Life Together in Christ E-Book

Ruth Haley Barton

• Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Transforming Resources
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 240

Beschreibung

Best Book of Spiritual Formation, from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Have you joined a church or small group in hopes of experiencing real life change, only to be disappointed? Have you sat through inspiring sermons about what is possible when Christians gather together in mutually edifying relationships, only to recognize how cynical you have become after many failed attempts? Community may be one of the most over-promised, under-delivered aspects of the Christian life today. Individuals remain selfish and stuck in their ways. Communities become spiritually lifeless or even fall apart because we don't know how to experience transformation together. Transforming community does not come primarily from listening to inspiring preaching or adding another church program. It emerges as we embrace a shared commitment to the attitudes, practices and behaviors that open us to Christ in our midst. And that's where Life Together in Christ comes in. Reflecting on the story of the two disciples who meet Christ on the Emmaus Road, Ruth Haley Barton offers this interactive guide for small groups of spiritual companions who are ready to encounter Christ in transforming ways—right where they are on the road of real life.

Leseprobe

LIFE TOGETHER IN CHRIST

EXPERIENCING TRANSFORMATION IN COMMUNITY

RUTH HALEY BARTON

www.IVPress.com/books

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL [email protected]

©2014 by Ruth Haley Barton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press®is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visitintervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple Images: The Road to Emmaus by Daniel Bonnell

ISBN 978-0-8308-9638-7 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-3586-7 (hardcover)

For the communities of the Transforming Center with deepest gratitude for our life together in Christ

And for my family— the richest and most life-transforming community of all

CONTENTS

Introduction: An Inconvenient Truth

Chapter 1: Between the Now and the Not Yet

Choosing to Walk Together

Chapter 2: And Jesus Himself Came Near

Welcoming the Stranger

Chapter 3: They Stood Still Looking Sad

Choosing to Listen Rather Than Fix

Chapter 4: But We Had Hoped . . .

Gathering on the Basis of Shared Desire

Chapter 5: Some Women of Our Group Astounded Us

Men and Women in Community

Chapter 6: Was It Not Necessary That the Messiah Should Suffer?

The Nature of the Spiritual Journey

Chapter 7: He Explained the Scriptures to Them

Finding Our Story in His Story

Chapter 8: Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us?

Discerning the Presence of Christ

Chapter 9: Then They Told What Had Happened on the Road

You Are Witnesses of These Things

Gratitudes

Appendix A: Biblical Perspectives on Spiritual Transformation in Community

Appendix B: Practicing Stability

Notes

Praise for Life Together in Christ

About the Author

Formatio

Transforming Center

Transforming Resources

Available Fall 2016

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

INTRODUCTION

An Inconvenient Truth

Unfortunately today, because there is so much isolation and loneliness, people often get confused about what they are looking for [in community]. They are unable to discriminate between the companionship of interested people and the community of people who can help them seek God. Spiritual community makes real our seeking and supports us in that seeking.

Rose Mary Dougherty, SSND

“Community is the most ‘overpromised and underdelivered’ aspect of the church today,” a friend who has been involved with many different kinds of churches commented many years ago. This haunting observation is one I have never been able to forget. I couldn’t figure out whether to laugh or cry, so I think I did both.

The more I have reflected on his statement, the more I have had to acknowledge the truth in it. Having been in and around the church all my life—first as a pastor’s kid, then as a congregant, and then as a leader—I, too, have grown skeptical. When I hear people speak in glowing terms about their vision for community, I have my doubts. When they tell me about painful things that have happened to them in community, I am never surprised. How many of us have joined a church or some other kind of spiritually minded group in hopes of experiencing real care, connection and belonging, only to be disappointed? How often have we sat through inspiring sermons about what is possible when Christians gather together in mutually edifying relationships, only to recognize how cynical we have become after many failed attempts? Whether it’s an overtly religious group or not, there is something about human beings trying to get together and function together over the long haul that is just plain difficult.

