More with "The Servant Community" by Stanley Hauerwas.
We have see that the content of Christian ethics involves claims about a kingdom. Therefore the first words about the Christian life are about a life together, not about the individual. This kingdom sets the standard for the life of the church, but the life of the kingdom is broader than even that of the church. For the church does not possess Christ; his presence is not confined to the church. Rather it is in the church that we learn to recognize Christ's presence outside the church.
It is very easy to stop short of pressing on within the vision of the Reign of God. This Reign or Kingdom is really what we preach and teach. It is not something unrelated to who we are and what we are becoming. It is quite the opposite. It is the shape of our relating...the shape of how we go through the day...the shape of how we set up life in, with, and under the world. Obviously it involves individual lives and individual actions. At the same time, it is always with the notion of community being central to how we go about the life within this Reign. I found the last line of this comment by Hauerwas to be important for us when we, as church, look again at what it means to follow Jesus: "it is in the church that we learn to recognize Christ's presence outside the church." Is it that this Christ is always the one who is pulling us beyond ourselves and into relationship so that we are constantly having to face the wideness of God' Reign? Is it that we can be so short-sighted we do not see our Lord out and about with those we would not claim to be one of us?
Connection: Life together...defines the Christ within us. So there within this day - and the life all around us - we are given the opportunity to enter into the life of the fullness of the body of Christ.
When you call us to follow, O God, you ask us to move out from the world's we like to create for ourselves so that we can experience the world as you have created it for all your beloved. Help us to lift up our eyes and re-view this day and those all around us...re-view all things within the creative vision of your gracious Reign. Amen.
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