6/19/2011
Text: I Corinthians 12
Last week we celebrated Pentecost– the day the Church has traditionally celebrated the beginning of the Christian Church. We also celebrated our annual Commitment/Recommitment to this 8th Day Faith Community as Community, Intern and Covenant Members. This week, I want to continue the theme of Pentecost by considering what it means to create intentional community. Fred said that community – and specifically our community as one expression of the body of Christ – is a gift of the Holy Spirit which we celebrate at Pentecost. I fully agree with Fred that it is a gift of grace to live and participate in a community of brothers and sisters who are followers of Jesus.
Our Calling: Building Community
However, I also believe that to live out fully God’s calling for us as a community, we need to be intentional about building community. Elizabeth O’Connor, in her book on Community, has a chapter on the “marks of the liberating community.” (pp. 100-117) One of the marks is “a radical commitment to a critical contemplation of one’s own life and the life of one’s faith community.” I believe we need to “critically contemplate” our calling as a community and how we are moving into the future. I think that part of our calling as a community is to exemplify “the beloved community” in Martin Luther King’s terms. In my view, a central task in building the beloved community is learning to “embrace diversity” – as Charles Foster puts it – and this is a work in progress for Eighth Day.
Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians: One Body, Many Gifts
In our Scripture passage from 1st Corinthians chapter 12, Paul gives us a beautiful metaphor of a community of faith that he wants the Corinthians to use as a pattern for their life together. He tells them, “You are like a body with many different parts, each part contributing to the whole with its special gift and function. Each of you is different, but you are integrated into the whole so the whole is greater than the sum total of its parts. No part is better than another, but each part when it functions to serve the whole, builds up the body.”
Paul is writing this letter to one of the many what we now call early Christian communities – although the word “Christian” hadn’t been coined yet. Nerney and Taussig, in their book Re-Imagining Life Together in America, describe five examples of these early communities of followers of The Way. (pp. 26-33) These examples, quite varied in nature, include: 1) Lukan “Breaking Bread” or “supper societies” which met in the homes of wealthy women; 2) the Congregation of Israel, a “rag-tag gathering of social outcasts” meeting in a synagogue; 3) the Thomas community of mysticism, based on the wisdom/Sophia tradition, which lasted several centuries, 4) the Jewish Matthean community in Antioch, Syria, with a more spiritual “inward journey” focus, and 5) the wealthy Corinthian “Community of the Christ Spirit” which had women in leadership and lasted a hundred years. These are only a handful of examples of hundreds of communities that varied greatly in their populations, beliefs and practices. Then there was no Nicene Creed to unify this Jesus movement.
So, just as each community is composed of different members with unique gifts, each community is different and brings diversity to the communion of followers of the Way.
A major purpose of many of Paul’s letters is to instruct these fledgling communities in proper behavior with one another. As he paints a picture of what the church should be like In this letter to the Corinthians, I find his metaphor of being “members of Christ’s body” truly magnificent. For one thing, he emphasizes that each member has a gift to offer and that each gift is important to the functioning of the whole body. Secondly, he states that no gift is better than any other gift - that jealousy and comparing the relative worth of a gift of a member is ridiculous and misses the point that every part is needed for the smooth functioning of the whole. He uses hyperbole to make his point: “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?”
We know that Corinthian elites tried to outdo each other and distinguish themselves through eloquence of speech and superior knowledge. Paul sought to quell this tendency by saying that each of the gifts “are the work of one and the same Spirit” and “those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.” (vs. 22-23) Paul says further, that God gives “greater honor to the parts that lack it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.” ( vs. 24-25) Paul is very concerned, perhaps, with how those who are less wealthy and educated should be treated with “honor” and respect in the community. He wants the Corinthians to value each member, regardless of their abilities, so that there wouldn’t be divisiveness and there would be equal care for one another.
Paul says, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (Vs 26) Last week in our all members’ meeting a concern was raised that we need a care team to tend to those who are suffering. No less than 7 people stepped forward to help with this aspect of our life together – most of whom have already been involved in looking out for one or more members of this community. After the Member’s meeting they gathered to begin organizing this work in a more intentional way. This team is an example of why I love being part of 8th Day. People do take caring for one another’s lives very seriously.
