Creating Communities of Faithful Service

Diversity and unity seem so opposite and contradictory. Yet, they are both hallmarks of the Spirit endowed community of faith. Americans are by definition individualists, even “rugged individualists.” We honor those who “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” Square-jawed John Wayne represents the vision of the “can-do” spirit of American life. As Christians, many Americans have cultivated a similar understanding of the church. We honor those who represent the entrepreneurial spirit. We commend those who are willing to take risks, to try new things, to blaze new trails. There is value in this spirit of adventure, this willingness to go it alone if necessary. But the church is not a gathering of independent individualists, it is a community gathered and formed by the grace and love of God. It is a body, a system that is more than the sum of its parts. It is diverse but it is also one.

The Spirit’s gifts create within the church this unity in diversity. As we discover and begin to understand these gifts of the Spirit, we will begin to realize that we are dependent on each other. Therefore, we have a duty to work for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7), to build up the body (1 Cor. 14:12). As a body whose members depend on each other, when one suffers, all suffer, when one rejoices, all rejoice (Rom. 12:15; 1 Cor. 12:7, 25-26). Therefore, when a family suffers the death or illness of a loved one or loses a job, the community comes alongside and provides a meal, housekeeping assistance, or just an ear to listen.

This support for one another is the essence of body building, which comes naturally to the Spirit-gifted community. It comes without guilt inducing coercion or expectation of something in return. Such selfless acts come out of a sense of love for the body, a love that is rooted in the grace that is the foundation of the Spirit’s gifts. But, for this grace to become evident, our giftedness must be feed and nourished by our relationship with the living God, whom we know in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, our ability to hear and respond to this call to use gifts to build the body is fed spiritually as we attend to our prayers, our study, our worship, and our fellowship with one another.

The key to understanding the role the gifts play in the life of the church is to think in terms of the health of the human body. A healthy body is one that has harmony and balance, with every part working together as one. As with the human body, this balance within the body of Christ lasts only temporarily. It must be continually attended to or it falls out of harmony. Therefore, even as we must continually attend to proper diet and exercise to keep our own bodies in proper working order, the same is true of the body of Christ. Spiritually healthy churches are ones that emphasize worship, prayer, study, teaching opportunities, and fellowship. These are the foods and vitamins that nourish the body.

Proper diet, however, is not enough. Our bodies also need exercise or our muscles will atrophy. By using our gifts to teach, to build houses for the homeless, calling on the home bound, leading grief support groups, to lead worship, we build and strengthen the body of Christ. When we use our gifts we help create an environment where God’s message of reconciliation can take root and lives will be changed.

Customer Service Government?

The GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder,who has no government experience, but comes to the campaign from the corporate sector, speaks of ""customer service government."  He is one of several candidates that have no government experience, but suggest that their business acumen is key to success.  I really don't want to debate that issue, though I have my doubts that one can move from the business world into government all that easily. 

But, what is interesting to me is the concept of voter/citizen as customer.  In these campaigns, Snyder's included, the citizen is addressed as a customer, but what does that mean?  If Snyder means that things like transparency and efficiency and even good service should be part of the governmental ethos, well I would agree.  But, if citizens are customers, or at least considered customers, does that not feed the consumerist mentality that makes governance almost impossible.  Government is put in the position of pleasing individual customers, which means it may not do what is right, but what is expedient.  I think we're already there, but this only makes it more apparent.  

But are citizens really customers?  Are we not the government?  And as government should we not be concerned about the common good as well as the individual good.  As an American, I have only one government.  It's not like I can choose between Coke or Pepsi -- you know decide which one tastes better and choose it.  It's not even like choosing between banks, deciding which bank offers me the best customer service.   So, what does "customer service government" really look like?

And since this is a faith-based blog, let me push the question into the church.  Since the church has become increasingly tied to consumerist ideology, is the church member a customer?  After all, when we look for a new church, we call this "church shopping."  And we decide not on doctrinal bases, but on the basis of the children's program, youth program, the preacher, the music.  Again, where in this does the question of the common good emerge?

There was a video going around a while ago comparing the church to Starbucks -- suggesting that the church might look to Starbucks for guidance in "customer service."  Well, is that truly the way we ought to look at either church or government?  Doesn't "customer" orientation take away the idea of responsibility to church and community?  Are we not part of the "body politic," even as Christians are part of the "body of Christ"?

Should Jesus be worshippped?

I just finished reading James D.G. Dunn's book Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence  (WJK, 2010).  A full review will be forthcoming, but before it get to it and since Dunn opens up the question, I'd like to throw it out there for discussion.   The point that Dunn wants to raise concerns whether or not the biblical evidence supports the idea that Jesus should be worshipped directly.  That is, does the New Testament provide evidence that Jesus was worshipped as an entity separate from the Father, or is Jesus the locus by whom and through worship of God is maintained.  The questions are important ones because they have theological ramifications -- such as, is Christianity a truly monotheist religion?  

