Thoughts on Community

Today, I have been thinking some about Christian community. I don't really have many thoughts of my own right now, (well, really I just don't want to take the time to type them out) but I did want to share a some thoughts from a couple of authors who constantly challenge me. But before I submit them for your consideration, I want to say that I agree with Margaret Guenther. In Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction, Guenther suggests that one tragedy of Christian community is that, while we have many "spiritual friends," we rarely talk about the foundation of our spiritual friendships. We tend to spend more time reflecting on the weather, the work week, or the latest playoff game. How would we be changed if we remembered that our friendships, our community were created by God, through and in Jesus Christ? How might we be changed as individuals and as communities, both for each other and for the world? (Enough, I said I wasn't going to type my own thoughts....)

“…community is not built by man, it is built by God. It is God’s work and the basis of community is not just sociability but faith. This is what we need to see very clearly, because it is very important.”
- Thomas Merton

“Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

"What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity….

"The fact that we are brothers and sisters only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance. Not only the other person who is earnest and devout, who comes to me seeking brotherhood, must I deal with in fellowship. My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from sin, and called to faith and eternal life.

"Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, and though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community, it remains so for all the future and to all eternity.

"I have community with others and I shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity….

"Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer