I apologize for taking such a loooong time between posts. And this has been sitting on my other computer for a while – don’t ask me why. But non-coincidently, we happen to be talking about Acts 2 in church these last few weeks. So it’s time.
What is it about the gathering, the ekklesia (church)? We have that really strange passage in Acts 2 which tells of people from different nations all understanding one another, actually hearing each other in their own language with tongues of fire over their heads, and the even stranger phenomenon of sharing all they had in common. Was that a unique happening in time or does it tell us (we who gather because we follow Jesus) something more about ourselves?
Jesus said, I will build my Church. What exactly is He building? Surely it is something beyond our orders of worship, liturgies, styles and creed wars. And of course there’s important stuff there, to be sure. But there is something both amusing and profound about the words of atheist Matt Casper who visited churches (to be a mystery shopper for “Jim and Casper Go to Church”) and asked, “Did Jesus really ask you to do this?” Even more than how we do church – whether we are liturgical, missional or a good ol’ fashioned bible preachin’ church, mainline or a hyphenated emergent hybrid, is the deeper question of identity. The question is, who are we beyond that stuff?
It’s not merely the identification made through creed or by ritual. By saying merely, I don’t mean that there is not something significant about identifying with this group that is literally called a Body through a confession of faith and/or Baptism. These things do mark a turning of heart and help us step into our new skin. They make a statement to the community – I am, too! A sweet memory for our church was a baptism service last summer, out in a park in the beautiful Colorado foothills. It was truly a communal event with all of us gathered, and even the local fire department helped by filling our little pool for us. One man declared before he was dunked to the depths, “I believe, yet I doubt. I doubt and I say yes.” We wept and gasped and applauded. He spoke all of our hearts out loud. It was a powerful reminder to us who stood as witnesses, that this mystery that we join is far beyond the grasp of our minds, yet our hearts yearn and so we say “Yes.” And these rituals also provide a point of remembrance when faith grows thin so we can return to a place of encounter with the Holy, where we are reborn again and again.
However, the Gathering is more than just a group of those who have been baptized or passed through rites as if we are a club. It is more than a group of folks who hunker down together to feel persecuted by those out there who do not share our values. It is more than being about planting a stake in the ground of truth and telling everyone else what they are doing wrong. It is more than a group of those who believe they share an eternal destiny. There is a specialness to it but not the specialness created by exclusion. Most of those who read this blog are already in agreement here.
There is something powerful about the Gathering. I am using the phrase “something about” because this Gathering is one of those things that once you think you’ve defined and captured it, you open the box to take a peek and find that it has eluded you already. At the very least it seems to be a work that God is doing in us together. I believe that we are to use our creativity to join Him in what it is He is doing. And there’s that intriguing thing that Jesus says, “Whenever two or more gather together in my name, there I am in your midst.” There’s something about our coming together that re-members Jesus.
He is building a community to be sure. It’s something about lives interwoven and knit together. It’s something about being as incarnationally available to this world as He was and is. It’s something about Kingdom now, a mystery hinted at by Jesus. So, what is unique about this community that cannot be created other than by the hands of God Himself? What in the church today reflects this? I’d love to hear others’ ideas on this. I will be exploring some of the concepts above in the days/weeks to come.
The Gathering by Matthew Carone, 2000. Used with permission.
