Copyright 2010 by Merwyn S. Johnson. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Christianity faces a dire situation today. The modern, secular World, created largely by the Christian West, has “come of age” (Bonhoeffer). People confidently believe they can meet their own emotional, physical, and spiritual needs very well without divine assistance. For such a culture, the Church is useless, and dispensable. From where, then, does authentic Christian community come, what holds it together, and what keeps it going? As God’s creation, the Christian community finds its authenticity in God or not at all.
This essay makes three points. (1) Authentic Christian community hinges on Jesus Christ, (2) quick fixes for dealing with a declining situation won’t work; in his own unique person, (3) Christ brings otherwise self-isolated, unique individuals together.
ONE
Faced with the “world come of age” in turbulent Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer affirmed simply: Jesus Christ is the reality of God with us (Matt. 1:23). All Christians, says Bonhoeffer, take their cues from Christ, through Christ, and in Christ.
From Christ. Life with God comes only from Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate. The Word of God pronounces us guilty before God when we don’t feel guilty, and right-eous before God when we don’t feel righteous. God has put this Word of salvation and life into the mouths of others. “Therefore,” says Bonhoeffer, “Christians need other Christians who speak God’s Word to them. … They need them solely for the sake of Jesus Christ. The Christ in their own hearts is weaker than the Christ in the word of other Christians. Their own hearts are uncertain; those of their brothers and sisters are sure.”1
Through Christ. Christians come to one another only through Jesus Christ. Reconciling us with God, Christ also reconciles us to one another. Christ binds us to forgive those whom he has forgiven, love those whom he loves, serve those whom he serves, and live with those who live with him. Christ thus mediates our relationships with others.
By contrast, the human ideal of relationship pursues direct, person-to-person, unmediated love, intimacy, and trust. “God’s grace quickly frustrates all such dreams,” says Bonhoeffer.2 For, if we can attain these ideals on our own, we put ourselves in the place of God. Authentic Christian community is grounded in God’s love, defined by Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Spirit (I John 4).
In Christ. Our life together takes place in Christ. Christ defines the Church by his life, death, and resurrection. The Church does not thus embody Christ, as if we could incarnate Christ’s divinity or perfect humanity. Christ “in us” is not the aim of salvation. Christ lives “in us” so that we may live more fully “in Christ.” In Christ we fellowship with GOD up to and including eternal life. In Christ we fellowship with all others who are “in Christ,” past, present, and future. In Christ we participate in a mystical community that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Christ stands at the center of the Church, her worship. Christ forms, transforms, and re-forms Christians together, wherever, empowered by the Spirit, the Word is preached and the Sacraments are celebrated, based on the Scriptures. There Jesus Christ himself stands before us and speaks to us his life-giving Word.
Christ also stands at the center of the World. No matter how undeveloped, disfigured, or depraved humans may be, each person brings us face-to-face with the image of God recreated in Jesus Christ. God’s claim upon our lives thus comes to us with every person we meet, and the way we respond is the way we deal with Jesus Christ.
TWO
Faced with a de facto cultural disestablishment of Christianity, what are we to do? We seemingly have no ground to stand on. Three quick fixes lie close by.
Quick Fix One. Without culture supports, why not dispense with the trappings of organized religion as well? Why not start with a blank sheet of paper and cultivate an authentic, individual, inner spirituality? Then we can dispense with formal worship, organization, rules, doctrine, maybe even unilateral sources of revelation like the Bible. Church politics, doctrinal disputes, denominations, and sectarian traditions would be history.
Wouldn’t it be great to mingle only with pure, authentically spiritual individuals?
Of course, we cannot start from scratch, can we? We still have to deal with real people, including ourselves where we are, as 21st century American Presbyterians. Starting elsewhere invites false hopes, mistakes and abuses in the name of what is new and free. Unfortunately, “new” and “free” do not guarantee authenticity.
