Life Together, Ch. 1: Community Through Christ and In Christ

 

Observation: One of the most important themes in Life Together shows up only a few pages into chapter one. Christian community only happens through and in Christ. A shorthand for this concept is "mediated relationships." In any relationship between Christians, or between a Christian and others, Christ is the "mediator," the one connecting us. "In him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). Human love and community on its own, for its own sake, quickly becomes possessive and self-serving. Through Christ, we can connect with one another as God intends.

Application: This hits home hard for me today. The irony is, at least for me, it's easiest to be aware of Christ as mediator in my relationships--as the one who connects me and my family, me and my church, me and my friends and neighbors--when the stress level is low. In a vacation, party, or retreat setting, where spending time together is the whole point, you can see Jesus everywhere. But on a day like today, which feels like one last all-out sprint through an obstacle course to the end of another VERY eventful school year, when I'm an hour late in blogging because I made (hopefully) one last unscheduled trip to my daughter's school, Jesus is still there, but he's harder to see. When I really need him to keep me connected to God, to my family, and to the world, he often does so unnoticed and without any gratitude on my part. Yet he still does it for free. I saw a church sign on my little detour that said, "The price of God's grace has not changed. It's still free." The same is true of Christian community. Thanks be to God. 

Prayer: Jesus, thanks for keeping me connected to others. Forgive me for taking your work for granted. Amen.   

From Bonhoeffer's "Life Together": Taking the Temperature of Community

"Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be  constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature." Life Together, ch. 1

This summer, I plan to share some insights from reading a classic text of Christian spirituality, which I'm reading together with my discipleship huddle: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together. 

Observation: This paragraph reminds me of the saying, "a watched pot never boils." Whether we're looking at our own spiritual growth or the spiritual harmony and closeness of a Christian community, it's death to overanalyze it. I appreciate Bonhoeffer's metaphor of "constantly taking the temperature" of a Christian community. You won't have time for that if your community, like his, is focused on doing whatever loving task is in front of them, large or small.

Application: Bonhoeffer's words convict me, as I'm sure they have convicted many other faith leaders in the decades since this book first was written. Pastors by nature are hand-wringers and temperature-takers. We thrive on surveys and input and metrics because we feel personally responsible for the quality of Christian community that people experience in our congregations. The challenge for me in this text is to take a step back, and remember that I'm not the one responsible for a church being what it needs to be: that's God. And the invitation is to rejoice in the knowledge that what may appear weak and trifling to me may be great and glorious to God. 

Prayer: Holy Spirit, take your place as rightful leader of our community. Help us take a break from taking our temperature, and just start doing things healthy churches do. Amen.