8 March 2006

Paul's pastoral word to the church is a part of the "othering" Brueggemann describes in "The Covenanted Self."

The Church...is not and should not be a community of many rules. On the "liberty of the Christian person," Paul is largely without scruples. At least here, "Be free in the gospel." The problem of course is that such freedom taken by itself characteristically works to the advantage of the stronger party, and if in the exercise of such freedom somebody else gets hurt, that tough.
Except that Paul's pastoral sensitivity curbs such gospel-given freedom. The curb is the conscience of the other member. Or more covenantally, the curb is the well-being of the community, before which the liberated and strong must yield to the membership, a membership that defines even the strong and the liberated. Thus the reality of the community comes before any liberty, and certainly before the liberty of any autonomous individual.

Reading this piece strikes right at the center of so much of how I have come to see the congregation on the very local level and then the larger denomination on the other. There will and there must be a tension among us at all times so that everyone in the community is honored in such a way that the welfare of the community is not jeopardized. The freedom of the gospel must never be limited. It must be preached. It must be taught. It must be shown to be a living reality. But then...within such freedom there is the freedom to step down or step to the side or to stand up and give a seat to one who needs it more than me. Is it the love of God in Christ, Jesus, that becomes the love of the community of saints that inspires us to allow curbs to this freedom? Can it be that the curbs put in place in one time may be removed in another...and new ones put in place? This is where the pastoral sensitivity comes into play and, I think, this is why it is so important for pastors to understand the immensity of the freedom within the church, to never stop preaching its life, and to always be willing to prayerfully look again at whether or not a particular situation in a congregation needs to change. The pastor must then be the one who teaches and leads the people into and through that freedom and then right into the middle of a pastoral community in which we love one another. This love carries us into the experience of justice and mercy and the recognition of how varied the saints can be and how important it is for us to prayerfully contemplate the shape of the whole - for now.

Connection: Today it may be in the smallest task of the day or the most brief interaction with others that we are given the opportunity to really be free with our lives. So free, that we become slave to the other - for Christ's sake. It isn't always easy to discern when and how far we are to go. The tension must be there.

Within the freedom of the vision of your Blessed Reign, O God, you bind us together as one people. Therefore, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to aid us as we move within the many relationships we have in the church and in the world as we are your beloved children. Let your Spirit rest upon us. Amen.