Why Take of The Holy Communion?

A true story told by Fr. Luka Sidarous in his book, One of the monks told me this story:They brought to the monastery a man who was possessed by the devil. The devil would torment and torture him. After the vespers prayer they brought him in and told the father that he did not drink for two days. So they brought him water and the priest did the sign of the cross on the water and gave it to him. The man took the jug of water and threw it away and broke it. This happened twice. Finally the father gave him the jug without doing the sign of the cross and he proceeded to drink. The father was now sure that this man was possessed (because the devil is terrified of the Holy Cross that conquered him on the day of our Christ's Crucifixion). The father asked the devil with authority, "how did you dare to inhabit this man and he is Christian? do you have any authority on him?"The devil replied and said, "because he does not have communion.""Since when?""More than forty days.""So you know the cannon of the church?""Yes I do.""What about the non-Christians?""Them, I enter from the day they are born." Fr. Luka comments, "It is to this extent that the devil knows our points of weakness, and he knows the strength and protection we get from the Holy Mysteries... and he fears greatly the 'sign of salvation' that is the pride of all Christians (the Holy Cross)." source: http://www.mycopticchurch.com/articles/read.asp?f=nonfiction/WhyTakeCommunion.html

ORTHODOX PRAYER LIFE : The Interior Way An Introduction

by Fr. Matta El- Meskeen

The World now thirsts to see living faith in the person of Jesus Christ; So many books tell about Christ; So many preachers speak about Christ; but so few people Live and speak with Christ. The Church cannot live on principles of faith to be studied. Faith in Christ is not a theory. It is a power that changes lives. Everyone in Christ should have this power. One must be able to change one’s own life and renew it through the power of Christ. But our faith in Christ will ever remain powerless until we meet him face to face within ourselves. In all patience, long-suffering, and courage, we must bear the shame that will cover us when our souls are stripped naked before God’s pure and searching eyes. It is only then that we will emerge with an authentic spiritual experience and renewal for our souls. We will then gain a true knowledge and awareness of the holiness and kindness of Christ. Every meeting with Christ is a prayer for renewal. Every prayer is an experience of faith. Every experience of faith is eternal life. But that does not mean facts of faith, doctrine or theology can be shaped or changed according to man’s inward experience. The facts of faith are as firmly established as is God Himself. However, our experience only intensifies their clarity and throws them into sharper relief, for God is truly revealed in His saints. Thus we know God, and always will now Him only in proportion to the experience of His saints, those who fear Him through out the ages. There is still another fact we cannot ignore. Although the saints’ experiences of faith shed its light on the way of knowledge before us, it can by no means supply us with living faith without a special witness springing from the depths of our own experiences and lives. Christ must belong to each of us as he belongs to every saint, since he died for each of us individually. Christ has granted us not only to know Him and believe in Him, but also to live in Him. He gave us the Holy Spirit not only to teach us, but also to dwell within us, remold us, and renew our minds. The Holy Spirit takes every day what is Christ’s and gives it to us. Life in Christ then, is action, experience, renewal, and ceaseless growth in the Spirit. But all this growth, and action, which supposedly take place in the individual man, should be identical with the general experience of the whole Church. It must never go beyond the fixed and prescribed boundaries of the Church doctrines. Christ calls upon us to pray before God. He persists in asking us to pray and not lose heart, to pray with persistence and passion. This call points to the source from which we receive the prayer for conversion, renewal, and growth. This is how Christ explains the need for prayer. For through prayer, we gain something that cannot be gained otherwise. This “thing” that can only be granted by prayer belongs to God: “ How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13) Prayer is spiritual contact with God. God’s purpose in urging us to pray without growing weary is that prayer progressively brings about an essential day by day change in us. Prayer must be made with constant zeal in order that we should be changed into something higher than our nature. This is actually realized in us when we feel that we have become something more than ourselves. And this is what summons us to more pleading and urgency until our prayer is answered. For through prayer, we receive what we donot basically deserve. For this reason, we have to realize that prayer is an essential action through which conversion, renewal, and growth of one’s soul takes place. This is brought about by God while man remains unconscious of the change. Neither bliss, nor interior peace, nor a feeling that prayer is answered, nor any other feeling is equal to the hidden action of the Holy Spirit in one’s soul. Such action qualifies the soul for eternal life. Prayer is the most powerful effective spiritual work and has it’s own spontaneous reward without evidence of feelings. Prayer could not have an end or an aim higher than itself. It is the highest aim of the highest work. Prayer is opening oneself towards the effective, invincible, and invincible and imperceptible power of God. Man can never leave the presence of God without being transformed and renewed in his being, for this is what Christ has promised. However, such transformation will not be in the form of a sudden leap. It will take its time and course as an imperceptible but meticulous build up. Whoever persists in surrendering himself to God by praying without growing weary receives in the end more than he desired. He even receives more than he deserves. Every one who lives by prayer in the end gathers and gains for himself an immense trust in God, so powerful and so certain that it can almost be seen and touched. His soul becomes imbued with God through and through, even to its very depths. Man thus perceives God in a most vivid way. He feels as though his soul has become greater and stronger. Neither ignoring his own weakness nor forgetting his shortcomings, be become sure of the existence of another being higher than his temporal one. This sure feeling of the existence of God and of his power broadens the scope of the soul’s perception of divine realities. It also widens its power of discernment and vision. It also widens it’s power of discernment and vision. Thus the soul witness within itself a new birth, a new horizon, and a new world. This is its beloved world, the world of Jesus. God, not one’s own sense of ego, is the source of this world. Man comes to lay hold of this knowledge, not through of his own mind, but through the will of the Holy Spirit, without any intervention of human will, effort, or worldly wisdom. When the soul ascends to the world of true light, which is within its own self, it begins to feel in harmony with God through constant prayer. It then loses all dichotomy as well as doubt and anxiety when truth pervades all its feelings and movements. Its past and present experiences are melted in the fire of divine love. This excludes all prejudices and fear of the self, as well as the flaws of selfishness and doubt. It leaves no feelings in the soul except total awareness of the sovereignty of the Spirit and absolute obedience to His will. +++ When Christ exhorts us to persevere in prayer to the Father in His name, he unveils to us His peculiar intercession as a mediator. From our union with Him in prayer, we receive a power that launches us into the sphere of the spirit, a sphere that transcends our potential, our powers of perception, our senses, and all our capabilities. Every prayer we offer to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ is a sort of spiritual force that gushes out of the heart of Christ and pours into our own. It bears with it the power of a holy life – invincible and imperceptible. This power pervades us and rests in the innermost recesses of our spirit. It lifts us up above ourselves until it brings us to the home of our Father. The secret behind the mediation of Christ in every prayer raised to the Father in His name lies in his intercession as a high priest and in his shedding his blood as an atoning sacrifice. This made him “able for all time to save those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb: 7.25) Christ commands us to pray and then guarantees the answer to our prayer. He thus hold us responsible and guilty if we donot pray and persevere until we receive the answer which pleases him. Prayer then becomes one of our most important and powerful activities, through which we may enter into direct communion with Christ, so that our pleas are immediately heard by God the Father. But the thing we should never allow to escape our minds is that, ultimately, prayer has no purpose other than to glorify God. It is also to have a taste of his mercy, faithfulness, and the wonderful truthfulness of all his promises. When we are praying, we must therefore examine ourselves and see whether the ultimate aim of our prayer is the revelation of God’s glory alone. Under this glorious aim are listed, in the first place, all the prayers of intercession that the Church raises for weary, sick, or lost souls. The Church has prescribed these prayers as a general duty for all its members without exception. At every ‘ oushia’ (Coptic word for “collect”), the deacon cries out amidst the Church for every one to raise his prayers and supplication for the salvation of every soul. This presumes the whole Church, through the presence of Christ, has become “a kingdom and priests to his God and father” (Rev 1.6). Every individual is thus obliged to intercede and supplicate for those near and far off. This is a duty, not an option. The experience of prayer is not delight, nor power, nor tangible gain. To reach maturity under God’s hand, man has to undergo countless stages of purifying and discipline. God puts to death to bring back to life; he breaks to bind up, wounds to heal, smites to embrace, and banishes to restore to his bosom. To all God’s elect, there is no escaping His rod. To all those who love him, there is no alternative to the bitterness of abandonment and the gall of alienation. God’s children must suffer for his fatherly anger and rebuke. He who enters into a covenant of prayer with the Father in the name of Christ has first to consign himself to “Chastisement Kindergarten”, then to “Suffering primary school”, then to “Higher institute of Affliction.” “ For it is fitting that he…. should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering” ( Heb 2.10). For it is impossible to share his glory without first sharing with him in his sufferings. But all who were made perfect in school of the Lord’s suffering have become mighty in faith: Who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight… Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill treated … wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth … all these [ were ] well – attested by their faith “ ( Heb 11:33 –39) And so every one who wishes to be made perfect in faith has to be first made perfect and purified by the Spirit. He has to undergo the various kinds of discipline to become fit to witness to faith in God amidst sufferings and tribulations, and before the fiercest threats of death. For as one’s sufferings bear witness to one’s worthiness of glory, so will God also bear witness: “ Come O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:34) Therefore, the experience of prayer is not only for the sake of him who prays, giving him renewal and growth, but is ultimately reflected on others as well. It gives them light: “Let your light so shine before men” (Mt 5:16) The value of prayer is thus transcendent and unlimited, overflowing from him who prays to all people. Its light extends beyond time, in proportion to the depth of experience, to give light to all generations and to bear witness to God in every country. People of prayer could only remedy the lack of testimony due to the shortcoming of professional preachers. This is done through the witness of their lives, the power of their faith, and the certainty of their hope. Likewise the effect of the sweeping flood of falsehood, injustice , and love of money with which the world is plagued cannot be effaced nor its sharpness blunted except by the existence of these men, women and young people. By their lives and prayers, they give new meaning to the world and a new hope to life. Such hope is renewed in proportion to the impressive testimony that they show by their renunciation of everything and total dedication of their lives to God and truth. The world is now in dire need of a living witness of faith issuing from a soul that has a true relationship with God. Such a witness outweighs and outshines a thousand books on doctrine, faith and prayer. As for the menace of nuclear weapons and their threat to destroy the world, we have no path to peace, security, or hope except through people of prayer. By means of the divine power stored like treasure within them, these people can create within us a transcendent vision of a world that evil cannot overcome. We have thus no choice but to enter the inner room of prayer, not to isolate ourselves from the perishing world, thus escaping destruction and saving ourselves, but to attack the destruction that is in the world and redeem it. For when we die to ourselves and to the world, the world lives and is renewed. Through bended knees not only can other souls be changed, but also the fate of the whole world. The soul that bears its cross is never attracted alone to Christ; without realizing, it attracts many after it: “ Draw me in your footsteps, we will run after thee” (Song 1.4). The human soul is by no means isolated from other souls. The arrival of any soul at the kingdom of God is a gain for the whole world in a mystical way. A trodden way is easy to walk along; and people of prayer are firm landmarks that shine along the way forever more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This introduction is by Fr. Matta El- Meskeen (Mathew the Poor) in 1967 to the second edition of his highly acclaimed book, “Orthodox Prayer life- The Interior Way “. Fr. Matta El- Meskeen is a monk and the spiritual father of 120 monks in the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of St. Macarius the Great in Egypt.. This article is reproduced for to benefit of Diaspora of Indian Orthodox Church with the hope that it will: 1.Remind ourselves to live continually through Prayer, Sacramental life in Church and cooperate to God’s grace. A commitment, that irrespective of whether we are in Kerala, within India or at any far corner of the world, we are to work together with the Church to reveal Christ bearing light to continue with the mission of Christ and Apostles as individuals and together as Church in India. 2. Realize that as Orthodox Christians, by Baptism and Chrismation, born again in the Church where the Holy Spirit dwells in it’s fullness, that we all are a Diaspora- those that are called from world, in the world and yet not of the World. A Diaspora – A chosen race set apart whose communion is with God, and whose every action as individuals and Church is to be for the Glory of the Triune the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May His grace abound on the Catholicate and each of us to be deified, worshipping Him in all truth to be transformed or rather deified as He will. Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen source: http://www.iods.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=24

