The more I grow in my own faith, the more I recognize the immense importance of the community of Christians (the Communion of Saints). We recently celebrated in the church calendar the feast day of All Saints. It is one of my favorite feast days of the calendar and I always look forward to it as a day of remembrance and hope. A couple of weeks ago, for one of my classes, we visited a Lutheran Church in Lexington. After we had toured the nave and looked at the sanctuary, the pastor invited us to another room for a talk and discussion. Much of what he said I had heard or read before, but it was still nice to be reminded of things that I had already learned. However, as he was talking about the way their church takes Holy Communion he pointed out the altar rail that is located near their altar. The altar is located in the center of the sanctuary and is surrounded on three sides by the altar rail. The fourth side is left open so that the pastor can pass through to the altar. He told a story of a boy who was in the early stages of confirmation. The young boy told him one day that he now understood why the church had left that open space near the altar. Intrigued, the pastor asked him what his thoughts were. The young man replied, "That is where my grandmother comes to kneel when she takes communion." The pastor was blown away by the statement. The little one's grandmother had passed away over a year prior to this event. As the pastor reflected on this statement, the more he came to grips with its truth. Simply because we no longer see someone at the communion rail does not mean that that person is not a part of the body of Christ.
Another aspect of community that is becoming more real to me is how important it is to develop and grow a person into a faithful and strong person of the faith. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but in my household we have to continually remind, reprimand, and point our children in the right direction. We have to model mature behavior and live a life of honor in order for our children to come to understand what mature adults look like. Sometimes we succeed as parents; sometimes we fail. However, we always are being watched and emulated by our children. The church is the same way. As an individual believer you can only grow spiritually so far all by yourself. If you do not attend church, belong to a small group or two, or make the time to truly fellowship with other believers, your spiritual formation AND the spiritual formation of others will be grossly hindered.
One thing we have never had to teach any of our children is to be selfish and self-centered. They were born with that desire. What we have had to instill in them is to think about the rest of the family too. Will my action help, harm, or have a neutral effect on others? For example, we have finally got it across to the older three that if there is one item left on the supper table that they should ask others before they take it for themselves. That is the benefit of living in community. I believe the life and growth of our spirits is the same way. N.T. Wright puts it this way, "Christian leaders have been warned from the beginning that they were to act as examples (1 Tim. 4:12, Titus 2:7, Hebrews 13:7, 1 Peter 5:3.), and whether we like it or not (and many of us leaders are anxious about it), Christian folk--like our own blood-children--will tend to copy us." For better or worse we are placed together in this walk of faith. What are you doing to enhance others and their walk? What are you doing to imitate those who are deeply spiritual so that we too can imitate Christ? These questions are two sides of the same coin. As we are going we should make disciples. We should be doing both, learning and teaching, growing and planting, imitating and modeling. That is one of the reasons we are placed in a community of faith.
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