Communalism versus Individualism – the new Copernican Revolution
Nerney and Taussig state their conviction that there is a profound problem in our society, which is the loss of communalism. They attribute this loss of community to three influences in our country: rugged individualism, the reliance on the nuclear family, and a competitive business ethos, all of which are still strong themes in the American psyche. (p. 234) Nerney and Taussig believe that the antidote to this problem of the individualistic, competitive culture we live in is to be found in the churches.
They sketch out a vision of the church in America providing models for the development of community. I use the plural “models,” because they do not promote one particular type of community. Rather they give several examples of the modern trend toward community in various churches and then come up with a list of vital ingredients for community development. Nerney and Taussig see this communal movement as a new “Copernican Revolution” in the church. (p. 168)
They say, “The time has come to name the danger inherent in the insistent individualism bred in our western consciousness. We must now re-imagine and reconstruct a social order, where community is understood as the primary locus for self-emergence in a cosmos of interdependent relationships.” ( p. 178) This quote brings me back to Paul’s image of the Body of Christ composed of interconnecting, uniquely endowed parts, each dependent on each other, each contributing to the smooth functioning of the whole. In human development, the parts of the body are not constructed independently and then put together like a puzzle. Rather, the individual parts of the body develop organically from the whole body. When Nerney and Taussig say that a new social order must be envisioned “where community is understood as the primary locus for self-emergence in a cosmos of interdependent relationships,” they are indicating that the gifts and strengths of an individual emerge from the interrelationships among the members of the community. Gifts are not “owned” by an individual independently, but are “evoked” as we say in the Church of the Saviour, by the community for the community.
The gifts are not to be used for individual gain, or to achieve power in the community, but, as Paul says, “for the common good.” Again, Paul emphasizes that all parts are needed to create the whole: “if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.”(vs 17) And again, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!” (vs 21) We cannot pull ourselves away from the body because we are not like another member of the body, or don’t have the same gifts or function as another. All are needed!
The “Atoning Deed” – Justice and Community
I would like to share one example from Taussig and Nerney’s book of a church that grew into a close knit community out of a tragedy. (pp. 171-172) The St. Nicholas Parish in Evanston, IL was rocked by the killing of a youth in one family by a youth in another family both belonging to the Evanston Bible Fellowship Church. The pastor laid the issue before the congregation and addressed the racial divisions between the Anglo and Hispanic members of the parish. Over months and even years, this church was able to come together and find a way of forgiveness and reconciliation among its parishioners. Not only that, but it began a witness and outreach to the wider community, addressing and dismantling racism.
Josiah Royce developed a concept of the “atoning deed.” (p. 88) This is the notion that communities need to respond to injustice and divisions with very specific actions which “mend the broken community, from the local to the universal level.” Just as the Evanston community came upon its central “atoning deed” through a tragic act of violence in its midst, I think it would be good for Eighth Day Faith Community to reflect on what our particular “atoning deed” might be. As a multicultural church, what divisions and injustice do we see ourselves addressing together as a community?
Community as a “Model” for Society
Nerney and Taussig describe the circumstances in which the early communities of Jesus followers arose. These were “social experiments” which were developed from two influences: Jewish communities which flourished among Gentile populations, and voluntary associations of the Greco Roman world.
The significance of these groups is that they came into being in response to Roman oppression, which destroyed the traditional groupings of family, tribe and local culture. One gets the sense in reading some of Paul’s almost ecstatic descriptions of how community members should live and treat one another that these communities saw themselves as models for how the rest of society should live. Nerney and Taussig believe that modern church communities can and should serve such a function in our time and society. They cite the longing for community as a primary spiritual value that Americans have expressed in surveys. Is this what we are called to as a community?
