What is it that pulls us apart? What is it that drives a wedge between people. Clearly there are millions of answers to this question. I have been mulling through my sermon fir this Sunday. It is still percolating. Oy. I know a few people have had some success in pulling their thoughts together. AKMA has been hard at work. So too has the Ref+. I keep finding myself clinging to the words of the desert mothers and fathers. My own words do not come.
A brother asked, 'I have found a place where my peace is not disturbed by the brethren; do you advise me to live there?' Abba Poeman replied,'The place for you is where you will not harm the brothers.This word is interesting to me. We choose how and where we live in terms of how we best serve one another. Our own benefit is either secondary or not in the equation at all.
Abba Anthony said, 'Our life and our death are with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained our God; but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.The growth and maintenance of the community is essential. This is no utopian dream, however. We have to remember that. The desert monastics did not necessarily escape the world in search of utopian dreams. They were in search of Christ. They often discovered that Christ is found in the relationships that made up the monestary or the village.
Amma Syncletica said, 'We ought to govern our souls with discression and to remain in the community, neither following our own will nor seeking our own good. We are like exiles: we have been separated from the things of this world and have given ourselves in one faith to the Father. We need nothing of what we have left behind. There we had reputation and plenty to eat; here we have little to eat and little of everything else.This is a quotation that reminds me of how distrustful of the world some of the monastics were. But that aside, the wisdom in this passage is clear. When we gather together, do we gather in order to secure our station? Are we looking for casual embetterment? Is the Church a rung in the societal ladder? No. Of course it is not. What we are looking for is our salvation. It is not to be social in the sense of establishing station but to be relational. To be one Body in prayer for one another, to worship. We neigher "follow our own will nor seek our own good." This is a radical way of living.
The Reformation did away with the monastery. There was some wisdom in that to many. There still is to many. The congregation and the small parrish village was to be the monestary. Akin to the priesthood of all believers elevating the people and not lowering the priesthood, so too was making the world a monastery. The witness of intentional Christian community can be a fabulous one. But intentionality is the key...and the intention is the salvation of one another. Thus the loss of a brother or sister from the fold due to scandal or strife is that much more tragic.
From Ephesians...4:25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 4:26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 4:27 and do not make room for the devil. 4:28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 4:31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 4:32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.Posted by tripp at August 11, 2006 05:40 PM5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,5:2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.