Today, we’re going to take another look at the Church to see a bit more of what the Scriptures have to say about it. This time we’re going to look at the Church as a community.
I think that you can guess where I’m going to start. Definitions! So, what’s the definition of ‘community’? How’s this: a community is a group of people who have something in common, something that brings them together. Now, that’s an okay definition, but it doesn’t quite work when applied to the Church. It’s true but incomplete. There are many groups of people that we might call a community. There’s the Boy Scouts and different clubs, like photography clubs and gamer clubs. These groups of people can be considered a community. They have something in common that brings them together. However, there is something missing when you apply that definition to the Church. And what’s missing is understanding what it is that the people of the Church have in common, what it is that not only brings them together but also holds them together. What is missing is a good understanding of the nature of bond that makes the people of the Church the kind of community that it is. (This is where you need to remember that the Church is a magical place.)
What holds other groups together is some something that they all enjoy or that they are all good at: hobbies, recreations, skills. The bond that those sorts of groups are based on are social bonds. But it’s different in the Church. The bond that holds the Church together, what makes it a unique kind of community, is something that the Spirit creates. It is a very different kind of bond between the various people of the Church. So, for the Church, it isn’t something that the people have in common. It’s something that they are in common. They are the body of Christ. Listen to Paul.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:12,13
The Spirit has made you a part of the Body of Christ, the Church. That was signified at your baptism. As a result, the bond that you have with the other saints is not merely a social bond. It is a Spiritual bond. That is, it is a bond that the Holy Spirit has created. It is this Spiritual bond that makes the Church a community that is unique. There isn’t another community like it in all the world.
Now, what exactly does it mean that there is a Spiritual bond between all of the saints?
Look at your hand. Yes, right now, look at your hand. Your hand is an amazing creation of God. There are so many things that you can do with your hand. Here are just a few: play the flute so beautifully, write out another challenging (and enjoyable) game, stir a bowl of cookie dough, pick up a rabbit, throw a ball, knead bread. And that’s just a very partial list.
Now, what would happen if you lopped off your hand, put on a table and told it to do one of the things on that list I just wrote? Nothing would happen. You might be screaming at the top of your lungs because of all the blood, but your hand wouldn’t budge. Why? Your hand works as well as it does only because it is connected to your arm which is connect to your shoulder which is connected to the rest of your body. Your hand does the wonderful things that it does because there is a bond between it and the rest of your body.
Being a Christian works in the same way. Christians can live in beautiful and amazing ways, all to the honor of God, when they are connected to the rest of the Body of Christ, the Church. Trying to live well independent of the Body, the Church, is like a lopped off hand trying to play the flute. The Spirit has created a bond between us, a bond that only He can create, so that together we can all live in the way that we’re supposed to live, full of beauty and wonder, and all of it to the honor of God.
Now, I want to take all of this and apply a different label to it, a label instead of community, a label that I think will sound familiar. ‘I believe in the communion of the saints...’ That’s what the Church is, the communion of the saints. Remember that the next time you recite the Apostles’ Creed.
I’ve given you some basics about the Church as a community. You’ll be spending the rest of your lives working to understand better what that is supposed to look like in yourselves and in the local church that you belong to. And the goal is to put that understanding into practice. It is as you do that that you will live in a way that will make Jesus look as good as He actually is to the rest of the world.
With all my love,
Grandpa B
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