There is another overpromised, underdelivered aspect of the church today that is equally disillusioning, and that is the promise of spiritual transformation. One of the great mysteries of my growing-up years as a pastor’s kid was watching the people in our church and noticing that some of them were just not changing. Many of them remained selfish, stuck in their ways (not to mention stuck in bad marriages and dysfunctional families) and spiritually lifeless—conditions that only seemed to worsen over time. Then, as I became a grown-up in the church, I sometimes noticed the same thing about myself! Even though I participated fully in the life of the community and served there faithfully, I too had to acknowledge that I was not changing. Although I could sometimes get better at controlling negative behavior and hiding my bad attitudes, I was not being transformed at the deepest levels of my being. I made the disheartening discovery that it is possible to hang around other Christians a lot, meet regularly for worship, study our Bibles, join a church and even call ourselves a community but not change at all in ways that count. Talk about an inconvenient truth!

The Promise of Spiritual Transformation

A recent Barna survey found that a majority of self-identified Christians today (52 percent) believe that there is much more to the Christian life than they have experienced, and 46 percent say their life has not changed at all as a result of going to church. What about you? Are you one of them? Do you ever let yourself imagine what it might be like to be part of a transforming community—rather than a deforming community—one in which people regularly and routinely experience real life change rather than staying stuck in their ways? Or in some deep, inarticulate place have you decided it’s too much to hope for?

But no matter how cynical we have become, the promise that we—sin-scarred human beings that we are—can become like Christ is one of the great promises of the gospel (e.g., Galatians 4:19). Salvation is not merely about knowing where we are going when we die; it is also about the possibility of kingdom living here and now. It is about being fundamentally changed in the depths of our being so that the will of God can be done in our lives on earth as it is in heaven.

Spiritual transformation is the process by which Christ is formed in us—for the glory of God, for the abundance of our own lives and for the sake of others; it results in an increasing capacity to discern and do the will of God. Spiritual transformation in the lives of redeemed people is a testimony to the power of the gospel; indeed, it is an act of worship in which our very lives testify or ascribe worth to the One who made us, who calls us by name and redeems us for his purposes. For all these reasons and more, spiritual transformation iscentral to the message of the gospel and therefore central to the mission of the church.

As fundamental and essential as it is, spiritual transformation is also something of a paradox. It is natural for Christ-followers to grow and change, just as it is natural for human beings to grow from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood. The seed of the Christ-life (“everything we need for life and godliness”) is planted within us at salvation, and if the conditions are right, that seed will grow and flourish. At the same time, the process of transformation is also supernatural in that it is something only God can accomplish in our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is one of the great mysteries of our faith that takes place in and through the Trinity, as God transforms us into the image of Christ through the real presence of the Holy Spirit. We can find ways to be open to this miraculous work of God, but we cannot control it or make it happen—in ourselves or anyone else. The wind of the Spirit blows where it wills.

And yet even though we cannot transform ourselves, there is something we can do: we can create the conditions in which spiritual transformation takes place. That is where spiritual disciplines come in. Spiritual disciplines are concrete activities we can engage in for the purpose of making ourselves available to God for the work only God can do. Some of those disciplines take place as we are alone with God in solitude. Others take place in community with other Christ-followers—which is the topic of this book. And still others take place in the world beyond the community as we share our faith, serve the poor, show compassion, work for justice and seek reconciliation. These disciplines or practices are what Paul was referring to when he appealed to the Christians in Rome to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). He was simply talking about finding ways to surrender to God in every aspect of life—not just in theory but in reality.

Participating intentionally and meaningfully in transforming community is one of those ways.

The Power of Community

Spiritual transformation takes place incrementally over time with others in the context of disciplines and practices that open us to God. In general, while we are still on this earth, our transformation will happen by degrees (2 Corinthians 3:18), and we need each other in order to grow (1 Corinthians 12).

Paul’s teachings on spiritual growth and transformation in Romans 12 and other epistles are always given in the context of community—the body of Christ with its many members. He waxes eloquent about the fact that we are given to one another for mutual edification, to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Our spiritual gifts are not given to us for our own benefit; they are given to the body of Christ so that together we can be all we are meant to be. In community, others become “agents of God’s troubling grace” for our further growth and transformation, and we become the same for them; as each part functions properly, it “promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love” (Ephesians 4: 15-16).1 As Robert Mulholland writes, “We can no more be conformed to the image of Christ outside corporate spirituality than a coal can continue to burn outside of the fire.”2

In this way we begin to see that transformation and community are integrally related. It is the lack of spiritual transformation within individuals and systems that causes communities to falter and sometimes implode or explode. And it is the lack of community—a privatized approach to transformation that fails to see other people as necessary instruments of God’s grace—that limits the work of transformation in our lives. If we can bring these two dynamics together in transforming community, a spontaneous combustion will begin to take place. But given what we have so often witnessed in Christian communities, how does the possibility of transformation in community become the reality in our settings?

