Life Together

The second week of the semester, I decided I would try (try) not to compete with my classmates, but seek instead to mutually encourage and support one another for the greatest good of the whole. In other words, myself and many other students have were intentional early on about forming (here's the buzz word) community. We were inspired by John Macmurray's (moral philosophy professor at Edinburgh) contrast of community of with society, as communicated by his student, James Torrance. According to Macmurray, society is "a collection of individuals indirectly related to one another by law, by employment, by contract to meet needs (economic, financial, physical, etc.)." Community, on the other hand, he defined as "a group of persons in relation, directly related by love." Brilliant.

In my first couple months here at Beeson, I am pleased to say I have developed community with the other first-year students, some of whom are single, some married (most are single), some of whom are younger than me, some older (most are younger). Community is not always (perhaps not often) easy. There are disagreements and people I don't always care for and times I want to be alone, but a commitment to love in the midst of these things is what separates community from mere friendships. This intentional community has spread to include others not in their first year, especially my roommates. Other students and professors are noticing the tight-knit bonds forming already between my class. As we embark on three years of grueling grad school studies together, it's nice to have a group that's going through the same things,the same joys and frustrations. We have set time aside to meet on Thursday nights for conversation, pints and pipes (though I only engage in the first two, and some only engage in the first one). I pray this will be edifying both as we prepare for a lifetime of ministry and as we face the troubles that come with such a life.

I can't imagine a more significant or timeless book on community than Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, which is mandatory reading for our Spiritual Formation class. I've admittedly developed a man-crush on Bonhoeffer over the last couple months for the radical Christ-centeredness in the thinking and writing, living and dying. He is the man famous for saying, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die!" And he did at the hands of the Nazis in 1945. (I talk about him because I realize many are not familiar with Bonhoeffer and I this is sad; please take the time to read about his life, death and maybe a book or two of his.) In the opening pages of Life Together, Bonhoeffer makes a most inspiring and challenging case as to the necessity of Christians to live together in community if they are going to take seriously the call of the Kingdom:

It is not simply to be taken for granted that the Christian has the privilege of living among other Christians. Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. (Quoting Luther:) "The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people...If Christ had done what you are doing, who would ever have been spared?"

Bonhoeffer then explains that God's people are scattered throughout the world, united in the death and resurrection of Christ, and the hope of his return, at which point we shall be "gathered from the four winds" (Matt. 24:31).

Until then, God's people remain scattered, held together solely in Jesus Christ, having become one in the fact that, dispersed among unbelievers, they remember Him in the far countries. 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. It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God's Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing.

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1) I am privileged to have community in Birmingham that is directly related by love, Christ's love, for I need other believers if I am to remain faithful in sharing the gospel of Christ to a world that doesn't know they don't care about it. Thanks be to God!