A Word About Community
DATE: November 16, 2008
SCRIPTURE: I Thessalonians 5:12‐22
Several years ago our congregation adopted a new vision statement. It is a summary, if you will, of who it is that God calls us to be as a church. It is rather simple in construction, and relatively straightforward in content. It’s short enough to fit on the top of our bulletin every Sunday: “A Community of Christ. Welcoming All People. Learning to Love and Serve God and Neighbor.”
In the years since we claimed the statement as our own I’ve realized that folks have very little trouble understanding what it means to welcome all people. In fact, we enhanced that part of the statement by voting to be an Open and Affirming congregation. Folks are welcome here at Saugatuck, we have said, “without regard to their race, ancestry, age, physical or mental ability, gender, sexual orientation, social and economic status or religious background.” Yes, I think we have a good handle on what it means to welcome all people.
I think we also understand what it means to be learning to love and serve God and neighbor. Even a cursory examination of the bulletin each week demonstrates our commitment to that part of our vision. This week, for instance, you can learn about the Bible, join others for prayer group, read a book for discussion with other parishioners, go to church school confirmation class or youth group; collect food, bicycles or winter clothing for the needy; take an Angel Tree gift tag, participate in an environmental program, or sign up to help out with the Thanksgiving Feast. We are constantly learning how to love and serve.
Yes, we understand the second and third lines of the vision, but I think we still struggle to comprehend the first. What does it mean to be a community of Christ?
Our lesson from First Thessalonians provides an answer. Paul uses up a lot of ink dealing with these Thessalonians. We have two of his letters to them, there may well have been more. Among other things, it was a strong willed congregation, made up of strong minded individuals. At times it could be a rather contentious place to be.
The town of Thessalonica itself was at a major crossroads in the Roman Empire, and subject to many influences. It must have been a difficult time and place to be the church of Jesus Christ.
Clearly there were disagreements within the church itself about how to go about their work together. So Paul offers up some concrete recommendations about how to be the church, about how to be a community founded on the good news of Christ’s love.
“Respect those who labor among you,” he writes. Treat those who are in leadership roles with dignity and compassion. I like how the New International Version translates this line: “Respect those who work hard among you.” So, so many folks work hard here at Saugatuck. Folks we’ve elected to serve as officers, as board and committee members. Folks who’ve volunteered to sing in our choirs, teach in our church school, order flowers, run our missions projects, and so on. Part of being a community of Christ means affording our leaders due honor and respect.
Paul goes on. “Live in peace with each other,” he says. Remember, peace in the Bible is never simply passive restraint. Peace takes work, peace takes effort. It means being willing to work for understanding and reconciliation when necessary. It means keeping covenant with one another. That’s a given in a community that is “of Christ”—for Jesus was all about reconciliation. He is even called the Prince of Peace.
Paul continues: “Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.” I’m reminded of something Pastor Lowell Streiker once reported about a deacon of his who prayed: “Lord, give me patience. And give it to me immediately.” (An Encyclopedia of Humor, 43) Patience is the backbone of community life. And, despite that deacon’s frustration, patience does come to those who wait upon the Lord. And ultimately, it is what enables us to deal with one another’s foibles and flaws.
Then, after Paul urges the Thessalonians to avoid retribution and to embrace kindness, he comes to the heart of the matter, and lists what scholar William Barclay calls the “three marks of a genuine church.” (Daily Study Bible: The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians, 239)
“Be joyful always;” he writes, “pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances…” And why should we do this? Because, says Paul, “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
It is God’s will, says Paul, God’s desire, that a church, a community of Christ, be joyful. Paul knew the Thessalonians were in a challenging, even life‐threatening, situation. Yet he urges them to be joyful, for he and they believed that all things are ultimately in the hands of our loving God. This isn’t “put on a happy face” joy; this is the deep seated joy that comes from having confidence in God and trust in one another.
It is God’s will that we pray. Not once in a while, not just on Sundays, but, as Eugene Peterson translates it “all the time.” (The Message, 2157) We do a lot of praying around here: at meetings, in worship, in our small groups. Every Wednesday afternoon, a faithful group of women gather in the Fellowship Room to pray for the sick and those in need of help and comfort. And that’s all good. Very good. But I suspect we could do even more. I know I could—and I already pray every day. As a community we are called to pray for one another.
Finally, says Paul, it is also God’s will that we “give thanks in all things.” All things. No matter what’s happening, we are to express our gratitude, for we have been given so very much. As individuals and as a congregation, the Thessalonians had been greatly blessed. And so have we. So we must say thank you. Even in these difficult days of economic uncertainty. Even in these trying circumstances, we are to give thanks.
What makes for a genuine church? What makes for a community of Christ? These things and more. But at core, joy, prayer and gratitude.
But why you may ask, why bother with church at all? Why not just go out there and follow Christ on our own? I could do all that by myself. Wouldn’t that be easier? Wouldn’t that avoid all the complications of life in community?
I’ve always loved the old joke about Henry Jones.
One morning Henry is woken by his wife shaking his shoulder. “Get up Henry; we have to get to church!”
“I don’t want to go,” he grumbles.
“And why not?”
“Well,” he says, “First off, I just can’t seem to connect with God these days. And second, I don’t really like the people there. And third, no one likes me.”
“Henry,” replies his wife, “You have to go. It would do you some good and folks like you just fine. And, besides, you’re the pastor!” (Source: An Encyclopedia of Humor, 19)
You see it’s at times like that when we most need the church. Times when we don’t feel close to God. Times when we feel disconnected.
Kathleen Norris is probably best known for her book Dakota, which chronicles the move she and her husband David made from New York to the tiny town of Lemmon, South Dakota. It is, if you will, a faith story, for Norris describes how she reconnected with her Christian roots.
Since that time Norris has published several well‐received volumes, including her most recent book, Acedia and Me. The newest book recounts another move, this time from South Dakota to Hawaii, where Norris grew up. One would think such a move would be wonderful, who wouldn’t want to live in a tropical paradise? But the move was made for a very distressing.
As her husband went through the last part of his life, Kathleen often felt adrift. “We could rely on the stability of our marriage,” she writes, “but the other fundamentals of my life were shaken.” (236) She experienced writer’s block. She had a hard time reading. She found prayer and mediation, basic and important parts of her routine, almost impossible.
It was at that low ebb in her life, on death watch with her husband, far from their own home, living in a small rented apartment, surrounded by the trappings of advanced illness, that Kathleen fully realized the importance of the church, the importance of Christian community. She writes: “Despite the dislocations, the weariness, anxieties and fears of that time, I never felt abandoned… and I could appreciate as never before the gift of Christian community: If God did not seem to be there for me, it was enough to know that God was active in the lives of others. If I could not pray, I knew that [the members of my community] were praying… [E]very day they were expressing and honoring the utter stability of God’s love.” (237)
Sisters and brothers, I hear stories like that all the time. Folks in our congregation who are buoyed up in times of trial by the knowledge that they are part of a community of Christ that holds them up in prayer, that reaches out in love; that seeks to bring the joy of Christ into their long days and even longer nights.
And I have experienced that myself. This is a good and caring community. This is a genuine church. Like the Thessalonians, we have our challenges; we have more to learn about being community, more to learn about joy, prayer and gratitude. But in Christ, and with Christ, we can be what we are called to be. We can live out the vision. We can be all that it means to be a community of Christ.
We can be.
Amen.
John H. Danner