Copyright Josh Cooper 2009.
Cultivating Communal Practices by Living in Obedience to God's Call
Ecclesial Practices and Values
"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
"So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:41-47)
At Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, God’s promise to send a Counselor became a reality. And those who received the word were baptized into the community of believers and the Lord added to their numbers. And this community of people devoted themselves to prayer, breaking of bread, learning doctrine and practicing fellowship. They were living in unity bonded together by their baptism and faith in Jesus Christ – serving as living witnesses of God’s reign on earth. “God’s promised reign of love and hope, compassion and reconciliation, harmony and justice, is incarnated in a new humanity, a people commissioned to represent the gospel of peace (shalom) to the alienated and hostile powers of the world" (Guder). This new reality is called koinonia. The church is a called community of God’s people which points beyond itself to the promised fulfillment of the coming reign of God. It does this by celebrating God’s activity and deeds (worship), discerning God’s active presence (prayer), participating in God’s transforming power (ministry of healing, wholeness), and proclaiming God’s dynamic vision for all creation (preaching and witness) (Guder).
Koinonia stands in opposition to the autonomous myth that individuals are free to form their own life – free to write their own story. In opposition to the ideals of autonomy, koinonia communities participate in practices received from tradition; however, the benefits of the practices can only be gained by participation (Guder). Practices grow and change as we receive the Spirit’s direction. The purpose of ecclesial practices is to make visible the invisible – to make the natural supernatural – by participating in the “creative power, redeeming love, and transforming presence of God in the ongoing mission of the reconciliation of all humanity and the healing of all creation (Guder).
Leslie Newbigin puts it this way, “From the beginning of the Bible to its end we are presented with the story of a universal purpose carried out through a continuous series of particular choices.” God’s mission is unfolded page by page in the Bible and He accomplishes his cosmic purposes through a few who are chosen to be the bearers of the purpose for the sake of all until the final day. God’s universal purpose of restoration is, according to Newbigin, “accomplished through the choosing of particular people which arises from this fundamental insight concerning human nature” – that human beings exist only in relationship with others and in relationship with creation. Therefore, “no one can be made whole except by being restored to the wholeness of that being-in-relatedness for which God made us and the world and which is the image of that being-in-relatedness which is the being of God himself” (Newbigin). The doing of God flows from the being of God – through the “being-in-relatedness” of God to himself vis-à-vis the Trinity. Likewise, the doing of the church flows from the being of the church. “For, by the cross of Jesus Christ,” Paul Santmire wrote, “God has intervened in our sinful history to restore us to our rightful relationship to the divine and therefore to our rightful relationship with other human beings and indeed with the whole world of nature…the church lives by the grace of God as the embodied, congregated testimony of both the restoration and the foretaste God has brought forth in Christ.”
Therefore, ecclesial practices should flow naturally out of ecclesial values. Values are simple expressions of who God is and what God’s work and word proclaim. Values rooted in God’s word help further define ecclesial practices by giving tangible yet imperfect expression to those established values. Values include (but are not limited to): creation, worship, diversity, reconciliation, wholistic spirituality, mutual embrace, and relationship. Practices which flow from values include: baptism, celebrating the Lord’s Supper, reconciliation, discernment, hospitality, interpretation of Scripture, leadership development, proclamation of God’s word, prayer, creation care, stewardship, Spirit-given gifts, and fruit of the Spirit. And to the fruit of the Spirit we shall turn.
“But the fruit of the Spirit,” says Paul, “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22-24). Paul says that those who have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection (the supernatural) live lives which produce Spirit-filled fruit (natural). “Life according to the Spirit is lived in keeping with the commitments and norms of God’s promised reign,” says Guder, and one of the most tangible expressions of the church today is the fruit of the Spirit.
Consider the alternative – the works of the flesh, the ideal of the autonomous self which are: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you,” says Paul, “as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). The works of the flesh include attitudes, desires, motivations, and behaviors of those persons who live in their own and the world’s fallenness – life before and outside Christ (Guder).
For Paul, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are not competing realities that wage war in a person. Rather, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are separate realities that compete against each other and Paul reminds those who are in Christ that it is impossible to live in both realities at the same time. Paul reminds his listeners that through baptism and faith in Jesus Christ, a person is a “new creation.” The “old creation” is gone, along with the works of the flesh, and the “new creation” is here - a new reality guided by the Spirit – exemplified by a life of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control. “When the Spirit transforms the life and practice of Christian communities,” Guder wrote, “they demonstrate that God’s promised future has been set in motion. The joy, freedom, and wholeness of life within the reign of God can already be tasted even if not yet fully consummated" (Guder).
Questions to ponder:
1) What is the relationship between ecclesial values and practices?
2) Do humans really exist only in relationship to one another and to creation?
3) Does being come before doing; or does doing come before being? Which influences which?
4) What is the role of the Holy Spirit in all of this?
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