To me it is amazing how the Christian church functions in the world or rather does not function and is in fact very dysfunctional when one thinks about it. We all tend to read the same set of scriptures although some interpretations are lacking and some translations appear to subscribe to the need to Europeanise everything to such an extent that it becomes pc. Yet there are more than 45,000 different Christian denominations throughout the world. If you think about it that is am amazing number and means that we have over 45,000 different interpretations of Christ's presence and God's presence few of which can agree and indeed many of which contradict each other creating chaos. In this situation how then can we truly say that we are Christians rather than followers of our own thoughts. We may be Anglicans and follow the Anglican trajectory but until we as Christians can put away our own thoughts we fail in the aspect of God that Christ shows and that is acceptance of the other in love.
Paul puts it neatly in the first letter to the Corinthians (12:4) when he uses the analogy of one spirit. It is one of the oldest analogies that we perhaps have of how an organisation should function in terms of its ministry with God. The issue for us is that we are only human and our perception of God varies depending on our society and how we have been brought up within that society. We are generally influenced by our parents and certainly by society as we grow up. In the early days of the Australian make up the idea of mateship was predominantly encouraged and displayed within society. This idea is often touted and certainly conformed to within rural communities more than the urban conglomerations that we find on the coasts. Yet, it is not something that we can connect with as an Australian thing in more recent times. There are plenty of examples from government interactions at State and Federal level as well as the general members of public from anti-vaxxers to faceless public who have no consideration for the other. We can see that Paul's further analogy of the body and Spirit is not working in the world today as we have forgotten in our greed the basis of how God's love works.
We are so filled with our own understanding of who we think we are that we are unable to contemplate a different way of doing things and yet our faith call is just that, a different way. Those who were called first were called the followers of the way because it was a way of being and doing. This is what we have forgotten over time as our way of thinking has changed beyond that which it was. Today, we analyse we do not allow our thoughts the freedom that was prevalent at the time of Christ. Those who we deride as weird artists or odd storytellers are all that is left of this understanding. For Christians who followed the way it was a no-brainer for community to form in honesty and in comradeship far beyond that which we can see in our towns and cities today. Christians lived their faith to the utmost. Christians portrayed their faith to the utmost. Normal people would consider it inconsiderate to deny sustenance to those in need. It would be abhorrent not to look after the sick and see to their needs. Today those who have control do not look after the needs of the people but rather prefer the people to expend their own energy and financial poverty to care for the sick amongst them. Surprisingly I have yet to hear a word from the leadership of the Church on what is deemed to be political but rather is a prime directive, so to speak in loving our neighbours.
It is when we begin to fulfil the analogy that Paul gives of one body and one Spirit that we will begin to understand what it means to shine the light of Christ into the world and demonstrate God's love to all our neighbours. It is only when we fully accept that we are part of one body and led by one Spirit that we begin to work towards the peace that is beyond our own understanding. We only start forming a community that is based on God's commandments when we fully accept that the gimp leg is still part of us and we cannot ostracise any person formed in God's image as we will be cutting of our limbs despite ourselves. We cannot deny someone if they are good at listening rather than doing or leading in a different manner to us because they are led by the Spirit. We cannot deny someone because they drink, even Christ enjoyed a good wine (Jn 2:1-11). Only when we truly understand what it means to love our neighbours as ourselves will we start to become a community raised in Christ's image.
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