The love of community
I grew up sorrounded by two communities. One was an academic community--Wake Forest University. The other was more social--Reynolda Gardens. Reynolda Gardens was the estate of R.J. Reynolds, who developed a small community around his little hamlet in the woods of Winston-Salem, NC. I also grew up in a church. But that did not feel as substaintial as the others. That is ironic is it not. Once I became a Christian, through a conversion experience in 1997, I longed for the community that I grew up in. I looked everywhere. I finally went to Duke Divinity School, and under the guidance of Michael Battle, discovered what I had been yearning for--the community of God. As James Torrance says, in his majestic book, Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace--"At the center of the New Testament stands not our religious experience, not our faith or repentance or decision, however important these are, but a unique relationship between Jesus and the Father. Christ is presence to us as the Son living a life of communion with the Father, in the spirit."
The true community, which we are invited to join, is the community of the dancing trinity of grace.
That is abundant, life giving, and life sustaining. As Julian of Norwich says, "When I saw the cross, I saw the Trinity." Or, Gregory of Nazianzin said, "When I say God I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Therefore, as I went to Duke Divinity School, full of my experiences of God, I came out with a training that reminded me that experience is not the requirement for entrance into the very life of God. Rather, as Christians, we are blessed by the posisbility of entering into the mutual loving relationship between the father and the son. And thus, the pressure is off of me. The beauty is within God, not me. We are then changed, into the image of God, not by our own devices, but through living inside of the glorious reltionship of the trinity. And finally, my understnading of worship started to change as I started to realize the heart of God. I now believe that all worship is the gift of participating through the spirit in the incarnate Son's communion with the Father. Therefore, Christian worship is trinitarian. Worship is then about getting captured by that intimacy and life giving relationship between each member of the divine trinity. And, this is a gift that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. We add nothing to God by worshipping Him. We are simply changed. For me, this change often occurs in community with others. For instance, this picture is of Mepkin Abbey, a place that has deeply formed me into a person of effection for the incarnation of God in Christ.
The true community, which we are invited to join, is the community of the dancing trinity of grace.
That is abundant, life giving, and life sustaining. As Julian of Norwich says, "When I saw the cross, I saw the Trinity." Or, Gregory of Nazianzin said, "When I say God I mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Therefore, as I went to Duke Divinity School, full of my experiences of God, I came out with a training that reminded me that experience is not the requirement for entrance into the very life of God. Rather, as Christians, we are blessed by the posisbility of entering into the mutual loving relationship between the father and the son. And thus, the pressure is off of me. The beauty is within God, not me. We are then changed, into the image of God, not by our own devices, but through living inside of the glorious reltionship of the trinity. And finally, my understnading of worship started to change as I started to realize the heart of God. I now believe that all worship is the gift of participating through the spirit in the incarnate Son's communion with the Father. Therefore, Christian worship is trinitarian. Worship is then about getting captured by that intimacy and life giving relationship between each member of the divine trinity. And, this is a gift that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. We add nothing to God by worshipping Him. We are simply changed. For me, this change often occurs in community with others. For instance, this picture is of Mepkin Abbey, a place that has deeply formed me into a person of effection for the incarnation of God in Christ.
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