Posted 183 days ago
What Does Living in Community Mean?
by Christine Sine, Mustard Seed Associates
I have lived in community most of my adult life, and, until recently, I would have said that I knew everything good and everything bad about living in community. In the last few months, however, I have been imbibing books about different aspects of community, feasting on the rich writings of Jean Vanier who started L’Arche International, a federation of communities for disabled people, Mother Theresa who worked among the poorest of the poor in India, and Henri Nouwen, whose mystical writings continue to challenge many of us around the world. I have also dipped into books by more contemporary writers like Ian Mobsby, who works with Fresh Expressions in the UK, and Richard Twiss, a leader of the First Nations movement in North America. I am humbled by what I have read and realize how limited my understanding of what it means to live as part of God’s global community is.
What do all these authors have in common, you may well ask? They all powerfully express our need to not just listen to the voices of those who live on the margins of society and of the church, but also to recognize that it is through people who are disabled, destitute, and excluded that God often speaks most powerfully.
“To love is a way of looking, of touching, of listening to all,” Jean Vanier reminds us. If we really long for the coming of Christ and the eternal kingdom of mutual love, abundance, and wholeness that his return will bring, how do we live into this world today? How do we live by what theologian N.T. Wright calls “the language of God’s eternal community” and James calls “the royal law” in the Bible—love of God and love of neighbour?
I think that to truly live as representatives of God’s new world we need to accept this invitation to live according to God’s language of love in today’s global community. We must all open our eyes to see and respond to the face of God in every stranger. We must open our ears to hear the voice of God in every outcast. We must open our lives to be the love of God to every person we encounter who has been cast aside because of race, class, education, disability, illness, gender, or any other perceived disfigurement for which we exclude them from our lives and society. This challenge is not an easy task, but it is essential if we really want to see the light of Christ shine in the many dark places of our world and become the community of love and mutual care that God intends us to be.
In this season of Epiphany, when we are encouraged to share God’s love with everyone we meet, ask yourself, how does Christ come to us through the voices of those who are displaced, despised and abused? In the midst of our busy-ness and stress, are we even open to hearing such voices and recognizing our need to listen and learn from them? This is a season to broaden our vision of Christ’s work on earth and to recognize its implications for all aspects of life, so that our vision of Christ’s community includes people of all races, backgrounds, cultures and generations.
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