Finding Our Way

Transforming community begins to emerge as we establishshared understandingabout what spiritual transformation is, developshared languagefor talking about and encouraging one another in the process, and embrace ashared commitmentto arranging our lives for spiritual transformation. This involves so much more than adding a program or offering an elective class, and it doesn’t happen by accident. In a transforming community, the value and the priority of spiritual transformation is taught, discussed and lived out in large groups and in small groups, in families and among friends, in formal Christian education settings and informal conversations. It becomes central to the life of the community, just as eating and breathing are essential to life in a physical body. Structured opportunities and appropriate resources are offered, while at the same time there is great reverence and respect for the spontaneous bubbling up of the Spirit’s work in people’s lives.

Becoming a transforming community involves having real guidance in the attitudes, practices and behaviors that open us to the transforming presence of Christ in our midst. And that’s where a book like this comes in. Life Together in Christ is an interactive guide for small groups of people who are ready to get personal and practical about experiencing transformation together. Hopefully there are pastors and leaders in the community who are preaching and casting vision for transforming community—assuring us that such things are possible; however, it is also understood that certain kinds of growth, attention and support can only take place in smaller settings where relationships are being cultivated for this purpose—small groups that meet in homes, Christian education settings, boards and ministry teams, mission groups and the like. Rather than being required to have such experiences, people are drawn in or invited into these opportunities on the basis of shared desire.

This book is designed to function on two levels at once—both personal and communal. You will notice that there are text boxes throughout each chapter; their content is designed to spark individuals’ personal reflection. Group members may want to start a notebook or a journal for recording these thoughts, prayers and reflections. Then at the end of each chapter there is a section titled “On the Road Together” that is designed for group process and interactions. These will include some combination of discussion questions, spiritual exercises, practices and prayers that the group will engage in together when members gather. This interactive process will work best if individuals are able carve out time to read and reflect on the content of each chapter before the group meeting so they will be prepared to engage fully, contributing thoughtfully and substantively to the group process.

The Emmaus Road as a Model

The New Testament account of two disciples who were finding their way home from Jerusalem to Emmaus following the most traumatic weekend of their lives is a compelling example of how we can experience transforming community in the most unexpected places. Life Together in Christ will unpack this story, found in Luke 24, piece by piece, drawing attention to many of the community practices that enable us to open to Christ together—choosing to walk together; welcoming the stranger; practicing hospitality; paying attention to our deepest hopes and desires; experiencing prayer, worship and teaching as communal disciplines; breaking bread together; practicing discernment; and bearing witness. Be assured that we will do more than just think about the dynamic possibilities contained within these practices; we will actually experience them for ourselves.

Along the way, we will discover that our spiritual transformation is not for ourselves alone. It is both an end in itself—because human beings who are becoming like Christ bring glory to God—and a means to other ends having to do with sharing our faith and engaging the larger human community in Jesus’ name. Communities that gather in Christ’s name to be Christ’s presence in the world will order their lives in such a way that they actually can experience the abundant life Jesus promises and thus bear witness in the world around them. Anything less just will not do.

Ultimately, the presence that transforms is not ours, nor is it that of the other person we encounter. The transformational presence is that of the One who is with us in the encounter.

David Benner

As we are changed into more loving, surrendered Christ-­followers, we become the presence of Christ in the world that God loves and sent his only Son to save. We are able to join others on whatever hard road they are traveling and discern loving, God-guided response to their need. We learn that, indeed, all true Christian spiritual formation is for the glory of God, for the abundance of our own lives and for the sake of others, or it is not Christian formation. With the apostle Paul we affirm, “It is [Christ] whom we proclaim, . . . teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature [fully formed] in Christ. For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me” (Colossians 1:28-29).

