Called to Community. Thomas Merton
it is a perfect communion of fellowship, in which even material goods fall into their appointed place. In freedom, joy, and the power of the Holy Spirit a pattern of common life is produced where “neither was there among them any that lacked,” where “distribution was made unto each according as anyone had need,” where “not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own.” In the everyday quality of these events we see a perfect picture of that evangelical liberty where there is no need of compulsion. They were indeed “of one heart and soul.” . . .
The first disciples learned the truth of the saying that where their Lord is, there they must also be, and where they are, there also will their Lord be until the world comes to an end. Everything the disciple does is part of the common life of the church of which he is a member. That is why the law, which governs the life of the body of Christ, is that where one member is, there the whole body is also. There is no department of life in which the member may withdraw from the body nor should he desire so to withdraw.
Wherever we are, whatever we do, everything happens “in the body,” in the church, “in Christ.” The Christian is strong or weak “in Christ” (Phil. 4:13; 2 Cor. 13:4), he works and rejoices “in the Lord” (Rom. 16:9, 12; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 4:4), he speaks and admonishes “in Christ” (2 Cor. 2:17; Phil. 2:1), he shows hospitality “in Christ” (Rom. 16:2), he marries “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:39), he is in prison “in the Lord” (Phil. 1:13, 23), he is a slave “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:22). Among Christians the whole range of human relationships is embraced by Christ and the church. . . . When people are baptized into the body of Christ not only is their personal status as regards salvation changed, but so are the relationships of daily life.
The slave Onesimus had run away from his Christian master, Philemon, after grievously wronging him. Now Onesimus has been baptized, and Saint Paul writes to ask Philemon to receive him back again forever, “no longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved . . . both in the flesh and in the Lord” (Philem. 8–21). “In the flesh” a brother, says Paul with emphasis, thus warning Philemon against those misunderstandings to which all “privileged” Christians are liable. Such Christians are prepared to tolerate the society of Christians of lower social standing in church, but outside they give them the cold shoulder.
Instead, Philemon must welcome Onesimus as a brother, nay, as if he were Paul himself, and since Onesimus is his brother, Philemon must not seek repayment for the damage he suffered at his hands. Paul asks Philemon to do this voluntarily, though if necessary he would not shrink from ordering him to do it outright, and says he knows that Philemon will exceed in kindness beyond what is asked of him. Onesimus is a brother in the flesh because he has been baptized. Whether he stays on as a slave or not, the whole relationship between master and slave has been radically changed.
And how had this come to pass? Master and slave are now both members of the body of Christ. Their common life is now a tiny cell in the body of Christ, the church. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male nor female: for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:27–28 asv; cf. Col. 3:11). In the church, people look upon one another no longer as freemen or slaves, as men or women, but as members of Christ’s body. To be sure, this does not mean that the slave is no longer a slave nor the man a man. But it does mean that in the church no one has to be considered in his special capacity, whether he be Jew or Greek, freeman or bondservant. Any such respect of persons must be excluded at all costs. . . . Wherever Christians live together, conversing and dealing with one another, there is the church, there they are in Christ. This is what transforms the whole character of their fellowship. The wife obeys her husband “in the Lord”; by serving his master the slave serves God, and the master knows that he too has a Lord in heaven (Col. 3:18–4:1), but they are all brethren “in the flesh and in the Lord.”
This is how the church invades the life of the world and conquers territory for Christ. For whatever is “in Christ” has ceased to be subject to the world of sin and the law. No law of the world can interfere with this fellowship. The realm of Christian love is subject to Christ, not to the world. The church can never tolerate any limits set to the love and service of the brethren. For where the brother is, there is the body of Christ, and there is his church. And there we must also be. ◆
9
Counterculture
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Howard A. Snyder
Jesus could have left a book of instructions or set up an organization. He could have created a ready-made system so that when the thousands of converts appeared, the church would have known exactly what to do.
But Jesus worked at a more fundamental level. He gathered a community of believers, working intensively with them so that they would understand who he was and why he had come. God, through Jesus Christ, had such confidence in the Twelve that he left it to them and their fellow disciples to figure out organizational questions. They could handle the problems as they came up, guided by the Holy Spirit and following Jesus’ teaching and example. In the Book of Acts we see believers using their own intelligence but guided by the Holy Spirit in nurturing the growth of the church.
Here is a vital lesson about church life and structure, about wine and wineskins. It is easy to look at Pentecost and see the spirit but miss the structure. It is easy to be amazed at what was new but blind to what was old. At Pentecost the disciples clearly got a taste of new wine. But Jesus also provided the basis for new wineskins in the community he had formed – wineskins created not out of thin air but from patterns, customs, and understandings derived from centuries of God’s acts in history. As he delights to do, the Ancient of Days did a new thing. Jesus drew on centuries, even millennia, of God’s work in forming his new community – and then baptized the little group with his spirit at Pentecost.
And so the first disciples did what Jesus did. As Jesus had been with them in small groups, and as they had met together outdoors and in homes, so did the first Christians. The early church took shape primarily in the homes of the believers. Its life was nourished in homes in two ways. First, the church was built through normal family life, drawing on the strength of the family in that day. Second, it was fed through koinonia groups, cells of people who met together for prayer, worship, and the Eucharist and who passed on Jesus’ teaching by example and word of mouth.
As the church developed and spread through the Roman world, its experience of community was complemented by the sense of being a distinct people. The Epistles reveal a strong countercultural consciousness in the early church, a consciousness that developed and deepened as the church spread across the empire. Initially Jewish Christians saw themselves simply as Jews who accepted the Messiah. But as the church grew and spread, it learned that God’s plan was not just for the Jews. It was for the Gentiles, for all peoples, nations, and classes. The Book of Acts shows the gospel spreading beyond Jewish confines and the church beginning to develop a consciousness as a new people.
This consciousness dawned gradually; it didn’t come all at once. Through the ministry of Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Philip, and others the church came to see that it was a new community and people. The Holy Spirit was poured out equally on Jew and Gentile (Acts 10:44–47; 11:15–18; 19:5–6). The believing community was not just a sub-community among the Jews but a new work of God in history. Christians began to think of themselves as a third race: neither Jew nor Gentile, but something new transcending both. They were the new Israel, the new people of God fulfilling Old Testament promises and expectations, but as a new social reality transcending the separate identities and allegiances of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. The church became not just a subculture within the dominant culture, but a new counterculture, a contrast community in the Greco-Roman world. Christians were “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,” but “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28; cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:14; Col. 3:11). This was not merely spiritual renewal. It was social revolution. . . .
In his study of the Sermon on the Mount, Christian Counter-Culture, John Stott writes, “If the church realistically accepted [Jesus’] standards and values as here set forth, and lived by them, it would be the alternative