As I am away from the people that make up my community in Raleigh, I am able to reflect on that fellowship of believers. Also, I've begun reading Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which is absolutely fantastic (thanks Rob). Both have allowed me to dwell on the concept of fellowship and to appreciate the community that God has given me. As most of us head into the new semester, it seems that we should take time to praise God for the community he has given us. In Raleigh, our community group is a fellowship of believers that is pursuing Christ. Though we may all be at different stages, or going through various trials, I have seen that the hearts in that group desire to pursue Christ. This should overwhelm each of us. In fact, I'm getting pretty emotional right now thinking about everyone (Although, the fact that I'm listening to hymns, Joshua Radin, and Iron & Wine might also have something to do with it). Bonhoeffer said in his book, “So between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.” Paul writes of living together in peace through the Spirit in Ephesians 4. At the time, he was in prison, so he absolutely knew that community was a blessing to praise God for. We should praise God every time we come together simply because he allows us to know each other.
This is not a naive or overly idealistic notion. Our community is pursuing Christ, and many others are as well. The idealism comes in when we think that our group should look/behave in a certain way, even if that way is based in good intentions, for, "By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world… Only that fellowship which faces disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it" (Bonhoeffer). Our community is constantly in flux. Some are going through trials, or wandering through the desert, while others are able to swim in the word and his goodness continually and passionately. Praise God that this should happen! Not just because eventually our stages will change and others will need our support, but because it illuminates that Christ alone is all that can support fellowship. "If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ" (Bonhoeffer). I am certainly guilty of this. Looking for the "right" amount of Bible study or fellowship during our time together. Invariably, this drives my heart away from God's will and towards my own. Christ is all that allows a community to grow, or even exist. As Ephesians 2: 20-22 communicates, we are being "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." To quote Bonhoeffer again, “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.”
So as we all look to this next semester, it may be our inclination (it's certainly mine) to achieve Christ-centered community. By the grace of God, that will not happen. Since the group's inception, and since I've been attending, God has used the people in our community group to glorify his name above all else. There has absolutely been trials and frustration, and I'm fairly confident we have all been hurt in some way. This will continue to happen. God is leading this group; not that we would know comfort, but that we would know his glory and absolutely depend on him.
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