Friday 24 October 2008

I find this to be a good way to bring the week to an end - again by Stanley Hauerwas.

The church is not the kingdom but the foretaste of the kingdom. For it is in the church that the narrative of God is lived in a way that makes the kingdom visible. The church must be the clear manifestation of a people who have learned to be a peace with themselves, one another, the stranger, and of course, most of all, God. There can be no sanctification of individuals without a sanctified people. We need examples and masters, and if we are without either, the church cannot exist as a people who are pledged to be different from the world.

We use the word "foretaste" quite a bit. Most often it is when we sing or speak of the "foretaste of the feast to come" as we consider our experience at the Lord's Table. Then again, we are not merely looking at this meal. We are considering in our singing and speaking the reality of a people whose life "together" is a living sign - an example - a vision of how our God is made manifest within our lives. It is always in the community that is gathered in worship and in the world. The life of the Reign of God is the life that we put a face to as we are led out into this day in the way our Lord moved on to Jerusalem and death and was raised with a resounding Easter "Yes!" The foretaste is not the full taste...but it is there always available...a taste. As is noted above, that taste comes as a peace that is alive and spreading in and through all things. The taste is the church as life.

Connection: Don't get upset with the stumbling we so often see in the church and in our individual lives. We are stumbling because we dare to be something new and we do not have that down perfectly. Rather today is a day to exercise whose we are...stumble a bit but always be a part of that "foretaste."

You, O God, abide with us through all our days and we are invited to dance to the music of your gracious Reign. Keep your songs of grace whipping around us so that we will in all the times of this day remember to dance within your Reign today. Amen.