If I were to say the term, Christian Community, what comes to mind? Maybe some vague picture of people all sitting around singing Kumbaya together. Maybe an idealistic picture of believers worshiping, serving, and doing life together in perfect harmony. Maybe the Biblical example of Acts 2:42-47 comes to mind--believers one in heart and mind, gathering in each other's homes, praying, reading the Scriptures, giving to support anyone in need. Oftentimes, we have this idea of community that we want to see, but reality doesn't even come close to measuring up. Because in reality, Christian community involves people. People who are sinners in need of a Savior (like we are). Whenever we come together as sinners in need of a Savior, there are bound to be problems. We just don't vibe with that person. We've known that person too long and will never see them as more than who they were when they were teenagers. We argue over convictions and preferences. We are easily offended and too easily offend others. Keep reading in Acts and we see quickly that even with this wonderful description of Christian community there are so many problems for them to sort through. So when we don't see the picture of community we dream of, we can be left disappointed or disillusioned with the people God has called us to be in community with.
It reminds me of a quote I read this week from Dietrich Bonhoeffers' Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community. Now Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and seminary professor during the 1930-1940s. He is probably most famous for his fierce resistance of Hitler and Nazism, even being put to death for his resistance. But his theological work on community is what I remember most from him. Life Together, which I HIGHLY recommend (it's a short and pretty easy read!), challenges our ideas of what we think Christian community SHOULD be, and helps us see a bigger picture of what Christian community really is. Listen to the quote:
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”
When we have a picture in our minds of what community is supposed to be and try to get God and others to fit our vision, we're bound to mess it up and call it a failure. We may even blame others, crushing them under the weight of our unrealistic expectations. So if the love of community lets us down, we must instead learn to love the real people God has already placed around us. Only in genuine love for people will we build community. Community is not something we can manufacture on our own. It is a spiritual reality in the grace and forgiveness of Christ
Bonhoeffer also says,
"Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ?"
While we don't celebrate sin, what we can celebrate is that in our sins we have the opportunity to demonstrate the grace of Christ to one another, reminding each other of the grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Christian community is where we point others to our shared salvation in Jesus.
As a church we're looking to better foster that type of love in community. But it takes the Spirit of God helping us to see the saving work of God through Jesus Christ in one another, loving them the way God loves us. Only in that spirit of love may we become a stronger Christian community.
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