Choosing to Walk the Road Together

Before choosing to get on the road together, your group will do well to discuss some of the ideas presented in this introduction and consider whether embarking on an intentional journey of transformation in community is something you want to explore. To start, reflect together on the opening illustrations and comments on “the most overpromised, underdelivered” aspects of the church today. Do you agree? Disagree? What have your past experiences of community and spiritual transformation been? How have these experiences affected you?

Do you ever let yourself imagine what it might be like to be part of a transforming community? What would you give to experience that, or does it even matter to you right now? Is there any way in which you have given up?

How do you respond to the statement that “spiritual transformation is central to the message of the gospel and therefore central to the mission of the church”? Do you agree? Disagree? How does this motivate you (or not) to participate in a transforming community?

I have provided many scriptural references to offer a basic biblical and theological perspective on transformation, its centrality to the gospel, the role of the Trinity and in particular the Holy Spirit, the natural and supernatural aspects of it, the role of spiritual disciplines, the necessity of community, and its being for the sake of others. Take time to actually read the Scriptures cited here; if you would like a more complete listing of Scripture passages on spiritual transformation, see appendix A. How do you respond to these scriptural truths? Which ones inspire you? Which create more questions? What are you most interested in exploring further, alone or as a group?

What is your level of enthusiasm for and commitment to experiencing the practices related to experiencing transformation in community?

Be sure to discuss these questions together before going on.

1

BETWEEN THE NOW AND THE NOT YET

Choosing to Walk Together

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened . . .

Luke 24:13-14

What do you think of when you think of community? I’m serious. I want you to stop and think about what comes to your mind when you hear or see the word community. Do you see visions of backyard barbecues with adults talking and laughing easefully while children play in the yard? Earnest Christians sitting in well-appointed living rooms with coffee poured and Bibles open, searching the Scriptures? Do you see people caring for one another in times of crisis—meals brought when someone is sick, a pastor rushing to the bedside of a dying church member, childcare and other kinds of support offered when needed?

How about accountability groups where people confess their struggles with sin and check in with one another regularly about how it’s going? Or support groups gathering on the basis of affinity around issues like gender, marital status, life stage, various addictions or even a desire to lose weight? Maybe a community group of neighbors rallying together to lobby and raise money for improvements in their neighborhood or precinct?

Another possibility is that when you think of community you are flooded with painful memories—a church split you got caught up in, a small group that fell apart because of a disagreement or an unresolved conflict, a denomination that couldn’t resolve theological differences and splintered, a pastor who preached convincingly about community but then failed to live it out with his or her own community, a factious elder group or ministry board that stood publicly for Christian ideals but failed to practice them privately. Perhaps you have had a painful falling out with a close neighbor about a matter of shared concern, and even though you attempted to work things out, you are still in deep disagreement. Just living on the same street is now awkward and difficult—you find yourselves ducking quickly into your respective homes so as to avoid contact.

If any of these have been your experience, you may have quietly settled into a state of cynicism, going through the motions of being friendly in community contexts but knowing in the deep places of your heart that you have given up.

For Personal Reflection

What comes to your mind when you think of the word community? What experiences have shaped you?

When the Wish Dream Dies

The scenarios described above conjure up either pleasant or disturbing images of what can happen—the good, the bad and the ugly—when human beings come together on the basis of a shared cause or some kind of natural affinity. But clearly that’s not enough. While all of the experiences highlighted in the first two paragraphs can be wonderful and important aspects of community life, none of them capture what community really is.

It seems that one of the main reasons we are confused about community is that we make it primarily about us—our experiences and feelings, our natural affinities, our life situation, what we think we want or need, or some vision of what we’re going to accomplish together. We labor under the mistaken idea that we can create community through something we bring to the table—casting a compelling vision, developing the right curriculum or plan, choosing the latest, greatest Bible study guide, training and supporting small group leaders just so, coming up with good icebreaker questions, creating a “safe” environment—and then we are disappointed when things fall apart or relationships fail to satisfy.

Ironically, such experiences of disappointment seem to be neces­­sary in order for us to learn what the essence of life together in Christ really is. In fact, German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer states boldly that the sooner our “wish dream” about what community should be is shattered, the better it is for everyone.

