was deeply committed to this fellow hobbit and to this mission and leaned into this crisis with his best effort despite his own exhaustion & fear. Wonderful.
We are not called to community because it's the best way to live or because it moves the mission of God ahead properly. Both statements are true but derivative of a larger truth. We are called to community because it is the very nature of God as Trinity and that one feature of God's identity is utterly determinative to our own. Our brother Paul gets after this with the Ephesians in 4:1-16. He calls them to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called" (4:1), tells them what dispositions should mark that walk (4:2), and enjoins them to an "eager. . .unity" (4:3). And in 4:4-6 he grounds his exhortation in the Triune God and the oneness that proceeds out of Him: "one Spirit. . . one Lord. . . one God and Father" (4:4-6). At every juncture where that "One" is compromised, we lose, we are weakened, we get confused, we die a little. How could it be that God would design us any other way? We were made by God, for God, to deeply enjoy Him and glorify Him by our worship, obedience, love for one another and passionate commitment to finish the work to which He has so graciously enjoined us. We are found wanting in our worship when our devotion to community is weak. We are deceived on this point and I think increasingly more U.S. Christians are drifting into this danger zone. Many live on the periphery of church bodies like they were religious buffets, gentle offerings to only take what you like and feel ready for. And, especially, if you've ever encountered any wounds in a church, well, then, you are exempt from ever getting close again. I don't think too many marriages would exist today if "getting hurt" or "feeling personally stressed by another" or "I just feel too burned in this relationship" were acceptable criteria for dissolution. And of course our culture of divorce and co-habitation emotionally supports this broken trajectory.
I recommend Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, "Life Together." The first chapter is worth more than you'll pay for the book. He jumps on the notion of creating community as your "wish-dream," some ideal even deeply supported by Scripture references that falls prey to the error of beginning with your own best intentions rather than submitting to the givenness of community—the fact that it is in Him and can only be fruitfully engaged by accepting Him and it (community) as one piece. There are, of course, multiple problems that we face but none of them are in God and none of them begin with Him. He is as He is and He is not changing. We must change and that change will produce suffering of a peculiar kind as we embrace community more explicitly. But we will suffer either way. One is a suffering unto life because it is impelled by faith and the other is a suffering unto death because it is driven by fear or self protection or the incredible pride that afflicts us all and tempts us to believe that we can live by our best instincts. This is the sad testimony of the American church and this is what we must decidedly reject.
In John 15 Jesus talked about what it would take to abide in Him, apart from which we'd be completely paralyzed and with which we would enter into His joy and find all of our joy. He said two things that were crucial – letting His Word stay in us and have its way and obeying His commandments. But then He lowers the boom—He isolates only one commandment—"Love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:13). Think about it. Work backwards in these verses. Is He saying that if we're not aimed and committed to working out a life of love together that we are proportionately disobedient and unabiding and probably largely deceived and playing at spirituality? Yes. He's saying that. And much more.
Jesus didn’t die and rise and ascend so that our lives could be a bit more comfortable. He has invited us into His life, His people and His mission. It's not my life lived with the people I want to be with most, doing the things that neatly fit into my busy schedule. Whatever that is, it is not Christianity and not worthy of the calling we've been given.
A few days ago I walked through a room where 120 teens at the ARC-DTS were watching "The Return of the King." I was busy, I had too much work to do and I vowed to watch just a bit. But then I wanted to see, you know, that next part that's so good. And finally I got honest and knew I had to see Sam carry Frodo again. And he did and I heard God talk to my poor heart again and tell me to go this way, that His calling is this way, that this is the worthy way despite all of the trials and sufferings and that this is truly the path of joy that is rooted in His own nature and becomes ours as we obey.
Ned
|
||
 |
||