Furthermore, do we really want to separate ourselves from our forebears in the faith? Were they entirely ignorant, misled, corrupt, or unfaithful? Surely, in the name of authentic Christian community we cannot isolate ourselves from the “great cloud of witnesses” any more than from God.
Quick Fix Two. Why not re-establish our usefulness to the world around us, hence our relevance and mission? Adapting the Gospel for its own purposes, Western culture revolves around meeting human needs, as in modern psychology, medicine, and the marketplace. So, why not simply redouble our efforts to be useful? Then we can go on making “useful” contributions to people’s lives and infusing culture with our religious vision.
Of course, the World knows that making the Gospel or the Church “useful” merely turns the Gospel into a commodity and secularizes the Church. Instruments used to fix things make no real claims upon us. They appear clean, pure, and self-contained. That’s the beauty of a wrench, whose purpose is simple and clear. No one argues over its inherent usefulness, only how it is used. The Christian Church, however, finds authenticity only from its source, the One Who sets it in motion, makes it unique and precious, and sustains it beyond all usefulness.
Quick Fix Three. Why not cast our nets more widely and include an endless diversity of people in the Church? With maximum inclusiveness we can grow the Church to the far reaches of creation itself. Isn’t everything and everyone good just as God made them? Wouldn’t such openness re-establish our place in the World?
Radical diversity — individuals utterly unique in their person, story, and present circumstances — in fact presses the basic questions of Christian community. What draws us together? What keeps us together? What makes our differences an asset instead of a liability? How can we communicate across our differences? We certainly don’t want a church concerned only for its own kind, the saved. Nor do we want to limit our vision of the people whom God loves or serves. But diversity for its own sake also doesn’t guarantee authenticity. Unless centered in something beyond ourselves, the novelty of major differences wears off quickly.
A community cannot survive on a loving disposition or tolerance secured by the lowest common denominator. Diversity requires an equal concern for what unites us. The only solid basis for an authentic Christian community lies with how God — in Christ — brings and holds together diverse, unique individuals.
THREE
For Bonhoeffer, the Church is Jesus Christ “existing as community.”3 The words of the Gospel remind us constantly that we are from Christ, through Christ, and in Christ. In Christ we find the place to stand. The Church participates in Christ, and with his own unique individuality Christ overcomes the inherent isolation of diverse individuals. In relationship to Christ, others, and the World around us, we become something in Christ we could never be on our own.
Focusing on Christ gives us an openness to fellow Christians that doesn’t rely on self-limiting sameness or an unlimited diversity. Apart from Christ, how can we recognize the authenticity of one another’s Christian experience of God? How can we bridge individual differences, rendered infinitely diverse by age, background, life situation, time in history, ethnicity, gender, culture, socio-economic standing, education, expectations, self-understanding, and more? How can we even communicate across such differences?
Can anyone be authentically Christian alone?
Recognizing, through Christ, one another’s unique experiences of God, perhaps tolerating our differences, we take the first steps toward authentic Christian community. These steps lead further to valuing, celebrating, listening carefully to, and learning from one another’s Christian experience of God. We take such steps only when we regard each person as God’s claim upon us.
Having found the face of Christ within the Christian community, we look for him beyond it as well. By grace alone God finds us, sinners that we are, and leads us to take seriously the image of God on the face of every human we meet. We do not thus baptize people outside the Church as anonymous Christians. We do seek their well-being, peace, and justice as fellow humans for whom Christ died and rose again. Sharing authentic community with those outside the Church, we share without pretense the Gospel that leads us to them, and the Christ who mediates these relationships as well.
Is authentic Christ community even possible today? The Christian community — including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — finds its authenticity in Christ or not at all.
MERWYN S. JOHNSON is professor of historical and systematic theology emeritus at Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, S.C., and visiting professor of theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, N.C.
1 Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5, Life Together, ed. Geffrey B. Kelly, trans. Daniel W. Bloesch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 32. For the larger discussion here, see Chapter 1, “Community,” 27-47.
2 Ibid., 35.