From my work with the people that I see coming every day to Bon Secours Hospital, I often sense that people have forgotten how to connect with one another. It is a profound sickness – perhaps even evil - in our society that isolates people and contributes to mental and physical illness. Often the people I see have been hurt by those close to them in the past and are still hurting deeply. They have given up on any human connection at all, actively avoiding contact with others. I personally find this heart rending – that the one thing which might bring healing, a human connection, is seen as threatening. Perhaps the situations of the people who come to the clinic are exaggerated – but I do see them as symptomatic of the sickness of our society. People need one another to be whole. The American myth of the rugged individualist who can pull him/herself up by the bootstraps and make it on his/her own is not working for the individual or for our society. Nerney and Taussig say, “Unless Americans learn to live in community, they cannot participate fully in the further development of society and the species.” (P. 234)
Marks of Community
I would like to talk about some “Marks of community” which Eighth Day might look at. Taussig and Nerney list five “essential life-enhancing elements” of community:
1) a sense of belonging or hospitality;
2) a chance to forgive and be forgiven;
3) space for quiet reflection, which responds to the hunger for meaning;
4) genuine care for one another; and
5) a commitment to build a more just society.
On your chair today, you may have found a yellow sheet listing “Marks of the 8th Day Faith Community” which was developed by our recent Community Class, starting with Elizabeth O’Connor’s 5 “Marks of the Liberating Community.” As you can see, there are some similarities in the two lists.
I would like to talk today some more about the “Hospitality/Inclusivity/Belonging” mark and how 8th Day could look at our practices and structures to become more inclusive by embracing diversity. Some of my remarks will be drawn from Charles Foster’s book called Embracing Diversity.
Embracing Diversity
Charles Foster says that “embracing diversity” means “negotiating ways to live with differences that may be not only irreconcilable , but mutually abhorrent and repugnant.” (p. 15) Those are pretty strong adjectives – “abhorrent and repugnant.” I think he uses them deliberately – and I think they are apt terms for how some in our congregation have felt about differences in our worship from time to time. There are those, for instance, who love a lot of silence in worship and there are others, who feel awkward and lost in a long stretch of silence. There are some who wish we had the “old” liturgies with lots of beautiful new words each week, and there are some who really enjoy the new liturgy with the sung responses you can memorize. There are some who believe we always need strong instrumental accompaniment to bolster our singing, and others who wish we would do more a’capella music. Now, these are just differences in our cultural expressions of worship – I have not even mentioned the deeper theological, cultural and racial divisions in our community.
I think that in order to envision our future as a community, we need to put our differences on the table – both those that enhance and build community – and those differences which encumber the growing together of the parts. Our diversity, I believe, is a great strength of 8th Day, and also it is a challenge. We have often spoken of racial differences and we have engaged in racial healing workshops. We are also aware of economic and social differences. We have not talked as much about differences in educational levels, intellectual capabilities, ways of communicating and expressing ourselves, and of sexual orientation. Of the latter, one person recently asked, “Are we an open and affirming congregation?” I also don’t think we have talked enough about power differentials and how we nurture leadership in the different aspects of our community. Being open and embracing of difference takes effort and openness to new learnings and awareness.
Mutuality versus Solidarity
Foster talks about a very important difference between “mutuality” and “solidarity.” Mutuality is when we experience common values, understandings and feelings, and when we feel belonging to and empathy for one another. I have often experienced this in a mission group and in a gathering of close friends. Solidarity, on the other hand, is the act of affirming and embracing “incomprehensible differences as gifts to our common life.” It is when members of the community do not hide elements of their cultural, gender, or class differences, but celebrate their distinctive contributions to the community. Just as the “eye” of the body does not try to be an “ear,” so each person and each cultural group is celebrated for its unique gifts. Augsburger has coined a new term, “interpathy.” “Moving beyond empathy [to interpathy] involves developing the sensibilities…to envision the thoughts and feelings of a totally separate ‘other’ who does not share my cultural assumptions, values, and views.” (p. 95) The miracle in this process is when, in the gap between our disparate experiences, we are surprised by the work of the Holy Spirit building community among us.
Foster says that four conditions are needed to develop solidarity in a community. I will not go into detail about these, but I will mention them for future reference. The first is creating times and places for each group in the congregation to meet and talk among themselves. The second condition is a commitment to take seriously the ideas and experience of others on their own terms.