As a teaser I want to provide a quote from Dunn so you can ponder the question more fully.

That Jesus was central to early Christian worship is not to be doubted.  He was the reason why their prayers could be offered with confidence and the principle subject of their hymns.  It was his name they invoked; they appealed to him in times of personal crisis.  And their praise of God naturally included praise of Christ.  He was himself the sacred space in whom they met as his bodily presence ('body of Christ') still on earth.  It was his day on which they met most regularly.  Their sacred meal was his supper, the key elements his body and blood.  He alone was the priest through whom they could now come to God.  His sacrificial death had dealt with their sins and opened the way to God.  Their entry into the divine presence was possible not only because of what he had accomplished (Good Friday and Easter), but through him.  (p. 57).

But does that mean that we are to worship Jesus separate from God the Father?  As you answer the question, what are the implications of that answer for the way we do worship?

Becoming Christ's Body in the Eucharist

There are Christian traditions that believe that when consecrated the elements of bread and wine/juice become the body and blood of Christ.  There are other traditions that believe that the bread and wine are merely memorials of Christ's death and burial.  For those of us who are Disciples of Christ, there is a tendency to take a memorialistic perspective, one that emerged largely in reaction to the more literalist understandings of the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements.

There is another way of looking at the eucharist, one that holds on to the idea of presence without locating that presence in the elements themselves.  The idea here is that the presence of Christ is found in the body -- that is the congregation.  And the congregation isn't simply the institution of the church, but the gathering of the body of Christ around the Table. 

In a book published nearly 20 years ago, Keith Watkins explored in some detail the patterns of prayer at the Table.  He did this so as to challenge Disciples to examine their practice so that the meaning of the meal can be understood and lived out.  Too often our time at the table is sloppy and irreverent, but more importantly our practice often has little theological grounding. 

Among the implications that Keith notes in his connection of the eucharist to the doctrine of the church as body of Christ is that "in the celebration of the eucharist, the congregation becomes what it already is:  Christ's body."

He goes on to define what this means (I'm including a rather extended quotation from Keith's book Celebrate with Thanksgiving):

The way that the Sunday service is structured and the contents of its several parts are the means by which this realization takes place.  Congregants assemble from their separated lives in the world.  The order of worship focuses their attention upon God and upon God's love and justice.  Despite the distractions and sins that have accumulated during the week, worshipers are drawn once again into the orbit of God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ.  They listen to readings from scripture that tell the stories of God's work long ago.  They hear a sermon showing how God continues to work in these same ways in life today.  By now, the people have been welded together again into a strong and unified assembly.  They are now ready to bring their life in the world more directly into God's presence.  In the prayers of thanksgiving, confession, and intercession the people remember what has taken place as they have tried to live faithfully through the week.  All is offered God with the entreaty that God's will for creation and all it's creatures will be fulfilled.

The intentions of these prayers are also expressed in the the physical elements that now become the focus of the service.  Offerings of money and the bread and communion-wine for the eucharist are brought to the table.  Together these emblems depict the natural world of "blood, sweat, and tears," and of wheat and grapes, now converted into new forms.  The labors of natural life become the substance of purposeful life in families and communities.  The foods of the earth are converted into bread and wine, manufactured products that increase their nourishing properties and our joy in using them.  All of these meanings are compressed into the procession that brings these elements to their place upon the holy table.

At this point, the congregation and its leaders approach God in prayer.  They tell the story of God's creative and redeeming work, the story that reaches its climax in Jesus' death upon the cross and everlasting life wit God.  They express in words their sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that the entire service seeks to present to God.  They ask that Christ's life in them be renewed and that they be strengthened to be the body of Christ in the world.  They they receive back the bread and communion-wine as sure signs that God has heard their prayer and will answer it.  At this point, the eucharist is complete and the church has once again become what it already is:  the body of Christ.  (Keith Watkins, Celebrate with Thanksgiving, Chalice Press, 1991, pp. 38-39). 

As you can see it's not just the prayers or the elements, but the way that the service itself is formed that helps provide the context for the congregation to become the body of Christ at the table.  As I read this, I realize that our practice at CWCC doesn't mirror everything that is present in Keith's discussion.  We don't have the procession of the elements nor do we have prayers of confession or of the people.  After the sermon I offer a Pastoral Prayer, something that has emerged over time and has largely replaced the other forms of prayer.  We have a prayer at the offering and we have a prayer for the elements.  But the basic order is present, as we move toward a climax at the Table, for it is there that community gathers to receive a sign that Christ is present in their midst.  I'd like to invite a conversation about ways in which we can strengthen our practice at the Table so that we might become more fully the body of Christ on earth.