Called to Community. Thomas Merton
the church throughout history has too often developed clever ways of explaining why Jesus didn’t really mean what he said or why his teachings are not to be applied to the present time. Fortunately, there have been prophetic exceptions to this pattern of unfaithfulness.
As applied to the church, being a contrast community possesses both a positive and a negative aspect. Perhaps the negative side is more obvious: The church takes its stand against surrounding culture. The Christian community must be in some sense “other than” the world around it, maintaining fundamental points of antithesis.
On the positive side, the church offers a genuine alternative to the dominant culture. In fundamental ways, it claims to be not only other than but also better than the world’s culture. In offering a clearly delineated, visible alternative, the church pushes society to self-examination, self-criticism, and very often self-defense. Hidden or only dimly perceived questions rise to the surface. In this way it has a significant social impact, good or bad. . . .
In what sense should the church be a contrast community? Is the fidelity of the church to the kingdom a matter of a countercultural existence? Or is this an unwholesome, negative way to picture the church’s life?
The answer depends on the biblical image of the church. Does the Bible picture the church counterculturally? Five portions of Scripture help answer the question.
John 15:18–19 —In the world, not of it. This passage shows that Jesus’ disciples must maintain a critical tension: in the world but not of it. Christians are neither to withdraw from the world nor to become one with it. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), but he made it plain that it is in the world (Luke 17:21). Jesus plants us in a place of tension. We are to maintain that tension against the strong pull to a more comfortable position either out of the world or totally of the world. This is the tension of incarnation, and it requires the church to be in some sense contrary to the broader culture.
Romans 12:2 —Conformed to Christ, not the world. The church is to be a community of people who are conformed to the pattern of Jesus, not to the pattern of the world’s culture. Is this merely another way of saying that we are to be in the world but not of it? Certainly Paul’s statement here presupposes what Jesus said in John 15 and 17. But we find an added note: Jesus calls us to be conformed to himself, to be like him. Jesus’ disciples are not of the world just as Jesus himself was not of the world (John 17:16). We are to be conformed to the image of God. We are “in all things” to “grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15). So here conformity to Christ means nonconformity to the world’s culture. The church is not only “other than” but “contrary to” the world.
Luke 12:29–32 —The flock of the kingdom. Here Jesus pictures his disciples as the flock of the kingdom, the kingdom community. What an amazing contrast of weakness and strength – a flock and a kingdom! You are a little flock, Jesus says, but in your very weakness and dependence on me you will inherit the kingdom of God, no less! (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). The church pledges its allegiance to a sovereign different from that of the citizens of this world kingdom, the dominion of darkness. This goes beyond what has been said already, adding two more elements. First, the church’s distinctness from the world is not merely a difference; it is warfare, a world struggle. A battle is raging between the kingdom of God and the powers of the enemy. Second, in this warfare the church must be faithful to its King and Lord. It must be faithful to the new covenant. As a covenant community, the church has pledged itself to live by the values of God’s kingdom and to renounce the values of the world’s culture. This is the basis for its concern with justice, truth, reconciliation, and God’s new order.
John 17:18 —Sent into the world. Many scriptures teach that Christians are sent into the world as Christ’s witnesses and ambassadors. In his prayer recorded in John 17 Jesus says, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” We are sent to be witnesses and to make disciples in all nations. In other words, the church is to be engaged aggressively with the world in winning the allegiance of increasing numbers of people away from the world and to Jesus as Lord and King. Its task is to win people not just to the church but to the full kingdom and economy of God. This comes about through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in human lives. We are called to make disciples, not just converts, and disciples of the kingdom, not just of the church. The church is not merely to be in the world; it is to pursue the mission of God in the world. It is the agent of God’s kingdom in bringing all things under the headship of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10).
Revelation 21:23–27 —The glory of the nations. We may not understand all this passage means, but one thing is strikingly clear. The holy city – the consummated kingdom of God – will include “the glory and honor of the nations.” This suggests a positive evaluation of cultural diversity and of human cultural works. All that is good in human works – whatever is pure, lovely, true, honorable, and harmonious – will be brought into the city of God. Everything false, ugly, and distorted will be rejected. God will somehow gather all our cultural works, purify them, and use them in his kingdom. This means Christians themselves have a positive contribution to make to culture. The church can legitimately be engaged in cultural works that add beauty, harmony, and ecological health to the world. This also is kingdom work. When we speak of the priesthood of all believers and the ministry of all God’s people, we must understand that kingdom ministry is not confined to religious things or church work. It includes all good work in the world that holds potential for glorifying God.
The danger of a countercultural model is that it may lead inward, away from worldly engagement. The antidote to this danger is a deep consciousness that the church exists for the kingdom. The notion of a contrast community is essentially negative, despite its positive possibilities. It is therefore an inadequate model by itself. But as part of the total picture of what it means to be the church in a hostile world, it is an important perspective. The church can be free for the kingdom only if it is sufficiently detached and distinct from the world’s culture to maintain obedience for the kingdom.
The key fact, then, is the church as a kingdom community. In most cultural settings, a faithful church will be a contrast community. The more important point, however, is simply that the church be faithful to the kingdom, whatever this means for its position in society. . . . If the church poses no threat to the enemy, its allegiance to Jesus Christ is deeply suspect. We are, after all, involved not merely with a religious organization but with the people of God, the community of the Spirit, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ, our sovereign Lord. ◆
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The Way
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Alden Bass
The history of committed Christian community is a story of roads. The first followers of Jesus called themselves “the Way,” a name that echoes Jewish halakha, the “way of life” enshrined in the Torah, as well as the disciples’ belief that Jesus was “the way” to God the Father.
The earliest community that formed in Jerusalem after Jesus’ execution was composed of the original disciples and pilgrims who had traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the holy days. United by the conviction that Jesus’ resurrection was a sign of covenant renewal and the new creation, these Jews marched through the Red Sea of baptism into a radically new way of life, one in which all possessions were held in common, there were no needy persons, and all members were “of one heart and mind.” The spirit of ancient Israel engulfed the Holy City, and for a brief period of time the utopian community of the Jubilee was reconstituted.
Eventually, war drove all the Christians and Jews from the land. Still, the traces of that original movement were so impressed in their memory that the disciples who fled Jerusalem continued to establish countercultural communities of economic sharing, scripture study, participatory worship, and service to the poor.
These first Christians wended the path pioneered by Jesus. They were not the only people to live intentionally; in the early centuries of the Common Era there were other fraternal associations of mutual aid, organized by profession, religious devotion, or simply voluntary adherence. Christian communities differed from them, as Tertullian observed in the third century, in their charity to the underserved (Apology 39.5–6).