This happened in one church, when members were asked to tell their stories of faith out of their cultural tradition and then to share these in a Pentecost worship. The third condition is suspension of expectations and “requires people to suspend their own personal, cultural, and religious ideas and practices to listen for the experience and meanings of others.” This doesn’t mean repressing one’s own preferences or experience, but walking in the moccasins of another person, in order to understand the meaning of that person’s experience. The fourth condition is “mutuality of critique” – which goes beyond being politically correct and not stepping on the toes of others. It requires honesty and trust, and the readiness to be challenged by the ideas of others – attributes which, of course, are developed over time and through deliberate conscious community building processes.
Processes for Building Community
What are some of these processes needed to build a community of “unity in diversity” in which we in 8th Day could engage? My thoughts are below and I hope you will engage in dialogue regarding these and other suggestions for building 8th Day Faith Community.
First, I think we need to engage in an envisioning process, in which we look at 8th Day’s unique gifts, strengths and needs and what we are called to as a community. We need to share our histories and traditions, our hopes and dreams for our future.
Second, this envisioning process needs to be as inclusive as possible. We need to have what Foster calls “curricular conversations” which “percolate” through the community, undergirding and energizing the more formal meetings, worship times, and classes we hold. These are informal conversations which are fostered and happen among individuals and small groups, posing and processing questions and formulating ideas to be brought to the formal meetings. These conversations often will take place at the edges or margins of our community with those who may not be connected in any other way than attending worship on Sunday. As mentioned before, these conversations will require good listening skills and the ability to “suspend expectations” and really enter the experience of another. They will require the ability to move from empathy to interpathy.
Third, we need to “suspend the desire for cultural coherence.”We need to learn to be comfortable with alternative forms of worship and other expressions of difference. Or perhaps we need to adapt to the idea of being uncomfortable at times, of feeling we are “fish out of the water,” so to speak. Maybe sometimes we will each wonder “Do I really belong here?” We are all going to feel a little bit out of our comfort zones at times, I believe. I wonder if this is what it means to be truly multicultural.
Fourth, we will need to provide occasions for asking for, receiving and offering forgiveness. There will be brokenness in our community. There is brokenness in our world. We need to discover the “atoning deed” on which we as a community will focus. We need to find concrete communal actions we can take to bring about healing and reconciliation in our world and our community.
Fifth, we need to provide more times for community participants to tell their stories. This is how we learn to understand and trust one another more deeply. When I know where you are coming from, I feel closer to you.
Sixth, we need to provide more opportunities for all community participants to develop their gifts and leadership capabilities.This is an intentional process and needs to be broadened to include more of our community participants.
Seventh, we need to look at power dynamics, leadership, and structural issuesin our community. What are the barriers to new people coming into the community and taking leadership roles? Do we need to look at changes in our structures? What power imbalances do we have in our community? Are they influenced by race, culture, sexual orientation, educational or economic differences?
Seventh, we need to look at how we share our resources with each other and with those outside our community.Do we need to become more radical in our communal sharing, as in the early Christian communities?
Eighth, we will need to look at our discernment, decision-making, and conflict resolution processesmore closely. These are processes which need to be learned and practiced among community members to become effective.
Ninth, we need to look at “Rituals of Acceptance” which are “recurring experiential actions that communicate to those involved that they are unconditionally incorporated into the fellowship of this gathering.” (Foster, p. 64) Our communion service is an example. All are welcome. Each one serves another. Does Recommitment do this? How do we help children feel a part of our community? Are some persons left out? What rituals intensify your sense of belonging?
Tenth, we need to consider offering classes which don’t require reading a book and use alternative ways of learning and expression.
As we consider these and other ideas for building our Eighth Day Faith Community, I hope we can move forward together in true solidarity, a community of hope and expectation, a community that embraces diversity, a community that evokes and affirms the gifts of each of its members, a community that welcomes strangers, a community that encourages conversations on the edges and practices interpathy, a community open to possibility and growth, a community which allows the Holy Spirit to move through us and mold us into that beautiful Body of Christ of which Paul gives us a glimpse.
Amen.