Spiritual Formation Lesson 6: Community Purpose: To discuss the importance and purpose of community for spiritual formation. **Note: Much of this lesson is based on teachings of Henri Nouwen. This was not my intention at the beginning of writing the lesson, but his writing on this subject is so good that I wanted to include as much as I could within the time constraints of teaching only one lesson on community. Opening Question: Have you ever been a part of a group of people that it was really enjoyable to be a part of? What made it fun? Was it ever difficult? Have you ever been a part of a group of people that it was difficult to be a part of? What made it difficult? Some people naturally love to be in community while others prefer time alone. However, whatever our natural inclination may be for how we prefer to spend our time, we need community. God calls us into community. There are few stories in the Bible of people who follow God alone. Of all the people who might have followed God completely on their own, you might think that it would have been Jesus. Who in the world could be on the same level as Jesus spiritually? Literally, there was no one. How could Jesus have fun with normal people? Yet, it seems that he did. God gave us community - he gave Adam and Eve each other, he gave them a family. He gave the Israelites each other. And when Jesus came to earth, he did not just get dropped down from heaven on his own but was born to parents and had brothers and sisters and lived in a town with people who knew him. When he began his ministry, he gathered a group of young men around him 1 of 14
who became his community - and many others joined in, enlarging the community around him. Read Luke 6:12-16 In our lesson on silence and solitude, we talked about how Jesus first spent time in solitude before he moved into community. Here, we see Jesus surrounding himself with community. What does Luke point out about Judas Iscariot? We see right away that not even the community that Jesus surrounds himself with is perfect. Even for Jesus - community is difficult! Judas will become a traitor - how many of us want to be in community with someone like that? Luke mentions in 8:1-3 that not only were the twelve with him as he proclaimed the good news of God but also women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities; Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod s steward Cuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources. We know from John 11 that Jesus was close to Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Jesus welcomed those he chose and those who chose him in his community - I imagine 2 of 14
his community was larger, more diverse, more rich, and more complex than most of us have imagined. When Jesus was crucified, resurrected and ascended into heaven, his followers clung to each other in community. In Acts 1:12-14, we read that after Jesus ascended to heaven, the apostles, certain women, and Jesus family were all gathered in an upstairs rooms constantly devoting themselves to prayer. In Acts, on the day of Pentecost, they were all together when the Holy Spirit came on them. Christianity started with community. Most of the epistles are written to teach people not just how to follow Christ but how to how to live life together in community, following him. The early church was living together, ministering together and proclaiming the goodness of God and the truth of Jesus together. Some might question why community is considered a spiritual discipline or a part of spiritual formation. We are formed in community and sometimes being part of community is a discipline. Sometimes just showing up is part of the discipline! In today s world, it is popular and may feel easier to simply follow God on one s own. There is a lot of messiness and brokenness in community. So, even when people naturally enjoy community - it is still difficult! Henri Nouwen who was an accomplished author, speaker and professor at Ivy League schools before he went to live and minister at Daybreak, a place for those with special needs, has written much on community. He defines community as a spiritual discipline in this way: It is the effort to create a 3 of 14
free and empty space among people where together we can practice true obedience to create space for God among us requires the constant recognition of the Spirit of God in each other. 1 This is not always easy because often the people we are in community with are very different from us. Nouwen also writes, As soon as you have community, you have a problem. and community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives. 2 There will always be that person who annoys you or needs too much or betrays you - you may even be that person to someone else! Think of what it must have been like for those in community with Jesus - there were fishermen (Peter, Andrew, James and John), a tax collector who worked for Rome (Matthew), and a zealot - someone who rebelled against Rome (Simon). Besides the obvious differences that would come from their occupations, we know their personalities were different: James and John were known as Sons of Thunder indicating they were passionate, possibly quick-tempered men. Peter was rash and quick to believe, Andrew and Philip were connectors, inviting others in, Thomas was quick to doubt, and Judas was interested in money and would betray Jesus. According to Luke 8:1-3, some of the women who traveled with them had been healed of evil spirits - and one was the wife of Herod s household manager! Can you imagine the conversations, political differences, and the personality clashes that may have occurred in this community that surrounded Jesus? 1 2 Nouwen as quoted by Adele Calhoun, 150. Henri Nouwen, 113. 4 of 14
