What is the basis of Christian community?

There are those that say that community is based on qualities that its members have in common. In other words, the "unity" in community is based on uniformity: commonality of beliefs and values, of ethics and behavior, of traditions and rituals.

But while Christian community may include some of these aspects, and while Christians tend to share many beliefs and values, none of these are at the core of Christian community. While Christians may share many common ethical norms and the ways they live them out in their lives, these are not the basis of our unity. While Christians may share traditions and ways of worship, these are not what ultimately makes us the body of Christ.

At St. Nicholas Church, we believe Christian community has one foundation and one foundition only. As the old favorite hymn goes, "the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord." At its heart, Christianity is much, much more than a set of common qualities. At its heart, Christianity is a relationship. The source of the unity in Christian community is the love of God in Christ and our love in return.

A community grounded in such a foundation carries with it uniquely powerful possibilities.

Unity in Diversity, Healing of Divisions. It has been said that Christian community is where "the person with whom you would least want to live comes to live." Christian community is a place where people with a diversity of cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic situations, poiltical parties, and even theological positions can coexist together in love -- not necessarily in harmony, but in love; not without conflict, but within a proactive peace that allows people to accept each other as fellow children of God, even as they air their differences. We have seen this at work in our own congregation. But we have also seen it at work in the larger church. In dialogues we have helped sponsor in our diocese, we have seen what often happens when people experience this power of this kind of community for the first time. Participants came together with people they had always thought of as "them." When they left, they still disagreed strongly, but they had developed a feeling of "us." This way of conceiving of unity can be a powerful force for healing for a community.

Discovering People's Unique Calling. If we think of unity as being found in uniformity, then we will tend to think that the more people listen and respond to God's call for their lives, the more similar we all will become. We will tend to think that the gifts God has given us individually are for everyone, and that differences are a threat. But if our unity lies ultimately in God's love, then the opposite must be true. The more each of us discovers God's calling, with more unique we each will become. Our differences are a sign of God's creativity -- an opportunity for learning. Thinking of community in this way allows us to help each other to listen for and live into God's unique calling for each of us. It allows us to encourage each other, and ourselves, to take "the road less traveled."

Reaching Beyond Ourselves, Drawing People Into the Kingdom of God. If we think of unity as uniformity, we tend to draw a circle around our community: To become part of our conirminity of faith, people must become like us. This gets in the way of communities reaching out beyond themselves to bring others into God's kingdom. Either we are too comfortable with this dichotomy, and we turn people away (or at least turn them off), or we are so uncomfortable making this distinction, are so afraid of offending, that we don�t reach out beyond the small circle of people whom we know the best. Either way, the result is the same: a fortress community. But Christian community is different, As the apostle Paul put it, "In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, no slave nor free." If we know that our unity lies in God's love, then we can draw the circle very wide, knock down all of the irrelevant distinctions, and invite people to experience the love of Christ expressed in community.

And it all starts with us. That is the kind of community we long to be here at St. Nick�s; the kind of community we claim; the kind of community we are becoming. Christian community is not easy. Christian community is a struggle, with God and with each other and with ourselves. But it is worth it. As we open our hearts to experience God love, God will help us to see others as children of God. God will help us reach out to share God's love with each other, to draw each other into community, even those who are different from us, even those whom we have always thought of as our enemies. God will make us a visible sign of God's kingdom, which God has planted in us, and which is growing in our midst.

Updated and reprinted from The Abbey, February 1997.