The
Community of Equals
“… where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them."
Matthew 18:20
1 Cor 12:1-7; Gal 3:23-29; 1 Pt 2:4-10; Acts 16:7-15
Introduction
The
beginning of Christian Faith is captured in a Manifesto of Freedom and Equality. It sounds like a proclamation
what the apostle Paul says in his letter to the church in
there is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female.
(Gal 3:28).
Differences between race and class and gender had not been
removed. They are and they remain to be important and interesting. But “in Christ”
they no longer determine privileges
and no longer legitimize structures of power.
Baptist Christians and Baptist churches - at least in
theory - have responded positively to that vision and have tried to implement
it. So today I want to continue my series
of what Baptists stand for and
what we can contribute to the wider
church. The time of ideological denominationalism and of confessional animosity is over. Hopefully we – all churches! -are mature enough
to recognise and gather the best of
every tradition as the church of the
future evolves.
Today I would like to speak to you about the recovery
of a central biblical truth during the Reformation in the 16th
century: the church as the community of
equals.
This conviction, that the community of faith is made
up of equals who share equal authority and bear equal responsibility for the whole,
features prominently in the New Testament. It was rediscovered during
the Reformation and in textbooks is
spoken of as the “priesthood of all believers”.
For Baptists
this has been an important issue from the beginning because Baptists have
always been suspicious of the hierarchical
structures in other churches. Structures are needed, but they must enhance the life of the whole and they
must not lead to privileges.
The other
conviction that Baptist Christians have adopted from the New Testament and
the Reformation is that we don’t need a
special class of priest to mediate our relationship to God, but that we are all priests, called to faith and
obedience.
The “gathered community”.
According
to the Apostle Paul, the church is not an
organisation or an institution,
but an event! The church is not
"there". The church "happens" when people gather for worship and friendship and
service. Paul speaks about “coming
together as a church” (1 Cor 11:18). Gathering
on Sunday morning or Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon – that is the
church.
Not buildings dedicated as sacred spaces. Not organisations. Not popes
and bishops and priests who mediate between God and people and thereby assume
the privilege of dispensing the bread of life or even the medicine of
immortality to the people.
But people –
people who believe in Jesus Christ
and are baptised into his sphere of
influence. People! Lay people, if you
like. People, not buildings or organisations, are the church, and the future of the
church is dependent on and determined by people.
That was a great discovery during the Reformation!
There is only one mediator between God and humanity, there is only one
priest – Jesus Christ. All Christians
and therefore every Christian share
in the one priesthood of Christ. He and He alone is the mediator between God
and God’s creation.
This discovery revolutionised
the church, because it meant the empowerment
of the so-called laity! People – not a hierarch of clergy - began to accept
responsibility for the future and the
well being of the church.
The beauty of variety
Now,
it is true, of course, that where people live together, you need structures and conferred authority.
You need to share gifts and talents.
You need to be educated for certain
jobs and functions. Just like our body is made up of ear and eye, of hand an
feet, of brain and mind, so the community
of faith is made up of many different people. Again Paul says what needs to
be said:
“. . . there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
. . . there are varieties of services, but the same Lord;
. . . there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Cor 12:4-7)
“Each”! “Everyone”!
For “the common
good”! That is the measuring stick.
We are all needed. We are all wanted. Everyone has a place. All gifts and
talents are appreciated. There is only one condition: it must be “for the common good.”
The warmth of Koinonia
The
church is an event. It isthe “gathered community”. That is an
important emphasis in our tradition. But what happens when we gather? It is
important that there be warmth,
commitment, compassion, empathy, friendship.
Society around us is becoming “colder”. We live in a world where traditional structures and authorities
are being questioned and eroded. Individualism,
so strongly emphasised in our culture, leads to loneliness. Solidarity is challenged by a Social
Darwinism in which only the fit survive and only the strong can be free. The gulf between the rich and the poor,
between those who have work and those who don’t, is widening. Budget
managements, the ever present power of the dollar, and the Dow Jones Index cannot spread human warmth, and they
frustrate any attempt at community and solidarity.
Friendship is needed. The gathered community needs to be filled
with warmth and solidarity. In the community of the friends of Jesus we draw
strength from each other. I have mentioned the beautiful words from the Hebrew
tradition before:
Two are better than one, …
For
if they fall, one will lift up the other;
but
woe to one who is alone and falls
and
does not have another to help.
Again,
if two lie together, they keep warm;
but
how can one keep warm alone? ….
A
threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(Eccl
4:9-12)
The apostle Paul
exhorts Christians: “Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of
Christ” (Gal 6:2).
My friends, if we succeed in building a community
where people believe in Christ and trust each other, then we have the soil
where flowers of ministry in an increasingly depersonalised age can grow.
The Presence of Christ
Now
every community needs a centre and a foundation; signposts of orientation and wells
to drink from. For the Christian church that centre and that foundation is
clear. When the apostle Paul introduced himself to the Christians in
“Come
to him – Jesus Christ -, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen
and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built
into a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).
One of the best description
of the church as the community of equals, as the priesthood of all believers, is this
word of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew:
“… where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them"
(Mt 18:20.
Not one. Not a thousand. Two or three. Gathered in the
name of Christ. That's all. No more, no less. For a Synagogue to be established you needed 10, ten males. For the Christian church you need two or three – women and men, women or men.
But there needs to be content, substance. They gather “in my name” – in the name of Jesus Christ. That distinguishes
a church from a club – from a birdwatchers or a stamp collectors club. We are not here to decide what we want to do. We are here to discover
and implement what God wants us to do
in Jesus’ name.
The church “for others”
Since
Jesus was the man “for others”, therefore the church is there - is here! – “for
others”.
Since we are trying to recall what Baptists stand for
and what our contribution can be to the wider church, it is important to note
that during the Reformation in the 16th century it was our spiritual
forebears who kept the missionary
imperative of the gospel alive. They wanted to be the church “for others”.
A church which is not primarily concerned with sharing
what it has received, quenches the Spirit, loses the vision, and will become
slothful, boring, or tear itself apart in jealousy and dissension.
Conclusion
My
friends, God has gifted us, each one of us.
Let us bring
our gifts to the altar and become an intentional part of the community of
faith. Withholding our gifts will mean that we slowly lose them and it means
withdrawing from the Lordship of Christ.
At the same time, let us develop those structures and functions and call those people,
women and men and young people, that we need to be a vibrant and warm community of faith, a community that worships God and therefore lives for others. For us as a church, a
community of equals, it means that whatever functions we may develop we must be
suspicious of hierarchy, because
hierarchy by its very nature disempowers
people. And we need peoples’ power if we are to survive in a hostile and
cold world.
In a community
of equals each one of us is invited to accept responsibility for the whole. That calls for our commitments,
generosity, courage and humility. It is difficult at times to distinguish
between what I want and what is good
for the whole. We are invited to
accept that difficulty and then, as the apostle Paul says, “seek the common
good”.
The early Christians used to pray: "Come Lord Jesus,
come!" That is our hope. Are we willing to pray: "Come, Lord
Jesus"! Not only: come and take us out of this world, or come and bring an
end to this world. No! Come in the power of the Spirit and make us, each one of
us, and all of us together, whom you
want us to be!
Thorwald
Lorenzen, Nov 13, 2011