Time to Unite (at least in Spirit)

Beloved, I hear almost daily from Churches like ours around the globe. We need to let each other know that we are in Solidarity with each other. Our church, which is traditional in practice and active in meeting social needs of the people around it. That keeps to the old calendar and yet practices rule by Synod or Council, instead of by an oligarchy or monarchial bishops. We need to let each other know, as Churches, that we exist and that we are supporting each other in our Dyptichs. The times are evil, the Church will not be overcome, but those of us standing in resistance to the trends of the world need to come to the support of each other. In Christ! +SYMEON

Mere Christian Community

– Steve Clark –

Essentially, community is a type of relationship, rather than a particular structure. People have a variety of notions of Christian community. Some people picture Christian community. Some people picture Christian community as 20 or 30 people living together in a large house or on a farm. Other people consider Christian community to be a group of Christians who pool their finances, putting their checkbooks and bank accounts into a common pot. Others think of community as a monastic community or religious order. But to be a Christian community, a group of people do not have to live in one building or handle all their money in a centralized way. These are possible forms of Christian community. They may be good for some Christians and inappropriate for others. Fundamentally, Christian community means a way that Christians can relate to one another. The Scriptures regard a community relationship of love, commitment, and interdependence among Christians as normative, not optional. I would like to examine three terms in the New Testament which communicate some of the scriptural vision of Christians' relationships with each other. These are terms used to describe Christians: the word brother; the word koinonia, usually translated "fellowship"; and the phrase the body of Christ. BROTHERS AND SISTERS The most common term for Christians in the New Testament is brothers. We might translate this "brothers and sisters in the Lord". Brothers was the term Christians used to refer to each other. The love Christians are to have for each other flows from this relationship and bears its special mark. "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart" (1 Pet. 1:22). "Let brotherly love continue", we read in Hebrews 13:1. A particular Greek word, philadelphia, is used in such places to mean "brotherly love". Scripture is talking about a special kind of love that exists among us because we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. But in our own culture and language we have lost much of the underlying scriptural concept of brothers and sisters. On the one hand, the words brother and sister refer to children of the same parents. On the other hand, the words are used to refer to some vague kinship among all men, as in the slogan "the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God". Not all brothers Scripture, of course, uses brother and sister to refer to children of the same parents. However, scripture never uses the term brother to refer to all mankind. It consistently uses brother precisely to describe situations in which there is a definite relationship among a group of people. In the New Testament, this relationship is the brotherhood of Christians; we are brothers and sisters because we are joined to one another in Christ. Non-Christians are "outsiders". For example, Paul writes, "Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time" (Col. 4:5). Scripture teaches that we should love and serve all men. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:44-45). We are to love our enemies because God loves them and because God wants Christians to be like him. But we are not told to love them because they are our brothers. IN THE EARLY CHURCH The early Christians understood that their faith gave them a distinctive identity which they shared with all other Christians. They saw their relationship as Christians as a relationship among members of a family; they were "born of the Spirit" (John 3:8) — the same spiritual blood flowed in them. Everything was affected by the early Christians' unity in Christ. Oneness with brothers and sisters in the Lord was more important than relationships with fellow countrymen, with members of the same social class, with political allies, even with members of the same family. This was the meaning of the rebuke which Jesus spoke when informed that his blood relatives had come to visit him (Matt. 12:48-50). THE JEWISH BACKGROUND The early Christians recognized one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Before them, the Jews also had understood themselves as brothers. Among the Jews, brother meant not only "blood brother", it also meant the relationship all Jews had with one another because they were member of the Jewish people. Jewish law spelled out the responsibilities of this relationship in some detail. Deuteronomy instructs the Jews: "At the end of every seven years...every creditor shall release what he has lent to...his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it; but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release". "You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be". "You shall not lend upon interest to your brother...To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest; that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake" (Deut. 15:1-3; 15:7-8; 23:19-20). The Jews of the old covenant understood that their relationship with each other was different from their relationship with all men. Their relationship as brothers and sisters was a relationship of full commitment. To be members of the same people meant that each person was responsible for the welfare of all others. (See also Lev. 19:18). The relationship was the same for the early Christians, and it should be the same among Christians today. But today, few of us experience a definite relationship with many other Christians. We may be close to a few Christians, but most are complete strangers to us, even those who attend and support the same church. TODAY, LIMITED COMMITMENTS While the early Christians made a total commitment to each other, our commitments are increasingly fragmented and limited. When another Christian gets into trouble or incurs a need, we expect him to seek help from friends, family or from a social welfare agency. Recently, I asked myself a simple question. "What would I have done if I had gotten into financial difficulty a few years ago, before the community I belong to began to understand what it means to be brothers and sisters? If I had a medical bill of several thousand dollars that I absolutely had to pay, and I had no money in the bank, whom would I have turned to?" I could never have asked other members of the parish for the money; probably they would have told me of a bank where I might get a loan, or of a welfare office where I could get public assistance. As for the men I was working with to spread the gospel, we simply did not have that kind of commitment to each other. The person I would have gone to with my need was my blood brother. Our relationship meant that I could go to him for every need in my life. I could not think of a single Christian I could have turned to for help. Some Christians know other Christians who would help them in trouble like that. But probably these are close friends who simply happen to be Christians. But our love for other Christians should not be limited to those whom we like and can get to know personally. Brotherhood in Jesus Christ, not friendship or personal intimacy, was the basis of the brotherly love spoken of in the New Testament. The early Christian communities — and such are the communities the church needs today — encompassed all Christians in a particular area. Brotherly care means a total commitment to those who share our rebirth in Jesus Christ, even to people whom we may not know at all. A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP Most Christians today make limited commitments to other Christians. They can be counted on for a number of carefully specified activities. The remaining parts of their lives are private. Our commitments as Christians are usually no different from our other commitments such as our jobs. For many of us, the only exception to limited commitments is our family. A father makes a full commitment to his wife and children. He is responsible for the things the family does together and the things its members do alone — for his children while they are at school, for his wife while she works outside the home. The Christian community is meant to be like a properly functioning family. The commitment of all of its members is full, encompassing all aspects of each person's life. Brothers and sisters place no limits on their responsibility for each other. We can live out this commitment because Jesus