The community that surrounded Jesus was diverse in talent, diverse in personality. Nouwen compares community to a mosaic - every person is a little piece of a different color, and together all the pieces show us the face of God. 3 Each person in our communities is necessary to be a reflection of who God is. If we leave community when it gets to be too much or if we leave because someone in the community is more than we believe that we are capable of dealing with, then we miss out on knowing God better. We need each person in our community to reflect God. You also are part of that mosaic - you are needed in your faith community to help make up the reflection of God. We grow in our relationship with God and in our ability to follow God in community. Here are some ways that we are spiritually formed in community: 1. We learn how to love better - to forgive and accept forgiveness. Nouwen writes, Community is not some sentimental ideal place or time where everybody lives together, loves each other, and always gets along. That s never going to happen.[community] offers us the context where we try to love one another and receive the love and care of others. 4 3 4 Henri Nouwen, 125. Nouwen, 114. 5 of 14
In a perfect world, community would always be full of laughter and fun and joy and goodness and peace. And sometimes it is! When people first become a part of a community, the goodness can be overwhelming! It s so wonderful to be together! It s so good to know each other. But, then, someone upsets us - they make us angry or they are difficult to talk to or they need more than we are willing to give. Sometimes we figure out that we are just very different from each other. Think about Judas being in the same community as Jesus and the betrayal that Jesus knew would take place. How difficult would it be to be in community with someone you know will betray you? How do you live in community knowing that at some point, you may - most likely will - be hurt or betrayed? As we follow God, together, that joy and peace in community comes in waves. Loving each other brings a depth that cannot be explained. John is known for writing about love. He recognizes that love is from God, part of community, and part of what we must do in order to follow God. Read I John 4:7, 8 and 4:19-21. What do you think of this link between loving each other and loving God? How can loving someone in community be a spiritual discipline? 6 of 14
What is the role of forgiveness in love? In order to love each other, we have to learn how forgive each other. If you have been hurt in community - you are not alone! Hurt and betrayal happens in every community. We have to forgive people when they hurt us - but we also have to forgive each other for not being perfect, forgive each other for not meeting every need and desire that we have. Sometimes we look to others to love us completely and fill all of our needs - but only God can give us that complete love. Sometimes we expect perfection out of others when it is not possible - they are hurt and living life the best they can, just as we are. As we interact with others and love others, we begin to recognize our own limitations in loving others. There is nothing more humbling than learning about yourself in community. We will never discover some of our own sins - and our own gifts - without community! Being in community, also helps keep us from being too egocentric - we learn to recognize others needs and learn to try to help them. When we do not live in community, our own needs can begin to feel overwhelming. What have you learned about yourself in community? When we forgive each other and accept forgiveness, something healing happens and we learn how to reconcile. This reconciliation helps us experience what it means to be reconciled with God. As we begin to love others as they are, we learn what it means that 7 of 14
God loves us as we are. We come into contact with God s love when we are in community. Have you ever experienced reconciliation in community? What did it teach you? What have you learned about God s love in community? 2. In community, we learn to listen to God through others and discern how he is at work in our own lives and the lives of those around us. When we live life without a spiritual community around us, people who we are following God with, then we learn to only listen to our own thoughts. Our own ideas about God are right - because we have no input from anyone else. Our own ideas about right and wrong can easily be justified because we are only arguing with ourselves. We begin to listen to the voice of the world - we become isolated and listen to whatever voice is the loudest in our own world. Have you ever had someone in your community speak to you in a way in which it guided you closer to God? Nouwen writes that without community, How do we know that we are not deluding ourselves, that we are not selecting words of scripture that best fit our passions, or that we 8 of 14
