Previous Post – The Book of James – Part 8

At Little Flowers Community small group earlier this year, we went through Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together”, which was simultaneously trying, frustrating and incredibly encouraging.  While much could be said about the book, our group really found themselves in engaged in the following section (here is segments):

“Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community… Such people are bringing confused and tainted desires into the Christian community. Precisely at this point Christian community is most often threatened from the very outset by the greatest danger… the danger of confusing Christian community with some wishful image of pious community, the danger of blending the devout heart’s natural desire for community with the spiritual reality of Christian community…  Only that community which enters into the experience of this great disillusionment with all its unpleasant and evil appearances begins to be what it is should be in God’s sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it…  Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.  Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves.”

This really concerned our group, because we are all very passionate about our faith and our life together as His Body.  In the sense that we all have very high hopes and expectations for Little Flowers and our place in this inner city neighbourhood, we are all very idealistic.  While I don’t Bonhoeffer would outright dismiss all of this as dangerous idealism, his words do apply and carry with them a serious warning for us.  When he talks about idealism here, I believe Bonhoeffer is referring to expectations for community that deny our current state of being, both specifically in context and as people impacted by the brokenness of sin.  It is characterized by those who have their idea of the end product in mind and make no room for any other outcomes.  When people don’t meet their expectations, they are angry, disillusioned and confused.

I do not believe that Bonhoeffer is suggesting that, as Christian communities, we are not to have hopes in mind, even direction to move towards.  His writing on the Sermon on the Mount clearly indicates that Christians are called to pursue very radical lives of love and service.  Yet, like Jesus makes clear in the Sermon on the Mount, it is a journey in the midst of our own sinfulness and therefore we can only measure our “success” by our faithfulness and obedience, even in repenting our failings.  Further, that hope which we pursue is not an idea, but Christ.  What are call to become cannot be characterized apart from the person of Jesus, in whose image we are being formed.  And that transformation, while participated in by us with God, is not within our power to achieve, but is only possible through the cross and the miraculous grace of Christ.

This truth has much to say about what it means to be missional.  Missional communities are some of the most passionate and creative groups I have come across.  They are driven by an image of what things could be- should be- and are willing to work hard to see those visions become reality.  They understand that following Jesus is a costly and demanding vocation goes against the expectations of the world (and often even the wider Christian culture).  They truly link the nature and character and life of Christ to the nature and character and life that we, the Church, are meant to embody.

Little Flowers Community has always sought to be that kind of missional-incarnational community.  And I confess that I have let my passion for this go too far at times, thinking that we would prove ourselves a real missional community by achieving some measure of external success in respect to our impact and ministry in the neighbourhood.  While some of that was fueled by my own pride, my desire to prove to the naysayers that we are a “real church” (because we have been told on several occasions that we are not), but it has mainly been fueled by a deep desire to see people find freedom from sin and genuine identity together as Christ’s Body, actively continuing His mission to the world.  And when I don’t measure up or when people don’t “get it” or when complacency or sin creeps into the fold, I get frustrated and despairing.  When the “workers are few” and I find myself at the edge of exhaustion and fear of burn out (as I am close to now), I get resentful and discouraged.

Now I do not want to gloss over the complexity and tension of these situations.  After all, it is justifiably frustrating when fellow Christians from  large suburban churches take the wind out of the sails of young, inner city Christians by condescendingly dismissing their identity as a “real church”.  We are called to grieve the brokenness of sin in the world and to pursue with love all those who have wandered from God’s grace.  It is a truly lamentable reality that those communities most in need of God just and merciful touch are also the one facing the greatest leadership challenges and funding issues.  None of these realities should be ignored or denied.  This is not what Bonhoeffer is suggesting either.

However, when our expectations and ideals don’t allow for these realities, we face the risk of destroying ourselves and our communities as a result.  As we have been working our way through the Epistle of James, I have been encouraged at how the author doesn’t find contradiction between the high standard of obedience we are called to and the difficult realities that we must expect as followers of Christ.  We need to learn to live in the tension between eschatological  hope and persevering in the present, between the Kingdom breaking through into the present and the understanding that what we see now is only in part.  When we seek to live missionally and call others to do so, we must be ever honest with this dynamic.  We must live in grace in the present reality of our imperfect pursuit of Christ, not as compromise, but as humility.

This is a lesson I need to learn again.  I find myself discouraged.  I find myself overwhelmed by the demands of life and ministry in our troubled (but beautiful) inner city neighbourhood.  I know that in order to grow and mature as a community that we need more consistent, stable and seasoned maturity and leadership, without which (at this pace) I fear I’ll hit a wall in the near future.  Again, I am not denying these challenges nor their need to be genuinely addressed (and soon), but rather I must persevere and let go of any idealism that places greater value in the outcomes than on God and the people He has simply called me to love, even in my inadequacies and imperfection.

Missional living is by no stretch easy.  It is not meant to be.  It is a life that is born out of a death, death on the cross of Christ.  However, as we realize that the gift of grace and love from God is not a result of merits, but entirely a reflection of His perfect nature, we can begin to learn to sow the seeds in obedience and leave the fruit for God to produce.