has changed us. As Christians, we can say, "you are my brother", because the power that unites us is stronger and more important than anything else. The same Holy Spirit has poured the same love into our hearts. SHARING IN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY The New Testament often uses a second term to describe the body of Christians, koinonia. The common English translation is "fellowship". "Fellowship" is not a very helpful translation because it has the connotation of a loose collection of friends. Koinonia holding things in common; an exact translation would be "community". The Christians had a community; they were a group of people who shared. The first thing they shared was the Holy Spirit. Paul refers to the "fellowship of the Holy Spirit" or the "community of the Holy Spirit" (2 Cor. 13:14). The Spirit was the basis of the Christians' common life. But the early Christians shared much more. They had their whole lives in common. Perhaps the best definition of Christian community is found in the Acts of the Apostles: "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common...There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need". Having everything in common meant that no one thought anything he possessed was his own. Everything was at the disposal of the community for the common good. Christian community, koinonia, means that our whole lives are in common. Our possessions, our lives, belong first to the Lord and then to our brothers and sisters in the lord, the body of Christ. In Christian community, what's mine is yours. We do not keep parts of our lives for ourselves, unavailable to our brothers' claim on them. THE PLACE TO BEGIN The place to begin sharing, of course, is in our spiritual lives. Ironically, sometimes Christians are more likely to make great financial sacrifice to help each other than they are to talk about their prayer life, their experience of God, or their love for the Lord. Our spiritual lives are the most important things we have in common. Our life with God is the reason we share a life together in community. At the beginning it is hard for many people to open up their inner lives like this, but in the community I'm a par of we've learned that such sharing is essential for spiritual growth; it is also the basis for other aspects of our common life. AN END TO HIDING Having our lives in common also means sharing other personal aspects of our lives. In our culture, if we sin, if we are plagued by sexual temptations, if we are anxious or depressed, we keep these problems to ourselves. Victories over difficulties are similarly private. We might share our personal lives with our spouse or a very close friend. But most of us grow up with the firm conviction, perhaps arising from bitter experience, that our personal lives are strictly private. However, as brothers and sisters in Christian community nothing in our lives is entirely our own. My life belongs to my brother. I cannot construct elaborate strategies to keep him from finding out what I am really like. In fact, opening up our lives to our brothers and sisters in the Lord is usually necessary to begin overcoming our problems and experiencing the freedom that the Lord wants us to have. Most people who belong to Christian communities where personal sharing is encouraged find quickly that thy can be more free about their personal lives than they ever imagined. Personal sharing must be done with discretion and in the appropriate circumstances. But it should be done, for it is part of sharing our lives in Christian community. OUR MONEY, OUR TIME Quite often, the real test of our commitment to our brothers and sisters in Christian community lies in our willingness to give up time and money. Time and money are not among the things we can keep while we give them away. We can talk about our spiritual life, and still hang onto it. If we share about a victory over a personal problem, the victory is still ours. However, if our money goes to our brother's purpose, we cannot spend it on our own purpose. If we give up our time to our brothers and sisters, we cannot use it for ourselves. When we read in Scripture about taking up the cross and laying down our lives, we can ask ourselves, if these words have affected the way we make decisions about time and money. This is where we have to love as Jesus did, who gave up his life for love of men. Scripture makes an explicit connection between the gospel and our use of material goods. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if any one has the wolds' goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:16-18). Our love for each other does not consist of words — even honest, holy, spiritual words. It is something that gets expressed in material terms. It is practical, concrete, and sometimes painful. This does not mean that we can produce Christian community by giving away all our money to needy Christians. A relationship with one another as brothers and sisters must come first. When that is established, then there should be koinonia, community among those brothers and sisters. Many Christian groups have found themselves in serious difficulties because they have started by developing community in material terms. THE BODY OF CHRIST The phrase the body of Christ is found in the letters of Paul. In Ephesians, one of his later letters, he uses the term to refer to the universal church. However, in his earlier letters he applies the term to a local Christian assembly. He tells the Christians in Corinth that they should function as a body because they are the body of Christ. "Just as the [human] body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12). The members of the Christian body have different gifts, but they are to function in unity. "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues...Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?" (1 Cor. 12:27-30) Being the body of Christ means much more than running orderly worship services or establishing proper procedures to make decisions and resolves disputes. It is a daily, living relationship that embraces our whole lives. We are members of the same body all the time. The relationship goes beyond the things we do in common. On the job, alone in a secular environment, we are still parts of the body of Christ. Together, we are Jesus in the world today because we are members of his body. Through us, his body, he proclaims the good news of salvation; he heals, feeds, teaches, and confronts men with the truth about God. INTERDEPENDENCE An important implication for the church and for all of us as individuals is that we must begin to give up our hard-won independence and become interdependent; we must become people who depend on each other. This does not mean becoming weak or less capable of doing things. We become interdependent in order to become stronger — to do even greater things than Jesus did. Interdependence sounds nice. However, it is much easier to acknowledge our interdependence than it is to act as though our very lives hinge on others. We experience this as difficult largely because in our culture, growing to maturity means cutting the ties that bind us to others. We learn to make our decisions and chart our own course. Acting as a member of an interdependent body involves unlearning the habits of a lifetime. ONLY THE BODY IS WHOLE God's plan for our maturity is not individualistic. The only complete Christian is the body of Christ. Jesus is the only individual who is complete in himself. Today he is present in the world in the body of believers. Only the body can be whole. Anyone who wants to be a complete Christian must realize that he is part of a body, dependent on others, and must begin to act accordingly. The interdependence and total commitment of Christians to one another is not possible without authority and submission. To be unified, a Christian body must have recognized headship. To function as a body Christians must make themselves subordinate to one another. When we put our lives and resources in common, we need to establish some person or group to take responsibility for the common life to see that it functions in good order. When Christians love one another and are one in the Lord, authority takes on the character of service. It changes from something fearful into a personal relationship we can trust. Sometimes Christians use the term Christian community vaguely to refer to any group in which everyone is a Christian. In reality, Christian community is Christians who have a brotherly commitment to one another, who share their lives, and who live interdependently as members of a body. People working for church renewal who want to know what Christian community is and how to build it should begin by studying the depth of the relationship among Christians that the Scriptures envision.The above has been used with the expressed permission of Faith & RenewalCopyright (c)1999 Faith & Renewal - www.christlife.org source: http://www.rebuildjournal.org/default.html?=

Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry

– Henri Nouwen –

Jesus established the true order for spiritual work. The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word - that has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, "Yes, I want to follow Jesus," the question is, "What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?" If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life. By discipline, I do not mean control. If I know the discipline of psychology or of economics, I have a certain control over a body of knowledge. If I discipline my children, I want to have a little control over them. But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means "the effort to create some space in which God can act." Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainty not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on. I think three disciplines are important for us to remain faithful, so we not only become disciples, but also remain disciples. These disciplines are contained in one passage from Scripture with which we're familiar, but one that we may be surprised to find speaks about discipline. "Now it happened in those days that Jesus went onto the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them and called them apostles: Simon, whom he called Peter; and his brother Andrew; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, son of Alphaeus; Simon, called the Zealot; Judas, son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." "He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples. There was a great crowd of people from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and be cured of their diseases. And people tormented by unclean spirits were also cured. Everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all" (Luke 6:12-19). This is a beautiful story that moves from night to morning to afternoon. Jesus spent the night in solitude with God. In the morning, he gathered his apostles around him and formed community. In the afternoon, with his apostles, he went out and preached the Word and healed the sick. Notice the order - from solitude to community to ministry. The night is for solitude; the morning for community; the afternoon for ministry. So often in ministry, I have wanted to do it by myself. If it didn't work, I went to others and said, "Please!" searching for a community to help me. If that didn't work, maybe I'd start praying. But the order that Jesus teaches us is the reverse. It begins by being with God in solitude; then it creates a fellowship, a community of people with whom the mission is being lived; and finally this community goes out together to heal and to proclaim good news. _____________________________ Dicsipline means to prevent everythingin your life from being filled up._____________________________ I believe you can look at solitude, community, and ministry as three disciplines by which we create space for God. If we create space in which God can act and speak, something surprising will happen. You and I are called to these disciplines if we want to be disciples. Solitude is being with God and God alone. Is there any space for that in your life? Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you "my beloved daughter," "my beloved son," "my beloved child." To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being. Who am I? I am the beloved. That's the voice Jesus heard when he came out of the Jordan River: "You are my beloved; on you my favor rests." And Jesus says to you and to me that we are loved as he is loved. That same voice is there for you. When you are not claiming that voice, you cannot walk freely in this world. Jesus listened to that voice all the time, and he was able to walk right through life. People were applauding him, laughing at him; praising him and rejecting him; calling "Hosanna!" and calling "Crucify!" But in the midst of that, Jesus knew one thing-I am the beloved; I am God's favorite one. He clung to that voice. There are many other voices speaking - loudly: "Prove that you are the beloved." "Prove you're worth something." "Prove you have any contribution to make." "Do something relevant." "Be sure you make a name for yourself." "At least have some power - then people will love you; then people will say you're wonderful, you're great." These voices are so strong in this world. These were the voices Jesus heard right after he heard "You are my beloved." Another voice said, "Prove you are the beloved. Do something. Change these stones into bread. Be sure you're famous. Jump from the temple, and you will be known. Grab some power so you have real influence. Don't you want some influence? Isn't that why you came?" Jesus said, "No, I don't have to prove anything. I am already the beloved." I love Rembrandt's painting The Return of the Prodigal Son. The father holds his son, holds his daughter, and touches his son and his daughter and says, "You are my beloved. I'm not going to ask you any questions. Wherever you have gone, whatever you have done, and whatever people say about you, you're my beloved. I hold you safe in my embrace. I touch you. I hold you safe under my wings. You can come home to me whose name is Compassionate, whose name is Love." If you keep that in mind, you can deal with an enormous amount of success as well as an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity, because your identity is that you are the beloved. Long before your father and mother, your brothers and sisters, your teachers, your church, or any people touched you in a loving as well as in a wounding way - long before you were rejected by some person or praised by somebody else - that voice has been there always. "I have loved you with an everlasting love." That love is there before you were born and will be there after you die. A life of fifty, sixty, seventy, or a hundred years is just a little moment in which you can say, "Yes, I love you too." God has become so vulnerable, so little, so dependent in a manger and on a cross and is begging us, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you really love me?" That's where ministry starts, because your freedom is anchored in claiming your belovedness. That allows you to go into this world and touch people, heal them, speak with them, and make them aware that they are beloved, chosen, and blessed. When you discover your belovedness by God, you see the belovedness of other people and call that forth. It's an incredible mystery of God's love that the more you know how deeply you are loved, the more you will see how deeply your sisters and your brothers in the human family are loved. Now this is not easy. Jesus spent the night in prayer. That's a picture of the fact that prayer is not something you always feel. It's not a voice you always hear with these ears. It's not always an insight that suddenly comes to you in your little mind. (God's heart is greater than the human heart, God's mind is greater than the human mind, and God's light is so great that it might blind you and make you feel like you're in the night.) But you have to pray. You have to listen to the voice who calls you the beloved, because otherwise you will run around begging for affirmation, for praise, for success. And then you're not free. Oh, if we could sit for just one half hour a day doing nothing except taking a simple word from the gospel and putting it in front of us - say, "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want." Say it three times, and we know it's not true, because we want many things. That's exactly why we're so nervous. But if we keep saying the truth, the real truth-"The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want"-and let that truth descend from our mind into our heart, gradually those words are written on the walls of our inner holy place. That becomes the space in which we can receive our colleagues and our work, our family and our friends, and the people whom we will meet during the day. The trouble is, as soon as you sit and become quiet, you think, 0h, I forgot this. I should call my friend. Later on I'm going to see him. Your inner life is like a banana tree filled with monkeys jumping up and down. It's not easy to sit and trust that in solitude God will speak to you not as a magical voice but that he will let you know something gradually over the years. And in that word from God you will find the inner place from which to live your life. Solitude is where spiritual ministry begins. That's where Jesus listened to God. That's where we listen to God. Sometimes I think of life as a big wagon wheel with many spokes. In the middle is the hub. Often in ministry, it looks like we are running around the rim trying to reach everybody. But God says, "Start in the hub; live in the hub. Then you will be connected with all the spokes, and you won't have to run so fast." It's precisely in the hub, in that communion with God, that we discover the call to community. It's remarkable that solitude always calls us to community. In solitude you realize you're part of a human family and that you want to lift something together. _____________________________ If we create space in which God can act andspeak, something surprising will happen_____________________________ By community, I don't mean formal communities. I mean families, friends, parishes, twelve-step programs, prayer groups. Community is not an organization; community is a way of living: you gather around you people with whom you want to proclaim the truth that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. Community is not easy. Somebody once said, "Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives." In Jesus' community of twelve apostles, the last name was that of someone who was going to betray him. That person is always in your community somewhere; in the eyes of others, you might be that person. I live in a community called Daybreak - one of over a hundred communities throughout the world where children, men, and women who are mentally disabled and those who assist them live together. We share all aspects of day-to-day living. Nathan, Janet, and all the other people of our community know how hard it is and how beautiful it is to live together. Why is it so important that solitude come before community? If we do not know we are the beloved sons and daughters of God, we're going to expect someone in the community to make us feel that way. They cannot. We'll expect someone to give us that perfect, unconditional love. But community is not loneliness grabbing onto loneliness: "I'm so lonely, and you're so lonely." It's solitude grabbing onto solitude: "I am the beloved; you are the beloved; together we can build a home." Sometimes you are close, and that's wonderful. Sometimes you don't feel much love, and that's hard. But we can be faithful. We can build a home together and create space for God and for the children of God. Within the discipline of community are the disciplines of forgiveness and celebration. Forgiveness and celebration are what make community, whether a marriage, a friendship, or any other form of community. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is to allow the other person not to be God. Forgiveness says, "I know you love me, but you don't have to love me unconditionally, because no human being can do that." We all have wounds. We all are in so much pain. It's precisely, this feeling of loneliness that lurks behind all our successes, that feeling of uselessness that hides under all the praise, that feeling of meaninglessness even when people say we are fantastic - that is what makes us sometimes grab onto people and expect from them an affection and love they cannot give. If we want other people to give us something that only God can give, we become a demon. We say, "Love me!" and before you know it we become violent and demanding and manipulative. It's so important that we keep forgiving one another - not once in a while, but every moment of life. Before you have had your breakfast, you have already had at least three opportunities to forgive people, because your mind is already wondering, What will they think about me? What will he or she do? How will they use me? To forgive other people for being able to give you only a little love - that's a hard discipline. To keep asking others for forgiveness because you can give only a little love - that's a hard discipline, too. It hurts to say to your children, to your wife or your husband, to your friends, that you cannot give them all that you would like to give. Still, that is where community starts to be created, when we come together in a forgiving and undemanding way. This is where celebration, the second discipline of community, comes in. If you can forgive that another person cannot give you what only God can give, then you can celebrate that person's gift. Then you can see the love that person is giving you as a reflection of God's great unconditional love. "Love one another because I have loved you first." When we have known that first love, we can see the love that comes to us from people as the reflection of that. We can celebrate that and say, "Wow, that's beautiful!" In our community, Daybreak, we have to do a lot of forgiving. But right in the midst of forgiving comes a celebration: we see the beauty of people who quite often are considered marginal by society. With forgiveness and celebration, community becomes the place where we call forth the gifts of other people, lift them up, and say, "You are the beloved daughter and the beloved son." To celebrate another person's gift doesn't mean giving each other little compliments-"You play the piano better"; "You are so good in singing." No, that's a talent show. To celebrate each other's gifts means to accept each other's humanity. We see each other as a person who can smile, say 'Welcome," eat, and make a few steps. A person who in the eyes of others is broken suddenly is full of life, because you discover your own brokenness through them. Here is what I mean. In this world, so many people live with the burden of self-rejection: "I'm not good. I'm useless. People don't really care for me. If I didn't have money, they wouldn't talk to me. If I didn't have this big job, they wouldn't call me. If I didn't have this influence, they wouldn't love me." Underneath a successful and highly praised career can live a fearful person who doesn't think much of himself or herself. In community comes that mutual vulnerability in which we forgive each other and celebrate each other's gifts. I have learned so much since coming to Daybreak. I've learned that my real gifts are not that I write books or that I went to universities. My real gifts are discovered by Janet and Nathan and others who know me so well they cannot be impressed any more by this other stuff. Once in a while they say, "I have good advice: Why don't you read some of your own books?" There is healing in being known in my vulnerability and impatience and weakness. Suddenly I realize that Henri is a good person also in the eyes of people who don't read books and who don't care about success. These people can forgive me constantly for the little egocentric gestures and behaviors that are always there. All the disciples of Jesus are called to ministry. Ministry is not, first of all, something that you do (although it calls you to do many things). Ministry is something that you have to trust. If you know you are the beloved, and if you keep forgiving those with whom you form community and celebrate their gifts, you cannot do other than minister. Jesus cured people not by doing all sorts of complicated things. A power went out from him, and everyone was cured. He didn't say, "Let me talk to you for ten minutes, and maybe I can do something about this." Everyone who touched him was cured, because a power went out from his pure heart. He wanted one thing - to do the will of God. He was the completely obedient one, the one who was always listening to God. Out of this listening came an intimacy with God that radiated out to everyone Jesus saw and touched. Ministry means you have to trust that. You have to trust that if you are the son and daughter of God, power will go out from you and that people will be healed. "Go out and heal the sick. Walk on the snake. Call the dead to life." This is not small talk. Yet Jesus said, "Whatever I do, you can do too and even greater things." Jesus said precisely, "You are sent into the world just as I was sent into the world - to heal, to cure." Trust in that healing power. Trust that if you are living as the beloved you will heal people whether or not you notice it. But you have to be faithful to that call. Healing ministry can be expressed in two words: gratitude and compassion. Healing happens often by leading people to gratitude, for the world is full of resentment. What is resentment? Cold anger. "I'm angry at him. I'm angry at this. This is not the way I want it." Gradually, there are more and more things I am negative about, and soon I become a resentful person. Resentment makes you cling to your failures or disappointments and complain about the losses in your life. Our life is full of losses - losses of dreams and losses of friends and losses of family and losses of hopes. There is always the lurking danger we will respond to these incredible pains in resentment. Resentment gives us a hardened heart. Jesus calls us to gratitude. He calls to us, "You foolish People. Didn't you know that the Son of Man - that you, that we - have to suffer and thus enter into the glory? Didn't you know that these pains were labor pains that lead you to the joy? Didn't you know that all we are experiencing as losses are gains in God's eyes? Those who lose their lives will gain it. And if the grain doesn't die, it stays a small grain; but if it dies, then it will be fruitful." Can you be grateful for everything that has happened in your life - not just the good things but for all that brought you to today? It was the pain of a Son that created a family of people known as Christians. That's the mystery of God. Our ministry is to help people to gradually let go of the resentment, to discover that right in the middle of pain there is a blessing. Right in the middle of your tears - that's where the dance starts and joy is first felt. In this crazy world, there's an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they're never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom. Jesus says, "Cry over your pains, and you will discover that I'm right there in your tears, and you will be grateful for my presence in your weakness." Ministry means to help people become grateful for life even with pain. That gratitude can send you into the world precisely to the places where people are in pain. The minister, the disciple of Jesus, goes where there is pain not because he is a masochist or she is a sadist, because God is hidden in the pain. "Blessed are the poor." Jesus doesn't say, "Blessed are those who care for the poor"; he says, "Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the mourning. Blessed are those who have pain. There I am." To minister, you have to be where the pain is. Sometimes that pain is hidden in a person who from tile outside might look painless, or successful. Compassion means to suffer with, to live with those who suffer. When Jesus saw the woman of Nain he realized, This is a widow who has lost her only son, and he was moved by compassion. He felt the pain of that woman in his guts. He felt her pain so deeply in his spirit that out of compassion he called the son to life so he could give that son back to his mother. We are sent to wherever there is poverty, loneliness, and suffering to have the courage to be with people. Trust that by throwing yourself into that place of pain you will find the joy of Jesus. All ministries in history are built on that vision. A new world grows out of compassion. Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate. It's a great call. But don't be fearful; don't be afraid. Don't say, "I can't do that." _____________________________ If you know you're God's beloved, you candeal with an enormous amount of successas well as an enormous amount of failure._____________________________ When you are aware that you are the beloved, and when you have friends around you with whom you live in community, you can do anything. You're not afraid anymore. You're not afraid to knock on the door while somebody's dying. You're not afraid to open a discussion with a person who underneath all the glitter is much in need of ministry. You're free. I've experienced that constantly. When I was depressed or when I felt anxious, I knew my friends couldn't solve it. Those who ministered to me were those who were not afraid to be with me. Precisely where I felt my poverty I discovered God's blessing. Just a few weeks ago a friend of mine died. He was a classmate, and they sent me the tape of his funeral service. The first reading in that service was a story about a little river. The little river said, "I can become a big river." It worked hard, but there was a big rock. The river said, "I'm going to get around this rock." The little river pushed and pushed, and since it had a lot of strength, it got itself around the rock. Soon the river faced a big wall, and the river kept pushing this wall. Eventually, the river made a canyon and carved a way through. The growing river said, "I can do it. I can push it. I am not going to let down for anything." Then there was an enormous forest. The river said, "I'll go ahead anyway and just force these trees down." And the river did. The river, now powerful, stood on the edge of an enormous desert with the sun beating down. The river said, "I'm going to go through this desert." But the hot sand soon began to soak up the whole river. The river said, "Oh, no. I'm going to do it. I'm going to get myself through this desert." But the river soon had drained into the sand until it was only a small mud pool. Then the river heard a voice from above; "Just surrender. Let me lift you up. Let me take over." The river said, "Here I am." The sun then lifted up the river and made the river into a huge cloud. He carried the river right over the desert and let the cloud rain down and make the fields far away fruitful and rich. There is a moment in our life when we stand before the desert and want to do it ourselves. But there is the voice that comes, "Let go. Surrender. I will make you fruitful. Yes, trust me. Give yourself to me. What counts in your life and mine is not successes but fruits. The fruits of your life you might not see yourself. The fruits of your life are born often in your pain and in your vulnerability and in your losses. The fruits of your life come only after the plow has carved through your land. God wants you to be fruitful. The question is not, "How much can I still do in the years that are left to me?" The question is, "How can I prepare myself for total surrender so my life can be fruitful?" Our little lives are small, human lives. But in the eyes of the One who calls us the beloved, we are great - greater than the years we have. We will bear fruits, fruits that you and I will not see on this earth but in which we can trust. Solitude, community, ministry - these disciplines help us live a fruitful life. Remain in Jesus; he remains in you. You will bear many fruits, you will have great joy, and your joy will be complete. Used with permission. Leadership Journal,Spring 1995, Volume XVI, #2. source: http://www.rebuildjournal.org/default.html