Innumerable times a whole Christian community has been broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream . . . but God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.1

I have to admit that my first impulse on reading this particular passage was a strong desire to throw the book against the wall. (Clearly, I was still a bit too attached to my wish dream.) But as I settled down, ruminated over it a bit more and endured a few more death blows to my own wish dreams, Bonhoeffer’s statements began to make sense. Christian community is not and never can be about us. When our dreams and convictions about what we think community should be are dashed against the jagged reef of human limitations and failure to live up to one another’s needs and expectations, then and only then are we ready to accept the fact that Christian community is not about us at all. It is about the transforming presence of Christ—all he will do in and through and for each of us.

In the end, the death of our wish dream is really an occasion for great hope. As Bonhoeffer goes on to say, “Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother [or sister] becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together. . . . When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship.”2

This is exactly where we find the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Their “wish dream” about what life together with Christ was going to be like had vanished—violently ripped from them—and now a new day was dawning on a future they could not yet comprehend.

Between the Now and the Not Yet

The biblical account of this story begins with two dazed and distraught disciples traveling along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was Sunday, the third day of the most traumatic weekend of their lives, and they were on a roller coaster of emotion. On Friday these disciples along with many others had witnessed the painful, humiliating and violent death of their beloved leader, teacher and friend. That night and through the day on Saturday they sat with each other in utter despair. And now, on this day, a glimmer of hope had been introduced into the situation.

Some of the women in their group had visited the tomb in which their leader had been buried and found it empty. There was talk of resurrection, but it was too soon to tell whether it was a miracle or just a hoax of some sort. They had hung around in waiting mode as long as they could, and now it was time to get back to real life. Their dream of what the kingdom of God would look like as it had emerged from their little community, the hopes and dreams on which they had oriented the last three years of their lives, the vision that had caused them to give up fishing and tax collecting and the like in order to commit themselves to following Jesus—it was all gone. Each one who had been part of the community of Jesus now had to come to terms with life on the other side of the death of their wish dream. They had to figure out what to live for now that the vision that had brought order and purpose to their lives was no more.

Not knowing what else to do, Cleopas and an unnamed disciple were wandering home, trying to make sense of it all. They were suspended somewhere between loss and possible gain, grief and possible joy, profound human suffering and perhaps some kind of redemption, dashed hopes and maybe daring to hope again. They were wrung out—emotionally, spiritually and physically. They had been powerless to prevent the events of the last days, and they were power­­less now to do anything to change their situation. The road from Jerusalem to Emmaus was the road between the now and the not yet.

Although they were probably not aware of it, these disciples were in what Richard Rohr calls “liminal space”—a particular spiritual position where human beings hate to be, but where the biblical God is always leading them. The Latin root limen literally means “threshold,” referring to that needed transition when we are moving from one place or one state of being to another.3 Liminal space usually induces some sort of inner crisis: you have left the tried and true (or it has left you), and you have not yet been able to replace it with anything else.

This is Abraham leaving his home country and his father’s house for a land he did not yet know.

It is Joseph in the pit.

It is the Israelites wandering in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.

It is Jonah in the belly of the fish.

It is Mary weeping at Jesus’ tomb.

It is the disciples huddled in the upper room.

It is Cleopas and the unnamed disciple on the Emmaus Road betwixt and between the life they had known and whatever was supposed to come next.

This was a time for intimate emotions and dangerous questions. Maybe something new and wonderful was in the works, but who knew? And just when they had gotten about the business of trying to adjust to their new normal, they were unnerved by the unexpected, pushed off center by intimations of the unimaginable.

Thank God they had each other!

Finding Ourselves on the Road

I am intrigued by the fact that the second disciple on the Emmaus Road is not named. Even though it’s fun to speculate (some think the unnamed disciple was Cleopas’s wife; others think it was Luke, who is attempting not to draw attention to himself), I prefer to leave it alone. The fact that we don’t know who the second disciple was means it is easier for us to find ourselves on this familiar road. For you see, all of us are on our own Emmaus Road—somewhere between the now and the not yet—in some area of our lives.