Alternative Community
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Community, Vision
In a previous post entitled Mirage in the Desert, I recounted God’s call to Abraham. You may remember that God made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah, promising to give them a new land (“the land that I will show you”) and to make of them “a great nation” (Genesis 12:1f.). God promised them a son, who would be the first in a long line of descendants “as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). This promise was remarkable in its own right, since Sarah and Abraham were well beyond the childbearing years. What is equally noteworthy, however, is the strategy behind the promise. It reveals that God was up to something, that there was a plan in the making. The question is: What was God’s plan?
To put it simply, the covenant with Abraham was God’s way of addressing the fundamental problem in the created order, which, of course, is sin. But what is sin? What are its effects? It is possible to make the case that sin is basically a rupture in relationship (the failure to love God and neighbor and the outcomes of that failure). If we look at the aftermath of the first sin in Genesis 3, we find Adam and Eve standing before the Lord to answer for what they have done. Adam lays responsibility for the whole matter at the feet of Eve (and possibly of God!). Eve says it is the serpent’s fault. And what we have is a clear case of blame shifting, a sure sign that relationships have been damaged and will not easily be repaired.
More explicitly theological language might use the term alienation or estrangement. Humanity is estranged from God, from the neighbor, even from nature (“cursed is the ground…thorns and thistles it shall bring forth“).
Bishop N. T. Wright of Durham, in commenting on God’s covenant with Abraham, points out that “the…narrative of covenant always presupposed that something had gone drastically wrong within creation.” He goes on to say, however, that “it isn’t just that if God is proposing a solution there must have been something wrong. The particular solution God proposes — that of beginning a family and promising them a land — shows that what is wrong concerns, in a central way, the fracturing of human relationships and the fracturing of the relationship between humans and the non-human creation” (Paul: In Fresh Perspective, pp. 34f.).
In time, Abraham’s family grew into the nation of Israel, the people chosen by God to be “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). Their vocation was to show what relationships are like — what a social order is like — when the Lord is God. Ancient Israel, however, mistook their election to be a matter of privilege rather than responsibility. The light grew dim, and Israel, which was to be part of the solution, became part of the problem. The blight of injustice that plagued the other nations was perpetuated in Israel as well. Those who were most vulnerable — the widows, the orphans, the poor — were relegated to the margins of society. Those who possessed position and power used them to their own advantage with no thought for the powerless and the displaced. The covenant had been violated.
So, a new covenant was promised, and it would come to fullness in Jesus the Messiah. Jesus assumed the failed vocation of Israel. He himself became “the light of the world” (John 9:5), and, in dispelling the darkness, he forged a new community. He reconstituted the twelve tribes of Israel around twelve disciples. They, too, he said, were “the light of the world” — they and the others who would follow him. And he told them, “A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others…” (Matthew 5:14ff.).
What is needed to counter the break-down of relationships in our world is a kind of community in which relationships are restored. Such a community will always be an alternative to the prevailing forms of interaction in our world. It will always stand in contrast to what we might call the collective.
In the collective, everyone is out for her- or himself. People manipulate one another, use each other, seize the advantage, crush the opposition, feather their own nests, defame those who are different, label one another, and resort to prejudice, hatred, and, in extreme cases, murder, even genocide.
In true community, people may still hurt one another, but they seek forgiveness — and offer it. There is a preference for kindness, a predisposition toward reconciliation, and caution with words, so that what is spoken may “give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). Controlling behaviors are minimized, and a real effort is made to listen to every voice. Peace and unity are treasured (Romans 12:18; Ephesians 4:3). Nothing is done “from selfish ambition or conceit” (Philippians 2:3) and humility is regarded as a virtue. This is the prized alternative.
Members of the congregation I serve can tell you my favorite statement in our church’s Constitution. They hear it from me again and again. It reads, “The Church of Jesus Christ is the provisional demonstration of what God intends for all of humanity” (The Book of Order, G-3.0200). And what is it that God intends for all of humanity? “What does the Lord require of you,” asks the prophet, “but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). The church’s demonstration of justice, kindness, and humility — of what it means to live in community — will always be provisional; we will never get it quite right — never, that is, until Christ appears (Philippians 1:6; 1 John 3:2).
In the meantime, the church is the new Israel reconstituted in Jesus the Messiah. As the Messiah’s people, we are called, to be sure, to live in the midst of the collective (the larger society), but our mission is to model an alternative form of community, to be a redemptive presence, an embodiment of love. God’s covenant with the church is aimed toward the restoration of all things. Its ultimate purpose is a renewed world characterized by restored relationships between God and humanity, between neighbors, and between humans and the non-human creation.
He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9f.).
This is a high calling, to be the community which exhibits God’s intentions for all people, and it will take all of us together to respond. If God’s answer to the brokenness of our world is to create community, then community is our vocation.
Scripture citations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
Photo credit: Easter Vigil by Dean Ayres
December 23, 2010 at 11:24 am
[…] believe that life in community is essential for spiritual formation. In my January 18 post entitled Alternative Community I quoted N. T. Wright, who says, “The particular solution God proposes [to sin] — that of […]