Peoplehood: A New Model For Church Life: (Sidebar Article) – The Early Christians:They Lived as a People

The Christians of the first centuries saw themselves as a distinct people in the world. They showed their peoplehood by caring for one another as brothers and sisters in the new covenant, by making a separation between their own way of life and that of the people around them. The early Christian writers describe how the first Christians fulfilled their commitment to care of each other. Aristedes, a Greek Christian of the second century, gives us this picture: "They love one another and do not overlook the widow and deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. He who has supplies the needs of him who has not, without grudging. If they see a stranger they bring him under their roof and rejoice over him as a real brother, because they call themselves brothers not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them according to his ability gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his needs, and if possible redeem him and set him free. And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days to supply the needy with what they need" (Apology, 15:7). At the end of the second century, the African Christian Tertullian adds these details: "On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation, but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able, for there is no compulsion, all is voluntary. These gifts are . . . taken ... to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such too as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's church, they become the nurslings of their confession" (Apology, 39). A modern historian, Igini Giordani, offers these descriptions: "Assistance was given to all who could be reached, but it was given first of all to companions in faith and in a spirit of brotherhood. 'Although the good which is done to strangers is greater,' wrote Tertullian, 'it does not come before that which is due to one's neighbors.' . . . "Because the Christians loved one another as brothers and called one another by that name-so that it could be said that they 'love one another almost before they know one another'-this love, translated into works of charity, created a real and effective solidarity between the rich and the poor. . . . "The virtue of hospitality was practiced on a vast scale, since every Christian traveling for business, necessity, or relaxation immediately sought out the Christian community wherever he arrived; and in it he did not feel a stranger" (The Social Message of the Early Church Fathers). The Christians' sense of being a distinct people, living their own holy way of life in the midst of nations, was a frequent theme of the early Christian teachers. At the end of the second century Clement of Alexandria boldly stated the contrast between the ways of life of Christians and other peoples in this way: "Let the Athenian follow the laws of Solon, and the Argive those of Phoroneus, and the Spartan those of Lycurgus; but if you enroll yourself as one of God's people, heaven is your country, God your lawgiver. And what are the laws? 'Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not seduce boys; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt love the Lord thy God.' And the complements of these are those laws of reason and words of sanctity which are inscribed on men's hearts: 'Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself; to him who strikes thee on the cheek, present also the other; thou shalt not lust, for by lust alone thou hast committed adultery." (Exhortation to the Greeks, 10). The Christians of the first centuries recognized that if they were to obey the commandments they needed to follow different customs from those of people around them who did not acknowledge God or his law. Giordani describes some of the conclusions the early Christians drew regarding the kind of spiritual separation to be made between themselves and the surrounding society: "The gospel teaching demanded that Christians stay away from all those places and exhibitions of one sort or another in which monotheism, or Christ as God, or his moral law might be offended. "Therefore they stayed away from religious festivals, they did not go to the temples, adorn their houses with garlands on the festival days, light torches, or wear wreaths upon their heads, etc. They continued to frequent the baths, the basilicas, and the forums in the daily round of business, but they did so with a feeling of revulsion, and they kept away from those places too as much as possible because of the records of idolatry, the exhibitions of corruptions, and the fraudulent transactions they were bound to run into when they entered them. The baths, for example, had in a great number of cases become real brothels and the attendants acted, even legally, as procurers." The Christians' refusal to exchange their own way of life for that of the non-Christians they lived among was recognized as a key issue between Christianity and pagan society. Giordani tells of one instance in which "Seven men and five women of Scillium were condemned to death by the proconsul of Asia because they refused to 'return to Roman customs.' The sentence of death read: 'Since Speratus, Nartallus, Cittinus, Donata, Vestia, and Secunda have confessed that they live in the manner of the Christians and since, when a reprieve was offered them if they would begin again to live after the manner of the Romans, they have persevered in their obstinacy, we condemn them to be put to the sword.'"

