On Community

On Sundays I take a break from progressing through the New Testament and look at some related topic.  Today I want to look at a concept embedded in Christianity, a concept that has grown more important to me through time, the concept of Community.

The followers of Jesus were not just independent spiritual "entrepeneurs".  They were not isolated pilgrims.  They existed in, and grew within, small community groups.  Jesus, himself, first drew 12 men to him and then, outside those 12, there was a larger community of followers, including a number of women.  The number of followers varied from 70 or 72 (mentioned in Luke 10:1-24) to more than 500 (mentioned in I Corinthians 15:6) to thousands that needed feeding at two different times.  Yet within those groups, Jesus focused on smaller groups, the Twelve with an inner intimate circle of Peter, James and John.

Even when the 72 were sent out in Luke 10, they were sent out in pairs, a (very small) community of two.

At times within the history of Christianity, the pendulum has swung between in an emphasis on individual piety and an emphasis on global justice (including political power) but somewhere between those extremes is the development of small groups where the Christian faith is lived out on a daily basis.

In Acts, when the disciples began preaching about the resurrected Messiah, they began with the Jewish synagogues, the small communities which were (are) the source of Jewish community.  Over time, as these communities welcomed Gentiles -- and then were swamped by Gentile converts -- these communities were called ecclesia.  Ecclesia (or ekklesia) was a Greek word meaning "assembly", dating back to ancient Athens (see here.)  English translators of the New Testament often translate the Greek word ekklesia as "church". Those small assemblies became the foundational units of the New Testament church.

The most important evidence of a like-minded ecclesia appeared in the small ritual these churches went through when they met as a group to eat, to "break bread." We now call that act, Communion. Communion (or the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper, the Mass) was evidence of community, as a group and with God.

Jan and I enjoyed this Sunday morning both a Communion service and an introduction to small groups which the church is starting up this fall.  Both events emphasize the importance of community.

Wherever you are, whatever you are engaged in, whether spiritual or secular (or mixed!) you should do it in a community of like-minded people, of friends who will be supportive!