Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The new community or something like that (Week 6:1)March 31, 2009

Topic: Week 6- The new community: the body of Christ
Theme for 6 Weeks- Who is Jesus and what difference does it make?

Read Ephesians 1:20-23; 1 Corinthians 12:27

Bring up the word “Christian” to some stranger in a conversation and you’ve got decent odds that she might roll her eyes or you get a sarcastic smirk or maybe even initiate a tirade against those hard, judgmental, hypocritical, and pious folks who want to tell me how to live my life. Say the word “church” to anyone who is not a part of or member of a “church” and you might find the “church” written off or worse.

Say the name “Jesus” to that same crowd and the odds of a positive response go way up.

Which brings me to Jesus. The Christ. And here is where I’m going this week: the body of Christ in the world today. The “body of Christ:” this is what the church is called. “…the church, which is his body…” (Ephesians 1:22-23) This Pauline phrase you will find again and again in his letters in the New Testament.

Ok, I don’t know what to do about some of the semantics; do we find other names for “Christian” and “church” and the like? I don’t know; perhaps. I think about it often because of all that has become associated with those nouns, and how it clouds being able to have a conversation without some of that baggage. For now, I’m still using “church” as well as some new language. Maybe, the “new community” as some are doing.

But, whatever word, or words, we use the reality is this: the church is the body of Christ. Robert Webber says it this way, “The church is the continuation of the incarnation…There is only one actual incarnation of God and that is Jesus Christ, but the church, being his body, sustains an incarnational dimension.” (p.95, The Younger Evangelicals). This new community is the body of Christ.

Ok, we’re talking about you and me. I’m thinking of my context and time: The Bridge, our “new community” in Denver. But, this is any of us in this new community(ies) around the world.

Over these six weeks of thinking and praying and reflecting on “who is Jesus,” this is part of it: the body of Christ in the world today. I find the words of Stanley Hauerwas compelling and accurate, “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church was not the bearer of Christ’s message; it was itself to be the message.” (cited by Tim Keel, Intuitive Leadership, p. 156).

To many of you, these words- “body of Christ”- are not new. They may be familiar and worn. But, I would invite you to consider the reality and potency of this concept: the new community as the body of Christ in the world. That…that is something which has the potential to foster deep joy, energy and to even make small ripples in changing the perception of “church” to those who are on the outside.

The rest of this week I’d like to consider some of the ways for us to be the body of Christ.

Question: What first comes to mind when you think of yourself as part of the “body of Christ?”

Prayer: Our heavenly Father, may I consider anew what it means for me to be part of the body of Christ in the world today. May I be captured by what this means for me and for us to be this new community. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

1 comment:

... said...

Phil--I continue to be encouraged to read your words and see your heart. Gail and Beil sure are lucky to have you around. Keep pressing on and welcome back to Colorado!
-Kristi (Beils's best friend from the Springs)