Peoplehood: A New Model For Church Life: Part 3: Elements of Peoplehood

Six steps to a stronger common life If living as a people is the way for Christians to grow in being faithful to Christian teaching, what is the road to living more as a people? What existing elements of church life need to be strengthened? What missing elements would have to be supplied? Looking at the example of the church in the New Testament, and speaking from the experience of The Sword of the Spirit, my own inter-confessional community, I would identify the following elements as particularly important in our present cultural situation. BEING TOGETHER The first element is a rich life together, in which people find their primary relationships and identity. Consider the first Christians in Jerusalem: "All who believed were together and had all things in common. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people" (Acts 2:44, 46-47). Notice the word "together." These first Christians spent time together. Their relationships with one another were their most important relationships. This is how it must be for us. Our churches and fellowships must become our most important social environment. The relationship we have as Christians, rather than as fellow employees or fellow court-club patrons, must become primary. As the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, Louis Gelineau, has remarked, "The Lord does not want us to live in the world and go to church, but to live in the church and go to the world." This means having many opportunities for being together besides worship and activities in the church building. For example: • Outreach. We can see that everyone is involved in some role with other members of the church or fellowship. • Small groups. In my own community, for example, every person belongs to a small men's or women's group. The person holds himself accountable to this handful of people. They know him and he knows them. He knows that, of the many people in our community, these are ones he has a special responsibility to care for. • Mutual service. We can encourage the church's members to help one another in practical ways. In my community when women have babies, other women provide meals for their families for a week or two afterwards. When somebody moves or paints his house, other members join in the work. • Recreation. Some of the leaders in my community have passes at a local racquet club so they can play together. Some other community members vacation at a particular group of cottages together. • Schools. We have opened one for children in our community in the middle grades. • Neighborhood clusters. Many members of my community have purchased or built homes in certain neighborhoods, so they and their children can spend time together more easily. AGAINST THE GRAIN Many who see the desirability of developing a Christian social environment in the church are looking for something relatively painless to build. In one magazine article, for instance, a writer asked, "Is it possible to form a parish into a community? Is it possible to create an atmosphere in which people feel 'at home'?" He spoke about developing an environment that is "warm and inviting," where people have "a sense of belonging," a "feeling of community." Producing it, he suggested, would require little more than carefully wording church bulletin announcements and facing chairs in a circle rather than toward the speaker. But we need more than. a "feeling" of peoplehood. And in order to build the real thing, we need a second element – commitment and stability. A family-type relationship in the church cannot exist when people treat the local church body like a convenience store. Church cannot be a place where people swing by to pick up a little fellowship and inspiration, where people go only to get their needs met - and never go if it is inconvenient. Family is where we are responsible for one another. If the church is to be our spiritual family, we must make some commitments to one another and have some kind of agreement to stick around. Calling people to commitment goes against the grain of American individualism. A recent study of Roman Catholic parishes conducted by a unit at the University of Notre Dame found that parishioners' expectations for what the church should provide for them were often summed up in "community-oriented" terms. But parishioners' expectations for themselves tended to be self-centered. They were generally concerned with how God could help them with their individual problems and shortcomings, and what rewards they could expect from God. The researchers concluded that the "very self-centered and individualistic values of the culture" deeply affect the way Catholics relate to church life. Some evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal churches experience a higher level of commitment than many Catholic and mainline Protestant congregations. Even so, members' approach to church life is individualistic and therefore unstable. People shift from church to church in a search for better preaching or fellowship or youth ministry, or because they are moving for jobs. The extreme transience that characterizes American society works against building church life with substance and stability. Church members assume that career opportunities and the desire to own a bigger house are self-evident reasons for relocating. They do not even ask themselves whether God might want them to stay put in order to continue to take part in some particular local expression of the body of Christ. We cannot eliminate transience from modern life. But we will be unable to build real peoplehood unless Christians adjust the values by which they make decisions about when and whether to move. EXPRESSIONS OF COMMITMENT Because of the need for commitment and stability, today it is not enough for evangelism to help a person make a decision for Christ and then give him some follow-up. To be complete, evangelism must lead individuals to commitment to a particular local expression of the body of Christ. This is closer to the way things were done in the New Testament period. Baptism then was the expression of commitment to the community of believers. Being baptized into Christ meant being joined to the body of Christ in a concrete, visible way. As we call people to greater commitment, we will find it helpful to provide means by which people can visibly express their commitment to God's people. This makes it clear to them and others that they are taking a serious step, one that is not lightly changed. My own community began about 20 years ago as a charismatic renewal prayer group. After a couple of years we began to feel that God wished to make a covenant with us as a group and wished us to make an agreement that we would stand with one another and follow him together. New members now enter that covenant after a process of preparation and teaching. At first they make what we call an "underway" commitment. By this they agree to be present when the community comes together for various activities, to share in service and give financial support, and to accept the order and leadership of the community. After living this way for a few years and seeing if it is what the Lord has for them, people then make a "public commitment." They publicly declare their intention to go on living as committed members of the community. The two defined stages of commitment mean that people do not just come in and go out, but understand themselves as stable members. PERSONAL PASTORAL CARE A third element concerns leadership. Peoplehood requires personal accountability in pastoral relationships. It is good to have friends who can ask us what is going on in our life and how we are following the Lord. But it also helps to have someone older in the Lord to whom we can hold ourselves accountable. This is not a new idea. Indeed, it comes from the New Testament. Paul speaks about those who are "over you in the Lord" to admonish and encourage (1 Thess. 5:12-14). The letter to the Hebrews says to "obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account" (13:17). Peter writes that "you that are younger [should be] subject to the elders" (1 Peter 5:5). I am glad that I have such people in my life. I respond to them differently when they ask me questions about my life. I respect their spiritual authority and defer to their wisdom. In The Sword of the Spirit, we seek to apply what the New Testament says about pastoral care. This fills a void in our highly individualized culture; it provides protection and support that is otherwise lacking. Of course, spiritual authority should not be exercised in a controlling or coercive way. In our community pastoral leaders exercise an authority of counsel, rather than requiring obedience, in major decisions. To avoid dangers of self-aggrandizing leadership, we teach about the nature of the pastoral relationship and work hard at choosing and training leaders well and structuring leadership relationships wisely. THE NEED TO KNOW HOW A fourth element is an emphasis on practical Christian teaching. In the early church, Christians were given two kinds of instruction. There was the announcement (in Greek, kerygma) of the gospel, the explanation of what God has done for us in Christ. And there was teaching (didache) [Greek for "teaching" or "instruction"] about behavior, character, and relationships. In the epistle to the Ephesians, for example, the first three chapters speak about God's hidden plan and about what he is doing now with the human race in Christ. The final three chapters teach about living a life worthy of Christ's call. They give us didache-practical teaching about how we should treat and speak to one another, how husbands, wives, and children should relate to one another, and so on. Today we often assume that people already know how to live as Christians. Our strategy is to give them the gospel, supposing that if only they get connected to Christ, they will be motivated to do what is right. Or we focus on calling people to be faithful to worship and sacraments, assuming that if they are in contact with Christ in these ways they will have the spiritual resources to do what is right. When society was more Christianized, these strategies were more realistic, because we could count on people knowing more or less how to do things right. But today many people simply do not know how to lead a Christian life. Hearing the gospel message, receiving the sacraments, and being encouraged to be good do not make up for the lack of Christian training and examples that many of them have experienced. Coming from broken family situations, growing up in a corrupt youth culture, and working in de- Christianized social environments, many Christians have no idea how to lead a Christian life and relate to one another as members of a people. They do not have a Christian understanding of how to work out problems in personal relationships. They do not know how to give and receive correction. They do not know how to find a spouse in a godly way. They simply do not know. Consequently we should be giving those who join us a lot of practical teaching – didache – about the Christian way of life. A COURSE OF INSTRUCTION In some ways our situation is similar to that of the early church. The church's first experience involved converting Jews, who were already instructed in the ways of righteous living. While they needed instruction in Christ, their main need was for the life-giving relationship with God in Christ that would empower them to live a holy life from the heart. But when the church began to convert gentiles, it found itself dealing with people whose ideas of right and wrong were often mistaken and who needed basic instruction in how to live a godly life. For these inquirers into Christianity-called catechumens-the church developed a one- to two-year program of teaching, called the catechumenate. This teaching drew on the wisdom literature of the Old Testament and instructed pagans in how to conduct business, family, and other aspects of life according to God's mind. We need to do something similar today. In a sense we need to establish a modern catechumenate. My own community has developed a set of courses given to all those entering our community life together. We give single people instruction in a Christian approach to sexuality and courtship. We teach parents about marriage and raising children. We teach everyone about personal relationships, about repairing wrongdoing, about what love is, about proper Christian speech, about handling emotions, making decisions, and receiving guidance from the Lord. DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF LIFE Fifth, we need to develop a spiritual separation between the church and the world. The early Christian teachers held before God's people the choice of two ways: God's way and the way of the world (for example, the second-century work entitled The Didache, or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles). We need to do the same. We need to help people distinguish the one from the other and show them how to make a separation between the way of life we have as Christians and the way of life of the society around us. We have to be willing to be different. Making a spiritual separation involves living by different values. For example, we do not necessarily resemble the people around us in how we decide where we live, how we use our money, how we discipline our children. Spiritual separation also means setting some boundaries around our life together. For example, in The Sword of the Spirit we help people recognize the non-Christian biases of mass media news and entertainment. We encourage people to limit the media's access to their time and attention. We point out the illogic of spending more time listening to the car radio, watching television, and reading secular newspapers and magazines than praying, studying the Bible, or doing other spiritual reading. We specifically recommend that people limit television viewing to no more than four hours each week. We also look for ways to develop customs and festivals that celebrate and strengthen our distinct identity as God's people. The Lord's Day each week and the Christmas and Easter seasons each year are times when we set aside regular work and meetings, in order to recall the basis of our life together in Christ. We find it helpful to develop some recreational activities of our own, rather than simply being passive recipients of de-Christianized, mass-produced entertainment. THE FAMLY A PRIORITY A final key element: an emphasis on family life. We all know that the family is under attack. Nowhere are the effects of the de-Christianized social environment clearer than in the break-up of marriages and the widespread problems of youth. The youth culture is picking off many of our young people, drawing them away from their parents and far from Christ. PASTORAL RENEWAL has devoted considerable attention to this area over the last year. I will limit myself here to simply pointing out that we need to make the protection of family a high priority in church life. In my own community we express this priority through the school, the patterns of prayer and celebration, and the teaching about family life for new members which I have mentioned. In addition we have a youth program and link high schoolers to big brothers and sisters who are community members. Pastoral leaders take a special concern for the family life of those in their care, and all parents attend a monthly "family forum" for prayer, teaching, and testimony about topics such as discipline, dealing with the secular youth culture, and husband-wife communication. GOD WILL LEAD US To do all this is not easy. Changing our model of church life takes courage, leadership and hard work. But God's grace is available to us for following a way of life that is holy and pleasing to him and for building a life together as a people for his own possession. The place to begin living more as the people of God is in our turning to him in worship and repentance, submission and trust. The Maker of the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountains will lead the way. "He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand" (Psalm 95:7). 0 that today we would listen to his voice!