are not just listening to the voice of our own imagination? Who can judge their own heart? Who can determine if their feelings and insights are leading them in the right direction? It is too easy to make our heart s desires and our mind s speculations into the will of God. 5 We need community around us to help us discern God s will and God s actions. God speaks to us through others and can use them to point out to us His activity in our own lives. If you have ever been a part of a community of believers over a period of time, then you have seen God at work in the community and in individuals. As the Israelites followed God, they often remembered what he had done for them - in their community! When we follow God together, we can look back and see what God has done for our community and for each other. We are better able to perceive God s power and strength! Have you ever seen God work in someone else s life (that you are in community with)? What did it show you about God? 3. We read and better understand Scripture together in community. Although reading Scripture alone is a valuable, important practice (as we have discussed in the last two lessons), it is not meant only to be read alone. When the Bible was originally written, it was written to groups of people - not to individuals. The original 5 Nouwen, 22. 9 of 14
reader of Scripture was an actually audience - Scripture was read out loud to them, and the original audience was a community of faith. The Old Testament was written with the Israelite community in mind, and most of the New Testament was written to new churches, communities of Christians. Jeannine Brown writes that when she teaches others about interpreting the New Testament she often reminds herself that the writers of the New Testament were shaping faith communities - not just individuals. 6 When we read Scripture alone, we are only able to access some of the meaning. We bring our own sin, our own interpretations, our own ideas, our own experiences, our own arrogance into the mix. When we read together humbly and intentionally, we learn from each other. 7 Gregory Jones writes that we should read in company with many other Christians to whom we are accountable and from whom we can gain insight and encouragement. 8 Have you ever had the experience of reading Scripture with a community of faith giving you better understanding of Scripture than you had before? Did it give you a better understanding of yourself than you had before? Read Colossians 3:12-14 6 7 8 Jeannine K. Brown, 132. Jeannine K. Brown, 90. L. Gregory Jones, 147. 10 of 14
How does this apply to community? Do you read it differently thinking of community instead of just applying to yourself individually? 4. In community, we recognize each other s gifts and celebrate them. When we celebrate others, we recognize that they are part of the body of God - their personality, their gifts, their being adds something to the community in its reflection of God. 9 Read I Corinthians 12:4-7: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and 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. It is together that we reflect God. We need each other. Each one of us has gifts that another does not have that are important for the community of God. Nouwen writes much about living in the community of Daybreak- he learns from those with severe special needs that he is accepted no matter what his accomplishments are - or are not - and that he is unconditionally loved. Even those that the world may perceive as not 9 This section influenced by Nouwen, 123. 11 of 14
having gifts, have a way of reflecting God to others. Sometimes their reflection is the purest of all. How can we better recognize each other s gifts? How do we and can we celebrate each other? 5. In community, we are formed by worshipping God together. God never meant for us to worship him alone. He called a people not a person. He built a church on the gifts of many - he called people together to worship Him. Paul gives a beautiful message to the Colossian church about worshipping God in community: Read Colossians 3:15-17: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 12 of 14
Based on this verse and others you know, what does worship in the community of believers look like? Why do we sing together and admonish each other? Why do we give thanks to God together? Conclusion: We started our brief walk through spiritual disciplines talking about solitude and silence. We need time in solitude to ground us in God s love and to spend time with Him so we can have a sense of His love for us and what He desires of us. However, that is not all there is to following God. If we do not follow God in community, then we miss much of the beauty and richness that comes from following God. It is in community that we better understand ourselves and better understand God and His word, experiencing His love through others love for us and our love for others. But, it s important not to let the idealism of the idea of community distract us from the difficulty of true community. True community can be difficult - but it is worth it. One final thought from Nouwen on community: Sometimes you feel close and that s wonderful. Sometimes you don t feel much love, and that s hard. But we can be faithful to one another in community. We can build a home together and create space for God and for others in the household of God. 10 10 Nowen, 114. 13 of 14
Bibliography: Brown, Jeannine K. Scripture as Communication. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg. Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, Revised and Expanded. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015. Jones, L. Gregory. Embodying Scripture in the Community of Faith. s 143-159 in The Art of Reading Scripture. Edited by Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003. Nouwen, Henri, Micahel J. Christensen, Rebecca J. Laird. Spiritual Direction: Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, NRSV. Edited by Richard Foster et al. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. 14 of 14