Peoplehood: A New Model For Church Life: Part 2: The Call To Peoplehood

Part 2: The Call To Peoplehood The solution has been with us all along________ In an understanding of God's purposes, Christians of every age can find solutions to the problems they face. Today's de-Christianized society challenges us to take a fresh look at God's plan of salvation. The letter to Titus provides a helpful summary: "The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good" (2:11-14). The purpose of God's grace goes beyond forgiveness. We do not commonly speak in terms of God's grace coming to "train" us, but that is exactly what Scripture says. God's grace has come to train us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to say yes to self-controlled, upright, and godly living. God's grace has appeared so that we can lead a way of life reflecting God's character and become like him. Faith that does not issue in holy living misses the purpose for which God's grace has appeared in Christ. A second, closely related purpose for the coming of Christ, Paul tells us in the Titus passage, is so that we will be a people for God himself, eager to live his way of life. Paul's reference to "a people that are his very own" is an allusion to Exodus 19:5. There God explained that he was about to bind the Israelites to himself in covenant. They would become his people, his nation. God has not planned to have a vast collection of individuals independently trying to do what is right. He intends to "purify for himself a people," joined together in covenant with him and one another, a real nation, living his way of life together. A PEOPLE BOUND TOGETHER The expression "people of God" is not merely a collective term for all the Christians in the world. In the Scriptures "people" means a group of human beings who share a common identity and way of life and recognize mutual obligations to one another. The Jews knew themselves to be a distinct people among the other nations. Through the covenant given at Sinai they related to God not in an individualistic way, but as a nation. Their relationship with one another as covenant brothers involved special responsibilities. For example, Deuteronomy gave these instructions: "At the end of every seven years . . . every creditor shall release what he has lent to . . . his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may expect it; but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. "You shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. "You shall not lend upon interest to your brother. "... To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest" (Deut. 15:1-3, 7-8; 23:19-20; see also Prov. 3:28; 14:21). The Israelites' faithfulness to their concrete obligations to one another as members of God's people was crucial for their well-being. Their failures brought God's rebukes through the prophets and were a major reason why God expelled them from the land he had given them: • Israelite tribes failed to treat their brother tribes justly (Hosea 5:8-12; Isa.9:18-19) • The rich oppressed their poorer covenant brethren (Amos 2:6-7; 4: 1; 5: 11; 8:4-8; Isa. 1:23; 10: 1-2; Jer. 22:15-17; Micah 2:1-5; 3:1-4; Ezek. 22:1-12, 29; 1 Kings 21; see also Ezek. 18) • The wealthy failed to aid their needy brethren (Amos 5:12) • The nobles of Jerusalem enslaved their brethren against the terms of the covenant (Jer. 34) THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE The new covenant in Christ is supposed to create a people for God with as much mutual commitment as the people formed by the old covenant. The transition to the new covenant did not "spiritualize away" the here-and-now meaning of peoplehood. The New Testament references to the Christian "people" and "nation" describe a body of men and women who accepted a common way of life and recognized a bond with one another that was just as real as under the old covenant. Of course, the new people of God are not a nation in the sense of belonging to only one ethnic group. Membership is open to men and women of every country and race. But those who believe and are baptized join a real nation, a social group with its own way of life (see Matt. 21:43; 28:19- 20; 1 Peter 2:9). The nationhood of the Jews was a prefigurement of the nationhood of the Christian people (see Gal. 6:16; 1 Cor. 10:6). The early Christians took up the basic aspects of peoplehood under the old covenant and lived them out according to the teaching of Christ: • They incorporated and adapted old covenant patterns of prayer and festival (Acts 2:46; Rev. 1: 10; 1 Cor. 16:2; Acts 20:16; 1 Cor. 16:8). • They developed their own community government, with elders who watched over the life of the people with authority, cared for them, taught them (Acts 6:1-4; 15:6; 1 Cor. 5:12; Phil. 1:1; 1 Thess. 5:12-15; Heb. 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1-5). • They followed their own way of life, based both on the Old Testament interpreted in light of Christ's revelation and on "the law of Christ" (Gal. 5:13-14; 6:2). • They came to each other's aid in times of need. Collection for the "relief of the brethren who lived in Judea" is mentioned in several New Testament texts… (Acts 11:27-30; 24:17; Rom. 15:25- 27; 2 Cor. 8-9; Gal. 2: 10). Aid was specifically "for the poor among the saints"; it was "alms and offerings to my nation." • They had courts for resolving disputes among themselves (1 Cor. 6:1-6), in order to avoid taking their cases before unbelievers. PILGRIMS AND EXILES It is because the Christians lived as a distinct people that the New Testament uses words of citizenship to describe the effects of becoming Christian: "You are no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph. 2:19). When individuals became Christians they underwent not only a spiritual change but a social change as well. They joined a people (see Eph. 2 and 1 Peter 1-2). The Christians' life as a people was modeled on the Jewish communities of the Diaspora. Jews were sprinkled all over the Mediterranean and Near East. They lived in communities together, centered on the synagogue, with their own customs and courts, educational and charitable institutions. They carried on their way of life in accord with the Mosaic law to the extent that the Roman government allowed them. Like the Jews of the Diaspora, the Christians recognized that their bond of peoplehood with one another required a spiritual separation from the surrounding pagan societies. The Christians knew that they belonged to a different country. Their homeland was in heaven and they were leading a life of pilgrims or exiles together until they arrived there (1 Peter 2:11). While they were fully involved in the work of this life, their fundamental identity was with the people of God, whose homeland is not in this world. Loyal subjects of the empire, their primary citizenship was in heaven (see 1 Peter 1:3-2:12). OUR CHALLENGE TODAY God's purpose, then, is to purify men and women for himself in Christ so that they can live a holy life and be a people for him in this world. During the centuries of Christendom, Christians attempted to fulfill these purposes by shaping societies that fostered Christian living and that expressed the reality of Christian peoplehood. To different degrees, Western societies were inspired by Christian principles and supported Christian living. The problem we face today is that Western societies are much further from being Christian social environments, even though some aspects of law and culture still bear signs of the Christian heritage. So far, however, we Christians have not grasped the necessity of building Christian social environments within the larger society in order to foster Christian living and express our peoplehood. We have not yet found ways of living as a people, a distinct community, a spiritual family. Our relationship to the larger society is obsolete, but we have not yet faced up to the fact adequately and found an alternative. To fail to do so will mean a constant accommodation to the de- Christianized culture. In a sense we need to do more than the early church. In the New Testament times-and throughout the history of the church- Christians have been able to transform existing patterns of natural community and use them to support Christians in a new way of life. But today the forms of natural, human community have broken down. More than in the past the pastoral task involves building up natural human relationships within the church. What if we were to take up the challenge to build church life more fitted for our present situation? What elements would go into strengthening Christian living and building Christian peoplehood?

6th Sunday of Pascha

6th Sunday of Pascha MATINS (VIII) John 20:11-18 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my LORD, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things unto her. LITURGY Acts 16:16-34 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight